Chemical Brothers – We Are The Night
This record is so special. I feel like most artists have this Goldilocks zone where they’re at their best. The Chem’s never seem to fade or fumble, they’re consistently on. I picked this record because it has ‘Saturate’ on it and that’s one of my all time favourite songs, but it could have just as easily been ‘Further’.
Moderat – ii
I had one of the most surreal moments of my life laying in my living room, high on mushrooms cocooned in a blanket. This album was playing and I began to fully understand just how important texture is in music. In my mind every sound has a feeling, rough, smooth, furry, whatever. It’s about contrasting those textures and then creating spaces where they can exist in harmony. Nobody does it better than Moderat, then when you pair it with some of the most incredible sound design and beautiful melodies ever written, it’s hard to deny this record.
The Presets – Apocalypso
Apocalypso encapsulates my adolescence. I still listen to it regularly and find new things I love about it. It also might be one of the first times I listened to a dance record and heard a real message in it. Before that I’d never seen electronic music as a way to convey feelings that weren’t like “hey you…….dance”. It inspired me to have a storyline and message underpinning SECT.
Justice – Cross
Everything about this album is perfect. Whenever I listen to it, I’m so overwhelmed by their attention to detail. I think when you’re making energetic music you run the risk of losing the heart and soul of it. This album’s so special to me because it sounds enormous without leaning on crutches like single note bass lines, giant drum rolls and effect transitions. It inspired me to make sure the songs function as songs before you add all the extras.
Daft Punk – Discovery
Discovery will never date. This album is completely timeless and so far ahead of its time and every other cliche I couldn’t think of right now. Daft Punk are the originals and a bottomless well of inspiration for me. Each song is a new world that you can get completely lost in, and none of them depended on feature vocalists or conventional pop tactics. Daft Punk forever.
