Severed Heads’ Tom Ellard reveals the first and last records he bought… although a favourite proved tricky
FIRST
Brian Eno
‘King’s Lead Hat’
(Polydor, 1977)
“I grew up in a Parlophone house. My parents had The Goons, my sister had The Beatles. We also had drawers full of Asian market bootleg cassettes, which meant I didn’t buy my own discs until Eno’s ‘King’s Lead Hat’ single from his ‘Before And After Science’ album, when I was 15. The B-side, ‘RAF’, with samples of the Red Army Faction, was better. It pointed at both New York no wave and Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Baader Meinhof’.”
LAST
Amanita Design
‘Creaks’
(Amanita Design, 2020)
“I had a large record collection that went out my window and into someone else’s arms in 1993. Since then I’ve only had music, not records. LPs are just so static. I’m particularly keen on generative music from computer games, which track emotions as real-time events take place. Czech developers Amanita Design are one of the game makers I follow. ‘Creaks’, a puzzle game, is their latest, with a self-generating soundtrack by Joe Acheson’s Hidden Orchestra.”
ALWAYS
“Favourite records are like cut flowers, they aren’t fresh for very long. I’ve listened in on a conversation between Carl Stalling, Stockhausen, The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Telex, Arthur Baker, Planet Patrol, Meat Beat Manifesto, Martin Rev, NON, Eno… you can just add a whole bunch of other artists in here until you click stop and get up to get off the bus. Having a favourite album is like having a favourite child. It’s unjust.”
