5 Records that Influenced Tim Kinsella & Jenny Pulse

Pink Floyd The Wall (1979)

“Yeah sorry, but it’s true. Number one. This is common, but it’s not basic. You may or may not be moved by it, but its layered complexity is undeniable. And it was the pandemic when we started recording, we were piling up the songs one after another, struggling to keep track of what was what. Once we narrowed it down to 25 songs to develop, we needed some kind of way to keep things straight, so we pulled those 25 songs out of a hat and attached each one to a song on The Wall. We then sculpted and tilted each of our songs in one way or another to match its corresponding song on The Wall. Our album was developed in acts and scenes. There were characters and animals woven in and out as transitions. All that eventually got blown apart, but it was a meaningful structural step.”

“I never thought about Los Lobos much, but a few years after this side project of theirs came out, it was the beneficiary of a pretty significant whisper campaign between Chicago musicians. Then I forgot about it for years until the aforementioned pandemic hit, and I devoted a lot of my cooped up time rereading, rewatching, and re-listening to all kinds of stuff. Hearing this again with fresh ears, it was like a demo reel of a lot of the ideas that we were already talking about in terms of production: various fidelities collapsed on top of each other, surprising choices of instrumentation and arrangements. Coolest of the cool.”

“We both had our own experiences with this album in the past, before we were together, and then later it took on a greater significance to both of us when we rediscovered it together. When we first began collaborating as Good Fuck (the first incarnation of Kinsella And Pulse), we were both very into electronic production and we found our way to our own sound that we referred to, half-ironically, but pretty accurately, as “New Age Hip-Hop.” As we developed from that starting point with some intentionality, this album became a touchstone that we could both agree on as a meaningful ambition to aspire toward. Its expansive sonic palette, including lots of bleeps & bloops commonly considered atonal, are constructed into groovy and earnest pop gems, while remaining open to casually meandering toward discovery. It’s like the sound of curiosity.”

“In the ‘90s, I worked at a video store called Big Brother that specialized in underground films. And Wicker Man made a heavy impression on me, as a young man who’d been both traumatized by Straw Dogs and who’d been known to be horny through a wall or two on occasion. But somehow I didn’t remember the music. So a few years later on tour, still pre-9/11, I remember finding this CD somewhere and getting in the van and warning my bandmates, “Oh man, you guys, this is gonna be scary.” And pulling off into Bowling Green or wherever, expecting some John Carpenter dark wave, we were all baffled by and snarky about the British folk. But suffice it to say, 20-ish years later, as people deeply devoted to both each other and our creative practices, we are not afraid to welcome a smidge of crystal-gazing and abracadabra to our processes.”

“We have very broad musical tastes, and every day we both listen to all kinds of stuff across a lot of different styles, but there is nothing we come back to over and over and get sucked in by like big banging beats. Especially hypnotic and especially gnarly. We considered a few different albums here to represent this whole facet of our listening, a little less specific than the other album choices. It could’ve been other Esplendor Geometrico albums, maybe Muslimgauze or Omar S. or something on L.I.E.S. But this one hits a super sweet spot, when you’re feeling way up, but also chill. A very good way to feel.”

Catch Kinsella and Pulse on tour in the U.K. in December. 

Dec 11: London at Shackwell Arms

Dec 12: Bristol at Exchange

Dec 13: Newport at Le Pub

Dec 14: Nottingham at JT Soar

Dec 15: Glasgow at Garage Attic

Dec 16: Leeds at Headrow House