WARMER MIXTAPES #1615 | by Johnny Mallet and Jordan Page of Tremors
SIDE A | by Johnny Mallet
1. Joy Division | Love Will Tear Us Apart
I grew up listening to Music the polar opposite to that of Joy Division, I was always into Super Pop, like Phil Collins, Savage Garden. It wasn’t until Control, Anton Corbijn’s biographical film came out on Joy Division. I remember sneaking into the cinema with my brother as we were both under age. I was encapsulated by the words and poetry of this man Ian Curtis. After that I bought every book, album, biography I could find, I have framed cutouts of newspaper and magazine articles about them from the 70s in my room. Anyway, despite Disorder and Transmission being my favourite songs, Love Will Tear Us Apart makes it into my top songs for the simple fact that, in my opinion, it is the greatest, most perfect lyrical song of all time. There’s something so simple in Love tearing people apart, but something so catastrophically sad and complicated about it.
You cry out in your sleep...
All my failings exposed...
And there’s a taste in my mouth...
As Desperation takes hold.
How can something so good
just can’t function no more...
The Taste in my mouth... As Desperation takes hold lyric... When I first read this I remember sitting there and being rendered emotionally paralyzed, I could feel and taste his pain, this pain that in the end caused him to take his own life. It’s always stuck with me this song. It’s just a complete lyrical song.
2. Robert Miles | Children
I remember vividly the first time I heard this song, I must have been 14 or 15, we had started the afternoon passing round a bottle of lukewarm Buckfast; if you don’t know what that is - have a personal venture and find out, it will enlighten your life. Anyway, I went to Boarding School in Scotland, so when we were allowed out of School grounds, we really lived the Rock 'N' Roll lifestyle. On this occasion I was playing pool in a Rileys, now with a pitcher of WKD; no shame on my behalf. I remember this euphoric song coming on; I was rooted as this Techno/Electronic song sent shivers through me. I’m a singer now, but it was an instrumental song that had me in awe. This was before I had started playing Music, so for me it was a musical epiphany of sorts. I from that day onward fell in Love with Electronic Music. It’s the euphoria of Children that gives me so much energy, and I think that’s why Electronic Music is so powerful, it transcends this raw and unique energy. The simplicity of Children is the looped drums under a piano melody that hypnotizes throughout. It’s mesmerizing. I played football to a high level and this would always be my song to get me in the mood, to psyche me up. To this day I thank Rileys sports bar in Sterling, you gave me my first flavour of Electronic Music.
3. Empire Of The Sun | Walking On A Dream
I don’t remember the first time I actually heard it, or where I was, all I know for me, it has become so much more than just a summer vibe, it's an extremely classy Pop song. I find every time I listen to this song, it gives me that same early teenage years naivety and excitement it gave me back then. I would say it’s a song that I could listen to back to back over and over again without getting bored. It harbours that youthful exuberance we all feel sometimes for me, what a great song.
4. The Chemical Brothers | Wide Open (feat. Beck)
When I first heard this song I was watching Geordie Shore (DON’T JUDGE, IT’S A GREAT SHOW), but it made me actually feel something whilst watching GS. I thought to myself, that’s really something. I bought it that night and waited 'til the morning to listen to it, up full on my headphones, cycling. The suspense killed me, but there’s something monumental about listening to a great song loud for the first time cycling, it's god damn liberating. Anyway, listening to this song for that first time, was a journey of Emotional Brilliance. Beck features on it with his warming haunting vocals, it’s this gradual build of a song, showcasing synths and Electronic Production to the greatest level. The simplicity of the melody against the track is just orgasmic. I would listen to it for an hour on repeat to and from where I was coming from for a good 3 weeks.
5. Niki & The Dove | So Much It Hurts
I was mulling over whether to have this song in here, but the Swedish Pop duo have made the cut. It’s the combo of her voice; which holds the same kind of power and emotional intensity that both Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin held, and the lyrics to the chorus I need your love so much it hurts. It feels like a Tremors lyric, something I would write and sing from my own story. I’ve just always connected with it on a great level. I just think the track and her voice are a perfect combination, I love this band, and cannot speak highly enough about them. Everybody’s Heart Is Broken Now is one of my favourite records ever, a top 10 for sure, You Want The Sun gives you that Walking On A Dream warmth and Play It On My Radio are both my other honourable mentions from that record. If you don’t know them, well then buy the record, or your ears are missing out.
