"Its just so texturally eloquent, every time I listen to her music I feel as though I am inside of something and it takes up my entire brain."
Following on from her captivating in-store at Rough Trade East last month we invited Sloppy Jane's Haley Dahl to be our next guest in our ongoing Shoplifting series - an exclusive peek into the record collecting habits of some our favourite artists right now.
The Los Angeles musician who heads up the avant rock act celebrates the group's first release on former Sloppy Jane band member Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory Records.
Hayley shared with us that the brilliant new album Madison is not only heavily inspired by soundtracks but also the potentialities of recording with natural reverb. In the recording of Madison, Haley spent three years exploring caves that could capture her acoustic vision for the album, eventually settling on a large limestone cave in West Virginia called Lost World Caverns.
Taking teenage emotions and feelings of heartbreak into a grand cavern, Madison became a powerful statement on growth and obsessive love and sonic masterpiece with a soaring orchestral sound.
Madison is out now on Saddest Factory Records! Explore Hayley's picks below.
Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention - Weasels Ripped My Flesh
So the first thing I picked is Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Inventions' Weasels Ripped My Flesh. I really love Frank Zappa but a lot of people love him for the wrong reasons. I think he serves a noble purpose of being like a conduit between stupid edgy teenagers and really interesting music. I am not such a huge fan of The Mothers but I really like his later orchestral compositions. I think if someone is young and wants to get into more avant garde stuff or composition in general, than a good place to start is The Mothers.
Phil Spector - A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector
Now we have the Phil Spector Christmas album. Phil Spector is one of the worst people to ever live, but my recent record Madison was very influenced by Building The Wall Of Sound. I used a lot of natural reverbs and I think his production style is really important. All of the singers (on the Christmas album) are phenomenal and all the artists he worked with were always incredibly phenomenal, even though he himself sucks. It's a great Christmas album.
William Lava - Dracula vs Frankentein OST
Next thing that I picked is the Dracula vs Frankenstein OST. William Lava is a composer that I love! He worked on one of my favourite soundtracks which is this soundtrack called The 5,000 fingers of Dr T which is the only live action film Dr Seuss ever made. It was from the 50s and it's this really weird musical about a piano teacher. It's really good. He didn’t do that entire soundtrack but he worked on it and that's how I found out about him. He did all the crazy B-movie horror soundtracks, a lot of weird noisy strings and freaky xylophones. All of the stuff that led to the Danny Elfmans of now. Its really fun stuff if you feel like getting creepy.
Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda
The last thing I picked is Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda. Alice Coltrane is just like the master of everything. My favourite record by her is Transcendence but this one is incredible. All of her stuff is. It's just so texturally eloquent, every time I listen to her music I feel as though I am inside of something and it takes up my entire brain. The sequencing and arc she does is just phenomenal. It’s no news to anyone.