Cosmic Portals: Gruff Rhys' Favourite Albums | Page 4 of 14 | The Quietus

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

3. Miles DavisGet Up With It

When I was making this list, I kept questioning why I was choosing individual records. There are [other] records that influenced me as a kid but in this moment, when asked for this specific list, I was on tour and we were driving around America in a van, just the four of us in the band, the core of the Babelsberg record, the three musicians: Steve Black, Osian Gwynedd and Kliph Scurlock. Kliph has got a real high-resolution digital file player so he made a playlist that lasted a month. There were certain records we returned to as a group that chimed with us during these particular moments and one of them was this record.

I like that Davis has dismissed the trumpet and taken up a synth instead – it’s a good example of how to grow old radically rather than mellow out and it informed our tour so, if in doubt, we’d refer to this record live. It makes an interesting case for what works on a high-resolution file or what needs high-resolution [to sound as it should]. I might recommend this record now but if someone listens to it on Spotify, half of the quality of the performance might be shut out due to the frequencies [lost in encoding].

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Valentina Magaletti, Oren Ambarchi, Nils Frahm
PreviousNext Record

Don’t Miss The Quietus Digest

Start each weekend with our free email newsletter.

Help Support The Quietus in 2025

If you’ve read something you love on our site today, please consider becoming a tQ subscriber – our journalism is mostly funded this way. We’ve got some bonus perks waiting for you too.

Subscribe Now