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Author: Tiger Mendoza

  • Video Premiere: Tiger Mendoza & Ally Craig – Until Tomorrow

    Video Premiere: Tiger Mendoza & Ally Craig – Until Tomorrow

    As you may know I got back in to film photography a few years ago. I was looking back through some of my film photography scans from the past couple of years pre-pandemic and started pulling out pictures Going of various pre-lockdown travels, gigs and other adventures. For me, no matter when the picture was actually taken, film photography always has an air of nostalgia about it and for a few different reasons I haven’t really felt like using my film cameras for a while so coupled with that, looking through these pictures was a bit of a nostalgia overload but a fun trip down memory lane which I’m hoping we can get back to soon. All of the pictures were taken between 2018 and 2020 although exact dates are a bit fuzzy.

    Until Tomorrow is a track that I created about a year ago based on a bass line set to me by the frankly brilliant Ally Craig. It’s probably the closest I’ve gotten so far to Mogwai-esque post-rock track or at least a teen TV drama version of a post-rock track. The dialogue is borrowed from a BBC World Service broadcast I came across when putting the track together discussing the then relatively new pandemic and confusion within India around the advice the government was giving to it’s people. Listening back to the audio now and alongside the pictures from our last trip to Goa, where I still have a lot of friends and family, it’s an interesting glimpse in to what has lead to the current situation.

    You can still download the track from my Bandcamp page. Any profits will be donated to the amazing Oxford Food Hub who do great work educating people on food waste and redistributing food to charities and organisations that can use it. The track is still available to stream on all on Spotify and all of the usual services.

  • Tiger Mendoza x Cinema Under The Stairs

    Tiger Mendoza x Cinema Under The Stairs

    I’m really happy to announce that I’ve teamed up with the brilliant Cinema Under The Stairs team to give them a brand new theme song. Sal from the team asked if they could use a “Ja El Beat” from TMSk8 for the new season of the podcast so I did a special edit which you can hear below.

    The episode is a discussion on Robocop (a personal favourite film) and is available on Spotify, iTunes and wherever you get your podcasts from. I got to have a quick chat with Sal and it was great to speak to someone with as much passion for films and creativity as I do. The fact that he mentioned that Ja El reminded him of John Carpenter helped too. Some discussions have started around some other potential collabs later in the year but this is a pretty great start.

    I’ve had a few requests recently for people wanting to use TM songs in various projects or even create new beats for projects they are working on. To that end I’ve put together a quick FAQ page to pull together some of the questions I get a lot.

  • Free / PWYL Download: 2020 RMXS

    Free / PWYL Download: 2020 RMXS

    As proud and as happy as I was to release TMSk8 in November, I was also fortunate enough to remix tracks by a few other bands and artists this year. Some of the work on these remixes even influenced the way I made the tracks that ended up on TMSk8. So I thought I would package them all up as a special End of 2020 / Christmas time download on a free / PWYL basis on Bandcamp. The album collection can of course be downloaded for free (just enter 0 when prompted for a price) but any profits from donations will be donated to friends of TM, The Oxford Foodbank who do amazing work redistributing surplus food to charities and organisations that can use it and educating people on food waste. Here’s a bit of background on each of the tracks.

    1. Tiger Mendoza & Kate Herridge – Words (Dub Mix) – Original
      When I started playing Words live at a couple of gigs I started doing some live dubs on the vocals which sounded kind of cool so I thought a full dub mix, or at least my interpretation of dub, would be fun.
    2. Abandon – Fear Of The Future (Dub Mix) – Original
      OK this remix was technically completed in 2019 but wasn’t released until 2020 soooooo…….counts? Anyway I’ve known Umair for a little while and when he asked me to do a remix of a track for a new single release I was happy to help out. Originally I was going to turn in in a more of a DnB track but I made a half time dub as well for giggles. When I sent them both to Umair he chose to go with the Dub mix which I think was the right choice. The DnB remix, which has never been released before, is included in this collection as well as I think it’s still pretty cool.
    3. Octavia Freud – Smoke & Mirrors (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
      This remix was made right at the start of 2020 before, well, 2020 really happened. Octavia Freud (aka Martin) did a great remix of “And Then…” for the New Ideas album so when he asked me to remix one of his tracks I was happy to return the favour. Sound wise, it’s almost got a kind of punk / nowave feel but with breaks. Always with breaks.
    4. Smilex – X (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
      Long-time fans of TM will know that Lee Christian (frontman for Smilex) and Tiger Mendoza go back quite a while with Lee being one of the first acts to collaborate with Tiger Mendoza on “Don’t Hate Me” on the first TM album “Aim For The Head”. Lee got in touch to ask if I would be up remixing a classic Smilex track to celebrate their anniversary which I was more than happy to do. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first but then after playing with the stems for a while I picked the guitar apart and created a 90’s Bjork / Trip Hop style remix which worked out pretty well.
    5. Low Island – Search Box (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
      Low Island graciously offered the stems for their single Search Box during lockdown 1 to anyone that wanted them and made some kind of joke around making a Drum and Bass remix. Around that time I got back into the excellent Forza Horizon 4 (and in particular my favourite in game radio station from DnB legends Hospital Records) so I took them at their word and came up with this remix.
    6. Julia Meijer – Train Ticket (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
      This may win the award for quickest turn around time for a TM remix ever. Julia got in touch to ask if I’d fancy doing a remix of her song Train Ticket which she planned on releasing on the next Bandcamp day 2 weeks away and would giving the profits to charity. I agreed and created what is probably my most EDM-like track to date. Not that there’s anything wrong with EDM. If used in moderation. When I handed it in Julia said “I will dance to this song every day from now on!”. I do hope that’s true.
    7. Bruno Muerte – Geiger (Tiger Mendoza Remix)
      Bini and Stephano have been mates for a while and were even due to play with Tiger Mendoza at the abandoned vinyl single launch back in March. They asked if I would remix one of the tracks from their excellent Parallellism EP so I picked this one. It was mostly done pretty quickly after picking the guitars apart but it worked out well. I kind of thought that it belonged in a game like Outrun so I made this video to go with it.
    8. Breezewax – There For Ya (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
      Breezewax did a brilliant remix of Jazzer on New Ideas which I play a lot in my DJ sets so when he asked if I would remix one of the tracks from his new album “Help For Healing” I was more than happy to. My remix owes a lot to producers like Clams Casino and Schlomo but I really like the key change at the end of the original so I made sure I kept it in my mix and pinched the idea for Ja El Beat from TMSk8.

