Category: Playlist — Published:
To coincide with his new performance for Nocturnal Creatures, The London Open 2018 artist Larry Achiampong has created a playlist of sounds that he has grown up listening to…
This playlist is something of a speck of matter in my mind – I’m kinda thinking of sounds that I have either grown up listening to, am coming in contact with or am (re)visiting.
I have spoken a lot over the years about Highlife music being central to my mother’s and father’s vinyl collection, but there were so many other gems; the raw uncut sounds of Funkadelic, to the mesmerising keys of Herbie Hancock, and then even the seamless, relentless magic of Michael Jackson‘s greatest record Off The Wall.
I’m spinning around in my mind, dancing, faster, and harder. How did Black Music make its way into Yuzo Koshiro‘s or Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo‘s videogame compositions? I’m waiting for someone to write a book about the influence of Black music in videogame productions…. Super Castlevania and Streets of Rage were just a couple of games that I played day in, day out…if you listen deeply enough, you’ll find what I’m talking about…I’m playing games like Splatoon now, which has an amazing soundtrack that borrows from R&B, Hip Hop, Punk and Church music.
Fast Car has always been a sentimental song for me, I’m taken to the times of hardship my mother went through to raise me and my siblings when I hear this, but the track will always be synonymous with the birth of my first born as that was the song playing when they were born 10 years ago.
Teeb‘s waves and textures slow everything down to a level that is manageable – with him I’m coasting when I close my eyes. Larry Achiampong
Listen Now
Herbie Hancock Chameleon from the album Headhunters (1973)
Funkadelic Mommy, What’s a Funkadelic? from the album Funkadelic (1970)
Teebs Why Like This from the album Ardour (2010)
Corona Rhythm of The Night (1995)
Christie Azuma & Uppers international Naam (1976)
Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo Super Castlevania 4 The Submerged City (3 – 3) from the album Super Castlevania 4 OST
Neneh Cherry Manchild from the album Raw Like Sushi (1989)
Yuzo Koshiro Streets of Rage (Bare Knuckle) Original Videogame Soundtrack (1991)
Tracy Chapman Fast Car from the album Tracy Chapman (1988)
Michael Jackson Burn This Disco Out from the album Off The Wall (1979)
Nas Represent from the album Illmatic (1994)
