There’s certainly something in the water in Melbourne, and slowly but surely the cream of their musical crop are coming out of the woodwork, with the likes of Andy Hart, Tornado Wallace, Fantastic Man and Andras Fox amongst others making serious waves. One of the men leading the charge is Francis Inferno Orchestra, a producer who has built up a reputation with his dreamy productions, joining all the dots between disco and techno.
Since upping sticks and making the move from Melbourne to London in 2013, he’s gone from strength to strength, culminating in last year’s brilliant LP A New Way of Living on Voyeurhythm. Aside from his own productions, he also co-runs the Superconscious imprint with fellow countryman Fantastic Man, and lets off his techno steam under some Google-risky aliases on his BBW record label.
Ahead of the exciting prospect of watching him close out Gottwood Festival on the Sunday alongside Motor City Drum Ensemble, he’s kindly compiled his own personal soundtrack to starting the day just right. He describes it as “somewhere between 9am and noon. It’s the kind of stuff I listen to after I’ve had my morning toast and caffeine fix, but before I sit down to work on any music.”
Jaco Pastorius & Toots Thielemans – ‘Three Views of a Secret’
A wonderful little thing here, by two jazz greats. It just goes to show how a great piano ballad and harmonica can work so well together.
Joan Bibiloni – ‘Migas’
A feel-good track by one of the Spanish Balearic greats. It was originally released on the Blau label, but was reissued by Music from Memory last year. Shout outs to Tako and the MFM crew for doing a great job with that one too!
Mar-Pa – ‘Finale’
I’ve been completely obsessed with this band since I heard them in a mixtape recently, by Japanese selector Mori-Ra. It’s been pretty hard finding any info on them, but I’ve had their music on heavy rotation since discovery.
Jeancy – ‘U Turn Me On’
A cool, upbeat record that was reissued this year by the Invisible City gang. They also do lots of other excellent ressiues too!
Psychic TV – ‘Message From Thee Temple’
This one is a bit more intense compared to the others but still kinda melancholic, in a haunting sort of way.
Mike Francis – ‘Body Thrill’
I was able to pick up the 12” of this recently, on a mini compilation called The Balearic Sound of Mike Francis. This is my favourite cut from it – very dreamy!
Panoram – ‘There Was a Hole Here’
This guy is probably my favourite artist at the moment. Really loved his last album on Firecracker, and this is one from the new album, Background Story. The whole thing is superb.
Letherette – ‘Furth & Myre’
Been following these guys for a few years too, and I think this was was the first record that I got from them. Super!
Led Zeppelin – ‘Going To California’
A classic, obviously. A very calming song that I’ve loved since my parents showed it to me at a young age.
Hugh Maskela – ‘Coal Train (Stimela)’
Maskela is a South African legend who has had a pretty amazing career. I think I love this live video version compared to the original. It’s very, very powerful and moving.