Graham Sutton of Bark Psychosis reveals the first and last records he bought and the one he always turns to in an emergency
FIRST
The Police
‘Ghost In The Machine’
(A&M, 1981)
This is the only thing I can remember my paper round paying for… oh, and a ZX81. This was £3.99 on chrome cassette from Woolies. I was obsessed with it for a while – to me it had this strange beguiling mood, which I’m aware s not a widely held view! A couple of tracks are godawful work-outs. Still, Copeland comes good with ‘Darkness’ and ‘Invisible Sun’ is still a banger. Sometimes you do have separate the art from the artist don’t you?
LAST
Cal Tjader
‘Milestones Of A Legend’
(The Intense Media, 2016)
I don’t really deal with physical formats, but I had to get this. It’s a boxset featuring 20 albums over 10 CDs. I’ve ripped ’em all and stuffed the CDs back in the box. Some are better than others as you’d expect, but it plugged enough holes in my Cal Tjader collection to satisfy me. I’m a total Cal nut and he’s my absolute favourite vibraphonist. He’s just so lushly lyrical in his touch. It’s really good for humming at bus stops too.
ALWAYS
Steely Dan
‘Gaucho’
(MCA, 1980)
I could’ve also chosen their ‘Royal Scam’ album, Whitehouse’s ‘Quality Time’ or any number of records, but the sun’s out today so this feels obvious. It’s music that travels very easily. I lived in Argentina for a few years and Steely Dan was the soundtrack to that for a while. They seemingly never fail to make life better. I’ve always loved contrasts, but they opened up a whole world of amoral sleazy sarcasm versus compassionate harmonic beauty. Some people whine about their cold precision, but that’s just another reason I love them.
