Frankie and the Witch Fingers, the psychedelic four-piece, consists of Dylan Sizemore, Josh Menashe, Nikki Pickle, and Shaughnessy Starr. You might ask, “Well if these are the Witch Fingers, then who’s Frankie?” Well, Frankie, as it turns out, is Sizemore’s cat. Anyway, the band is back with their sixth album, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters…, which is out now via a co-release between The Reverberation Appreciation Society and Greenway Records. We recently invited Sizemore to create his own Talkhouse weekend playlist, and he came back with these atmospheric and instrumental tracks to create to. Think a rock version of those “lofi hip-hop beats to chill out to” YouTube streams.
—Keenan Kush, Talkhouse Operations Manager
I enjoy creating visual art while listening to music; for me they go hand in hand. I think music is a great tool for zoning out the noisy outside world in order to fully immerse yourself into the art you are creating. I find this especially true with music that is equally atmosphere, and not too demanding of your attention. These are some artists I find to be that perfect sweet spot for creative journeying.
— Dylan Sizemore
Bitchin Bajas — “Angels and Demons at Play”
Bitchin Bajas is the side project of the group Cave from Chicago. Cooper Crain and his crew make really beautiful pieces that are both dynamic and transportive. I’ve played this album on loop multiple times over, it’s perfect for dissolving your concept of time.
Dang Olsen Dream Tape — “You Always Find Me”
Dang Wayne Olsen is an amazing visual artist, so it only makes sense that he would create music that is just as mind-altering as his visionary cartoons. I love this album because it is quite experimental in the way that it blends synths and other conventional instruments with what sounds like field recordings and other found sounds. This album is a tape looped trip to say the least.
Krater — “Labyrint”
I discovered this band by complete accident, and I still don’t know much about them. When I first heard this track, I assumed it was from the ’70s until further investigation suggested they were a contemporary group. This song has so many great choices when it comes to melody and the overall mood is like being in some kind of extraterrestrial womb floating through the cosmos.
Hiroshi Yoshimura — “GREEN“
This album is the perfect balance of ambient and melodic for me. I love when music sounds like water; it’s soothing and serene.
Mort Garson — “Plantasia”
One of the finest electronic composers to date. This album brings me so much joy every time I listen to it. The melodies are so iconic and catchy, and the layered arrangements are so tasteful and fantastical. His other albums can be quite experimental and fun to listen to as well, but Mother Earth’s Plantasia will always be my favorite to drift off to.
Piero Piccioni — “Easy Lovers”
Talk about melting into a song — this piece is one of the most sexy, warm feeling songs to swim around in. The instrumentation is so dreamy sounding, and the flute solos perfectly hover above the band like a feather blowing in the wind. I love listening to vintage soundtracks from foreign films when I’m in need of some cinematic atmosphere.
Dorothy Ashby — “Afro Harping”
An amazing album with Dorothy’s stunning and very original jazz style harp playing at the center of some really awesome compositions. The instrumentation and tones are so organically rich and alive on this record. Dorthy Ashby is a new obsession of mine, I find her music to be perfect for diving deep into, or for just having on in the background. It’s smooth, funky, and light.
Tom Dissevelt — “Syncopation”
Dissevelt is an electronic composer with similar-sounding compositions to Mort Garson but a little more primal and avant-garde. I like how experimental and far-out his stuff gets, especially when you think about it existing in the ’50s. He has a great album of wild space tones called Fantasy in Orbit: Round The World With Electronic Music.
Ashra — “77 Slight Delayed”
Caught somewhere between Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd, there’s the group Ashra. They make these wonderful repetitive guitar melodies that change over time accompanied with some awesome synth voices. It sounds like a race car video game in space to me. I get lost going around the track with this album very easily.
Cave — “Sweaty Fingers”
Heating things up a bit and bookending the first song with another one of Cooper Crain’s projects is the ever so krautrock influenced Cave. They blend aspects of some of my favorite three-letter band names, CAN and NEU, and sprinkle their own funky tendencies in as well. I love all of Cave’s work, they’re super consistent. They have these hooky melodic motifs that repeat over and over and build over time in a very dynamic way. Cave is the perfect recipe for getting sucked into swirling rhythmic trance.
(Photo Credit: David Fearn)