6. Don Henley | The Boys Of Summer
It was the first song that made me feel like anything was possible, like a Thelma & Louise kind of escape. I would have to say, if I could listen to one song for the rest of my life - this would be it. I grew up loving Music, but never considered how it was made, or what made sounds great. Don however, changed all of this. The Boys Of Summer just made me fall in Love with synths, made me fall in Love with how a hi-hat pattern wasn’t just a hi-hat being played, but had delay and manipulated. It sounds so simple, but it was a musical revelation! I begun to understand The Manipulation of Sound and what joy it brings to people. I don’t want to talk too much about this song, as words don’t do it justice of how it’s affected my life, inspired me and, of course, affected my musical education, but to me it’s everything. Life changing.
7. Radiohead | Reckoner
So this song is not my top 10 favourite songs, however as a musical experience goes. It's the best gig I’ve ever been to, Radiohead at Glasgow on the green. I had never really listened to Radiohead prior to this show, but as soon as I had, I seemed drawn to his manic/sad ways; Thom Yorke that is. I binged on them two months prior to this gig and it was the In Rainbows tour. I literally fell in Love with Reckoner, I wasn't expecting to, but I was drowned in its hypnotic hauntingness, right down to my gut. Bat For Lashes opened when they were just starting out. It was summer time in Scotland which everybody knows doesn't apply to the weather! Anyway, Radiohead must have been on stage for about 20 minutes and the floodgates opened, but behind the stage the sky was illuminated in this orange cloud and thunderstorm right behind the stage, the stage was lit amazingly with it. Reckoner came on and it was electric, literally pure ecstasy, 80,000 people outside in this rain, The Music was intense, and it just felt amazing, like no other drug, we were soaked but no one gave a shit, they played for two and half hours and I was ill for about a week after, but it was worth it.
8. Savage Garden | To The Moon & Back
A song of my very youth. Savage Garden, for all their gloss, are just insane writers. To The Moon & Back is just effortlessly one of the best Pop songs ever, I don't have a distinct memory for this song, but it's in my top 10 purely for how damn good it is. It's tirelessly recycled when we write as Tremors, because, when you listen to it, it's really back to basics on the Production, but the melody is out of this world, literally... See what I did there, carries the song on its magnificent melody. This song made me fall in Love with Melody, which is essential for a great song, and this song has it in abundance, so... Welcome, Savage Garden, to my top 10!
9. Madonna | Like A Prayer
In terms of Music Inspiration as a singer, I have a voice that is in the same register as women, so it seems crazy that I don't have a few more women in this top 10. Katy Perry JUST misses out with Firework purely for being the most insane Pop banger, but it has to be Madonna, The Greatest Female Pop Artist Of All Time, she really was just the bees knees, la crème de la crème. She enters in my top 10 with Like A Prayer, just an incredible melodic song. Whatever production you put with this song - it's an anthem, it's Orgasmic Pop. I first heard it when I was 9 in a bar in Spain with the biggest set of train tracks on my teeth. I remember it being late and dancing on the tables when this came on; not like Coyote Ugly, drunk on Coca Cola sugar. I won't ever forget the magnitude of effect this song has had on me, or she has. Music for me is a religion; as much as Football is, may I add, nonetheless Like A Prayer is like singing a prayer in a church... You put your hands in the air and thank Madonna for this masterpiece, glory unto Madonna, you dynamite genius.
