WARMER MIXTAPES #1190 | by Laurent Leemans [The Imaginary Suitcase] of Ceilí Moss and La Vierge Du Chancelier Rolin
1. David Bowie | Ashes To Ashes
An extremely important song for me, though like a Tchernobyl emanation, its effects only became perceptible quite later. I was born in a family of Music lovers, but they openly despised Rock and Pop, especially my dad who would barely tolerate The Beatles but who saw Mick Jagger or Bowie as parangons of the decay of every notion of Civilisation. Then the TV gave me Bowie in his Pierrot outfit and it was the first crack in the wall of my ignorance, the start of many a fiery father-son arguments...
2. Mike Oldfield | Moonlight Shadow (feat. Maggie Reilly)
This is the first song I distinctly remember when and in which circumstances I first heard it. Summer 1983, pitch black night, three-quarters-asleep on the backseat of my parent’s car driving back home. The intro woke me up like a slap on the face.
3. Nik Kershaw | Wouldn’t It Be Good
The first 45 rpm I bought with my own pocket money. Nowadays, Nik, Howard Jones, Black and Duran Duran still trigger a soft spot.
4. Echo & The Bunnymen | Bring On The Dancing Horses
+ The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary... Once in 1986, there was a kid who enjoyed what was on the radio, but it was not a central element of his universe. That was until a friend lended him a Hit Connection or something double album. There was stuff like Matt Bianco, Fine Young Cannibals, Alphaville, etc., and, crouching at the end of the second LP, waiting to devour the heart and devastate the mind of the unsuspecting lamb, there were these Ians I had never ever heard of before. The Cult: spooky intro, intriguing guitar melody… And then I start to jump around orgasmically while whoohooing like a madman! Echo: stunned amazement at that incredible sound, 4 minutes of rapture when Mac’s voice comes in. She Sells Sanctuary and Bring On The Dancing Horses give me the same shivers all those years later. I like to think that as long as they do, it means I’m not old.
5. The Jesus & Mary Chain | April Skies
Saw the video on Sky Channel and thought My God (very appropriate), it’s not technically possible to be THAT cool!...
6. The Smiths | Well I Wonder
If as we say in French true pain doesn’t make a fuss, then this song is the saddest tune ever recorded.
7. Paul Roland & The Hellfire Club | Wyndham Hill
I hated that guy for a moment, because when I started to conceptualise the Music I would like to make, I came across his Cabinet Of Curiosities and discovered he had done it.
8. Morrissey | Everyday Is Like Sunday
At the time, I lived in a small village between Namur and Dinant. Not a seaside town, but all the rest could apply.
9. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds | I Let Love In
A song that truly grabs you by the throat. The album is IMHO a bit of a swan song, as I think Nick Cave has become all weepy and boring as fuck, as if all his stamina had been put in this album.
10. Patti Smith | People Have The Power
I never thought songs and singers could change the World. If John Lennon couldn’t, I don’t see who can. But Patti Smith always fills me up with Fortitude and the will not to settle for the shoddy. And that’s already a lot.
+11. 16 Horsepower | Splinters
You can almost feel the Dust Bowl dessicating you. I lean towards Atheism, but if God exists, his might and glory live in David Eugene Edwards’ voice. All those who try to sing about God sound like idiots, except Edwards, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Johnny Cash.
+12. Fleet Foxes | Your Protector
I can be pretty obsessive when something truly rings a bell. All through 2012, I have listened to almost nothing else than the Fleet Foxes’ first album.
