As a musician, Dhani Harrison has always been hard to pin down. His earliest musical credits are generally tied to contributions to tribute albums honoring his late father (and other Beatles), though his path took an unexpected turn in the mid-’00s: a credit on a Wu-Tang Clan single, a songwriter-supergroup of sorts alongside Joseph Arthur and Ben Harper, soundtrack work for a Ben Kingsley romcom (and later the M.I.A. doc).
While it may be surprising to hear that his new album INNERSTANDING is only his second solo release to date, the credits he’s racked up over the years may help to explain the eclectic set of influences that came into play on his follow-up to 2017’s IN//PARALLEL (the new album itself features collaborations with Blur’s Graham Coxon). While names like Kate Bush and Portishead feel ubiquitous to his teen years in the UK in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the playlist he crafted for us in anticipation of INNERSTANDING’s digital release tomorrow features some unexpected names ranging from the “insane” flute compositions of Navajo-Ute musician R. Carlos Nakai and a soundtrack cut from the 2002 wuxia crossover hit Hero, to more contemporary names like Death Grips and IDLES.
Before the record hits streaming tomorrow (with a physical version promised for 2024), you can check out all of Harrison’s picks (including former collaborators Wu-Tang) below along with brief descriptions on how they played into the creation of INNERSTANDING.
Portishead, “Machine Gun”
Still one of my favorite tracks of all time. The most brilliant track off that record, and it has excellent sounds—the drums are just incredible. The end synthesizer reminds me of the soundtrack for Terminator 2—it’s got a really Terminator 2 feel to it. It’s very apocalyptic, and I love that. One of my all-time favorite tracks.
Death Grips, “Bubble Buried in This Jungle”
It’s one of the most hardcore tracks I’ve ever heard. The vocals, his style, the synths—it’s just super, super aggressive and fascinating. I came across this from the “high” scene in Westworld season three and I was like, “What is that? That’s a real sound right there.” These guys are amazing.
IDLES, “Grounds”
If you haven’t heard this one, it’s one of my favorite lyrics of an IDLES song. It has really, really brilliant lyrics and that banging beat and guitar is super aggressive. It really helped me move through a lot of things. In fact, all three of these tracks I’ve picked first helped me through a lot of things and frustration over the last few years.
Now onto some more relaxing songs that moved me in a different way…
Kate Bush, “Oh England My Lionheart”
Makes me feel awfully emotional, this track, and very nostalgic for childhood. Also, moving back to England after so many years of living in Los Angeles, this song really was kind of like a siren’s voice calling me back. I actually covered it and recorded a version of it myself because it was so beautiful and became so addictive.
R. Carlos Nakai, “Inward Journey”
I feel like this is the first thing I listened to every morning for three years and had a lot of influence as to why I made INNERSTANDING. This song has an extremely peaceful, vibrational frequency to it. That whole album from the Canyon Trilogy is just insane and one of the most beautiful albums ever made.
Tan Dun and Itzhak Perlman, “Gone with Leaves”
This is from the Hero soundtrack and is the score for the fight scene between Ziyi Zhang and Maggie Cheung in the incredible yellow Autumn forest. It’s one of the most beautiful cues I’ve ever heard from any score. I highly recommend giving that film a watch again.
Aphex Twin, “Ageispolis”
Just love the synths on this and the real mellow, chilled-out Aphex Twin. The low end on this track is just really great, so don’t listen to it unless you’ve got a good set of headphones or good speakers, because otherwise you won’t hear the low end—it’s not going to come out on your phone.
Wu-Tang Clan, “Reunited”
This was on repeat in my car whenever I drove anywhere. One of the best Wu-Tang tracks of all-time, kicking off their second record, and revolutionary for them when they brought in the violins. It’s just one of the best hip-hop and rap tracks of all-time.
Brenda Lee, “I’m Sorry”
This is a song from my childhood that was haunting me, and I’ve been listening to it a lot. I made a playlist called “I’m Sorry” that I’ll put on my Spotify channel of songs that sound like this, but this is the zenith of that genre of female singing and structure of the song.
Walt Rockman, “Intact Nature”
This is an instrumental track. I discovered this song on the radio and it suddenly came up on Spotify. It’s a beautiful, beautiful composition and it was one of those tracks I couldn’t find anywhere. and finally it turned up. So go give that a listen.
