WARMER MIXTAPES #1500 | by Allan Arthur Guy Sigsworth [Guy Sigsworth/Cat Balou/GMT] of Acacia and Frou Frou
1. Björk | So Broken
I don’t know if I should be allowed to choose songs by artists I’ve worked with if they involve me as producer or co-writer. I guess too much self-love is off-putting. On the other hand, I listened again to Alanis’s Flavors Of Entanglement album the whole way through the other day and still loved it to bits. Thank you to everyone who worked on that album, especially Andy Page, who mixed it so flawlessly. Immi, Alanis and Alison have all written wonderful songs I could choose. I really, really love Hide And Seek by Immi in particular. But I think I’ll choose So Broken by Björk. It has one of the most astonishing vocal performances ever recorded.
2. David Sylvian | Darkest Dreaming
I have to have a David Sylvian song. The bravery of his arrangements have been a major inspiration for me. My favourite DS song used to be Let The Happiness In (which basically asks, when will this pain end and The Happiness start?). Now it’s Darkest Dreaming (which asks, when will this momentary happiness end and The Pain start up again?). Yay!
3. Pet Shop Boys | Twentieth Century
I have to have a Pet Shop Boys song. I love Being Boring, Jealousy, Love Comes Quickly, Liberation; but I’m choosing Twentieth Century. Its chorus lyric means a lot to me: Sometimes The Solution is worse than The Problem... Let’s stay together!. Thank you, Sean McGhee, for first playing it to me.
4. Michael Jackson | Human Nature
I have to have a Michael Jackson song. I’m choosing Human Nature. This song floats free of Gravity.
5. David Bowie | It's No Game (Part 1)
I love the Low/Heroes/Lodger/Scary Monsters period Bowie. This is simultaneously raw, discordant, dramatic, arty, bonkers and brave.
6. Nick Drake | River Man
What a voice. And what a string arrangement.
7. Underworld | Jumbo
I love Uptempo Dance songs, especially where the partying and Hedonism is counterbalanced by something darker and deeper. Sam Sparro’s Black And Gold is like that, as is deadmau5’s The Veldt, and Porter Robinson’s Sad Machine. I still love Underworld to bits. So I’ll choose Jumbo, from Beaucoup Fish.
8. Igor Stravinsky | Symphony Of Psalms (Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Conductor: Simon Rattle)
I have to have something by Stravinsky. The pieces I keep going back to are The Symphonies Of Wind Instruments (especially the last minute of the piece, which he originally wrote as an obituary for Debussy), the Symphony Of Psalms (especially the last movement), and the Requiem Canticles (especially the last movement). Stravinsky is definitely good at endings! I guess I’ll go for the Symphony Of Psalms.
9. Kate Bush | All The Love
I have to have something by Kate Bush. Or Joni Mitchell. Or Bach. Or Nina Simone. But I can’t fit them all in. KB’s The Dreaming is full of amazing musical ideas, which have influenced me a lot. I’ll choose the song All The Love from that album.
10. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Ave Verum Corpus (Performed by Westminster Cathedral Choir; Conductor: James O'Donnell)
For my dad.