10. Dire Straits | Sultans Of Swing
This memory for me is clear as day. 9 years old, one of the very few holidays I have ever been on with my brother and mum. It was on a road trip to Cornwall, in this small Ford Fiesta, which always stunk of damp, the air conditioning didn’t work and had a tape player, with only one tape, Dire Straits. We would get up early and as a treat travel to McDonalds for breakfast, where, I can safely say, my obsession for a double sausage McMuffins started. Anyway, to and from anywhere we went in this bashed up car, we played on repeat Sultans Of Swing, we would sing every line, each guitar solo, it was an obsession. Much like The Boys Of Summer I could listen to this song every single day, it literally never gets old the 4th listen in a row or 1000th time in my life; it still makes me want to take my shirt off and run around the room. This song just reminds me of good times... Cheers you up when you're down, makes you happier when you're already happy, all-round badass song.
SIDE B | by Jordan Page
1. Slayer | Seasons In The Abyss
As a young kid I was a total metalhead. If it didn’t shred - I wasn’t interested. My dad and I would go to a crazy amount shows together, he’d let me skip the last few hours of School and we’d burn off to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Nottingham to catch whatever band was coming to town that night. One of my earliest memories of finding Music is borrowing the Decade Of Aggression double CD from Corby library. Thinking back, Corby library had a pretty rad Metal selection; So the library gave me my first taste of Slayer, Napalm Death and Obituary… Go figure! The Decade... record sleeve was what first caught my eye. The front cover is so strikingly simple, but totally evil. Jeff Hanneman (always my favourite of the two guitar players) and his pointy guitar in blood red silhouette. The band looked like the coolest dudes I had ever seen - hi tops, Levi’s, black t-shirts, black shades, incredible hair… And to top it all off - they’re called SLAYER! I was instantly madly in Love. Every song is a banger, but when the intro to Seasons In The Abyss starts, it’s a game changer. The library moved to a new location pretty soon after and I can’t be sure if I ever took the CD back. Sorry!
2. Partners In Kryme | Turtle Power (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
This was the first song I ever played live. It was a solo keyboard instrumental performance with demo button accompaniment. I must have been maybe 4 years old and it was the end of year concert for my keyboard classes. The boy who was supposed to go on first crumbled with stage fright so I stepped up and took his place - I figured I could get out of watching everyone else and leave early. Without the rap I can’t be sure anyone recognised what song I was playing, but everyone loves The Turtles, so I still stand by my song choice.
3. The Prodigy | Your Love
Whilst I was in full on Thrash mode, my cousin was mad into Rave and Techno. He had a cool taste in Music, and collected all of the huge box sets of Dreamscape and Helter Skelter Rave tapes. At the time I didn’t get it, I think I was more fascinated by how squidgy the box set cases were, and was just into whatever he was into because he was about 10 years older than me. But he’d tell me that Techno is the new Heavy Metal and how in The Future, nobody will be using guitars… Ha! Your Love was the first thing he gave me that seriously grabbed my attention. Other than the Chart Pop that passed me by at the time, this was the first Music I understood to be completely computerised and fully Electronic, but it still felt totally Punk Rock and Underground. Tracks like Hyperspeed on Experience easily have the same kick and intensity as any Metal band. The Prodigy, and my cousin, really opened my eyes to the power and scope of Electronic Music.
4. Erasure | Chains Of Love
+ Love To Hate You... For a very short period of time when I was a kid my dad drove a gleaming white Toyota Celica. The flip-up headlights totally blew my mind. He only ever had two cassette tapes in constant rotation, and both were by Erasure. He had The Innocents and Chorus, so for this selection I have cheated and chosen my favourite song from each record. They’re both too good to pick just one. The old man is a secret Pop fan, he wouldn’t shout about it, but he can’t deny it. Thanks, Vince, for the Top Toyota Celica singalong material. The way Erasure match the classic Synth-Pop backing with a huge Pop vocal performance has been a big influence on the way we approach Tremors songs. I read somewhere that Vince writes everything on acoustic guitar and doesn’t touch a synthesiser until the song is finished, and, even though I have a vicious allergic reaction when anyone starts playing an acoustic guitar, I totally agree with the principal that the song should come first.
