Listen to some Late Night Tales

So I'm not sure where I've been for the last decade, but just recently I got turned on to the Late Night Tales series of compilations. Have all of you been in the know about it and not sharing it with me? For those of you who are also late to hop on board, the series has been running since 2001 (originally under the title Another Late Night), and since then 22 more volumes have been added, the latest from The Cinematic Orchestra. For each volume a musician, DJ, or group is asked "to delve deep into their music collections to create the ultimate 'late night' selection". The result is a beautifully diverse collection of songs that represent almost a personal mixtape from the artist.

In this particular case, The Cinematic Orchestra creates a downtempo mix that draws upon songs both old and new:

1 Flying Lotus - Anties Harp
2 Nick Drake - Three Hours
3 Eddie Gale - The Rain
4 Terry Callier - You're Gonna Miss Your Candyman
5 Freedom Sounds - Behold the Day
6 DJ Food - Living Beats
7 Shuggie Otis - Aht Uh Mi Hed
8 Thom Yorke - Black Swan
9 Cinematic Orchestra - Restaurant
10 Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint
11 Bjork - Joga
12 Imogen Heap - Cumulus
13 St. Germain - Rose Rouge
14 Songstress - Sea Line Woman
15 Sebastian Tellier - La Ritournelle
16 Burial - Dog Shelter
17 Burt Bacharach - South American Getaway
18 Cinematic Orchestra - Talking About Freedom
19 Will Self - The Happy Detective Part 3

While some names might certainly be familiar (Nick Drake, Thom Yorke, Bjork, Imogen Heap, Burt Bacharach, a remixed version of Nina Simone's See-Line Woman, a personal favorite from Shuggie Otis, and a few from the Cinematic Orchestra themselves), many will be less so. Altogether the album exudes a chilled out groove that I've relaxed to many times already. It ends with Will Self reading the third part to The Happy Detective, an exclusive spoken word piece whose first two pieces are on the last two releases.

Like I said above, there is a whole series of releases (including ones from Snow Patrol, Nouvelle Vague, The Flaming Lips, Fatboy Slim, and others - check a list here) that I'm hoping to dig into. Anyone out there have any of these that they'd recommend?

Nick Drake - Three Hours : Late Night Tales - The Cinematic Orchestra

(get the full song on his album Five Leaves Left)

Visit their website, become their friend on MySpace, and the Late Night Tales website.