WARMER MIXTAPES #856 | by Robb Skipper of Moulettes, The Holloways, The Urban Voodoo Machine and HARES

1. Patti Smith Group | Because The Night
Springsteen plus Patti Smith in songwriting partnership? That kind of addition is just too much for a normal calculator to compute. It's an equation that not even Einstein could handle. It's so massively off the chain. It's the musical version of Einstein and Steven Hawking getting together to solve the mystery of The Universe. It's a fucking unicorn. A mythical beast. The song to end all songs.

2. Edvard Grieg | In The Hall Of The Mountain King (Peer Gynt) (Performed by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, Conductor: Scott Lawton)
My earliest musical memory was my mum putting this record on and pretending to be an angry troll and chasing me round and round the house faster and faster as the track went on. Great piece of emotive Classical music, very accessible. Black Sabbath can step aside, Edvard Grieg was the true inventor of Heavy Metal!

3. Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg | Je T'Aime… Moi Non Plus
I listen to this vinyl single so much my neighbours must think me a pervert. It's not Jane Birkin's supposedly-genuine orgasming that turns me on - it's the melody, the organ, the percussive Fender bass, the strings - the whole arrangement. Serge was a genius.

4. David Bowie | Rebel Rebel
I put this track on my cassette player when I was riding around Ibiza on a motorcycle. I rode through the hills like an absolute psycho - zero regard for personal safety. The reason being that if I died at least I would die to the most bad ass piece of Rock N Roll ever made. Like I'd already made it to Heaven, so who cares what happens? It's pure, raw, uncut, emotive Rock And Roll. The BBC video of him miming the song with the red plastic guitar - so elegant, sophisticated and utterly nonchalant. Effeminate, but at the same time a complete lad with a lot of balls.

5. The Rolling Stones | Brown Sugar
Two best dreams in my life: One at 13 years of age, a naked romp with several of the Spice Girls. The second I was Keith Richards playing this on stage with the Stones circa 1976, busting out the riff weaving with Ronnie Wood… Both dreams resulted in some rather sticky sheets... Sorry mum.

6. Bob Dylan | She Belongs To Me
A very important piece of my personal history - I chose it for my wedding ceremony. The service started by me putting the record on a vintage gramophone, then, as my bride walked down the aisle, Bob sang the very true words She's got every thing she needs, she's an artist, she don't look back. You can see my wife's art here.

7. Jimi Hendrix | Purple Haze
At 13 years of age I found my old man's copy of Are You Experienced?. Jimi's sound and look were just something totally mind blowing. I also liked the pictures in the CD booklet - Jimi with two hippy chicks with their tits out. I guess it was then that I figured guitar gets you girls. So a few weeks later I had my first band together and we were playing Purple Haze in a school assembly! Hundreds of kids got up off the floor and started moshing! Some bastard teacher pulled the plug on us, finishing my gig and ruining my chance of pubescent groupie love. But I got the taste for Rock N Roll that's yet to die.



8. The Jesus And Mary Chain | Just Like Honey
Like the Velvets and the Stones that came before them, they put their listener into a different mindset - cool as Brando, slick as James Dean, put you in shades, leather jacket, on a 50's BSA motorbike, put you on heroin, your girlfriend's a supermodel. Then you take your headphones off and you're just your geeky old self once again, in your Burton suit on the way to the office to update your Match.com profile.

9. Bob Marley & The Wailers | African Herbsman
Everything about Bob was rebellion - the locks, the weed, the lyrics. My discovery of Bob at 16 hit me hard and I didn't feel pain, just contentment and a confidence in the future - as long as Bob was with me I'd be fine - and this remains till this day, can always fall back onto The Wailers music, even though I quit the weed years ago I still feel a little bit high when I hear this one!

10. Nick Drake | Pink Moon
Growing up in a mystic area of Albion - Glastonbury - there's a heavy vibe there and when you sit on those ley-lines of magnetism by the Tor and pick on an open-tuned Acoustic, the music of Nick Drake sounds so resonant. A big part of growing up. Flares, flannel shirts and all!