Rodney Cromwell Top 20 Playlist For 2015

We have a few artists that we are big on and whose involvement in music somehow extends beyond the one or two releases from them that we’ve heard in the last year. Mind you, we are only talking about artists who actually have awesome releases in the last year…. So we decided to pick their brains to find out what a few of them have been listening to and can recommend you catch up on listening-wise either for the rest of December (if you are not too busy reading other people’s ‘best of’ lists) or in 2016 otherwise.

The first artist to share his awesome musical taste with us is Rodney Cromwell (real name Adam Cresswell), who makes the most delicious synthpop and whose music you can find digitally or on CD via Bandcamp at http://rodneycromwell.bandcamp.com

We also would like to introduce you to the video for his latest single ‘Black Dog’, released a few weeks back:

Here’s a nice brief message from the Rodster aka Robot Rocker himself….

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Usually when it comes to the end of the year and I see my friends making ‘best-of’ lists I feel a bit out-of-it because I’m generally listening to stuff that is about two years old. But this year I have managed to stay on top of things, to the point where my wife and the postman have a running joke every time another record turns up at the doorstep.

Some might say my tastes are eclectic, but I don’t think so. I actually think I’m really fussy about I like. For this list I tried to keep it to twenty and to one song per act – it was I think only Lilies on Mars who lost out on that rule, where they have at least two songs I am crazy about….sorry Lilies if you’re reading this (I’m sure you’re not).

The other rule was this had to be a nepotism free list. No songs by people I know in real life, no favours returned – it would be too long a list otherwise. By that rule I could include the lovely new Cavern of Anti-Matter song from Tim Gane ex-Stereolab because I don’t know him, but I can’t include the wicked recent single by Hologram Teen by Morgane ex-Stereolab because we are mates and I’m releasing her next single (sorry Morgie).

My favourite track was the easiest track to choose. I have been playing U.S. Girls ‘Damn that Valley’ constantly since I first heard it in the summer. It’s a white-reggae song about a woman who has lost her soldier husband in Iraq and how she blames the government, sung in an operatic banshee-like style over a backing that sounds like Althea and Donna’s ‘Uptown Ranking’ remixed for the soundtrack of the 1962 proto-zombie movie ‘Carnival of Souls.’

That’s my jam!