Features

Wild Beasts - Wild Beasts playlists

GodisintheTV 17/08/2009

Domino act Wild Beasts released their lauded new album 'Two Dancers' a few weeks back. To celebrate the kind folks at Domino have not only sent us a video of them recording the long player in the studio, but a playlist from each of the band members, with explanations and a corresponding spotify link (Please note not all the songs mentioned were on Spotify) for your reading, watching, and listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Benny: Spotify playlist

Steve Reich - Music For Mallet “If you listen to it in certain situations, it can sound driving and relentless, yet put into another listening context can sound weightless and delicate. It's one of those rare pieces of music that I can listen to at any point during any given day, whether happy or sad and know that I'll enjoy it.”

Burial/Four Tet - Moth “Moth is the more orthodox of the two tracks from their 12'' release. With housey 4/4 rhythms and happy - sad chords, it kind of reminds me of Aphex Twins ambient stuff which can only be a good thing.”

Brian Eno - Ambient Music For Airports 1/1 “17 and a half minutes consisting of long synthesized voices and over tones, piano notes altered through subtle tape manipulation consisting of placid, sustained drones that suggest stillness. When you've finished listening to this track it leaves you empty, its designed that way like rest-bite from the ever flowing 'airport'.”

Flaming Lips - One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21 “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is a brave and resourceful work, overflowing with ideas with moments of brilliance and originality, This track for me condenses everything that I like about the band.”

The Field - Everywhere “It's bare boned and so simple, It should by rights get annoying like a mobile ring tone but for some reason it works, It makes me want to just run and run. I love the original by Fleetwood Mac as well, which I think it must be sampled from?”

Royksopp - Remind me “Melody A.M. is probably the most solid, confident, and generally pleasurable downtempo full-length I've got, with 'Remind Me' being a definite stand out. Some people may be forgiven for thinking that royksopp are like ambient or house for people that don't really like Ambient of house, I just think they are funky as hell.”

Junior Boys - In The Morning “This is one of the first goodies I was given by domino records when Wild Beasts first got signed to the label, we were all let loose in the warehouse to choose anything we fancied, like kids in a sweet shop. In The Morning is always a big tune to drop on the tour bus.”

Leonard Cohen - Lover Lover Lover “Although I hate donky Jaws, I'm surprised that this song never made the Best Of! It's a real hidden gem from the album 'New Skin For The Old Ceremony.”

Knife - Heartbeats “This song is brimming with sustained pad swells, cheap, steely and vulgar lyrics that are generally about parties, sex, dating and relationships.”


Tom: Spotify playlist

Ghetto Boys - I Tried
This stopped me dead when I heard this - who knew they could do this? Genuinely reduced me to rubble. Mercifully light on the "can't stand faggots" stuff also.

Prince - If I was your Girlfriend
"Would you let me dress you? Would you let me pick out your clothes?" Erotic, playful, curiously downbeat. Great vocal performance.

Burial - Gutted
This beat has the most peculiar feel, underpinned by that 'gun' sample' - I think it might be a bicycle bell myself (not my theory). Every element sounds like it's coming out of a separate speaker, being thrown down a long staircase

Joanna Newsom - En Gallop
I still think of this as the quintessence of Joanna Newsom - gorgeous, insubstantial and overreaching, this gives me strength in the morning, I need this song.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - You have cum in your hair and your dick is hanging out
He has a crap machine, which he ignores, and the vocal sounds like he threw it over his shoulder. It's shambolic, hilarious, and probably unaware of how beautiful it is. This whole album is wonderful.

Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter
Admittedly, more downbeat erotic stuff, but I love the feel of this recording (sequence?), and the way it moves and changes almost imperceptibly, and never settles. The sounds are glorious too.


Talking Heads - This must be the place (Naive Melody)
"Never for money, always for love" This is just the sound of pure joy, irresistible. Oft imitated.

Jake Thackray - The Cactus
"Beware of the bull, the dancing cock is right". Martin Carthy + Ken Dodd + Karl Marx.

The Invisible - London Girl
One of the most sublime pop songs I've heard in years. There are a couple of staccato guitar lines that have stuck to my hips for days, I believe they know what they're doing.

Can - Vitamin C
I consider this the benchmark of ensemble playing, unbelievably fluid, subtle. Real third eye opening stuff.

Extra Life - Blackmail Blues
If like me you don't necessarily buy the R&B nouveau stuff coming out of Brooklyn, remind yourself it still house some monsters. This is for those who like heavy music but also, you know, music.

Angels of Light - All Souls' Rising
"The pull of foreign bones. Marrow loosened beneath the flower tree". The most terrifyingly psychotic thing I own by a distance, and an exhilarating listen.


Gyorgy Ligeti - Etudes book 1.2 - Cordes a Vide
Never settles, the left hand is constantly moving against the right. I love the way that harmony is always an implication in this, never an instruction.

Bjork - Desired Constellation: Sonnets/Unrealities XI
I shouldn't use the word beautiful, but this deserves it. I'm not sure how this bloom of static is made, even less sure how she so elegantly put this.

Kemialliset Ystavat - Olen Paattanyt Olla Ikuinen
Sounds like someone left a tape on the bus, addressed to you and only you. There's something that sounds so accidental about it, so reductive, in the best (only) way.

Hayden: Spotify playlist


1.Portishead

We Carry on

Geoff Barrow is a production hero of mine, this is an example of what he can do.

2. Richard Formby

Superstudio

Another Production hero, for ten years he collected samples in his Studio in Leeds where we frequent and stuck them back together to form something totally different.

