Influences Playlist: Crack Cloud
These are the tracks that inspired the Calgary band's latest album, Red Mile, most.
Photo by Megan-Magdalena Bourne
We are inviting our favorite musicians to compile playlists of the songs and artists who have impacted their latest projects the most. The latest Influences guest is Crack Cloud, whose new album, Red Mile, flew under the radar all summer despite singles like “Blue Kite” and “The Medium” being absolutely stunning teasers. The Calgary band—which is sometimes a septet and sometimes an ennead, depending on what press photo you’re looking at—would have taken over the world in 1982, given the sheer velocity of their snarling post-punk, which is often set aglow by a rapture of pristine, synth-driven dream pop.
An album like Red Mile lands somewhere in-between Strawberry Switchblade and Public Image Ltd., and a song like “The Medium” is euphoric at every turn—leveraging a no frills attitude into a pillow of daydreamy, choral harmonizing, with verses that poke fun at the very genre Crack Cloud partially embraces (““The rejects came along in the name of punk rock / Borne from a nihilistic, self-imposed schlock / Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, blah, blah, blah, boah”). There’s a string arrangement near the song’s end that capsizes the chaos with an extra juxtaposition of sweetness and UK-inspired growls. And on songs like “Lack of Lack,” “Ballad of Billy” and “Epitaph,” Crack Cloud take up chameleonic costumes of industrial, rollicking, gutteral and smiling pop. There are even some vocals that sound like Syd Barrett in there. The whole album is delightfully earnest even in its kiss-offs.
Check out Crack Cloud’s Influences playlist, which includes tracks from Kate Bush, the Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac, below:
U2: “Desert of Our Love”
The creative synergy between Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and U2 from 1987-
2000 was an absolute fascination for us during the Red Mile sessions. —Zach Choy
Gil Evans: “Las Vegas Tango”
An all-star cast arranged by the best to ever do it. A true gem from the post-bop era. —Bryce Cloghesy
The Tammys: “Egyptian Shumba”
The Tammys were an American pop group active from 1962-1965 consisting of three women, two of which were sisters and one their good friend. I first heard this song on Calgary college radio when I was quite young and was immediately captivated by the extremely catchy intro melody which I thought was played on this kitschy-sounding 1960’s economy organ. This intro was what inspired me as I very quickly typed the chorus melody to what would become “The Medium” on my laptop keyboard in Ableton one winter morning. —Aleem Khan
Laurie Anderson: “O Superman”
The icon’s seminal work is a continual source of inspiration, at once transgressive, familiar, artfully complex yet simple. —Bryce
Talk Talk: “New Grass”
Transcendental. Sheer asceticism went into the recording of this song, and
informed how we approached much of the preliminary writing and tracking on Red Mile. —Zach
Fleetwood Mac: “I Know I’m Not Wrong”
The simplicity in production, writing, chord choice and instrument choice creates a very large canvas of emotions through a folk-song space utilizing traditional instruments of the time. A “less is more” philosophy was applied on Red Mile. It was influenced by songs and albums of the past that were clearly not plagued by overproduction, showcasing competent musicianship and natural, beautiful sounding melodies from each musician. We focused a lot on drums, guitar, bass, keys and vocals/lyrics as instruments themselves with little to no embellishments through effects or software. —Aleem
Kate Bush: “Cloudbusting”
Powerful narrative storytelling through compositional momentum; tension
and release. Unapologetically itself—its alchemy I continue to study over the years as a songwriter. —Zach
The Police: “Message in a Bottle”
One of the most iconic songs in the world of rock and one of the greatest power trios to ever exist. Zach, Bryce and I laid down the bed-tracks for the album mostly as a trio which is unorthodox for a Crack Cloud album. Working in a trio format, like The Police, can allow for clarity in sound and attitude amongst all instruments, which really worked well for us. —Aleem
The Beach Boys: “‘Til I Die”
A rejection of their previous gimmicks, the group offers a surf-less meditation on mortality and the human experience. —Bryce
The Beatles: “Helter Skelter”
Yes. —Zach
Listen to Crack Cloud’s Influences playlist below.