Cosmic Portals: Gruff Rhys' Favourite Albums | Page 13 of 14 | The Quietus

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

12. Laurie SpiegelThe Expanding Universe

This is another circumstantial choice from my long drive across America. Some of the tracks on this are twenty minutes long and perfect for a seven hour drive! It’s good to have that time to let a song build and, because they are metronomic and electronic, it’s great travelling music. There’s a song called ‘Patchwork’ that Kliph played over and over again. It’s maybe a portal into the records I’ve been listening to over the past decade, bands like Emeralds.

I’ve got kids of various ages and records like these are compromise records because I can put them on to get them to sleep and I also like listening to them, though one baby didn’t react to meditative music and I had to put on head-banging music to get them to sleep. I could head bang away! I listen to a lot of instrumental music in the house, loudly. I enjoy not having a voice to interfere with my day.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Benge
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