Perfect Sound Forever

Favorite Music of our Interview Victims, Part 2

Marlene Marder (Kleenex/Liliput)


Keshavan Maslak

Here's my favorites AT THIS TIME not including some of mine. This list is random and not numbered by importance. You will notice that there are no avant-garde or free jazz recordings on this list. I hate listening to avant and free jazz stuff!


James McNew (Yo La Tengo)


Mekons

* Chosen by Tom Greenhalgh
** Chosen by Jon Langford
Tom: 'I just listen to the radio a lot.' Rico Bell: 'I don't really listen to anything except what anyone gives me.' Jon: 'There's loads of stuff, especially on small independent labels. Chicago has lots of weird stuff coming out on small labels like Edith Frost and the Handsome Family. Birddog is really interesting.' Lu Edmonds: 'I mostly listen to cassettes because I've never managed to get a compact disc player. Right now, I like a lot of stuff from Benin and Nigeria with a lot of drums and vocals. You don't know what they're doing but it's great stuff. The radio channels in England are really rubbish though there's some good pirate stations.'


Richard Meltzer

Glenn Mercer (Wake Ooloo/Feelies)


Merzbow (Masami Akita)


Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky)


Moby


Robert Moog


The Monks (Gary Burger)


Moondog (Louis Hardin)

Wagner made such an impression. Every Saturday afternoon, I used to listen to the operas on the radio from Iowa back in the '30's. I'm very friendly with Glass and Reich- at least we have tonality in common. I love Bach but he never analyzed his pieces- I'm sure he realized that there were a lot of mistakes in there. I'm sure he would have corrected him if he had the time but he had kids and wives to take care of.


R. Stevie Moore

These are R. Stevie's "30 Worst All-Time Albums in order of clearance." Also: Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods, early Pink Floyd, The Asylum Choir, Tupper Saussy, Nirvana, Mothers Of Invention, Crispy Ambulance, Hank Williams, Roxy Music, Master Musicians of Jajouka, Public Image Ltd., Beach Boys, Firesign Theatre, Buzzcocks, Moby Grape, Lou Reed, Malcolm McLaren, Half Japanese, Dukes of Stratosphere, Frank Sinatra


Ikue Mori


Colin Newman (Swim/Wire)

ED NOTE: This is Colin's list for 1996- we also have his extensive full listing of favorites. 'We don't chart our own releases (Swim) as we regard this as a bit tacky!!!' As for the choices themselves, 'the dark jungle stuff (nico/ed rush etc.) is all over the press here now. The Bowery Electric album is getting big reviews (even in America). Freezone got in pretty much everything over here anyway (they sell a ton of them also). Some of the other stuff's a bit more obscure but with perhaps the exception of the Mimi one, most people we know would know this stuff.'


Babatunde Olatunji


Jim O'Rourke

Other stuff: Henry Kaiser "Shadow Line" from Aloha and "It's a Wonderful Life" from It's a Wonderful life, all early Reich and Glass, Phil Niblock, all Fahey, all Derek Bailey, Cecil Taylor, Jack Nitsche, all early Parks, Ives, Stravinsky, mid-70's Morricone, late Nono, Devo's first 2 records, etc.


Abiodun Oyewole (The Last Poets)

Infant Eyes put me to tears because I was in jail, thinking about my kid. It was like black opera. Rashida took me to the beach when I heard that, with his scatting. Trane didn't even know what he was doing, it was so beautiful. Speak Like a Child I take with me everywhere. This is really healing music and it's not being used. This should be used in hospitals. This is medicine here- it makes me and a lot of other people feel so good.


Mike Paradinas (u-Ziq)

These are recent favorites: I can't name any all-time favorites. I'd get it wrong. My favorite songs change all the time.


Mark Perry (Alternative TV)


Robert Quine


The Residents

Hardy Fox, Cryptic Corporation: "Originally when they did their American composers series, they made this long list of people who they felt like they had made contributions to American culture which were astounding, that's included James Brown and Hank Williams, Zappa, Beefheart, Scott Joplin. We happen to be very fortunate to live in a culture that's developed a lot of new music. They wanted to encourage people to notice how much good music is really around them all the time, not just music that happens to be currently popular."


Kimberley Rew (Soft Boys, Katrina and the Waves)


Terry Riley


Hans-Achim Roedelius (Cluster)


John Storm Roberts (Original Music)

Bessie Smith, I.K. Dairo are some of my favorite performers. It's styles that I really love- I have a passion for the Cuban sonas of the thirites. Good salsa is something that really lifts the heart. Also Portugese fadou. I love south Indian vocal music more than north Indian, which concentrates more on technique than feeling. Certain recordings that I love certainly aren't the best of the period. I find that 20% of music I hear is superior, the rest is forgettable or bad. I like good heavy metal but I don't go to seek it out. I can't stand bad heavy metal just like I can't put up with bad New Orleans jazz. You could go through my catalog and see the things that I rave about but I really don't have a top 10 mentality about favorite music.


