photo by Chase Person (from l. to r. Michael James Schneider, Nick Mattos)

One thing opening up these soundtracks to guest collaborators has done is allow BLCKSMTH to work with intelligent and inspiring artists. Nick Mattos, a columnist with PQ Monthly, has curated a soundtrack that’s both complex and accessible, and the photography of the talented, skilled Chase Person complemented the music choices perfectly. Nick’s also a co-creator of our upcoming webseries *How To Save Your Own Life. Be sure to check out Nick’s 18-song playlist on Spotify for BLCKSMTH, and check out more of Chase’s photography on Instagram at @chasepersonphotography.

Nick’s Pick: Banks, Change  Oh man, Banks is so wonderful. She makes electro-infused R&B that sounds like a seance hosted by Sade, the xx, and Jamie Woon. One of the things I like best about her is the amount of emotional intelligence and insight she brings lyrically; in “Change,” as one example, she transcends the R&B trope of being dedicated to someone who doesn’t treat you well to instead consider the ways that people excuse others’ behavior in difficult relationships. I love her so much, I can’t deal with it:

photo by Chase Person (from l. to r., Nick Mattos, Michael James Schneider)

Mike’s Pick: Noonie Bao, Boom Boom  Is there anything better than an artist using an Enya sample unironically? Newp. I fell in love for the first time to the Shepherd Moons album in 1991. This song’s a *bit* updated:

photo by Chase Person (f. Nick Mattos)

Nick’s Pick: Shamshad Begum, Pardes Balum Tum Jaoge   There are over 4 million songs on Spotify — 20% of the total Spotify catalogue — that have never even been played once. I recently discovered this brilliant website Forgotify, that feeds you never-before-played songs; the first time I used it, one of the first songs it gave me was this amazing track from the movie Mela. That in its randomized intelligence Forgotify would give me a Bollywood track from 1948 pretty much instantly cemented my loyalty. It’s also oddly poignant that, after playing a track on Forgotify, the song will never again appear on the site’s playlist for the fact that the song had been played one time:

Mike’s Pick: Hooray For Earth, Last Minute  I’m pretty sure I’m close to blowing out the speakers of my car (which is on its last legs anyway) from playing the opening notes of this song repeatedly. Not sorry:

Nick’s Pick: Beck, Wave  I can’t get over the greatness of Beck’s new album Morning Phase. It’s like something that some insane hippie genius would have made in Laurel Canyon in 1977 while he was dating Joni Mitchell and feuding with Jackson Browne; I realize this sounds like hyperbole, but listen to the album and you’ll agree. Some critics are saying that it’s basically Sea Change 2.0, which I’m fine with because it resulted in two excellent albums. My friend Katey and I keep saying that we need to go on a long drive in the desert while listening to Morning Phase on repeat, and I’m holding her to to that plan:

photo by Chase Person (from l. to r. Michael James Schneider, Nick Mattos)

Nick’s Pick: X Ambassadors, Unconsolable  I love this song — it’s a little weird, a little sad, and very compelling, so it and I have at least a couple things in common. Plus, any band in which the frontman is also the drummer impresses me greatly:

Mike’s Pick: Pollens, Helping Hand  Okay, okay, I’m late on the train, but hey I just moved here. And yeah, I realize that I can only use that excuse for another month or two. But ugh, the PNW is silly with talented creators:

Mike’s Pick: Magic Mouth, Mother Lode  With a beautifully-directed video and soaring vocals, this locally-grown talent made a song that’s the melancholy, rainy Spring before the Summer. It’s a reminder that rain on the asphalt to one person is glitter on it to another:

Nick’s Pick: Gillian Welch, I Dream A Highway  I have this feeling that, in a hundred years, anthropologists will consider this song generation-defining. It’s fourteen minutes of perfection, recorded in one live take, expertly capturing something critically important about the American experience.

Mike’s Pick: Sia, Chandelier  This one definitely isn’t typical Sia, but I love the direction she’s going in. It’s a great song for when you’ve just thrown a lit match into the open hood of your enemy’s car, and it explodes as you slow-mo walk away from it. The video is both creepy and charming as hell:

photo by Chase Person (from l. to r. Nick Mattos, Michael James Schneider)

If you dig these, check out the soundtracks for November, December, and February. Be sure to follow @chasepersonphotography on Instagram, and check out Nick Mattos’ column in PQ Monthly.