“Playlist” is a regular column in which we ask Beijing personalities about their musical tastes and recommendations.

What would your rap name be?
Cold Snipe, after Winston Churchill’s famous hangover cure: A pint of port and a brace of cold snipe.

What would you choose as your perfect break-up song?
Well, I just found that out pretty recently, and it’s the Robert Wyatt cover of “At Last I’m Free” by Chic.

If you could sing like one person, who would you choose?
Harry Nilsson. He’s the best white male singer of all time.

What was the first record you ever bought?
Deep Forest, the world trance album Peter Gabriel recorded with Pygmy tribes. That album invented chillwave.

What artist would you choose to take a long journey with?
Probably Julian Cope because he would wear hilarious outfits and have awesome playlists.

If an alien came to Earth, which song would you recommend them to listen to?
Probably the first two This Heat albums just to be like, “We’re on some next level sh*t too.” Or Kool Keith’s Sex Style just to see if they’d be like, “Oh word, we love this album.”

What would be your dream cover of a song?
Spaceman 3 (1987-era) covering “Cheree” by Suicide. Does that exist or I am just trying to will it into creation?

What is your favorite music video?
Bad Girls” by MIA. Not the most original choice, but when she’s filing her nails on the car up on two wheels, that is the best vanity shot of all time.

NEIL’S 5-SONG PLAYLIST

“Street Fighting Man” by The Rolling Stones
“Classic” rock kind of peaked with this song. The drums, the guitar line, the fact that it’s about Tariq Ali. It still sounds tough. 

“Neon Lights” by Kraftwerk
The sublimity of electronic music is perfected here. Especially in the last two minutes when it goes into double time. 

“Pula Yetla” by Letta Mbulu
Letta Mbulu was a South African singer who cut an album with David Axelrod. This track is an orchestral funk monster. 

“Shine Blockas” by Big Boi
This track has everything I want out of hip-hop. It’s huge, it’s got an awesome sung rap section, and it has Gucci Mane.

“Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Rood” by Robert Wyatt
This is the last track off Rock Bottom. It’s just Ivor Cutler gravely intoning some nonsense poetry and then Fred Frith playing the most beautiful violin lines. There’s something so haunting and mysterious about this song.

Read more articles from the March 2014 issue of the Beijinger online:

Photo: Ken