1990's mixtape - Ben Wheeler

https://soundcloud.com/user-822074349/9cmc4xefivzh

Track listing: 

1. Okeane – Ts’uti Ts’uti
   
2. Lado Burduli and Retsepti – Me Movrbodi Shensken 
   
3. Mother on Mondays – Ride 
   
4. 2pac – All Eyez On Me
   
5. Prizi – Dumilis Dro
   
6. Energoresursi – Live in Kutaisi 7.05.1997 
   
7. Saxe – Didxans Gelodi 
   
8. Ace of Bass – All That She Wants 
   
9. Kisho da Inteligensia  - Ch’eshmari’teba
   
10. Shansi – Utsnobi Moxutsi
    
11. Children’s Medicine – Shedixar Tq’eshi
    
12. Taqsi – Eleqtroskamze 
    
13. Nirvana – Negative Creep 
    
14. K’ont’robanda – Mok’vda Mok’vda
    
15. Iraqli Chark’viani – Wooden Monkey 
    
16. Mts’iri – T’erent’is fragment’ebi 
    
17. Massive Attack- Blue Lines 
    
18. Genetic Code – Pain 
    
19. Children’s Medicine – Marani 
    
20. Gremi – Madona Norchi 
    
21. Natalie Imbruglia – Torn 
    
22. Dardubala – Opening Theme 
    

The task of organizing a collection of songs to represent the music of the 90s in Georgia was a challenge. A broad criterion in the first place, the picture is muddled by the inevitable subjective memories of individuals and their continued reflections on that period as it falls further and further into the past. As an American Ethnomusicologist who was not born or raised in Georgia in the 90s, I felt particularly uncomfortable attempting to curate material from that time and to try to somehow definitively pin down the musical zeitgeist of that era through a selection of twenty or so songs. My solution was to focus on the responses of my friends and colleagues with connections to that ten years in Georgia, to simply ask them for their immediate reaction to the question: “What do you remember about music in the 90s?”  This process gave me great insight into the incredibly varied experiences people in Georgia had with music during that time while also allowing me to sidestep my own reservations and essentially disregard the notion of creating a definitive selection. More so than particular bands and songs, the most consistent answer to my question had more to do with the medium with which people experienced music during this time. This was an era of buying, making, and listening to music on tapes and the overall aesthetics of this selection illustrates that medium well through the typical distortions, pops, and hisses that we have come to equate with the medium of audio-cassettes. But the overall result is a fittingly odd selection of music, containing a mixture of the local, the international, the alternative, the mainstream, and other examples situated somewhere in between, representing just one selection of the songs which had a profound effect on the memories of those who lived in Georgia during the 90s. 

Special thanks to:  Elene Kobidze, Amiko Ninua, Vazha Marr, Elene Pasuri, Sandro Tskitishvili, Kakha Tolordava, Nana Takvarelia, Misho Antadze, Jaba Shavishvili, Elene Abashidze 

• Ben Wheeler