











Tiananmen Square Dance has existed for a year! In addition to the recent graphical upgrade, care has been taken to ensure that a new leaf of added quality is being turned over in our monthly mix department. Monthly packages of all of the best finds made in the past month will continue to be released free of charge at the end of every third week in every month. We have succumbed to a new approach to the titling of said mixes, each being prefixed with “II”, the Roman numeral designation for “2”, thereby paying homage to and indicating that this next year’s monthly mixes are all to be part of TSQ’s second year collection of the hottest and newest of phresh hipster beatz. The look of the album artwork will be continuously honed and “gentrified”, for lack of a better word, to better facilitate the quality we hope to convey with our monthly collections of music made available for our faithful listeners and readers. Without further ado, may I present to you this month’s newborn, “Tsq Vol II-1”.







I am a little afraid that I may have been inadvertently raising the bar for coverage and inclusion a little too high for my own good here at the blog. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of chillwave and glo-fi music, but then again, I said that about shoegaze during my college years. Either way, the mixes we’ve been rolling out so far have only featured music that we are truly crazy about. Only the best is allowed for our playlists, but I guess that’s nothing to complain about, right? This newest release features an overall laid back, nostalgic sound that I find very elusive and, of course, alluring. At 21 tracks, I feel like the meat of the mix is toward the middle, as it is heavy on shorter vignette-type tracks this time around. In typical TSQ playlist fashion, it both starts and ends with a bang, courtesy of a track from Bear in Heaven’s upcoming release and a standout jam from Warm Ghost’s most recent full-length. The first third of the mix features a decidedly retro lo-fi theme, with a throwback to the 80’s courtesy of Alan Palomo sideproject VEGA, Rimar’s computerized soul fare, and a standard issue 18 Carat Affair tune. The remainder of “Tsq Vol II-1” vacillates back and forth between IDM/downtempo pleasantries (Ice Cream Social, Tarsier, Teeel), hip experimental pop (1990, Grimes, Hoodcats), and a couple of shoegaze-inspired tracks (A Lull, Violens, Stumbleine). If you’re a regular to the site, you’ll recognize the majority of the entries, but just know that great care was taken to ensure that the overall flow of the mix would be tweaked and piqued to its greatest effect. So do tha right thing, and come for the dark nostalgia of Rimar’s “As Time Moves Into This Home” and 16-bit chopped and screwed leitmotif present in 1990’s “Seers”, and stay for the disturbing haze of the Ryan Hemsworth remix of Grimes’ “Genesis” and the icey crescendo of Warm Ghost’s “I Will Return”. Voilà!













Tsq Vol II-1







1. BEAR IN HEAVEN sinful nature

2. PICTUREPLANE body mod (teams retouch)

3. VEGA kyoto gardens

4. RIMAR as time moves into this home

5. 18 CARAT AFFAIR rhythm method

6. TARSIER flicker

7. ICE CREAM SOCIAL crystals

8. 1990 seers

9. A LULL i’m on fire

10. STARFAWN infinity focus

11. GRIMES genesis (ryan hemsworth remix)

12. NIVA dizzy eyes

13. VIOLENS totally true

14. STUMBLEINE polaroid

15. CHOONGUM chinese mustard

16. TEEEL wraith

17. SWEETHEART OF KAIRI approaching farewell (stumbleine remix)

18. KINGT0M psst

19. SARIN SUNDAY eyes of the beginning

20. HOODCATS jeans colliding

21. WARM GHOST i will return







Download here.







(top photo courtesy of dirtysanchezz, bottom photo courtesy of procaine)

