C. Diab: The ‘Monday Is Okay’ Mix

As if by chance, we stumbled across the path of C. Diab and it was meant to be. The Vancouver based musician is perhaps one of the most definitive yet unsung heroes of modern day ambient and eclecticism. His dream like soundscapes are the stuff of magic, his music whimsical and transcendent. As a bowed guitarist and trumpeter he has captured the essence of both abstract pain and beauty in equal measure, his music has been received to critical acclaim both far and wide. It is hard to definie the musical association by which it might be best to place him alongside, perhaps that's part of the bauty in itself. 

We invited him to contribute to our Monday mix series and he returned his results overnight. A beautiful way to start the week…

Listen and read the interview below: 

Where was the mix recorded?

–  in vancouver, at the desk in my living room, which is in front of a window facing a large rock, japanese maple, boxwood, and a sort of little greenhouse to the left by a pile of broken glass from a cat trying to smash it’s way in one time to kill a bird.

What would be the ideal setting to listen to the mix?

– yr at home, probably about 7 pm in winter, maybe you can smoke indoors but with the window open, and it’s dark and raining and yr cooking up pasta for yrself and some friends in yr kitchen, and one of yr friends expresses themselves in a bad way and the other friend replies with a “fuck that!”, then you put yr smoke out in an empty bottle of alhambra cerveza and notice this mix is playing.

What should we be wearing?

– a very oversized button up sweater which hangs down well past yr hips and a necklace with an upside down triangle with the insignia of the freemasons in the middle of it.

What would be your dream setting to record a mix: Location/system/format?

– one of the redwood tree house levels from donkey kong country 1, one of the beavers usually trying to kill you has grown tired of its usual evil-animal lifestyle and fashioned you a system out of tree stumps cleverley using the tree rings like only a beaver would know how, but the only way to listen to it is through speakers held by those little birds above the trees that you have to grab onto the legs of if you want to get from tree to tree, if the two trees in question dont have one of those wooden walkways with rope railings.

Which track in the mix is your current favourite?

– talk talk – after the flood, because laughing stock is the most important collection of songs i think.

What’s your favourite recorded mix of all time?

– DJ Sweet Anomaly – La Cumbia Del Amor

If you could go back to back with any DJ from throughout history, who would it be and why?

-somebody from the mid 20th century, so my lack of live DJ prowess would still stun them, bonus if i can include modern technology, like time machines, which everybody knows exist somewhere deep in northern california.

What was your first DJ set up at home and what is it now?

-i unfortunately am not nor have ever been a dj, but my future set up no doubt will be the best possible set up a set up can set!

What’s more important, the track you start on or the track you end on?

-there’s that wiliam gibson book Neuromancer, and it starts with, “the sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel”, but it ends with, “somewhere, very close, the laugh that wasnt laughter. he never saw molly again.” in that case, the track he started with was lit.

What were the first and last records you bought?

– the first record i ever bought with my own money was Big Shiny Tunes 3 from a chevron gas station when i was 10 or 11, the last record i bought was actually two at once, Wenu Wenu by Omar Souleyman and The Man Who Died in His Boat by Grouper.

If this mix was an edible thing, what would it taste like?

– smokey mezcal.

If it was an animal what would it be?

– a horned puffin, fully fed, staring at the waves from the top of it’s perch on triangle island.

One record in your collection that is impossible to mix into anything?

Upcoming in the world of…

– my new full length album Exit Rumination will be released by Injazero Records on march 30th, on 180 g heavywheight vinyl and in the digital universe, and i’ll be travelling to london in May for a few performances, which i am very much looking forward to.

Anything else we need to discuss?

– for years now i’ve been having dreams which accurately predict what are usually very banal future life events, and i’ve been doing whatever reading is to be found on the subject, but i’d like a scientist to email me their explanation (after listening to the mix or maybe during) of this thing because i havnt found any real helpful work, except for jung’s red book, and thats mostly paintings of faces and crosses and snakes anyway, so, i’m seeking open minded scientists. thank you.

Visit the C. Diab bandcamp HERE.