5. Gary Numan | Cars
In my early teens I really wanted to be Gary Numan. The first time I saw him was on a repeat of an old Top Of The Pops episode performing Cars. I was totally transfixed by this alien looking dude with the most oddball voice, singing an ode to his automobile. For the first 30 seconds he was completely turned away from the camera. So cool. The stage was full of ARP Odyssey synthesisers (the main reason I use an ARP Odyssey for Tremors) and the drummer had a perspex kit with neon yellow cymbals. SO COOL. My first proper teenage band was formed by finding four other people in my hometown in the middle-of-nowhere who also wanted to be Gary Numan. We had band practice every night for about a year trying to nail the Numan sound, and then we’d get wasted watching his more questionable live DVD’s. We only got round to playing a handful of shows. The other guys in the band preferred the more organic feel of Tubeway Army, but The Pleasure Principle was the record that meant the most to me. Ice cold synthesisers, Science Fiction lyrics, and probably my favourite record sleeve of all time.
6. Vince DiCola | War (Rocky IV Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Rocky IV is my all time favourite movie for three reasons; 1. Dolph Lundgren’s hair, 2. The running time clocks in at a fat-free 91 minutes, and 3. The outlandish FM Radio-Synth-Rock score by Vinnie DiCola. The Music is as ridiculously American as Rocky’s Stars 'N' Stripes boxer shorts. The only thing it’s missing is a crowd chanting U.S.A! U.S.A!. It’s the perfect track to get psyched up to. It’s the sound of overcoming the Cold War. I might set it as my wake up alarm tone.
7. Skinny Puppy | Dig It
An old flame that has come back with a vengeance. My ultimate Goth night club jam. Hit me with a few Vodka-Red-Bull’s and the DJ will be inundated with requests for this number... Even if they have already played it twice that night. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it. The production is super slick and clean, then somebody lets Ogre out of his cage and he flips everything upside down with THAT voice. I first came across this song as a huge fan of the first Nine Inch Nails record and someone tipped me off that Trent was ripping the Skinny Puppy sound. I once got turned away from my favourite Goth club Slimelight for wearing blue jeans (they were excellent jeans, but admittedly they were more The Cult denim than Sisters Of Mercy denim) and thought if I could convince the bouncers of my Goth credentials by shouting the lyrics to Dig It at them they’d surely let me in… It didn’t work.
8. Lady Gaga | Born This Way
Women make the best Pop Music. Swift, Perry and Gaga have owned the last decade. I was nearly the whole way through something like a four hour drive when Radio 1 had the World Premiere first play of Born This Way and it was just too overwhelming for my brain to process the Hi-NRG awesomeness in my bleary eyed state. Good job they played it three times in a row to really push me over the edge (of Glory). I love pretty much everything Gaga does, but Born This Way is extra special. For me, the idea of Madonna size hooks over a Body Music track is the Pop equivalent of having your cake and eating it too. It proves that ultra commercial Chart Pop can be tough, and abrasive, and dangerous.
9. Choir Boy | Sunday Light
A current obsession. I’m pretty mad on anything that comes out with a Dais Records sticker at the moment, and will continue to be as long as they keep serving up high quality melancholy Synth Pop and Post Punk like Sunday Light by Choir Boy. Sometimes songs get stuck on a loop in my head and I have to listen over and over, Sunday Light is the latest one that got jammed when it was released at the end of 2017. It has a constant rolling quality that is so easy to keep playing on repeat. A song to get lost in.
10. Depeche Mode | Stripped
The top spot, all-time obsession and Life long favourite song goes to Stripped by Depeche Mode. I don’t remember how I first got into DM, they’ve just always been there, part of the fabric of Pop Culture. I guess it’s like asking anyone born after ’62 to remember the first time they heard The Beatles when the songs are everywhere! My mum reckons it’s from when I was a baby, we lived above two guys who played DM records all day long and it has been subconsciously lodged in my brain. I’m not so sure. But I definitely remember it being a big deal that they came back as a three piece at the end of the 90s. From there I started to dig further into their back catalogue and felt like I was on the hunt for something, and I found it when I heard Stripped from Black Celebration. Down came the posters of Slayer and Anthrax that had previously covered my bedroom walls and I somehow convinced my mum to let me paint the walls black and swapped the normal light bulb for a red one. I must have listened to this song thousands of times in that room. Cool kid. In all honesty I LOATHED the red light, but had to put up with it for just long enough to prove to everyone else that it was not a bad choice.
