WARMER MIXTAPES #1014 | by Ian John Button of Papernut Cambridge, Thrashing Doves and Death In Vegas
1. T. Rex | Ride A White Swan
My first Real Rock Star Crush was Bolan. The way he took the Blues and made it all Major Key, Melodic and Summery was Utter Brilliance. My favourite Tyrannosaurus Rex period is the transition between the Acoustic Hippy-ness and the Electric Supergroup - the heavier Guitars are coming in, but there’s still not a full band - it’s Magical stuff.
2. Daft Punk | Digital Love
Like a song from Dream that’s locked in a Repeating, Half-Obscured Loop. Like you’ve woken up and it’s still in your head, but you don’t know what it is. My Favourite Dance Track Ever.
3. Alan Vega | Jukebox Babe
Basically a Loop Song again - Suicide were great, but Vega’s first Solo record is even better in many ways - he’s taken that idea and channeled it back to Real Instrument Rock And Roll rather than Electronics. This is like a stuck snapshot of all of American Music, endlessly playing out and distilled into just its Primal, Degraded Colours.
4. Kanye West | Power
Hahah! I Love the Genius of him Sampling 21st Century Schizoid Man - one of my favourite old records. Who knew it would eventually appear on a record like this? I’d Love to have been in the Studio when they had the idea, and someone tried to, sort of, explain where the Sample was from… Or put it in context… Maybe they didn’t even need to explain it! Hahahahhahhhhhh!!!!
5. Pink Floyd | See Emily Play
One of the Earliest Records I Heard/Bought. A Dark Black and White World is here... I wanted to help Emily. I Loved the crazy Sounds and the way it starts out of nowhere and ends up heading back there. This is what the 5 year old me knew a Pop group had to be like...
6. Jacky | White Horses (The White Horses Theme)
From a similar time, the Most Haunting TV Theme Ever. I am actually Speechless about this...
7. Alvin Lucier | I Am Sitting In A Room
A track/album that’s been a Staple of my Music Production Lectures over the last few years. It’s Real Systems Music - Music That Creates Itself Once You Apply The Rules. It also makes great Statements about Identity, Imperfection, and Art itself. It should be the Xmas Number 1 Record every year.
8. The Riot Squad | I'm Waiting For My Man (with David Bowie) (The Velvet Underground's 'I'm Waiting For The Man' Cover)
I often think the early, 60s Bowie is the best. I had this on a Rarities Compilation years ago and of course had already heard loads of versions of the song - including the Spiders From Mars BBC Session version. This really made me smile - so Groovy and Deadpan. The cheeky Benny Hill Sax makes it!!!! I actually modeled a Papernut Cambridge track quite deliberately on this version. It’s the closer of my DJ Set, without fail!
9. Kraftwerk | Radioactivity
This is my favourite Kraftwerk album, so any track from it will do - the Sound of a Band so Assured in their Intent that they only need a few Technical Terms for Lyrics, and the Childlike Beats and Melodies are just so Poised and Sparse. The Instruments Sound like they might be about to break down - it’s from a time when Electronics were still Scary, Unknown really... Utter Class.
10. Echo And The Bunnymen | Fuel
One of the Greatest Bands Ever - this is quite an Obscure B-Side from 1982. They were Big and Rock by then - but this harks back to their early, Drum Machine driven Roots. I Love the Sound of tracks at aren’t trying to hard - to be a Hit Single or whatever - this is all over the place really, in terms of what happens in the song, but it’s so Compulsive I always have to play it again...
