Influences: Lord Of The Isles

 
Music

Following releases for a host of labels including Permanent Vaction, ESP Institute and Firecracker Recordings, Neil McDonald aka Lord Of The Isles returned earlier this month with a brand new EP! In something of a departure, Irafas is home to four tracks of emotive, organic electro, and marks the Scottish producer's debut on Maceo Plex's Lone Romantic imprint.

Neil has taken the time to put together this excellent Influences playlist for us. From Talking Heads and New Order to LFO and Boards of Canada, dig in below.


Irafas is out now via Lone Romantic, order it here.

Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

This track helped me through a difficult time in my life during the break up of my parents. It’s always managed to give me a feeling of hope since.

  • Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

    This track helped me through a difficult time in my life during the break up of my parents. It’s always managed to give me a feeling of hope since.

  • Cv313 - Beyond The Clouds (Reprised)

    Probably my favourite sounding record of all time. Incredible production. Layers and layers of different stories all in the one track. On vinyl, on a great system, nothing comes close to what this achieves in my opinion.

  • Round Two Feat. Andy Caine - New Day

    Must be my favourite love song. Achingly beautiful.

  • Farben - Lessssen

    A real breath of fresh air when I first heard this EP. It kind of re-calibrated my approach to making music.

  • The Klf - Space

    Like a modern version of ‘The Planets’ by Holst, it really does take you on an electronic voyage through outer space. The combination of clever production techniques, charismatic samples and stunning music help to create an incredible atmosphere.

  • Lfo - Lfo (The Leeds Warehouse Mix)

    It’s hard to comprehend how outrageous and futuristic this sounded to me in 1990.

  • Boards Of Canada - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country

    I was into Boards Of Canada since the SKAM record. I already liked them, but when I heard this EP I fell in love with them. The mood and production is amazing.

  • 69 - Sound On Sound

    More than any other, this EP inspired me to try and make diverse, interesting records. I owned nothing else like it back then. A game changer in terms of what to aim for when making an EP.

  • John Carpenter - Escape From New York

    I remember rewinding the video player as a boy to listen to this over and over. A lot of my early encounters with electronic music came from film and TV. Along with John Carpenter, Vangelis had a huge impact on me when I was very young.

  • New Order - Blue Monday

    I remember listening to this in Primary 6 and being totally blown away by it. It made me feel differently about music.