Burial, Drakeo The Ruler, Slum Village: singer, producer and LA IT girl Avalon rounds up her collage of influences in our latest On Repeat.
On new EP “permanent californian”, LA born and raised Chicana singer and producer Avalon finds her sonic sweet spot. From the grainy production to the glistening vocals, the project is an avant garde playground of punk, electro clash, indie sleaze, perhaps a touch of Del Ray in there. A work of immense focus yet a free-wheeling looseness.
Rising through the underground ranks, this body of work puts Avalon on the map — subtly chaotic, stylistic wide-spanning, ferociously unique. But what influenced it? She reveals all in our latest On Repeat.
Listen to “permanent californian”…
Avalon Is On Repeat…
Secede – “the realms of sanda”
Actually some of the most smoked out shit I’ve ever heard. a long, confusing, sometimes scary, ambient journey… one I quite like.
Felicia Atkinson, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – “ME”
I was recently at the LA art book fair and came across the table of a publisher that had some of the coolest contemporary books on music i’ve ever read, owned by possibly the coolest couple i’ve ever met. They had a CD boxset that was basically a year in the life of a tree in field recordings, separated by season… I was intrigued and got to chatting with them. the woman told me she made ambient music and THIS is her. ICON. (i’m also a huge fan of JCL).
The Art of Noise – “Moments in Love”
I’ve probably listened to this song more than any other song in my entire life. It’s just perfect and timeless.
Slum Village – “Climax”
I mean, prod. Dilla…. do I need say more? I’m pretty sure they play this beat in heaven. The other day I was listening to it on repeat for like two hours and realised the insane synth sounds from the end of “fly like an eagle” by The Steve Miller Band are sampled throughout. It kinda blew my mind how Dilla and all these greats were just taking their favourite pieces of music and getting collagist with it. They were really just straight up music lovers. That’s so beautiful and important.
Drakeo The Ruler – “DRAKEO Not Drake-o”
Let me just say it now. Best rapper of our times. He really doesn’t get the flowers he deserves. He’s like Dr. Seuss with it. Rest in peace Drakeo.
bluebucksclan – “I guess”
I just love bluebucksclan.
Burial – “Claustro”
Burial reminds me a lot of my late best friend and collaborator, Ian Evans (aka Napolian). Right before he passed he was obsessed with Burial. we had ‘untrue’ on repeat whenever music wasn’t being made in the studio.
Mount Sims – “Unspeakable”
I think this album has to be one of the most important albums of my life. I can’t ever believe how overlooked and underrated it is.
Fischerspooner – “The 15th”
Another incredible, perfect, iconic and important record. I didn’t know it was a cover until sort of recently because I grew up listening to the Fischerspooner version. This whole album is NO skips.
The Smashing Pumpkins – “Eye”
The Lost Highway soundtrack is really important to many reasons. I have the CD in my car and it gets heavy play. Trent Reznor is obviously a genius and I’m just so glad that two of my favourite artists (Trent + Lynch) actually got to work together on something…also… it’s a perfect film. Rest in peace David. LA misses you.
Mike Midnight – “Smiling In Slow Motion”
I have a really beautiful core memory with this song. I spent two months in Tokyo earlier this year and I would always go on these long, epic walks. This song was playing as it began snowing once. It was so beautiful I started crying.
Lou Reed – “Coney Island Baby”
When I was a little girl I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Lou Reed after attending a Q&A and exhibition of his with my dad at the Long Beach university. I think this song has to be my favourite in his catalogue at the moment, but that changes depending on where I’m at in life.
Connor Oberst – “Cape Canaveral”
This song broke my heart the first time I heard it. Except, I SAW it being performed by an old biker at the cook’s corner biker bar in Silverado Canyon at an open mic to like 10 people on a random Tuesday (it was lasagna night). I googled the lyrics because I couldn’t believe I was witnessing the greatest unknown American songwriter… turns out i was right. that’s Connor Oberst.
