International Women's Day Mixtape: Deep Throat Choir

When deciding a mixtape contributor for International Women’s Day, Deep Throat Choir, a 35-piece all female singing collective became an ideal choice. Deep Throat Choir encompass power, creativity and pure enjoyment, women coming together to sing all at once and individually.

Formed by Luisa Gerstein “for the love of pure female voices,” the project sees the women use intricate melodies to transform the songs of Björk, MK and Little Dragon. What began as a small group of four to five singers grew quickly, “sprawling to friends, and friends of friends, taking a life of it’s own”. It’s members include those who have never sung before to the more professional performers, working collectively to create a high-powered result. Since the choir’s formation in 2013 it has collaborated with musicians Matthew E White, Stealing Sheep, Horse Meat Disco and Simian Mobile Disco. The past year saw them performing at festivals and gigs including Green Man, Wilderness, the Roundhouse and Southbank Centre for WOW festival.

To mark the release of their debut album Be Ok we asked Luisa to curate a playlist for us which includes the original songs that her choir have stunningly altered with a multi-layered female voice.

Why have you picked these songs, what do they remind you of or make you feel?

I thought it’d be nice to put a list together of the songs we’re covering – most of these songs will be on the album as well as some originals. Perhaps they’re an odd bunch together here but they feel cohesive on the record. They’re a reminder of the breadth of time that we’ve been singing together. In Berlin was one of the first songs I arranged, probably about four years ago now, whilst Haven’t You Heard was arranged by Tanya Auclair, another member of choir for our recent collaboration with Horsemeat Disco.

When or where should this mixtape be listened to?

In the bath, with headphones.

What songs or albums did you listen to as teenagers and why?

We are 35 so I can only answer for myself! But lots of Billie Holiday, Lauryn Hill and the Fugees.

Were their any particular albums or artists you were listening to whilst recording your new album?

I made a concerted effort to not listen to the songs we were covering because by then the arrangements had a life of their own and I didn’t want to refer back to the originals. I think I was listening to Ghostface Killah’s album with Badbadnotgood at lot at that time,their album IV.

What albums do you consistently play whilst travelling?

We haven’t been on tour! Although we were going to play a show in Paris earlier this year there was talk of doing karaoke all the way there