Dexter Romweber (Flat Duo Jets)


Michael Rother (Neu!)

There is no way I could deliver a "Top Ten" list of my all time favourites but maybe this absolutely incomplete list of music and musicians which come to mind right now helps. My musical taste is rather wide and I see a lot of interesting music all over the place in all kinds of genres, be it an electronic experimental sound from Hamburg or Manchester, "dirty" guitars from a L.A. garage, Fado music from Portugal or chants from Indian classical music, the critical issue is the genuineness and sincerity of the artist. In general I like to listen to music rather seldom, but then very intense. Last year I had a chance to see Tricky in concert and I was really impressed.


Bruce Russell (Dead C)


Ed Sanders (Fugs)

McKenna was a great Irish actress of the 40s/50s. She had a wonderful album, reading Irish poetry. If I had all those, I could probably be on a desert island. I'd need a player too and a solar powered battery and headphones.


Kim Salmon (Scientists)

Also: Suicide (both albums) and Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks ("That's the one!")


Jim Sauter (Borbetomagus)

  • Muddy Waters Electric Mud
  • Albert Ayler It's A New Generation
  • Milford Graves Babi Music
  • Jimi Hendrix (anything)
  • Xenakis Perseplis
  • Captain Beefheart Lick My Decals Off Baby
  • Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
  • Ramones Ramones
  • The first four are favorites of the rest of the band that we all love. I love the Muddy record for all the wrong and right reasons. It's a hilarious record and personal to us all. The Ayler record is from his go-go period and it's funny. The Graves record is a straight ahead screamer. We're all Hendrix fans. The Xenakis is a personal favorite- it's a killer.


    Klaus Schulze

  • J.J. Cale Naturally
  • Sibelius Finlandia
  • Ultravox Vienna
  • Tchaikovsky Pathetique
  • Richard Wahnfried Tonwelle
  • Carl Orff Carmina Burana
  • Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians
  • Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach
  • Dvorak Carnival (Ouverture)
  • Kraftwerk Mensch-Maschine
  • This list is from an old Polish magazine from June 1983. As for now, 'As everybody else, I'm not much interested in other people's record collection. Just because I'm a musician, people have suddenly an interest in mine? I don't subscribe to that and I don't want to bother people with my momentary personal taste. Besides, this changes. Old music, new music... In fact, nothing special or outstanding.'


    Paul Schütze

  • Julian Priester Love Love
  • Frederico Mompou Musica Callada (ECM version)
  • Can Future Days
  • Jon Hassell Aka Dabari Java
  • Miles Davis Get Up With It
  • Harry Partch Delusion Of the Fury
  • Robert Ashley Automatic Writing
  • Holger Czukay & Rolf Dammers Canaxis
  • Arvo Part Tabula Rasa
  • Can Ege Bamyasi
  • Ahh, the ten best albums dilemma. This is always a tough one. Could I qualify this by saying "at the moment," and "in definitely no particular order?" Just got to hope there are some good insects on my desert island to fill in the gaps left in the portable soundscape.


    Andy Shernoff (The Dictators)

  • Beatles (everything ever recorded)
  • The Who Sell Out
  • Stooges Raw Power
  • AC/DC Highway to Hell
  • Beach Boys Today
  • Bruce Springsteen Tunnel Of Love
  • Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street
  • Kinks (everything up til Lola vs. The Powerman)
  • Ramones Rocket To Russia
  • Bob Dylan Slow Train Coming

  • Shonen Knife

  • Deep Purple Machine Head *
  • The Hollies Butterfly **
  • The Presidents of the United States of America The Presidents of the United States of America II *
  • Robyn Hitchcock (anything) **
  • Supergrass I Should Coco *
  • Green Day Dookie *
  • Weezer Weezer * (Michie liked this one too)
  • Teenage Fanclub Grand Prix **

  • * chosen by Naoko Yamano
    ** chosen by Michie Nakatani


    Simeon (Silver Apples)


    Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson)

  • Augustus Pablo Original Rockers
  • Tackhead Friendly As A Hand Grenade
  • Herbie Hancock Headhunters
  • 808 State Newbuild

  • Peter Stampfel

  • The Anthology of American Folk Music
  • The Beach Boys Pet Sounds
  • The Beatles Revolver
  • The Rolling Stones Between The Buttons
  • The Kinks Something Else
  • The Kinks Village Green Preservation Society
  • The Who The Who Sell Out
  • R.E.M. Out Of Time
  • Bruce Springsteen Born In the U.S.A.
  • Incredible String Band The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion

