{Here’s the unedited version of my post that was recently included in the new online feature from KCRW…5 Things. I’ve also included a mix I put together for my show featuring each of the artists plus an extra song from The Dirty Three that I used as an closing instrumental. Maybe YOU will let me know what artists are in the soundtrack to your dreams…}
Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions – There’s A Willow – Through the Devil Softly
The Dirty Three – Hope – Horse Stories
Alpha – Silver Light – Stargazing
Nick Drake – Way To Blue – Five Leaves Left
Talk Talk – Inheritance – Spirit of Eden
(Bonus) Dirty Three – Ever Since – Cinder
The artists in this list are not just pleasant to sleep to, they’re more specifically recommended to act as dreamscapes, to remain with you as you dream and work as a soundtrack to your dreaming life away from this waking life. If you’re having trouble sleeping, best to find the sound of flowing water, rainforests or Enya, but if you want music that is equally beautiful, gorgeous, intense and a bit challenging, so that when you put it on all your waning attention is drawn to the music to the point where you carry it with you into your dreams, this is your list.
5. Hope Sandoval: Given that she was a member of one of the seminal “Dream Pop” groups, Mazzy Star, it should have been a given that Hope Sandoval would end up on this list. Sandoval’s music has an ethereal quality to it, literally, it just seems otherworldly and in my opinion her artistry didn’t fully come to bear until her post-Mazzy Star release 2001’s Bavarian Fruit Bread. That entire record is the place I’d start before adding choice cuts from the Mazzy Star repertoire, such as “Before I Sleep,” “Disappear,” “Into Dust,” “Five String Serenade,” “Give Me Your Lovin’,” “All Your Sisters,” and maybe even their lone hit “Fade Into You.” I’m also quite enamored with her new record Through The Devil Softly, especially the tracks “There’s A Willow,” “Wild Roses,” “Thinking Like That” and “Fall Aside.”
4. The Dirty Three: This one is very much for adventurous types. The Dirty Three are an Australian trio who perform all instrumental music and feature violin from Warren Ellis, currently a member of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds/Grinderman, guitar from musician/painter Mick Turner and drums from Jim White, who has spent a fair amount of time backing up Chan Marshall in Catpower. At times their music flirts with noise, punk rock rhythms and dissonance, but it often can also be heartbreakingly beautiful. I’d start with Ocean Songs from 1998, which from start to finish is not only their best record, but also, for the purposes of this list, their most serene. From there move on to their 2000 album Whatever You Love, You Are, before picking the best tracks from 1996’s Horse Stories, 2003’s She Has No Strings Apollo, and their final release (at least currently) 2005’s Cinder.
3. Alpha: In a past life at another radio station, a caller once asked if I could stop playing this band, “my god, there are so slow, you’re gonna put me to sleep!” she explained. In this context however that quality is a very good thing. What Alpha does superbly that no other trip-hop group does as consistently is craft subtle, languid tracks that, when you give yourself over to them, completely envelope you within a deceptively rich wall of sound (see “Sometime Later” & it’s companion “Somewhere Not Here” for examples of what I’m talking about). Throughout their first three records, 1997’s Come From Heaven, 2001’s The Impossible Thrill and 2003’s Stargazing, they perfected a sound that seems tailor made to carry with you into your dreams. Certainly the dreamy quality of my favorite of their multiple vocalists, Martin Bernard, helps in that regard, and I’d suggest crafting a playlist of his vocal tracks interspersed with instrumentals from the three albums mentioned above.
2. Nick Drake: Along with Hope Sandoval this seems like a no-brainer really. Before his untimely passing, Nick Drake left us with three near perfect albums, Five Leaves Left (1969), Bryter Layter (1970) & Pink Moon (1972) Each of these albums works just as well as a soundtrack to your entire day, especially in the spring time, but as a soundtrack for your dreams they are truly sublime, especially the song “River Man,” from his first record with it’s simple yet complex acoustic guitar lines and strings. I’ve often just put this one track on repeat for my entire night. Such an exceptional talent and a sound unmatched for its beauty before or since.
1. Mark Hollis/Talk Talk: Mark Hollis heads this list for a fairly simple reason. More than any other, his music has been the soundtrack to my dreams over the last ten or twelve years. Talk Talk began as sort of a Duran Duran inspired new wave group, until Hollis gained complete creative control and shifted gears dramatically and created something truly unique. It’s difficult to explain the music he created in the late 80s/early 90s with Talk Talk, and then also as a solo artist for one brilliant album in 1998. There are elements of rock, jazz, classical, and something that still hasn’t been coined that flows in-between all those spaces. When people ask me, I just say it’s gorgeous and you need to hear it. I’d begin with 1988’s Spirit of Eden (perhaps minus the third track), and recommend the Mark Hollis solo record before delving into 1991’s Laughing Stock, even though that album is one that I literally slept to, every night, for a solid two years in the 1990s. I’ve listened to these albums thousands of times and even still I continue to hear something new ever single time I sit to listen to them. I hope they act as your guide through soaring, exhilarating, enchanting dreams as they have for me.