Reindeer just released his incredible new album, Field Reports from the Western Lands into the world, and it’s insanely good. Here are some of the bands, and artists that inspire reindeer’s creative process.
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Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Gathering Storm
Easily one of the greatest influences on my own work, that could likely be spotted a mile away by even the casual listener, but how their omnipotence can only ever equate to fragments of their magics being successfully borrowed by any given student of their sound. Essential soundtracks for our dystopian modern existence.
Capone’n’Noreaga – Bloody Money
I have long been influenced by so much hip hop from New York, it has been a vital component of my sound world since my early childhood, so it is almost impossible to choose any particular track, but the sounds coming from the Bridge have always resonated so deeply with me… G Rap, Tragedy, Mobb Deep, Nas, AZ, Cormega… but that piano loop… Nore’s voice…
Kate Bush – Breathing
One of my truest musical heroines… No one touches Kate Bush, just for shear breadth of crystallised vision… Her world is so resplendent, so warming, so tender, so understanding… Something like a musical matriarch for us all… Picking one individual song is torture, but ‘Breathing’ does very much echo my own themes from a beautifully feminine perspective, and forever that fretless bass…
Mobb Deep – Survival of the Fittest
Rakim is surely the GOAT, and Nas the godson, but for me it was always P that really made me want to spit that ultra-serious… Everything about him was legendary status from the moment his voice first burst forth; so icy, calculated, assured, like none other… Every single verse on The Infamous is flawless, masterclass material.
fbcfabric – Bell Rings, Dog Salivates
My closest friend, truly my favourite ‘producer’ of all time, and with what must be one of his greatest masterpieces… I must have wept the first time he played it to me… Lifetimes ago, but when those drums finally come in… Spine-tingling, heart-wrenching, and with so much boom bap… Untouchable, timeless, essential.
Leonard Cohen – Waiting for the Miracle to Come
No one can touch Leonard Cohen when it comes to lyrics. He is just so very far beyond… I couldn’t help but pay homage to his influence… on, so, so many… My mama introduced him to me as a little boy with her ‘Songs from a Room’ LP… it was a done deal from day one… He always makes me want to write the very, very best that I can. Nothing less is acceptable. WWLD.
Company Flow – Info Kill II
Co.Flow surely changed a lot of things for a lot of people, the very reach of ‘rap music’ itself seemed to broaden when they dropped the Funcrusher… New worlds suddenly seemed possible… I had already been rapping and producing for five years by the time I scored for a copy of the 2xLP, but how it was suddenly like all the tools that had been at my disposal were reformed in an instant.
Godflesh – Blind
One of my earliest direct influences, I discovered Godflesh in high school and immediately became convinced of the marriage between guitars and drum machines, and how, to this day, there is no bass in the world that sounds like that of G.C. Green. Brooding moods, like granite monoliths behind dragged over dry lakes.
cLOUDDEAD – cLOUDEAD N0.5
It would be impossible to list ten influences without paying homage to the drones of Odd Nosdam. I am a huge fan of drone music, from Sunn o))) to Stars of the Lid and onwards… but there was always something about Nosdam’s drones on this 10” EP that have consistently proved just beyond divine for me. Their shimmering warmth, their simplicity belying such depths of harmonious tones.
A Silver Mt. Zion – What We Loved Was Not Enough
I simply cannot round this list out without Efrim’s voice and words, and the mighty gleeful, joyous, choir of A Silver Mt.Zion …the title says it all…rousing, troubling, lost, held so close. The truest of punk rock, music that really does soar with fragile life; a reason to remember why we are doing anything at all.
