1. Heiko Voss | I Think About You
One of my first exposures to the Cologne sound pioneered by Kompakt and associated labels - this track is a perfect example of pure, beautiful electronic music - gentle, epic and tender.
2. Spacemen 3 | So Hot (Wash Away All Of My Tears)
I'm kind of obssessed with this song - it's one of the most passionate, and intense, yet gentle records that I've ever heard.
3. Cannibal Ox | Pigeons
The CanOx record is truly one of the great modern hip hop records, El-P's production throughout is totally visionary - blending old school boom-bap with a dystopian sci-fi twist whilst the two emcees Vast Aire and Vordul Megilah's empassioned and urgent raps are pretty spectacular and this is probably my favourite track from it.
4. Gas | Nach 1912
Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project is a huge inspiration to me - the bleary/dreaminess and hypnotic bass pulse of it really transports me to some other place... Time seems to stand still... I always manage to clear my email inbox when I have this on!
5. Harald Grosskopf | Synthesist
This is a track that I remixed (as Snoretex) recently for the RVNG label... I'd not heard of him before, but totally fell in love with his gorgeous melodies and progressive approach to electronic music that was way ahead of it's time back in the day.
6. Luke Abbott | Brazil
From my friend Luke Abbott's recent debut album on Border Community - the first time I heard it I nearly cried... The melody's so heartbreaking... I was taken aback by just how much it hit me - probably one of my all time favourite pieces of electronic music!
7. Philip Glass | Heroes (Aphex Twin Remix)
An odd one this - it's Aphex's remix of Philip Glass's orchestration of Bowie's original... Phew! The beauty of the epic strings is pitted against the ugly squawky manipulation that he works on the vocals... It's simultaneously daring/wonderful/horrendous and disrespectful... Only Aphex has the balls to pull this off... I've played it out a few times in my DJ sets to totally puzzled audiences, but hey, it made me happy!
8. Atlas Sound | Spring Break
Bradford Cox is so prolific - I wish that he'd spend a bit more time making electronic music as he's really really good at it! This is one of a number of more dancey songs (off the first Atlas Sound record I think) - totally hypnotic, krauty dance stuff.
9. Mountain Man | Animal Tracks
I was really knocked out the first time I heard the Mountain Man album - the honest, direct simplicity of their swooningly pretty voices/harmonies, combined with a spring reverb and acoustic guitar is pure magic...
10. Tracey Thorn | Kentish Town (Walls Remix)
I'm really proud of this one - Alessio and I are both big fans to Tracey's stuff, so it was a real honour to get asked to do a mix... I'm really happy with what we came up with - in restrospect I guess it sounds a bit like old Massive Attack, which is a good thing in my book!
