Click to listen to Patrick Fitzgerald's exclusive playlist

Kitchens of Distinction’s brand new album, Folly, is available to order here.

We asked Kitchens of Distinction’s lead man Patrick Fitzgerald to compile a mixtape of what he’s been listening to. Here’s Patrick to take you through his superb collection, track by track.

“This is some of the music that was playing in our house, in the car, and in the studio during the writing, recording, and mixing of “Folly” (2011-2013)

Arnold Bax – ‘Tintagel’
Driving to work in the snow listening to this golden gem. The heroic horns make me think of Hollywood helicopter shots over ocean-pounded islands. I rarely think to use horns, but this piece reminded me that I should. The end of ‘No Longer Elastic’ misquotes a solo trumpet from the end of the “Strange Free World” song ‘Under the Sky, Inside the Sea’. I now wish I’d made the horn section even louder – as loud as on this majestic piece by Bax.

Dmitri Shostakovich – ‘5th Symphony: Largo’
This was viewed at the time of the premiere as an apology to the state given its more formal nature, with Shostakovich turning away from his radical 4th Symphony which got him into a lot of trouble. Bollocks, says me. It’s profoundly beautiful, angry, startling. I first heard this sitting in the Rudolfinum in Prague and my mind was completely blown. Classical music at last entered my world in a BIG way. The third slow movement – Largo – with rising octaves that seem to reach up to the sky and then fall away, was the part that gripped me first. I hear the opening chords of the 1st movement, reminiscent of Beethoven’s 5th, and I’m lost. Orchestral concerts work on my head in a way that rock shows rarely do these days.

Richard Strauss – ‘Four Last Songs’ – sung by Gundula Janowitz
Being sick in hospital, half asleep, too ill, too tired, thinking death was around the corner, with this soothing soundtrack of the four best songs ever written, probably. Here’s ‘Im Abendrot’ (At Sunset) but really I’d be happy with any of them. Strauss and Mahler and Shostakovich would suffice for the rest of my life.

Benjamin Britten – ‘Les Illuminations’ – sung by Heather Harper
I prefer the soprano version to the tenor one. The song cycle seems to suit a woman’s voice better. As in most things in his life, Britten is unafraid, in this instance to set Rimbaud’s crazed poetry to his angular music. This small moment in particular – ‘Phrase’ – always works for me.

Scott Walker – ‘Farmer in The City’
I wrote ‘No Longer Elastic’ for Scott to sing, if he was still interested in tonal music. But he isn’t and that’s fine. If I could sing how I wanted to sing I’d sing like him. The ‘middle 8’ – which is a crass way of drawing attention to the bit near the end of this song – where the strings rise and consume. That bit. I want that bit, again and again.

Mercury Rev – ‘Holes’
I saw their early shows when they had David Baker singing. Chaotic psychedelic affairs, fantastic and scary. Then along came “Deserter’s Songs” and this opening song floored me. The line ‘bands, those funny little plans, that never work quite right’ always gets to me. Helium vocal, orchestration fused with chamberlins and mellotrons, bowed saw, operatic singing, a great ambitious record. A good reminder to stretch ourselves whilst we were recording.

Patti Smith – ‘Beneath the Southern Cross’
Driving to work listening to the demos of what has become ‘Folly’, singing along to the instrumentals like a lunatic trying to get the tune and words written. I also sing like a lunatic along to this, my favourite Patti Smith song. She has become a sage now hasn’t she? Half of this world, and half a medium to the spirit world of Beat Poets, Brontës and Gaia.

PJ Harvey – ‘All and Everyone’
I love the album that this is from. This particular song of death in wartime is my favourite.

Siouxsie and the Banshees – ‘Night Shift’
The song ‘Extravagance’ is definitely partially inspired by this extraordinary band. When we lived in rural Ireland, my partner and I played “juju” loud on dark howling nights, the wind/hail/rain drowning out our screeches. Also PJ Harvey’s “Is this Desire?” – great storm records.

David Bowie – ‘Young Americans’
I would dance to this each time it was played at Duckie, my favourite club when I lived in London in the 1990s. Probably the last club I went to, or would ever consider going to, made for people like me. Nearly my favourite Bowie song. The album kept me fascinated age 12, staring at the record sleeve for hour after hour. I was living in Canada at the time and Bowie’s ‘Fame’ was always on the radio. It sounded like music from another planet. With girly hair and attitude. It spoke deeply to my soul but sadly not to my wardrobe.

