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Baker's Dozen

Amorphous Choices: Mira Calix' Favourite Music
Jude Rogers , May 8th, 2019 12:42

Jude Rogers quizzes sound sculptor Mira Calix about her favourite albums, from MBV to Britten, Stravinsky to Laura Cannell, and PJ Harvey to the bountiful joys of the Warp back catalogue

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Rodriguez – Coming From Reality
If you've seen Searching for Sugarman, you'll know how huge Rodriguez was in South Africa without him being known well elsewhere in the world [the film tells the story of how bootleg copies of his album, Cold Fact, found their way to apartheid-era South Africa, where it became a word-of-mouth hit; he also had some success in Australia]. And believe me, he was huge in South Africa. I was a kid growing up there, and everybody had his cassette.   I was thinking earlier how impossible it would be to have a story like his now in the internet age – there was this myth in South Africa that he'd committed suicide when he'd actually just gone back to Detroit and become a construction worker. I'm fascinated by music and myth-building, and how intrinsic it it to culture. Music has this special quality and we are always lifting it up.   He's still great now, though, is Rodriguez. I saw him last year at the Royal Albert Hall – he's 80 now. He was bollocksing Trump. He totally shat on Brexit. That's how I want to be when I'm 80!