3. Michael Jackson

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Kitchen demo)

A lost classic. Legend goes this is just him and his motown band jamming in the kitchen, you can hear the milk bottles being used as rhythm. I couldn't get tickets for his comeback shows, it's probably for the best.

4. Kate Bush

Running Up That Hill

I don't have enough fingers to count how many times this has been ripped off, ourselves included. Why not? It's an amazing song.


5. Junior Boys

Too Young

Inch perfect pop, nothing is wasted, everything has a function. The vocals are pretty brilliant.

6. Bruce Springsteen

Streets of Philadelphia

I covered some Boss songs for a friends party and learned to appreciate him on a different level, his songs are so simple I was able sight read them in front of a room full of people. There in lies his gift as a songwriter.

7. Abadou & Mariam

Sabali

Sounds like nothing else, simple electro crossed with African pop, the results are delicious.

8. Leonard Cohen

Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye

The mother ship, other songs merely satellite around it.

9. Robert Wyatt

Del Mundo

The fact that he sings in Spanish and I can't understand a word is irrelevant, the sound of the gentle organ and his soft voice are enough.

10. The Source featuring Candi Staton

You Got the Love

A very early musical memory being sat in the back of my child minders car hearing this at full blast. We've spent a long time trying to replicate that crisp house piano.

11. Cerise

An Ending

One of a my favorite compositions done for Film and T.V. I love the fact it's designed to fulfill a brief, such a foreign approach to me.

12. The Smiths

Hand in Glove

There's something special about first singles, for the Smiths it was such a statement, with the male nude on the cover. It must have come out of no-where at the time.

13. Patti Smith

Ghost Dance

Easter to me is such a moody record, that sort of atmosphere is something you can't fake. This a good example of that feel.

14. Foals

Red Socks Pugie

We've toured with Foals in the past and they were something to behold live. This song in particular was a sucker punch.

15. Dylan Thomas

Under Milk Wood (BBC version Richard Burton and Cast)

Although technically not songs, Under Milk Wood's chapters translate almost as mini-musical with out music, it's is all rhythm, chorus and refrain.

Chris: Spotify playlist


Aphex Twin - Avril 14th

A stunning piece of piano playing, probably my favourite 2 minutes of music ever. During recording recently, I caught one of our engineers playing the opening 8 bars of it and didn't let him leave until I could play it better! I'd love to learn the rest of it, though repeating the beginning over and over will do for now ...

The Smiths - Girlfriend in a coma

For me, Morrissey and band at their natural best. Effortless.

The Strokes - Take it or Leave it

Back when we were 16/17, Hayden, Benny and I travelled the country to watch them several times over those first two albums. They still are pretty unbeatable live. This is not may favourite song of theirs, but I'm including it purely for sentimental reasons - I have a tradition of crowdsurfing to it everytime I see them.

Kraftwerk - The Robots

An amazing outfit, their records sound so sparse, yet the attention to detail you get rewarded on repeated listens is astounding.

Junior Boys - Count Souvenirs

A band favourite when on the road, it's perfect for those late nights on the motorway. His voice is soft and pin-point accurate. And if there's any justice left in this world, it should've soundtracked a lot of baby making.

Animal Collective - Leaf House

How and what the fuck? One of those bands that kind of wants to make you give up. And that's how it should be.

Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues

Laugh out loud funny and frightening, especially when listening to the Live at Folsom Prison version. There must have been some dangerous guys sitting in on that set.

Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Make me Wanna Holler)

Everything is spot on with this whole record, but what a way to leave you with this song! His voice is pure honey, and that bassline has a fair groove to it.

Casio Kids - Gront Lys I Alle Ledd

I have no idea what he's singing about, which can only be testament to the strength of their music. I first came across them at SXSW, and I haven't stopped listening to them since.

Bjork - All is full of love

When we first started out, we acquired a drum machine and I was under strict instruction to listen to this and come up with a similar beat. Needless to say, electronica was a direction we failed to pursue longer than a month. Cracking song, and just when you think she's ran out of range, she hits that note.

Talking Heads - Burning Down the House

I can't work out if this is a guilty pleasure song, especially knowing that Tom Jones had a pop at it.

Sub Sub - Spaceface

We now know them as Doves, who were a band I used to go and watch religiously. This is the song they used to finish on and had everyone pogo-ing around the floor like it was 1989 (probably).

Bob Marley - Could you be Loved

Irresistible.

Kate Bush - Running up that Hill (A Deal with God)

It sounds like it could have been made yesterday, the music behind her voice is pretty menacing. And I've (inadvertently) included the drum beat for a brief cameo on our new album ...



Wild Beasts play the following dates this Autumn:


Wednesday 30th September - Edinburgh - Cabaret Voltaire - 08444 999 990 / www.gigsinscotland.com)

Thursday 1st October - Leeds - Cockpit - www.lunatickets.co.uk

Friday 2nd October - Nottingham - Bodega - 08713 100 000 / www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Saturday 3rd October - Bristol - Thekla - 08713 100 000 / www.alt-tickets.co.uk

Sunday 4th October - Birmingham - Hare and Hounds - http://www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

Monday 5th October - Brighton - Hanbury Ballroom - 08700 600 100 / www.ticketweb.co.uk

Wednesday 7th October - Oxford - Academy 2 - 08444 77 2000 / www.o2academyoxford.co.uk

Thursday 8th October - London - Garage - www.livenation.co.uk

Friday 9th October - Manchester - Academy 3 - 0844 888 9991 / www.ticketline.co.uk


Two Dancers, the follow up to last year's critically acclaimed debut Limbo, Panto, is out now.