With ‘Gimme 5!’ we take a peek into the collections of artists we admire. The premise is simple: artists WE like share five records THEY love.
We’re excited to announce the revival of Gimme 5, our beloved feature where we invite artists we admire to share five albums they believe should be in your collection.
Kicking off the return of the series is Max Blansjaar, the Amsterdam-born, Oxford-raised talent who recently released his critically acclaimed debut album on Beanie Tapes (buy here). Blansjaar’s eclectic mix of poppy indie rock has been turning heads everywhere, including ours, and boy, does it deserve the hype. His musical prowess is matched only by his lyrical dexterity.
Here’s the twist: despite being a lyrical ace, Max has thrown us a curveball with five instrumental albums he swears by. These picks are totally new to us and way off the beaten path of what we usually cover here. Big thanks to Max for taking the time to introduce us to these gems. Get ready to expand your musical horizons as you check out his picks below.
Max Blansjaar: “As I write this, I’m in a tour van due west, towards the English county of Cornwall. Do you know how far west Cornwall is? It’s far. I’m a lyrics guy, in terms of how I listen to music and how I write it, but sometimes I’m not in the mood for talking. Instrumental albums are a great way for me to remind myself about what a record can be besides and beyond words — and also they’re a way for me to escape the feeling of being spoken to, which God knows can get tiresome. Here’s five instrumental albums, in no particular order, that I think everybody should have in their collection.”
1. Robbie Lee and Lea Bertucci || Winds Bells Falls
“Lea Bertucci has her hands inside a tape recorder while Robbie Lee runs various instruments through it. They converse and things warble and wobble and it’s intimate and it’s whimsical and it’s a lot of fun. Literally no reason not to enjoy this.”
2. Fortyone || Go Bananas
“Fortyone is an anonymous mashup DJ who became a born-again Christian in 2015 and repents all his work prior to the conversion, which is a shame because Go Bananas is true hedonistic genius. It came out on the consistently excellent Crash Symbols label, and it’s made up entirely of samples from previous Crash Symbols releases. Totally bizarre, disorienting, and completely ridiculous, like a parallel universe made out of slinkies. His more recent albums are also great, notably How Could I Be So Fat?”
3. Ayami Suzuki and Leo Okagawa || while it’s warm
“I came across this album through Bandcamp Daily, they ran a feature on field recordings a while back which included this as well as a bunch of other really good stuff. It’s so unobtrusive but also so captivating at the same time. Reminds me of when you wake up from a really deep sleep and for a second you’ve forgotten where you are.”
4. Moon Mullins || Water Your Flowers
“Moon Mullins is Sean Mullins, who played drums on a lot of my album but also composes for synth. Just the most gorgeous, tasteful arrangements. Pure quietness. Obviously something of the Plantasia about it, but this is for humans as well as for plants. I guess when you water your flowers, you don’t just do it for the flowers’ sake. I can only handle low-maintenance flowers right now.”
5. Hella || Hold Your Horse Is
“A classic! This one really cleans my brain. It’s like Midwest emo on speed, and so angsty it won’t even sing. I find that calm music doesn’t always help me when I need to relax. Sometimes you get the kind of tension where you just need to be clattered loose. Hella is my violent chiropractor.”
