For this weeks guest playlist, we are super excited to welcome Scott Xylo.
The Leicester based producer creates genre–blurry music that draws influence from a diverse selection of artist like Madlib, Funkadelic, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix.
In a few short years he’s released a number of amazing projects, his most recent of which was last years Analogue Eyes, With Digital Minds LP a psychedelic soul trip which is still on regular rotation in the TS office.
For his exclusive Twistedsoul playlist Xylo has put together a wide-ranging selection of his musical influences, which includes everything from Black Sabbath to Portishead.
Tune in below and without further ado, over to Scott…
Jaylib – Champion Sound
Like if someone asked me who is Madlib, this would be the track I would show them. The style, textures and samples are Madlib at his finest, The Blend of funk drums and the dub bluesy style bass, then layered with classic reggae samples, it just cultures the ears and not forgetting the genius Bollywood sample layered with the track. It’s the perfect soundscape for a trip through genres and time.
Black Sabbath – Planet Cavern
I remember when I first brought Paranoid I was in the local vinyl store and I was debating with my homie best Psyche albums of the 70s, he gave me Paranoid, I knew war pigs and iron man at the time but when It hit this song I was mindblown, I didn’t know music could get this spiritual. The minimal drums and the way the bass and guitar just dance together, it gives me visions of wondering a desert on Jupiter.
Funkadelic – What Is Soul
Last year Funkadelic changed my life when I first heard this song it told me more about myself then what I knew about myself. Everything from the instrumentation to the surrealism in the song is perfect; there isn’t much more to say.
Ebo Taylor – Come Along
This song is one of those songs that only a god could create, the blend of Afro funk, psychedelia and soul are just levels beyond his time. That crazy melancholy organ with that funky highlife guitar, the drummers freedom and swing, mixed with Ebo voice, they’re all different colours swimming with one another on a soulful canvas.
King Tubby – Flag Dub
In my eyes, King Tuby was like the first Dilla, a one-man revolution for sound. The bass tone In this song…. in my life I’ve never heard a bass soo juicy and sweet, also I love the layering and movement on the track, the energy doesn’t stop once in the song. Also, I have to mention the drums, that dub swing under the percussive, it has such a great groove to it.
Portishead – Small
Portishead are hands down my favourite band of all time, in my opinion, they shaped modern music with their revolutionary sound. This song is seriously in a genre of its own, starting with the noir bluesy vocals, then to crazy psychedelic breakdown which sounds like cream on a bad trip, finishing with the insane Ennio Morricone-esque guitar and its western score style. This is music at its finest.
Samiyam – Lord Of The Rings
Samiyam is easily one of my favourite hip hop beat makers, his style is so raw and gritty, it feels like he should be from the UK. The way Jeremiah Jae and Oliver the 2nd rap on this particular track is just perfect to the atmosphere of the song, the amount of flows they both use and the level of lyricism, truly feels like they were competing with one another on the track which gives me that spring feels of classic Wu.
Mount Kimbie – You Took Your Time
This is one of those songs where I wanna know what Mount Kimble did in the studio when they discovered these sounds. Pure genius, having that beautiful blend of jazz, blues, punk and electronic it’s like a masterclass in how to manipulate genre to create something fresh and uniqe. I have to give props to king krule too, he’s one of my favourite artists of my generation, I would seriously call him our bowie. I love how the track evolves and grows, like it’s so human how the tone and emotion shifts but the attitude of the song stays the same.
Frank Zappa – Willie The Pimp
I first got into Zappa after my bass teacher taught me how to play this song and the album Hot Rats changed my life after. Willie The Pimp was some thing I never thought could be done, taking elements of psych, blues and classic music to make this everlasting track that just sends you into different dimensions, with all its colours and sounds, so amazing!
The Beatles -Tomorrow Never Knows
You can say this song was my first introduction to psych rock. When I first heard this song at my first job I thought it was some crazy flylo, Gaslamp killer collab, it messed me up when I found out this was The Beatles and it was made in 1966. Like the textures, sounds, insane tape effects and that guitar solo, it still blows my mind how this was all created by John breaking the tape player. I would say this track got me a lot more interested in instruments, production techniques and songwriting also you could say this song awoke the inner hippy in me haha.