1. Joy Division | Love Will Tear Us Apart
I grew up listening to Music the polar opposite to that of Joy Division, I was always into Super Pop, like Phil Collins, Savage Garden. It wasn’t until Control, Anton Corbijn’s biographical film came out on Joy Division. I remember sneaking into the cinema with my brother as we were both under age. I was encapsulated by the words and poetry of this man Ian Curtis. After that I bought every book, album, biography I could find, I have framed cutouts of newspaper and magazine articles about them from the 70s in my room. Anyway, despite Disorder and Transmission being my favourite songs, Love Will Tear Us Apart makes it into my top songs for the simple fact that, in my opinion, it is the greatest, most perfect lyrical song of all time. There’s something so simple in Love tearing people apart, but something so catastrophically sad and complicated about it.
You cry out in your sleep...
All my failings exposed...
And there’s a taste in my mouth...
As Desperation takes hold.
How can something so good
just can’t function no more...
The Taste in my mouth... As Desperation takes hold lyric... When I first read this I remember sitting there and being rendered emotionally paralyzed, I could feel and taste his pain, this pain that in the end caused him to take his own life. It’s always stuck with me this song. It’s just a complete lyrical song.
2. Robert Miles | Children
I remember vividly the first time I heard this song, I must have been 14 or 15, we had started the afternoon passing round a bottle of lukewarm Buckfast; if you don’t know what that is - have a personal venture and find out, it will enlighten your life. Anyway, I went to Boarding School in Scotland, so when we were allowed out of School grounds, we really lived the Rock 'N' Roll lifestyle. On this occasion I was playing pool in a Rileys, now with a pitcher of WKD; no shame on my behalf. I remember this euphoric song coming on; I was rooted as this Techno/Electronic song sent shivers through me. I’m a singer now, but it was an instrumental song that had me in awe. This was before I had started playing Music, so for me it was a musical epiphany of sorts. I from that day onward fell in Love with Electronic Music. It’s the euphoria of Children that gives me so much energy, and I think that’s why Electronic Music is so powerful, it transcends this raw and unique energy. The simplicity of Children is the looped drums under a piano melody that hypnotizes throughout. It’s mesmerizing. I played football to a high level and this would always be my song to get me in the mood, to psyche me up. To this day I thank Rileys sports bar in Sterling, you gave me my first flavour of Electronic Music.
3. Empire Of The Sun | Walking On A Dream
I don’t remember the first time I actually heard it, or where I was, all I know for me, it has become so much more than just a summer vibe, it's an extremely classy Pop song. I find every time I listen to this song, it gives me that same early teenage years naivety and excitement it gave me back then. I would say it’s a song that I could listen to back to back over and over again without getting bored. It harbours that youthful exuberance we all feel sometimes for me, what a great song.
4. The Chemical Brothers | Wide Open (feat. Beck)
When I first heard this song I was watching Geordie Shore (DON’T JUDGE, IT’S A GREAT SHOW), but it made me actually feel something whilst watching GS. I thought to myself, that’s really something. I bought it that night and waited 'til the morning to listen to it, up full on my headphones, cycling. The suspense killed me, but there’s something monumental about listening to a great song loud for the first time cycling, it's god damn liberating. Anyway, listening to this song for that first time, was a journey of Emotional Brilliance. Beck features on it with his warming haunting vocals, it’s this gradual build of a song, showcasing synths and Electronic Production to the greatest level. The simplicity of the melody against the track is just orgasmic. I would listen to it for an hour on repeat to and from where I was coming from for a good 3 weeks.
5. Niki & The Dove | So Much It Hurts
I was mulling over whether to have this song in here, but the Swedish Pop duo have made the cut. It’s the combo of her voice; which holds the same kind of power and emotional intensity that both Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin held, and the lyrics to the chorus I need your love so much it hurts. It feels like a Tremors lyric, something I would write and sing from my own story. I’ve just always connected with it on a great level. I just think the track and her voice are a perfect combination, I love this band, and cannot speak highly enough about them. Everybody’s Heart Is Broken Now is one of my favourite records ever, a top 10 for sure, You Want The Sun gives you that Walking On A Dream warmth and Play It On My Radio are both my other honourable mentions from that record. If you don’t know them, well then buy the record, or your ears are missing out.
