Mixtape Madness Vol. 2 - Trippin

The 90s were an era when the Red Hot Chilli Peppers didn't suck

Dec 28, 2025

Welcome to Mixtape Madness! In the truest of GenX definitions, I am what you might consider a music geek. On the pantheon of passions, music is, without question my number one thing. I miss the days of informed curators who helped separate the wheat from the chaff in the music world and helped me dig deeper, listen closer, and love harder. I decided to be that informed curator. I’m not suggesting you’ll like everything on these mixes, I might not even be barking up your style tree, but for those of a similar taste (and the taste here runs wide and deep), these will be fire. I typically try to collaborate on these mixes, me putting together one side while my collaborator works the other. Sometimes I fly solo, I’ll let you know either way. Interest in a collab? Hit me up. Now, sit back, turn on the hifi and enjoy.

Not to get to all crystal-hanging, hippie-dippie, but have you ever had a moment when it was just you, probably on the edge of sleep and from out of nowhere this feeling of everything is going to be ok came over you? Like you’d just channeled the Beta Band or something?

No? It happened to me – once.

Don’t ask me the date. You’d think I’d be able to recall the exact moment of such a profound happening, but I don’t. I vaguely remember it was the early to mid-90’s, somewhere in my early twenties. Just on the edge of slumber in my Oceanside, California apartment I suddenly had this overwhelmingly feeling – honestly based on nothing and out of nowhere – that everything was going to be ok.

The mid-90’s were a vibe (there’s a big reason those of us who lived it miss it so). Something was truly in the air – despite what some on the right would have you believe, Bill Clinton was bringing the economy out of its Bush-the-first induced doldrums, new homes were being built everywhere, Silicon Valley was still in its hyper-geek, no money phase, the internet was dial-up, and the radio was absolute fire. It didn’t seem to matter where you turned the radio dial, something good was coming through the speakers. This was the era of Nirvana, Sublime, Green Day, Alanis Morrisette, and the Smashing Pumpkins. In this era, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers didn’t suck. Alongside all of that was this tiny little scene coming from the U.K. making some of the most interesting music of the era.

Centered around the Southwest England town of Bristol, artists of the time were mixing hip-hop, dub, soul, jazz and electronic sounds to form a style that would later be branded trip hop. Like all good artists, the collection of musicians in the musical throes hated the label and yet it stuck. Just as no one in Alice in Chains or Nirvana used the word grunge to describe what they were doing, the artists of Bristol never uttered the words trip hop, that came from writer Andy Pemberton while describing DJ Shadow’s 1994 release “In/Flux” in Mixmag.

Trip hop captured the essence of mid-90s night life. Late-night excursions to coffee shops that stayed open until one or two in the morning as you came down from whatever Friday night chaos you got up to. Trip hop was driven by atmospheric downtempos, a hypnotic soundscape that got you home for the drive from San Diego to Oceanside. Its psychedelic feel inspired long-into-the-night conversations about the meaning of man, the state of the world or whatever philosophical musing you chose to meander.

So, whether you’re new to this beautiful genre or you’ve listened to it since its birth, we’ve created a mixtape that captures that vibe. If you are new, consider this an introduction and I highly encourage you to dig deeper. And for those of you fondly reminiscing about Portishead at the Roseland Ballroom, this will be a deep, warm hug. And don’t worry, it’ll all be ok. Did we leave something out? What’s your favorite trip hop track? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.

Playin' in a Traveling Band

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