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 Stranglers – The European Female
2) Lou Reed – Andy’s Chest
3) Wire – French Film Blurred
4) Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – Frenzy
5) Bon Iver – Blood Bank