6. Don Henley | The Boys Of Summer
It was the first song that made me feel like anything was possible, like a Thelma & Louise kind of escape. I would have to say, if I could listen to one song for the rest of my life - this would be it. I grew up loving Music, but never considered how it was made, or what made sounds great. Don however, changed all of this. The Boys Of Summer just made me fall in Love with synths, made me fall in Love with how a hi-hat pattern wasn’t just a hi-hat being played, but had delay and manipulated. It sounds so simple, but it was a musical revelation! I begun to understand The Manipulation of Sound and what joy it brings to people. I don’t want to talk too much about this song, as words don’t do it justice of how it’s affected my life, inspired me and, of course, affected my musical education, but to me it’s everything. Life changing.
7. Radiohead | Reckoner
So this song is not my top 10 favourite songs, however as a musical experience goes. It's the best gig I’ve ever been to, Radiohead at Glasgow on the green. I had never really listened to Radiohead prior to this show, but as soon as I had, I seemed drawn to his manic/sad ways; Thom Yorke that is. I binged on them two months prior to this gig and it was the In Rainbows tour. I literally fell in Love with Reckoner, I wasn't expecting to, but I was drowned in its hypnotic hauntingness, right down to my gut. Bat For Lashes opened when they were just starting out. It was summer time in Scotland which everybody knows doesn't apply to the weather! Anyway, Radiohead must have been on stage for about 20 minutes and the floodgates opened, but behind the stage the sky was illuminated in this orange cloud and thunderstorm right behind the stage, the stage was lit amazingly with it. Reckoner came on and it was electric, literally pure ecstasy, 80,000 people outside in this rain, The Music was intense, and it just felt amazing, like no other drug, we were soaked but no one gave a shit, they played for two and half hours and I was ill for about a week after, but it was worth it.
8. Savage Garden | To The Moon & Back
A song of my very youth. Savage Garden, for all their gloss, are just insane writers. To The Moon & Back is just effortlessly one of the best Pop songs ever, I don't have a distinct memory for this song, but it's in my top 10 purely for how damn good it is. It's tirelessly recycled when we write as Tremors, because, when you listen to it, it's really back to basics on the Production, but the melody is out of this world, literally... See what I did there, carries the song on its magnificent melody. This song made me fall in Love with Melody, which is essential for a great song, and this song has it in abundance, so... Welcome, Savage Garden, to my top 10!
9. Madonna | Like A Prayer
In terms of Music Inspiration as a singer, I have a voice that is in the same register as women, so it seems crazy that I don't have a few more women in this top 10. Katy Perry JUST misses out with Firework purely for being the most insane Pop banger, but it has to be Madonna, The Greatest Female Pop Artist Of All Time, she really was just the bees knees, la crème de la crème. She enters in my top 10 with Like A Prayer, just an incredible melodic song. Whatever production you put with this song - it's an anthem, it's Orgasmic Pop. I first heard it when I was 9 in a bar in Spain with the biggest set of train tracks on my teeth. I remember it being late and dancing on the tables when this came on; not like Coyote Ugly, drunk on Coca Cola sugar. I won't ever forget the magnitude of effect this song has had on me, or she has. Music for me is a religion; as much as Football is, may I add, nonetheless Like A Prayer is like singing a prayer in a church... You put your hands in the air and thank Madonna for this masterpiece, glory unto Madonna, you dynamite genius.
10. Dire Straits | Sultans Of Swing
This memory for me is clear as day. 9 years old, one of the very few holidays I have ever been on with my brother and mum. It was on a road trip to Cornwall, in this small Ford Fiesta, which always stunk of damp, the air conditioning didn’t work and had a tape player, with only one tape, Dire Straits. We would get up early and as a treat travel to McDonalds for breakfast, where, I can safely say, my obsession for a double sausage McMuffins started. Anyway, to and from anywhere we went in this bashed up car, we played on repeat Sultans Of Swing, we would sing every line, each guitar solo, it was an obsession. Much like The Boys Of Summer I could listen to this song every single day, it literally never gets old the 4th listen in a row or 1000th time in my life; it still makes me want to take my shirt off and run around the room. This song just reminds me of good times... Cheers you up when you're down, makes you happier when you're already happy, all-round badass song.
