June 2026
Five records listened to with eyes closed. No rankings, no algorithms. Just ears.
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01Bitches Brew
Miles Davis · 1970Electric jazz
This is not the easiest jazz record to love and I won't try to sell it as one. But when the two sides open into that electric broth — Miles not playing notes but conjuring temperatures — you understand that funk and everything that came after passes through here. I put it on when I want to remind myself that music can still frighten. On vinyl the double gatefold is an object worth owning.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
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02Pink Moon
Nick Drake · 1972English folk
Twenty-eight minutes, voice and guitar, almost nothing else. Nick Drake delivered the tapes to the label by leaving them at reception, without saying a word. This is the record I put on late, when the house is quiet and I don't want any production getting between me and a song. The title track runs two and a half minutes and contains more truth than entire albums. Find it on an original Island pressing if you can.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
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03Remain in Light
Talking Heads · 1980Afro-funk new wave
Brian Eno and Talking Heads discovering Fela Kuti's Africa and bringing it back into New York post-punk. Everyone knows Once in a Lifetime, but it's the whole of side A that never stops spinning — rhythmic layers accumulating into hypnosis. This is the record I put on when someone tells me that eighties rock was all plastic. Then I let them listen and they go quiet.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
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04Music for 18 Musicians
Steve Reich · 1978Minimalism
An hour of pulses transforming so slowly you don't notice until you're already somewhere else. Reich doesn't write melodies, he writes processes — and this is the most beautiful one there is. I put it on when I need to work and want time to stop rushing. On vinyl, with the sides forcing you to stop and turn the record, the ritual is part of the music.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
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05The Drift
Scott Walker · 2006Avant-garde
This is not a record, it's a place you return from changed. Scott Walker at sixty deciding to abandon everything that had made him likeable and building something terrible and necessary. There is a track where they beat a piece of meat as an instrument. I don't put it on often — you can't — but when I do it reminds me that music exists which doesn't want to please, only to exist.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
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