Barcelona-born producer John Talabot’s incredible debut album, Fin, is one of our favourite records of the year 2012AD. Its mix of classic house, contemporary electronica and old school hip-hop sampling spirit sound-tracked many of our summer nights and lingered deep into the autumn dark. In honour of that fantastic record, we thought we’d flip the tables and ask him about his favourite musical moments of the year.
Favourite Album of 2012: I really liked The xx’s new album, Coexist. I heard some of it before it came out, when I was in London with the Young Turks guys. They showed me some tracks. They didn’t send it to me though so every time I was with them, I tried to listen to some of the tracks again. There were some that I really liked so when the album came out I was listening to it on some kind of loop. They have been able to keep their personality again, using a lot of silence and pauses and things like that. I think it’s very interesting that they are so young and so strong, I’m really astonished by that. When you’re young and you want to play, it’s like you always try to be uplifting but they try a completely different thing. The important thing is that they do really good songs that you can remember, with really simple elements and very specific production. I think the three people work together perfectly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_XQaIcIAfg
Favourite Song: I really like Lost by Frank Ocean. I’ve been singing it all the time. All the time! We were in the US, in the van, and every one was singing the tracks from his album. We’ve been listening to a lot of hip-hop stuff and old albums from the Streets and some R. Kelly stuff. The roads are so long that you need some of that kind of music.
Favourite Live Shows of 2012: I haven’t been able to see too many full shows this year but I saw Chromatics. I saw them at a festival in Holland, a really huge one, Lowlands. The live show is really good. I haven’t heard the new album but the show was a really good translation of the older albums to the stage. I think if you like the albums you will like the show. I also saw Earth, Wind & Fire at Bestival. It was amazing, it sounded so good. They have lots of people on stage and it all sounded amazing.
Favourite Album From Barcelona in 2012: There are some young guys, Extraperlo, they released an album called Delirio Específico. Maybe people won’t like it because it’s in Spanish and you don’t get Spanish but I really like the mood of the tracks and the production. It’s a mixture of our old 80s music, the pop music we had, some old bands we had in Spain in the golden age of radio here. It’s really updated with some nice rhythm production. I think it’s a good album and I would like them to have a little bit more success but sometimes when you’re singing in Spanish, it can be difficult to be reflected abroad. I think they could be good abroad too though because their music is really fun. Their music puts you in a really good mood, like El Guincho. They share a studio with him and I think he had a little role in the production as well.
Favourite Christmas Song: Do I have to sing it? We don’t have the names of the Christmas songs in Spain so the only thing that I can remember is this song called ‘Fum Fum Fum’! It’s cool, you can check it out!
