La Sera - Break My Heart

Sic Alps - Glyphs

This is Pop Download-o-rama

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Thom ‘Bleeping’ Yorke’s Favourites

The Best Of Bleep

I have to admit I absolutely love a good playlist. I love to construct them, to analyse them, to deconstruct them and to listen to them. At best they tell us minute details of a persons psyche at worst they tell us minute details of a persons psyche. (Exactly) I was thrilled then to learn today that a number of my favourite musicians and artists would be constructing playlists for our listening and dissecting purposes for online digital boutique Bleep.com

Bleep.com was launched in January 2004 by independent music and film company Warp. Being one of the first and most innovative music download stores, Bleep has since gained a Digital Music Award for Best Music Store, had over 1.8 million downloads, and cemented a reputation as one of the best download boutique store catering to passionate music fans.

To celebrate Bleep’s 5th birthday, a select cast of people working in music were asked to pick their 5 favourite releases or tracks from the entire Bleep catalogue. These are people who are fans and customers of the store; who have worked closely with the retailer, or simply have an interesting viewpoint on music. They range from producers, musicians, journalists, designers, art directors, label bosses and even the curator of popular music at the British Library (the biggest known music collection in Europe).

Great stuff indeed, I encourage you to have a look around and discover some music that has influenced some of the artists we respect and follow. I was impressed with Thom Yorke’s eclectic selections which help to explain some of the minimalistic electronic trends in his own music over the past few years.

How about you? What are five selections that would form your personal playlist? (Remember I’ll be analyzing these and looking for uncorrected personality traits and psychological abnormalities.)

I’ll get things started with my own list.

1) The StranglersThe European Female
2) Lou ReedAndy’s Chest
3) Wire French Film Blurred
4) Screamin’ Jay HawkinsFrenzy
5) Bon IverBlood Bank

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa. I like the idea of this... but it's too vague... I have trouble breaking lists down to a top five even with titles like "top five vocal performances by brother singing duos of the sixties"!

Sean Wraight said...

The secret Blair is to let your brain do the work. Just don't overthink it. That's the beauty of this one.

I often treat my playlists like complex equations when sometimes you have to be more free thinking.

Don't worry though I'll post something we can all obsess and wallow over soon. Get the collaborative playlist thing happening.

s

Allison said...

I've never heard of Bleep before, what a grand idea!

I did something similar on my blog in the summer, but it was with 25 songs. I can't choose just five! It changes daily. ;)

Right now:

Lost in the Supermarket - The Clash
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
The Radio's Hot Sun - Handsome Furs
Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
(Antichrist Television Blues) - Arcade Fire

Anonymous said...

Ok, as of this very moment...

1- The Heptones - Book of Rules
2- Nick Lowe - Mary Provost
3- REM - Finest Worksong
4- The Shangri Las - Past, Present, and Future
5- Alejandro Escovedo - Sway (Stones cover from his magnificent live album... HIGHLY recommended late night listening!)

Sean Wraight said...

Allison - Ooooh, I do like those selections. All of those capable of striking the right emotional chord. The Flaming Lips in particular have the unique ability to render me to dream states so very easily.

Blair - EXACTLY. Take out the over analysis and let the musical heart speak. Inspired selections and great variety.

We'll do the carefully balanced music geek approach soon I assure you. I love doing that too!

s

Anonymous said...

You've just opened a can of amazing worms....
You've been warned.

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Thom certainly does has some eclectic picks. And are those his descriptions of the songs? Because I don't understand a word he said, but I guess that's why he's Thom Yorke and I am not.

So, in the spirit established by the others of playlist as of this moment:

Pyramid Song - Radiohead
Head On - Jesus and Mary Chain
How It Ends - DeVotchKa
King of Carrot Flowers - Neutral Milk Hotel
Furnace Room Lullaby - Neko Case

Deconstruct me, baby!