Happy Spring, friends.

If I had to pick a theme for today’s mix, it might be something like “cautious optimism.” There’s a lot of bright, sunny sounds in these selections and it’s certainly inspired by a general good mood I’ve found myself in after such a dreary winter. Don’t worry, though, I still retain a healthy dose of pessimism to keep me grounded.

The change in tone of recent days, though, has made me think a lot of how important it is to take the time that we can to cherish moments of joy. As I mention in this episode, I had kind of envisioned this overall program as being one such moment for others — these episodes alleviating one’s worries, if not just for a short moment in the way that only music can sometimes.

Also, forgive the lateness of this episode, even if it is just a few hours. I’ll be up front I, uhh, maybe dallied a bit more than I should have before I actually started assembling it so running into technical issues compounded more than it should have. But it did get resolved and now, I hope, you enjoy!

Listen below or check it out on Mixcloud here.

Episode 3 Tracklist
“Ladyfingers” – Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Band
“Hiyah Man” – Fimber Bravo
“Shepherd Song” – Keleketla!
“Cumbia Sobre el Mar (El Buho remix)” – Quantic
“I Got Love” – Bobby Oroza
“Suave” – Stephanie Santiago feat. Lianna
“Eso el Amor” – Nico Gomez & His Afro Percussion Inc.
“Above Below” – Eddie Chacon
“Sunflower Dance” – Green-House
“I So Liked Spring (1996 Version)” – Linda Smith

So contrary to what I had guessed, having access to the internet on my laptop again did not, in fact, make planning this new episode easier.

Whereas in that first one I was limited to what I already had downloaded, this one I felt like the options were boundless and, naturally, my mind wanted to include EVERYTHING.

I’m someone who imposes multiple dilemmas on myself when creating something, especially when I set a bar for myself — this time the desire being to really improve on that first episode in every way possible. I also fell into a dilemma of wrestling with whether I should include more of what I really wanted or more of what I thought my imagined audience wanted or would like.

I admit it’s a silly creative slump to fall into, but that’s the way my mind works sometimes.

You ever come across a meme that really speaks to you? I came across two amid this process that, honestly, kind of guided me back to approaching this as the fun little side project it was intended to be. I’ve included them at the bottom of this post for anyone else who needs that kind of energy.

Anyways, like a couple nights before I meant to drop this episode I finally got things going and I’m pretty pleased with the result. There’s definitely a heavy jazz vibe this episode, but if that’s not really your thing there are some other gems sprinkled in you might dig.

I spend a bit of time talking about a recent book series some friends and I recently finished — Octavia Butler’s Parable series. Honestly, when planning out this episode I had always known I’d wanted to talk about our experience reading it at the end just because of how much of an impact it had. I’ll go into more detail in an upcoming blog post but I can say for sure that they are books everyone should pick up at least once.

I also hope you all enjoy me going full LeVar Burton introducing that section of the show. Let me know if you think I have a future in audiobook narration. Listen to the episode below or check it out here.

Oh yeah, and I have a new Instagram account for the show. Feel free to give me a follow @mumblerradio. Tell your friends!

Episode 2 Tracklist
“Il Faut Tenir” – Les Masques
“Agua Viva” – BUSHBBY & Swuni feat. Katiqena
“Rainforest” – Noname
“Ugali” – The Tony Benson Sextet
“Murky” – Pher
“Catch Your Tears” – Sol Monk feat. Jarvis
“At the Bay” – Bel Cobain & Lex Amor
“La Torre” – Gabriel Rios feat. Devendra Banhart
“Tarhatazed” – Mdou Moctar
“Pontin Pontin” – Bana
“Rocket No. 9” – Sun Ra Arkestra
“Unity” – The Comet is Coming
“The Creator Has a Master Plan” – Gondwana Orchestra feat. Dwight Trible