  • Lynda Stipe (Oh OK, Flash to Bang Time)


    Joe Strummer (The Clash)


    Hubert Sumlin

  • Muddy Waters Real Folk Blues
  • Little Walter Blues With A Feeling
  • Wes Montgomery
  • Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced?
  • Glen Miller
  • Benny Goodman
  • Big Bill Broonzy
  • Eddie Taylor
  • Charlie Patton

  • Howard Tate


    Deniz Tek (Radio Birdmen)

  • The Who Who's Next
  • Rolling Stones any from Beggars Banquet through Exile
  • James Brown Live at the Apollo The Beach Boys Pet Sounds
  • Blue Oyster Cult any of the first 4
  • The Stooges Funhouse or Raw Power
  • The Kinks Singles Collection
  • Capt. Beefheart and the Magic Band Clear Spot or Trout Mask Replica
  • Alice Cooper Love It To Death
  • Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 or Blood On The Tracks
  • King Crimson Larks Tongues in Aspic
  • Leaving heaps out here. It would have been much easier to go for the top 100 albums or the top 1000 singles. There's just too much great stuff out there... What are my top ten albums? The answer of course is 'It Depends.'


    David Toop

  • Dr. John Gris-Gris
  • Toru Takemitsu Film Music Volume 4
  • Bo Diddley Go Bo Diddley
  • Alice Coltrane Universal Consciousness
  • The Beach Boys Ballads
  • Stockhausen Telemusik
  • Cich Cangkurileung Layung Kamari
  • Miles Davis On the Corner
  • John McLaughlin Devotion
  • Marvin Gaye I Want You
  • Really, it's impossible for me to list 10 albums as my all-time favorites. When I'm listening to something I really love then that's the best music in the world for the moment. But if I was stranded somewhere for two weeks with a few records, then these would make me happy.


    Geoff Travis (Rough Trade/Trade 2)

  • The Smiths "This Charming Man"
  • Scritti Politti "The Sweetest Girl"
  • The Fall "Totally Wired"
  • Subway Sect "Nobody's Scared"
  • Bob Dylan "Visions of Johanna"
  • Van Morrison "Astral Weeks"
  • Tim Buckley "Blue Afternoon"
  • Everything But the Girl "Missing"
  • Young Marble Giants "Final Day"
  • Augustus Pablo "Pablo Meets Mr. Bassie"

  • James 'Blood' Ulmer

  • James Brown
  • Ray Charles
  • Tina Turner
  • Aretha Franklin
  • Ornette Coleman
  • Jimi Hendrix
  • I like everybody- you got to be an AWFUL person for me not to like you. Listening and chosing takes a lot of time. Some people take a whole lifetime listening to someone and trying to be like someone. You have to get to the level to chose something you really like. If you're clever, you can really do it. If I hear something one time, I can write a book about it! The harmolodic system is designed like that- it snatches things from the wall. You can notate whatever you hear and see as far as music being sight and sound. You have to be careful when you listen to people. I like music that makes me think. There's three types of music: one makes you think about the Creator, one don't make you think about the Creator and one makes you think about nothing.


    Christian Vander (Magma)


    Loudon Wainwright III

  • Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde
  • Louis Prima The Wildest- Live In Las Vegas
  • Jim Kweskin Jug Band
  • Miles Davis Sketches of Spain
  • Guys and Dolls (original cast soundtrack)

  • Ashley Wales (Spring Heel Jack)

  • The Clash The Clash
  • Miles Davis Pangea
  • Gil Evans Out Of The Cool
  • Buzzcocks Singles, Going Steady
  • Iggy Pop Raw Power
  • The Beatles White Album
  • Blondie Parallel Lines
  • Sibelius Symphony No.9
  • Scott Walker Boy Child
  • JS Bach 48 Preludes and Fugues
  • Patsy Cline Greatest Hits

  • Miloslav Wanek (Uz Jsme Doma)

  • The Residents Commercial Album
  • The Residents Not Available
  • Ebbagon
  • Dunij Roso
  • Nicolas Lens
  • The Beatles
  • Omega
  • We use music as a dialog for people (rather) than having influences. It's more about aesthetics. Ebbagon is a melodic punk band from Sweden. Dunij is a Czech band named after a main river in Europe. Lens is a French/Belgium composer who's worked with the Bulgarian Choir, an orchestra and comptuers. For the Beatles, I like 'Hey Jude' and lot of stuff that Lennon did later. Omega is a Hungarian band- it's like a Hungarian Rolling Stones. They're from the 60s, they're a very old band. They were very famous in East Europe. They have nice melodies and screaming, which I use.