  • Nightshift 2020 Top 30 [Updated 9th Dec]

    Nightshift 2020 Top 30 [Updated 9th Dec]

    Well 2020’s been a hell of a year hasn’t it? Thankfully there’s been some really great music from across the board to keep us all company during various lockdowns and the lovely folk a Nightshift (i.e. Ronan) has put together a special 1-off issue to tell the story of how musicians, venues and promoters around Oxford have dealt with the pandemic which you can download from http://nightshiftmag.co.uk.

    The issue also features Nightshift’s annual end of year list of top tracks of the year which I am very happy to say Tiger Mendoza and Kate Herridge feature in at number 16! As a companion piece here’s list of links to all of the acts involved:

    If streaming is more your thing you can find a Spotify version here and a YouTube version here although bear in mind that not all of the acts are on Spotify so it doesn’t contain the whole top 30.

    I’m hoping to rustle up a sneaky little surprise for Christmas but until then take care, stay safe and as always thanks for listening!

    Update: Now includes original version of Julia Sophie’s “xOx”

  • BANDCAMP DAY!!!!!11!!1!

    BANDCAMP DAY!!!!!11!!1!

    I know, I really should have done this earlier but as well as my own mixtape out today I wanted to make a quick list of other releases available on Bandcamp today on the penultimate Bandcamp Friday of 2020.

    [bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1298568836 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

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  • TMSk8: The Mixtape – Release Details

    TMSk8: The Mixtape – Release Details

    Ok here it is. I made a lockdown album. I didn’t mean to but hey, it was something do between sitting at home and binging Cobra Kai on Netflix. Oh and playing THPS 1+2. Obviously.

    The idea of doing a Mixtape based around ‘boarding games like THPS, Skate and SSX has been something I’ve actually been thinking of doing for a while – way before the new game was even announced. It’s just good timing I guess.

    The album will be available from Bandcamp on Friday 6th November (which also happens to be the next Bandcamp Day) and then all of the usual streaming services a couple of weeks later. “But Ian / Tiger / Whatever, why would I download it from Bandcamp when I can stream it on Spotify alongside my favourite Pixies / S Club 7 album?” I hear you ask. Well…

    • The Bandcamp deluxe release will include 2 tracks (“TMSk8” and “Futurist Car Chase”) which will get as soon as you pre-order the album
    • The Bandcamp version comes with instrumentals for all the vocal tracks.
    • The price for the whole thing will be £5 which probably less than it will be on other download sites.
    • It comes with expanded sleeve notes and artwork inspired by the release created by Mila Todd.
    • I genuinely believe that Bandcamp are one of the good guys in terms of music distribution and the support they’ve offered to bands and music makers over the past few months has been amazing.

    A MASSIVE thank you to all of the people that have featured or contributed to this album in some way. Here’s the tracklisting:

    All platforms:
    Bomberg Redux (feat. Red Wilkins)
    Easy Tiger (feat. Sinister Sound Gallery & Mike Ginger)
    Oppressor (You Don’t Know) (feat. Mila Todd)
    Exhibition (feat. Stuart Macbeth)
    KPS (feat. Half Decent)
    Masks (feat. Daniel Clear)
    Words (feat. Kate Herridge)
    FOMO
    Ja El Beat
    Fear of Falling (feat. Emma Coombs)
    Antisocial Media (TM vs Restructure)
    Battery
    Fighting Firm (feat. Phi Project)
    Skate Free (feat. Octavia Freud)
    Beautiful People

    Bandcamp only:
    TMSk8 (Bonus Track)
    Futurist Car Chase (Bonus Track)
    Easy Tiger (Instrumental)
    Exhibition (Alt Mix)
    Oppressor (You Don’t Know) (Instrumental)
    KPS (Instrumental)
    Words (Instrumental)
    FOMO (Instrumental)
    Fear of Falling (Instrumental)
    Antisocial Media (Instrumental)
    Beautiful People (Instrumental)