It was while Dubliner Julie Chance was DJing in a Paris dive bar in 2010 that she encountered Australian Jon Dark. Bonding over shared musical sensibilities, they exchanged records and ideas before booking flights to Berlin and their musical project kool thing was born.

Pulling together musical references from grunge to prog rock, kool thing blends atmospheric synths with new wave bass. Their singe EP Light Games was released earlier this year and they’re currently working on a full-length album.

Twin asked Chance to name her favourite nine tracks right now…

1/ Sinéad O”Connor – Black Boys On Mopeds
Sinéad has a new album out called How About I Be Me (And You Be You) and it”s brilliant. Being born and bred in Dublin I had to include Sinéad. Always outspoken and a head of her time, one of my all time heroines. This song is an oldie but a goodie from the 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven”t Got.

2/ Elliott Smith – Angeles
I was first introduced to Elliott Smith when I was visiting New York some years ago. The rawness of his lyrics and the frailty of his voice struck a chord deep inside me that has stayed with me ever since.

3/ The Smiths – Reel Around The Fountain
Probably one of my favourite bands of all time. Enough said. This is the first song off their first album.

4/ Nick Drake – River Man
While studying photography in Cork I was introduced to Nick Drake by a classmate. I”ve always had a penchant for a sombre song and Nick Drake delivered them in abundance. I fell in love with him instantly.

5/ Judee Sill – The Kiss
An ex-girlfriend got me into Judee Sill a few years ago. Judee Sill wrote the most beautiful bewitching songs and could have been as big as Nick Drake if she had been recognised more but wasn”t for whatever reasons. Her life ended prematurely due to drug addiction and we are left with only two albums. This song is from the 1973 album Heart Food.

6/ Amy Winehouse – Love Is A Losing Game
Another one of my heroines, we lost Amy last summer and she broke my heart along with millions of others. In 2008 students at Cambridge University were asked in their final  exams to compare the lyrics of Love Is A Losing Game with Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Milton and Wordsworth for literary analysis. This YouTube vid is of her performing the song at the Other Voices Festival in Dingle, Ireland in 2006.

7/ This Mortal Coil – Sixteen Days/Gathering Dust
I don”t even know where I got this from but I have it on vinyl now and I always include it in my DJ sets. I love Cocteau Twins and Elizabeth Fraser”s vocal on this is just haunting.

8/ Trust – Candy Walls
Moving firmly into the present now, our friend Maya Postepski from Austra just dropped her new album from her other project Trust and I”m really into this track, Candy Walls, its so good!

9/ Lower Dens – Brains
Lower Dens have a new album coming out in May I think. I loved the first one so I”m pretty excited about the next. This song is from the forthcoming album.

Listen to Kool Thing”s playlist koolthingmusic.com

Tags: Berlin, Jon Dark, Julie Chance, Kool Thing, Light Games