Get your free CDs here....

For the last six years, I've been taking part in an annual project called Summer Burn. The idea is that you register with the organisers at FunJunkie, make a mind-blowing compilation of songs, burn it onto 2 CDs, then await the first day of the summer. When the solstice comes around, you receive an email with 2 random addresses from the FunJunkie database, and you send your CDs to them. A couple of days later, you get 2 totally random mix CDs in the post yourself and, more often than not, an email filled with gushing gratitude for your top banana musical extravaganza.

Obviously, the CDs vary wildly in quality. I've had exquisitely-sequenced mini-albums, where all the tracks have a connecting theme and the compiler has created their own artwork. Equally, I've received a CD with a printed screengrab of an iTunes playlist stuck to it, where 90% of the songs end abruptly because they were radio rips downloaded illegally from the internet.

But no matter the amount of effort that's gone into them, I always find a new artist or song to obssess over. A couple of years ago it was this track by French oddball Soko.

Soko - I'll Kill Her


On a more mainstream tip, I got a great Top Gear-style driving mix in 2008 from Linda Clarke, who introduced me to the prog-pop of Steely Dan.

Steely Dan - Do It Again


And in the same year, Chris Trew sent me a CD with this 1960s cult classic from the "Welsh Dylan" Meic Stevens.

Meic Stevens - Y Brawd Houdini


I couldn't imagine living without any of those songs now... But if they'd turned up in a skippable, transitory Spotify playlist, I might never have paid them any attention.

Registration for the 2010 Summer Burn has just opened. I urge you to head over to the FunJunkie site and put your name down. Who knows - you might even get a CD in the post from me, full of Janet Jackson remixes (not really*)

*Actually quite likely

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