Christina’s Organic Electronic Music Playlist July 2024
Click here to listen → July 2024 Playlist (Free on YouTube)
Christina McLean is a discerning tastemaker from Philadelphia who currently lives in Ecuador and Buenos Aires. She was xstraightedgex until her 30th birthday.
As a kid, her mom played records and they danced around the living room on the brown & gold shag carpet. The first cassette tape she bought with her own money was True Blue by Madonna. A neighbor gave her a Dead Milkmen tape, and she started listening to college radio as a young teen. Hero Mom took her to WPRB to meet her favorite late-night DJ who she thought was famous, but he was just a student at Princeton.
Christina’s first job was at Newtown Book & Record Exchange during the change over to CDs in giant boxes that had to be locked down with chains. Hero Mom drove her to her first show at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ and let her go to 50 shows from 1993–1995 even though it was in ‘a bad area’. In return, Christina took her mom to a rave once. She stage dove (dived?) that one time at the Trocadero during Mighty Mighty Bosstones while wearing a red plaid skirt.
In 1997, she worked in London typing HTML, and went to different electronic clubs every weekend after studying the Time Out Magazine options. She also saw shows like The Specials, Live, John Spencer Blues Explosion. Back in the states for college, the best part was volunteering at college/community radio station WRPI 91.5FM as promotions director, show engineer, and finally music director. During this time, she also booked punk bands to play in Albany at The Loft and drove to Vermont for an internship at independent radio station WEQX.
All this led to finding a flyer at CMJ for a job with MusicBlitz Records as a local college rep. Christina was soon selected at SXSW to work in their NYC office as marketing assistant. Her favorite memory of that time was brainstorming and organizing a tour for college radio music directors at Sirius Satellite Radio (while Elvis Costello was playing live), at the time considered to be the future of radio.
Unfortunately, the dot com crash happened, and Christina lost her job. Fortunately, she left NYC a few months before 9/11. In the mid 2000s, she was introduced to the Philadelphia Psytrance community as well as Rainbow Gathering. There was a lot of camping, fire spinning and hula hooping.
Here, Christina will share a curated playlist of what she’s been listening to recently. Click the links below to learn more about each artist. Enjoy!
July 2024 Playlist — 1 hour 10 minutes
Corvid Phase by Hedflux. Scotland. 2020. Doctor of Philosophy has been making electronic music for 30+ years!
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Celestial Dance by Malte Marten. Germany. 2024. Handpan musician, teacher and artisan.
Espíritus Del Bosque by El Beso Del Árbol. Argentina. 2023. I listened live to this handpan musician recently during La Danza de la Luna in June and while floating in a heated pool at a private event in July. He creates Spiritual Organic Electronic Music.
Superposition by Rena Jones & KiloWatts. USA. 2023. KiloWatts is my prolific buddy from Philly/Texas. He’s also a professional piano tuner! Rena Jones is a polymath from Texas.
Turquoise Rain Chant by Invisible Allies. USA. 2010. KiloWatts collab with Bluetech. They explored “futuristic spacefunk, textural ambient, odd time signatures and complex harmonic developments”.
Andromeda by Be Svendsen. Denmark. 2018. “Organic, melodic and nomadic style of groovy techno.”
Cupa Cupa by Parra for Cuva. Germany. 2018. Multicultural collabs mixing ethnic soundscapes with electronic.
Matei by Thds. Belgian-Portuguese. 2020. “ethnic and acoustic inputs with a jazzy and melody-driven electronic music” and he sings live too!
Himalaya by Nomadic. Amsterdam/New Zealand. 2018. “known for his exotic world-music vibes, phat dancy beats and deep groovy bass-lines.”
Mosquito Dub by Dubamine. California. 2024. “producer with a solid dub foundation and penchant for reggae-influenced bass-heavy riddims.”
Jekyll & Hyde (Original Mix) by ÜNAM & Dotdotdot. Spain & Germany. 2024. “ÜNAM fuses electronic soundscapes with organic textures, deep melodies, big bass rhythms, and hypnotic sounds, all blended together through a strong solid groove.”
CyberRider by Caspro. 2019. “blends chill, synthwave, and vaporwave genres.” Are we in a video game?
Wendorlan by Squarepusher. England. 2024. I saw him perform in London 1997 and again in Philly at TLA in 2012. “His music spans several genres including drum and bass, IDM, acid techno, jazz fusion, and electroacoustic music. His recordings are often typified by a combination of complex drum programming, live instrumental playing, and digital signal processing.”
See you in a month!