The Specials – ‘Ghost Town’
The song ‘Tiny Moments, Tiny Omens’ is based on a conversation between playwright Dennis Potter and Melvyn Bragg, in which he describes how he feels given his impending death, how vivid the apple blossom is, as he swigs from his morphine bottle. I’ve felt so ill in recent years that I thought death was coming, cloaked, bony hand outstretched, pulling me under. The moments that came back to me were from 1981, though I’m not sure why. ‘Ghost Town’ was the bleakest song for bleak Thatcher times and it was Number One. It felt like the whole country was broody, that this state of affairs could not carry on. But the country voted for her twice again, so clearly I was wrong about that. We saw The Specials play recently, and what an amazing sneer they give to their sad angry songs. And The Special AKA – wasn’t ‘War Crimes’ the strangest record? Kitchens were on tour when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. We were playing a show in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, after a horrible European tour. After our set the news came out of his release and the dance floor erupted as ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ came on. Thatcher was complicit in his incarceration and for the continuation of apartheid. Yeah, let’s build a fucking statue of her.

Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – ‘My Little Yellow Bird’
From their record of songs by The Everly Brothers: “What The Brothers Sang”. Probably my most played record this year. Stunning.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – ‘And No More Shall We Part’
This is from my favourite Nick Cave record: expansive, blistering, gothic, feline. The string parts and the backing singing of the McGarrigle sisters throughout the album really make it special. If I’d had the nerve I’d have asked him to sing our song ‘The Most Beautiful Day’. Imagine his menacing growl on that. Unsettling, like dark approaching clouds when you’re too far along the beach to get home safely.

Fingersnap – ‘The Bishop of New Hampshire’
This stirring song is a reminder that there is still stuff to say, that freedom is a hard won, and precarious thing that could slide back into it’s strait jacket quickly enough. And it’s a beautiful song. David McAlmont, my ally in the maze world of Muzic Biz, has The Voice. The one the BBC keep trying to find.

The Bitter Springs – ‘Ken’
I like writing biographical songs, like ‘Extravagance’ and the stephenhero song ‘oh, frank’. Versions of truths. Many folk have done marvellous things that need celebrating in song. This wonderful song, by a band that used to support Kitchens on tour, marks the feuding relationship between playwright Joe Orton and his boyfriend Kenneth Halliwell. They had an extraordinary life together, well documented in John Lahr’s book/film ‘Prick Up Your Ears’. Their defacing of library books from Islington’s Essex Road Library, for which they served prison time, is one of the great Situationist acts. In the end Ken beat out Joe’s brains with a hammer and then took an overdose. The odd paths of love.

R.E.M. – ‘We All Go Back To Where We Belong’
Their last song and as good as anything they wrote. The Kirsten Dunst video for this is really touching. One of the few bands that have sound-tracked my life. It’s been fascinating watching the changes, the journeys. Always working, always making records, great and not so great, always playing, and then suddenly gone. I would love to have had Michael Stipe sing Oak Tree. He’d have made a great job of it. And probably got a good harmony bit to go over part of the chorus.

Frank O’Hara – ‘Having a Coke with You’
I’m amazed to find spoken word on Spotify. This is my favourite poet reading one of my favourite poems of his. This is romance on a grand scale. Mush dressed in sophisticated charm. Who wouldn’t fall for these seductive lines?

Perfume Genius – ‘All Waters’
Perfume Genius is Mike Hadreas. I really liked his record “Put Your Back N 2 It” and I love this song in particular for its airy tune and forthright lyric about imagining a time when he can walk hand in hand with his male lover without fear, threat or reprisal. Really really free.”

A brilliant listen, we hope you agree. Thanks Patrick.

Kitchens of Distinction’s brand new album, Folly, is available to order here.

Click to listen to Julian Swales favourite soundtrack moments

We asked Kitchens of Distinction’s guitarist Julian Swales to compile a mixtape for us. He came back with a remarkable collection of film score and songs from the movies. Here’s Julian to explain:

“I started to compile a playlist. There were so many film soundtracks popping up that I decided to make that the theme. Some of this music has run throughout my life and so is actually a soundtrack for me, other pieces are more recent. I’ve limited the playlist to twenty and tried to keep out the obvious well-known ones.

