The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

Psychedelic Meditation: Kurt Vile's Favourite Albums
Laurie Tuffrey , November 11th, 2015 13:13

As he starts the UK leg of touring b'lieve i'm goin down…, the Philadelphian singer-songwriter goes from live free jazz to dry-humoured piano sketches in picking 13 albums that steered the sound of his sixth album

Miles_davis_1447247060_resize_460x400

Miles Davis - On The Corner
This is referenced in my song 'I'm An Outlaw': "...an outlaw, burned from vinyl, dimed from cans, peaked to the dome". And that's some crazy, psychedelic, synth-y, weird funk. No offence to Miles, you know, unfortunately he's not with us, but fortunately he's not, because he's the weakest link on that record. At first he's awesome, and then some of his tone, it goes down south once in a while, but all the players, like John McLaughlin and the synth players, and if you listen to the record, especially in headphones, it's all - my theory is - going through modular synthesisers, all the percussion is going through envelope filters, but it's also panning non-stop. If you listen, it's unreal. If you crank it in headphones, it's full speed ahead!