Apiento – 8 Tracks

I’ve interviewed Wally Badarou (keyboard player on this) a number of times at Test Pressing for the website and for a book I’m working on about Compass Point and he always says this is the point where Chris Blackwell’s plan of pulling together a Reggae rhythm section, European keys and “Punk” guitar properly came together. Grace Jones of course sounds wonderful and Blackwell alongside co-producer Alex Sadkin create one of the finest records recorded in my book. The real world music.

This record still sounds like the future and I think that says a lot. Apparently it was recorded in one day round at Dennis Bovell’s studio. Just a crazy off-kilter bit of electronic music that came from nowhere and still sounds like nothing else. Could have been this or “Thousand Knives” but this maybe pips it at the post. His melodies underneath all those electronics are so brilliant. He makes it seem so easy. A true hero.

I once tried to convince my mum that this was modern classical music aged about 20 or something and she was having none of it but to me it is. To be fair to her she did sit through the whole 9 minutes. It’s a timeless sound from Derrick May and I’m not sure in Techno that anyone can touch those glory years of his through to his remix of Sueno Latino.

If anyone comes close to Derrick May its Carl Craig. Always innovative and always moving forwards with those melodies riding away. This one comes into its own when the strings come in two and half minutes in. Lovely stuff.

Sade are a band that show total restraint something that to me is massively underrated and often to be strived for. An acid line, some pads, a cut up vocal and not a lot else. Perfect. I’m lucky enough to be working with Andrew Hale who played on this one on a project called Open Space at the moment. Hopefully we should have something out there for the summer.

I remember buying this one when Mr Bongo still had a shop in Soho years ago. Its just a perfect piece of Brazilian music. The voice, the guitars and a record to get high and happy too. At 1:30 it just comes into its own.

Had a real lost in Spector phase a number of years ago and this one came out as the favourite. I know Spector is clearly a bit of a lunatic these days but the music they produced still sounds like nothing else. Maybe thats the theme here… Special record.

I feel like I should end on something relatively modern and this much like the Sakomoto tune above sounds like the future though one in a natural world. Taking a bird sound and then twisting it up and out into a 13 minute journey. I’ve been trying to release this for ages but Olof is having none of it. A record I’d love to have heard Mancusso play at The Loft while he was still doing it in London. Anyway, Olof is out on his own alongside Carl Craig for me right now when it comes to electronic noise.