1. Slayer | Seasons In The Abyss
As a young kid I was a total metalhead. If it didn’t shred - I wasn’t interested. My dad and I would go to a crazy amount shows together, he’d let me skip the last few hours of School and we’d burn off to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Nottingham to catch whatever band was coming to town that night. One of my earliest memories of finding Music is borrowing the Decade Of Aggression double CD from Corby library. Thinking back, Corby library had a pretty rad Metal selection; So the library gave me my first taste of Slayer, Napalm Death and Obituary… Go figure! The Decade... record sleeve was what first caught my eye. The front cover is so strikingly simple, but totally evil. Jeff Hanneman (always my favourite of the two guitar players) and his pointy guitar in blood red silhouette. The band looked like the coolest dudes I had ever seen - hi tops, Levi’s, black t-shirts, black shades, incredible hair… And to top it all off - they’re called SLAYER! I was instantly madly in Love. Every song is a banger, but when the intro to Seasons In The Abyss starts, it’s a game changer. The library moved to a new location pretty soon after and I can’t be sure if I ever took the CD back. Sorry!
2. Partners In Kryme | Turtle Power (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
This was the first song I ever played live. It was a solo keyboard instrumental performance with demo button accompaniment. I must have been maybe 4 years old and it was the end of year concert for my keyboard classes. The boy who was supposed to go on first crumbled with stage fright so I stepped up and took his place - I figured I could get out of watching everyone else and leave early. Without the rap I can’t be sure anyone recognised what song I was playing, but everyone loves The Turtles, so I still stand by my song choice.
3. The Prodigy | Your Love
Whilst I was in full on Thrash mode, my cousin was mad into Rave and Techno. He had a cool taste in Music, and collected all of the huge box sets of Dreamscape and Helter Skelter Rave tapes. At the time I didn’t get it, I think I was more fascinated by how squidgy the box set cases were, and was just into whatever he was into because he was about 10 years older than me. But he’d tell me that Techno is the new Heavy Metal and how in The Future, nobody will be using guitars… Ha! Your Love was the first thing he gave me that seriously grabbed my attention. Other than the Chart Pop that passed me by at the time, this was the first Music I understood to be completely computerised and fully Electronic, but it still felt totally Punk Rock and Underground. Tracks like Hyperspeed on Experience easily have the same kick and intensity as any Metal band. The Prodigy, and my cousin, really opened my eyes to the power and scope of Electronic Music.
4. Erasure | Chains Of Love
+ Love To Hate You... For a very short period of time when I was a kid my dad drove a gleaming white Toyota Celica. The flip-up headlights totally blew my mind. He only ever had two cassette tapes in constant rotation, and both were by Erasure. He had The Innocents and Chorus, so for this selection I have cheated and chosen my favourite song from each record. They’re both too good to pick just one. The old man is a secret Pop fan, he wouldn’t shout about it, but he can’t deny it. Thanks, Vince, for the Top Toyota Celica singalong material. The way Erasure match the classic Synth-Pop backing with a huge Pop vocal performance has been a big influence on the way we approach Tremors songs. I read somewhere that Vince writes everything on acoustic guitar and doesn’t touch a synthesiser until the song is finished, and, even though I have a vicious allergic reaction when anyone starts playing an acoustic guitar, I totally agree with the principal that the song should come first.
