There's a specific kind of music that makes you feel like you're somewhere you've always wanted to be, without knowing where that is. Not a place on a map — a temperature, a light quality, a pace. Vol. 1 is that kind of music.
Karate Boogaloo open it — Melbourne's finest purveyors of 70s library funk, tracks that sound like they were recorded for a film that doesn't exist but absolutely should. Surprise Chef follow with something warmer and more Melbourne funk: their music arrives fully formed, like it was waiting for you to press play. Then Soaked Oats, whose beat-driven indie quietly changes the room without announcing itself.
The middle stretch is where things get interesting. Sam Wilkes and Jacob Mann — two of LA's most forward-looking jazz musicians — share a single track that unfolds like a slow conversation. BADBADNOTGOOD meet Kaytranada in a collaboration that has no business being as elegant as it is. The Diasonics bring the funk. Kamaal Williams closes with something orchestral and modern simultaneously.
Tom Misch's Quarantine Session take on Chain Reaction is the right place to end. Recorded at home, intimate, unhurried. It sounds like the exhale at the end of a day that finally went well.
The best playlist doesn't tell you how to feel. It creates the conditions. You bring the rest.
The thread running through this session is restraint. Nothing here overstays its welcome. Every track knows what it's doing and leaves at the right time — which is rarer than it sounds. That restraint is what makes it feel like a vacation: unhurried, purposeful, a little outside of your regular life.
A smoothmix herbal blend, something to roll with your hands while the Karate Boogaloo record plays — that's not a prescription. It's just an observation that some things work together without needing to be explained.
Herbal Rolling Blends. Tobacco-free. Nicotine-free.
smoothmix makes herbal rolling blends with herbs and flowers sourced from farmers across India. 4 unique blends, each with a distinct flavour profile.
