For twenty years Detroit’s ADULT. have released a steady run of wildly unpredictable records. The husband and wife duo of Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus have explored techno, synthpop, industrial, electroclash and the terrain in between, always succeeding in wrong footing anyone approaching their records with a sense of knowing what is to come. This deeply eclectic career has seen them crop up on labels such as Thrill Jockey, Mute, Ersatz Audio, Ghostly International and Third Man. Their latest 2018 record, This Behaviour, out via Dais Records "jitters with energy and swells with smart touches", as our review has it.
Here the pair picks their favourite thirteen albums – some individual picks and some joint – specific to music that has shaped the sounds and trajectory of ADULT. "I went through every single vinyl and CD, then Spotify and ITunes," says Miller. "I just looked at everything and made this master list. Then I thought, ‘there’s so many different directions this could go and I started looking for a main theme which was anything that has helped inspire ADULT. over the years. Then when I started narrowing it down for myself, I started to realise that everything either had an alien quality or a transgressive quality, or both. For me those were the keys elements in narrowing it down. Once we picked our 13, we just listened to them all, which was really enjoyable. Then we realised how everything we picked has – and we use these words very lightly – a combination of pop and the experimental. But that came from just trusting yourself and picking the albums and then finding these relationships and consistencies between them."
Nicola Kuperus adds: "It’s so hard when you really start looking at all the records that you love. But then it’s interesting to think, ‘yeah you love these records but what ones really get under your skin and really help inspire you?’ Even though we don’t sound like Neubauten, what is it about a band like Neubauten that would inspire us?"
Another consistency that one may notice through this list is the amount of artists on Mute records, a label both have been in love with since hearing Depeche Mode. "We almost put DAF on our list too," Miller says. "When I heard Fad Gadget it was like, ”I’m going to find everything on this record label.’ Then we got to be on this label."
ADULT. play London’s Electrowerkz on 27th November, with full UK dates here. Click the image of Kuperus & Miller below to begin reading their selections
