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Baker's Dozen

Weird Still Spills: Stella Mozgawa Of Warpaint's Favourite Albums
The Quietus , September 7th, 2016 09:21

The Warpaint drummer and prolific collaborator goes from Pharoah Sanders to Joni Mitchell via Steely Dan, Chaka Khan and Primus in collecting her top 13 albums, choosing those that "had altered the course of my life"

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Brian Eno – Before And After Science
I first bought this record in 2004. I had just started university and took these trips into the city that would often last the length of a record. Coupled with John Cale's Fear, this was on constant repeat. I keep coming back to Before And After Science though; production-wise it is breathtaking. The lyrical approach is Dadaist, random and wonderfully poetic. It's tasteful as all hell. 'No One Receiving' and 'Kurt's Rejoinder' are perfect white-guy Afro-funk moments – the former could be my favourite drum performance of all time (Phil Collins!). It's so cheeky, he delivers some amazingly confident moments – "Oh what to do? Not a sausage to do!" on 'Backwater'. You can hear the ambient phase just around the corner – 'Through Hollow Lands' is a patient and pretty instrumental track. It's definitely front-loaded energetically but it works. 'King's Lead Hat', which is an anagram for Talking Heads, sounds like proto Devo, two bands whose sounds he had a hand in shaping. It's a record that really explores the entire spectrum of his talent and style, but that's not why I chose it. It truly shaped my criteria for what a perfect album sounds like. It's so considered but never too careful. It's self-aware but so full of abandon. It's so listenable and yet totally uncompromising.