So, in no particular order of preference:
1. Star Wars by John Williams.
Doh! Failed at the first. This is the most obvious one there is but you must have it for the blast of the opening trumpet fanfare and the way it lurches out of that into the melody. It is the perfect music for words drifting off into the distance in space… John Williams is the guv’nor by common agreement and of course there are many others by him that should make the list but James Shenton, my neighbour, played violin on the Star Wars original soundtrack so it goes in. Listen to the counter-rhythm!

2. Midnight Cowboy by John Barry
Sometimes I’ll go through the iPod not wanting to put any of it on and I’ll come to this. I’ll play it and think “why don’t I just play this over and over all day?” Just beautiful and very, very cool. John Barry was/is my man.

3. Diva by Vladimir Cosma
This is a super sub. I originally wanted Popul Vuh’s music from Aguirre-Der Zorn Gottes but it’s not on Spotify. (A really strange world. Beautiful music ambient music in the jungle. On YouTube here) But the music from Diva’s not bad either.

4. The Magnificent Seven by Elmer Bernstein
If you take this stunning music away what’s left is probably a boring movie about some really goodlooking gunfighters. Bernstein noted that his music ran a bit faster than the action so he realized it too. The opening blasts in like nothing else. I wrote the music for a documentary for the BBC about the first ascent of Everest; I wanted a heroic flavour and thought just the interval of the first two notes from The Magnificent Seven would be enough – it was plenty!

5. Buffalo 66 – Heart Of The Sunrise by Yes
Inspired choice by Vincent Gallo. This sequence is a bass/drum workout but the rest of the song is, well, totally epic. And mad.

6. I Am Love by John Adams
The sequence at the end where Tilda Swinton’s character is leaving one life for another has this staggering music (“The Chairman Dances”) that combines with the narrative to take your breath away. The music was written before the film was shot and luckily permission was given for it to be used.

7. Lawrence Of Arabia by Maurice Jarre
For a while Kitchens used to come on stage to the theme from this. Must have been crazy. How did we think we could follow this?

8. The Proposition by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Some great grimy bass loops and grainy violins.

9. Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid by Bob Dylan
“Knocking on Heaven’s Door” plays while Slim Pickens as Sheriff Baker stares at his wife knowing he’s about to die. And delightful acoustic noodling everywhere else.

10. Men Of Harlech
“Zulu” has a very fine John Barry soundtrack of course but I thought I’d slip this bad boy in… School assembly was a misery full of Christian dirges but occasionally there’d be one like this. There’s a pub in Cardiff where they play this before every Welsh game apparently. The film itself is historically inaccurate but this song features and always gets the “hwyl” going.

11. Planet Of The Apes by Jerry Goldsmith
Fantastic otherworldly jarring sounds accompany the poor chaps… oh dear, it’s all going to get much, much worse….

12. The Graduate by Simon and Garfunkel
There was a time when I could do a passable impression of Dustin Hoffman and play ‘Mrs. Robinson” at the same time.

13. Fantastic Mr.Fox by Alexandre Desplat
The film is just genius and the music is just beautiful. I probably bought my mandolin because of this.

14. North By North West by Bernard Herrmann
Bernard’s got to be in there somewhere. I watched the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra do this recently at a Mark Kermode film night. What a show. I could listen to Kermode all night but even he can’t beat Cary Grant and James Mason. And this music.

15. For A Few Dollars More by Ennio Morricone
Could easily have 20 pieces from wonderful Ennio alone but have chosen this one as it’s an example of diegetic music – we’re hearing it but so are the characters. Follow this link to see what I mean (and get a longer version).

16. The Godfather by Nino Rota
Famously had an Oscar withdrawn because the music wasn’t specially composed for the film, it was just thrown in! But how it works!

17. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by John Barry
I firmly believe Bond wouldn’t have been successful if wasn’t for the music. I do, I do, I do. Alright, Connery’s not bad.

18. 633 Squadron by Ron Goodwin
Apparently Ron got the idea for this from the number 633 – he used this as the rhythm. Easy peasy.

19. The Third Man by Anton Karas
Genius zither.

20. Dr. Zhivago by Maurice Jarre
Every time there’s a shot of a flower, tree or some snow this plays. Perfect. Impossible romance during a revolution. (“Lara’s Theme”)

That’s it. I know I’ve left out some great ones. Sorry. And I hope there’s not too many cowboy films.”

Kitchens of Distinction’s brand new album, Folly, is available to order here.