Why We Still Believe in the Mixtape

There was a time when a mixtape wasn't simply a collection of tracks. It was a journey.

The opening record mattered. The transition into the next record mattered. The moment when the energy changed mattered. Even the silence between two sounds could become part of the experience.

That idea sits at the heart of Elements Of Art Mixtape.

We live in an era where music is increasingly experienced one song at a time. A track ends, an algorithm makes another decision, and we continue listening. There is incredible convenience in that, but there is something different about handing that decision to a DJ or curator for an hour.

A mixtape asks you to stay.

It says: don't skip ahead yet. There's somewhere we're trying to take you.

That is what EOA continues to explore with every numbered edition.

Not simply which records are good?

But:

What happens when these records live together?

What story appears when one groove gives way to another? What happens when Deep House meets Soul, Jazz or something unexpected? What does the music feel like when the individual tracks become part of a larger journey?

That philosophy is also why EOA Select exists. Sometimes a record deserves to be pulled out of the journey and appreciated on its own. Select gives us a place to highlight those records — the music we're enjoying, the music catching our ears, and the music we simply believe is worth checking out.

EOA Archive looks in the opposite direction.

It gives us an opportunity to return to previous chapters of the catalogue and hear them again from where we stand today.

And then there is the next chapter.

EOA 025.

Another selection. Another sequence. Another opportunity to tell a story without saying very much at all.

Twenty-five editions in, the format still matters to us.

Because sometimes music shouldn't decide what comes next based on what you clicked yesterday.

Sometimes you should simply press play —

and allow someone to take you somewhere.