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Baker's Dozen

Friends Of Mine: Rachel Aggs' Favourite Music
Stephanie Phillips , February 24th, 2021 10:14

Rachel Aggs takes Stephanie Phillips through the albums that made her the musician she is today, from Smokey Robinson to Robyn, Mahotella Queens to Sleater-Kinney. Portrait photo by Stephanie Gibson

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Nisennenmondai – Destination Tokyo
I don't know if I heard the record before or after I went to see them play, but I remember going to the show that Upset The Rhythm put on. I think at the time we had been signed to Upset The Rhythm with Trash Kit. I remember being so excited when we got signed, mostly because Chris [Tipton, label owner] gave us a bunch of free records and then said we can go to any shows that he put on in London for free. I was like, 'oh my God', because I never had any money. I genuinely don't think I would have seen like any live music if it hadn't been for Chris doing that. I went to almost every show he put on because I was unemployed a lot of the time and then I would just go to things not even knowing what they were.

I remember going with Rachel to see Nisennenmondai and they are just one of the most incredible live bands. They play pretty fast but it has this way of building tension and energy that I've never really experienced apart from in techno or minimal dance music.

I remember quite a few house parties where we put this on and dance like crazy because it was really fun. I love the kind of the drama and the tension in Nisennenmondai songs, because they go on and on. We definitely tried to do that with some of the songs on the last Trash Kit record, but we hadn't really tried to do that until that point.