Words by Samantha Groth

Tycho was just in our part of town for the most electronically astounding, visually decadent sideshow to come out of Falls Festival this year. Think layers of guitars in front of impeccably produced atmospheric beats, oh, and babes on a big screen… but we were totally there for the music.

We got to take him to one of our favourite record stores, The Record Store in fact, to shoot the shit about his favourite records in there. It was a tough day.

Led Zepplin – III: “This one is from when I was a kid, out of my Dad’s collection. It’s the first record I ever played. I was drawn to it because of the artwork and because this wheel moved inside. It ended up being one of my favourite records. It’s got ‘Tangerine’ on it.”

Augustus Pablo – Rockers At King Tubby’s: “I got really into dub and dancehall in high school… it just got me thinking about how they made these effects and how they produced a lot of this stuff.

It was… and impetus for learning about samplers and all that kind of stuff.

Later I got into electronic music and that’s what made me want to make music, and think I could make music, whereas rock just influenced my early sensibilities of what music was. So now with the band I try to combine these early influences with the other stuff I got to do later.”

Jonny L- Magnetic: “Jonny L was one of the first drum and bass musicians I got into… which is what got me into electronic music originally. He’s in the heavier camp of drum and bass… I still like the harder side… the metal head stuff.”

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless: “This is just an incredible record… I guess Boards Of Canada who I would count as my biggest influence have cited this record as a big influence and you can hear a lot of it in there. This kind of approach to guitar is something I really enjoy.”

Megadeth- So Far So Good (damn boy, you know how to chuck in a surprise).

“When I was a kid I was obsessed with Megadeth I just really like their whole brand and the way that they did all their cover art. This was one of my favourite ones because it has the live version of ‘Hook In Mouth’ which is a really good song.

This is really heavy stuff. I think listening to this as a kid is what opened my ears to the heavier side of drum and bass in the late 90s.”

(And then he brings us right back to his current realm, artwork).

“They always have these post-apocalyptic scenarios going on on the covers. I always thought it was interesting, as an angsty teenager this was cool stuff… I didn’t know anything about graphic design at the time and this is one of the first bands where I realised they had a consistent brand throughout all of their covers.

From their second album on, they always had this logo. They always had this skull guy on the cover… you could put them all next to each other and it told a story almost.”

Big thanks to The Record Store for letting us hang out and Voena for capturing the action. Note: Do not try to pash and dash in there… There are too many records in the way for you to be able to make a speedy escape.