5. Gary Numan | Cars
In my early teens I really wanted to be Gary Numan. The first time I saw him was on a repeat of an old Top Of The Pops episode performing Cars. I was totally transfixed by this alien looking dude with the most oddball voice, singing an ode to his automobile. For the first 30 seconds he was completely turned away from the camera. So cool. The stage was full of ARP Odyssey synthesisers (the main reason I use an ARP Odyssey for Tremors) and the drummer had a perspex kit with neon yellow cymbals. SO COOL. My first proper teenage band was formed by finding four other people in my hometown in the middle-of-nowhere who also wanted to be Gary Numan. We had band practice every night for about a year trying to nail the Numan sound, and then we’d get wasted watching his more questionable live DVD’s. We only got round to playing a handful of shows. The other guys in the band preferred the more organic feel of Tubeway Army, but The Pleasure Principle was the record that meant the most to me. Ice cold synthesisers, Science Fiction lyrics, and probably my favourite record sleeve of all time.
6. Vince DiCola | War (Rocky IV Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Rocky IV is my all time favourite movie for three reasons; 1. Dolph Lundgren’s hair, 2. The running time clocks in at a fat-free 91 minutes, and 3. The outlandish FM Radio-Synth-Rock score by Vinnie DiCola. The Music is as ridiculously American as Rocky’s Stars 'N' Stripes boxer shorts. The only thing it’s missing is a crowd chanting U.S.A! U.S.A!. It’s the perfect track to get psyched up to. It’s the sound of overcoming the Cold War. I might set it as my wake up alarm tone.
7. Skinny Puppy | Dig It
An old flame that has come back with a vengeance. My ultimate Goth night club jam. Hit me with a few Vodka-Red-Bull’s and the DJ will be inundated with requests for this number... Even if they have already played it twice that night. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it. The production is super slick and clean, then somebody lets Ogre out of his cage and he flips everything upside down with THAT voice. I first came across this song as a huge fan of the first Nine Inch Nails record and someone tipped me off that Trent was ripping the Skinny Puppy sound. I once got turned away from my favourite Goth club Slimelight for wearing blue jeans (they were excellent jeans, but admittedly they were more The Cult denim than Sisters Of Mercy denim) and thought if I could convince the bouncers of my Goth credentials by shouting the lyrics to Dig It at them they’d surely let me in… It didn’t work.
8. Lady Gaga | Born This Way
Women make the best Pop Music. Swift, Perry and Gaga have owned the last decade. I was nearly the whole way through something like a four hour drive when Radio 1 had the World Premiere first play of Born This Way and it was just too overwhelming for my brain to process the Hi-NRG awesomeness in my bleary eyed state. Good job they played it three times in a row to really push me over the edge (of Glory). I love pretty much everything Gaga does, but Born This Way is extra special. For me, the idea of Madonna size hooks over a Body Music track is the Pop equivalent of having your cake and eating it too. It proves that ultra commercial Chart Pop can be tough, and abrasive, and dangerous.
9. Choir Boy | Sunday Light
A current obsession. I’m pretty mad on anything that comes out with a Dais Records sticker at the moment, and will continue to be as long as they keep serving up high quality melancholy Synth Pop and Post Punk like Sunday Light by Choir Boy. Sometimes songs get stuck on a loop in my head and I have to listen over and over, Sunday Light is the latest one that got jammed when it was released at the end of 2017. It has a constant rolling quality that is so easy to keep playing on repeat. A song to get lost in.
10. Depeche Mode | Stripped
The top spot, all-time obsession and Life long favourite song goes to Stripped by Depeche Mode. I don’t remember how I first got into DM, they’ve just always been there, part of the fabric of Pop Culture. I guess it’s like asking anyone born after ’62 to remember the first time they heard The Beatles when the songs are everywhere! My mum reckons it’s from when I was a baby, we lived above two guys who played DM records all day long and it has been subconsciously lodged in my brain. I’m not so sure. But I definitely remember it being a big deal that they came back as a three piece at the end of the 90s. From there I started to dig further into their back catalogue and felt like I was on the hunt for something, and I found it when I heard Stripped from Black Celebration. Down came the posters of Slayer and Anthrax that had previously covered my bedroom walls and I somehow convinced my mum to let me paint the walls black and swapped the normal light bulb for a red one. I must have listened to this song thousands of times in that room. Cool kid. In all honesty I LOATHED the red light, but had to put up with it for just long enough to prove to everyone else that it was not a bad choice.