    David S. Ware

  • Ornette Coleman Ornette On Tenor
  • Sonny Rollins Our Man In Jazz and The Bridge
  • Cecil Taylor Unit Structures
  • Archie Shepp Fire Music and On This Night
  • John Coltrane Meditations and Cosmic Music

  • Mike Watt

  • The Who Sell Out
  • Richard Hell Blank Generation
  • Bob Dylan The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
  • Blue Oyster Cult Tyranny and Mutation
  • John Coltrane A Love Supreme
  • Creedence Clearwater Revival Willie and the Poor Boys
  • Black Flag Nervous Breakdown
  • Husker Du Zen Arcade
  • Meat Puppets Up On the Sun
  • Roky Erikson The Evil One
  • Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica
  • When I put a picture of Hell on my bass, that was my line in the sand in Pedro. As a kid there was something really weird about Dylan and it really stuck with me in a way. Creedence's 'Up Around the Bend' is my favorite song- he didn't know which bend, he just wanted to get around it. He even has a four syllable word in that song! That's why I wear the flannel, because of him (John Fogerty). I like Erikson a lot- there's something about him, hard to put a finger on it. Really wild. Trout Mask Replica was a BIG inspriation to the Minutemen.


    Jerry Williams (Swamp Dogg)

  • Maurice Chavalier "You Brought a New Kind Of Love To Me"
  • Swamp Dogg "Synthetic World"
  • Big Joe Turner "Corrine Corrina"
  • Dave Brubeck Quartet "Take The "A" Train"
  • James Taylor "Your Smiling Face"
  • Everything Aretha Franklin recorded for Atlantic
  • Sly Stone "Thank you Forlettinmebemyself"
  • Everything by George Jones
  • Ray Charles "Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong"
  • Everything by Travis Tritt

  • NOTE: This is only a small part of a larger list that includes: Amos Milburn ("I'm Gonna Tell My Mama"), Wynonie Harris ("Bloodshot Eyes"), Larry Williams ("She Said Yeah"), Louis Jordan ("Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens"), Doris Duke ("How Was I To Know You Cared"), Guitar Slim ("Things I Use To Do"), Prince ("Little Red Corvette"), Big Joe Turner (Corrine Corrina"), Billy Vera ("At This Moment"), Frank Sinatra ("You Make Me Feel So Young"), Stevie Winwood ("Back In The High Life again"), Johnny Nash ("Stir It Up"), the Manhattans ("Shining Star"), Little Richard ("Tutti Frutti"/"Long Tall Sally"), Chuck Berry (everything on Chess), Conway Twitty (everything), James Brown (everything except on Mercury), Fats Domino (most recordings on Imperial), Buddy Johnson ("Mush Mouth"), Red Prysock ("Hand Clapping"), Jerry Lee Lewis ("Great Balls Of Fire"), Chaka Demas & Pliers ("She Don't Let Nobody"), George Strait (everything), Randy Travis (everything on Warner), Patty Loveless ("She Drew A Broken Heart") and Gene Watson ("At Last").


    Christian Wolff

  • Thomas Tallis "Spem in Alium"
  • John Cage
  • Morton Feldman
  • Steve Reich (early work)
  • Philip Glass (early work)
  • Iannis Xenakis
  • Alvin Lucier
  • Allison Cameron
  • Tallis is a 16th Century British composer. "Spem in Alium" a setting of Biblical text and it's an extraordinary piece of writing. It's for 40 voice and each voice has its own part so it's a forty-part counter point. The result is a kind of sonarity like you've never heard before. I like Xenakis' percussion pieces, espeically as that's a lot of what I'm doing now. Cameron is a young Canadian composer- I just happened to hear her work and I was very impressed by it. I listen to a lot of different things and I'm sure that I'm going to leave somebody out but this gives you some kind of idea.


    Robert Wyatt

  • Ornette Coleman 'Peace'
  • Carroll Thompson 'Hopelessly Without You'
  • Janet Kay 'You Bring the Sun Out'
  • Rose Royce 'Love Don't Live Here Any More'
  • Brenda Holloway 'Every Little Bit Hurts'
  • Nina Simone 'I Put a Spell On You'
  • Trevor Walters 'Love Me Tonight'
  • ED NOTE: this was actually culled from a British Magazine from the early '80s and reprinted in a biography called WRONG MOVEMENTS (SAF).
    Otomo Yoshihide
  • Sakatomo Kyu
  • Ryoki Ikeda
  • Gastr Del Sol Upgrade and Afterlife
  • Toru Takemitsu
  • Ikube Akira
  • Christian Marclay
  • My favorite is always Kyu, he's the biggest pop singer from the '60's in Japan. Ikeda is a really big influence, +/- is a great record. I love Takemitsu's soundtrack work better than contemporary music. Akira is also a great soundtrack composer, especially with GOJIRA (Godzilla).
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