ada connor

Instrumental Underdogs

For over a decade now, I’ve been (very slowly) putting together a series of mixtapes that I call Instrumental Underdogs: unassuming collections of instrumental songs that I think are special. My only rule is that I can’t work to make them quickly; they’ve gotta just assemble themselves organically, at their own pace, with me just iteratively adding anything I hear in the wild that feels like an instrumental underdog. The tracklist gets shaped gradually, over years, without me ever really feeling like I’m working on it.

I really love it as a project. Around once a year, somebody messages me to say that they’ve been listening to one or other of the mixes and really enjoying them, and that feels like the perfect amount of ‘out in the world’ pride I get to feel about them. I’m such a language person, forever obsessed with finessing words to string thoughts from mind to mind – but there are simply places inside us that words don’t reach.

Instrumental Underdogs Vol. 1 (2009)

  1. Satyajit Ray – Bhupati and Amal
  2. Raymond Scott – Portofino 2
  3. The Microphones – The Breeze
  4. Michael Andrews – What’s That Sound?
  5. Elizabeth Cotten – Spanish Flang Dang
  6. The Motor Totemist Guild – In Sackloth and Ashes
  7. Mark Isham – Excerpt from the Times of Harvey Milk
  8. Tirath Singh Nirmala & Richard Youngs – Untitled
  9. Trouble Books – Drum Kit Drifts Off
  10. Bugskull – Communication
  11. Black Moth Super Rainbow – From the See
  12. Do Make Say Think – A Tender History in Rust
  13. Architecture in Helsinki – Rendesvous: Potrero Hill

Instrumental Underdogs Vol 2 – The Space Between Breaths (2014)

  1. Lehmann B. Smith – Piano (Dribble)
  2. Grant Green – We’ve Only Just Begun
  3. lee (asano +ryuhei) – 14.de a u.
  4. Harry Forbes – Remote Control
  5. Joe Meek & The Blue Men – The Bublight
  6. Jürgen Müller – Meeresblatt Meditation
  7. The Microphones – Organs and Pianos from “The Moon”
  8. Nuno Canavarro – –
  9. filthy ingredients – bloss kolta
  10. Blithe Field – Home Now
  11. Ashley Eriksson – March of the Conch
  12. Future Islands – Open
  13. William Allaudin Mathieu – Music for Honey-Bee Dancing
  14. En Passant – EP3
  15. Jack Armstrong & Chevy Chase – The Cott

Instrumental Underdogs Vol. 3 – And Now She Knows She’ll Never Be Afraid (2015)

  1. Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Stefan Schneider – Mild
  2. Virginia Astley – Summer of Their Dreams
  3. Nuno Canavarro – bruma
  4. Trouble Books – Unfolded
  5. Bugskull – Old Towne
  6. Lejsovka & Freund – From Royal Ave
  7. Galo Cantou – birdbird & Intame
  8. Chalices of the Past – Peace Noodle
  9. The Microphones – Instrumental
  10. Blithe Field – Dissolve & Reform
  11. Black Mother Super Rainbow – Colorful Nickels
  12. lee (asano+ryuhei) – ltr >>> thx

Instrumental Underdogs Vol. 4 – Ways of Being Alone (2020)

  1. Green-House – Sansevieria
  2. Tri Atma – Neverending
  3. Dustin Wong – Fourth of July BQE
  4. Electrelane – You Make Me Weak At The Knees
  5. Yo La Tengo – The Sea Horse
  6. Larry Goldings – Rain Street
  7. Eric Sahlstrom – Byggnan
  8. The Rubies – Four Gears
  9. The Durutti Column – Pol in B
  10. Blithe Field – PUMC
  11. K. Leimer – (Aka Accident)
  12. Suzanne Kraft – Flatiron
  13. Syrinx – December Angel
  14. Bugskull – Victory Lapse
  15. Sean McKeon & Conor Gay – Marbha Luimni
  16. Moondog – Pastoral

Instrumental Underdogs Vol. 5 – Cypro World (2023)

  1. El Conejo – Cigarras & Mariposas
  2. Cole Pulice – City in a City
  3. Lumtz – cada primera vez
  4. Dan Deacon – Pelican
  5. Rosen & Spyddet – Freja
  6. tino – gravity hill
  7. Lionmilk – talk to me
  8. Yo La Tengo – Sea Urchins
  9. x.y.r – bon voyage
  10. Omni Gardens – Iridescent Glint Beetle
  11. Young Marble Giants – This Way
  12. Jack Jutson – Loose Truth
  13. Kenji Kihara – In the Park

(Note: all the album art is taken from illustrations by Béatrice Appia (1899-1999), and mostly from Histoire de Perlette (1936), an insanely gorgeous picture book that I’m obsessed with.)