I think “Hollywood” was the first time I heard Penguin Prison. I had been aware of RAC for a while, he pumped out remixes around the same time when I was starting to discover music online. I thought for a long time that my life would be complete if I could write a song that got a remix by RAC.

“Hollywood” has a gentle sound. I think RAC takes a traditional band approach to electronic music but also an electronic music approach to writing with “band” instruments and I like that about this track in particular. The elements of the song are all very modular and repeatable and easy to layer on top of each other. The guitar playing in particular is very concise so it’s hard to tell if it’s played as one straight piece or as a copied segment. There’s very little ego to that style of playing. It’s all about the sum of the parts and the final product.

Penguin Prison is one of my favourite singers. He has the ability to shift up a gear in his singing effortlessly. I love that the music is quite innocent and happy and the lyrics are real bitter. “Hollywood” was a great showcase of what he can do and it lead me to being a big Penguin Prison fan. I’ve been hesitant in picking a Penguin Prison song because he is one of my absolute favourites, but this is a fitting first entry into this list as it was my introduction.

You can listen to “Hollywood” by RAC feat Penguin Prison here.