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Underground > Radio & Music >

Pop for refugees

04:18 / 14.04.03

So, I have been asked to put together some mix tapes for people in migrant detention in Australia. They specifically asked for pop music. Now I have plenty to choose from, but I was trying to think of any recent contemporary stuff that would be extra relevant... anything about freedom, escape, or whatever. The best I've come up with so far is the Refugee Camp Mix of Bug A Boo, and I reckon The Logical Song counts (when i was young it seemed that life was so beautiful...). I am strenuously avoiding Bombs Over Baghdad (probably not so funny for some of the Iraqis), but any other suggestions are most welcome...

I'm pretty excited bout this, since I never expected my politics and my taste to coincide so precisely.

Matthew Fluxington

12:21 / 14.04.03

I'm not clear on this - did the person specifically want pop music that was in some way relevant to what he has gone through, or could it be that his request for 'pop music' may have more to do with wanting something fun and relatively escapist? Also, did they specifically want recent pop?

Either way, I'd be sure to throw a few songs in that fall into the fun/escapist pop area, particularly if they are songs that you enjoy a lot yourself.

My personal approach to mix-making has never been lyric-centric, I've always focused on sound/vibe and above all else, quality. If these people are only going to have only a handful of tapes to take up a lot of their time, they ought to be the best fucking tapes Dead Pirate Crunchy can possibly come up with!

02:33 / 16.04.03

hmmm... well i can't really explain right now, at risk of endangering the project, but basically the people inside just said they like pop music. so i've put together a few tapes that are pretty diverse, good stuff, but was thinking it would be good if there some thematically apt stuff. got the oz rock classic 'we gotta get out of this place' on there, but otherwise it's mostly just random whatever - nelly, britney, justin, missy, usher, whoever.