It is 30 years since Visage released the seminal Fade To Grey. It was a huge dance floor hit, topping the charts in the UK and Europe. To celebrate this anniversary, Universal Music have announced the release of The Very Best of Visage, updated with 2009 remixes of Fade To Grey by Michael Gray – of The Weekend and Borderline fame, and Lee Mortimer, AKA Sawtooth Sucka and resident Ministry of Sound DJ, alongside the group’s complete chart topping hit singles and some of the classic and highly sought after original remixes and 12” versions.
Deadmau5 / Faxing Berlin This track introduced me to Deadmau5 and I have been an avid fan ever since. He is the only DJ I have gone to see perform. To people who came for his music, his gigs at 02 club “matter“ and at The Roundhouse in London, the sound and lights were the stuff of my dreams from my early ecstasy trips at acid house parties.
Los Angeles-based six-piece Dengue Fever play an interesting and assorted blend of Cambodian inspired pop music, directed by their multi-cultural make-up and driven by a darker psychedelic undercurrent which rattles the chord changes and adds colour to the arrangements. Their latest album, Venus On Earth, is epic, much like the Playlist of Paul Smith, the band’s drummer and producer.
Fela Kuti / Expensive Shit It seems fitting with the economy lumbering and prices on the rise. It has that eternal dance feel that can’t help but bring about hope. Great horn lines, great rhythm. We could use a Fela Kuti-like presence in America right now.
So, we have a wickedly talented and creative producer and DJ laying down what’s good and what’s, well, not so good. Yes it’s, wait for it, just a little longer, nearly there. Ok, it’s Moby, from some otherworldly universe.
John Lee Hooker / I Hated The Day I Was Born ‘If I could sing, I’d love to sing like John Lee Hooker. Him or David Bowie. I don’t have a beautiful singing voice, so I really appreciate the deep and gravelly voice that Hooker possesses. I really like everything about John Lee Hooker’s music. I’m a big fan of old blues anyway, especially music from the pre-war era. It was so much simpler back in the day. You plugged in and you played. Studios are like instruments now. This song is one of my all-time favorites. “I love depressing music”: that was a quote in my high school yearbook’.
My Secret Playlist is a music discovery website and weekly email publication. We invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. These are their words on the music that inspires them.
