February 20th 2012

Welcome one and all to another reggae master show from deepest Hackney, it features: Bad Boy, Erol Bellot, Uwimana, Sweetie Irie, Tarrus Riley, Turbulence, Sizzla, Romain Virgo…… need I list anymore? Isn’t that enough??? Plenty…..

Here’s the tracklist and Daniels’s page

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February & March 2012

Two interviews for you this month. First up is Carl Ritger, who is best known for his work as Radere, and who has a new album, I’ll Make You Quiet, out on Futuresequence, and who has also just released an album, Constance Dubs, on Recycledplastics, under his The Grey Deer monicker.

Then in the second hour of the show, we go to the Pacific Northwest to speak to illustrator and musician Geneviève Castrée, otherwise known as Ô Paon, whose astonishing 2010 album, Courses, has barley been off my turntable. She will be visiting Europe from March onwards as part of a tour with Mount Eerie and Earth.

And if all that weren’t enough, there are tracks from the likes of TE Morris, Yeti Lane, Chet, Quicksails and She Makes War.

It’s all after the jump.

13th February 2012

Boston-based brother-and-sister duo Nic and Eliza Coolidge are Knox, and you’re going to love them. Their debut EP, To Rush, Roar and Murmur, was one of the killer releases of 2011. In this entertaining interview with Adrian Arratoon, which was first broadcast on 13 January 2012, they talk about rural life with critters, their music, and the exclusive 45-minute mix they made for the You and the Night and the Music show.

Find out more about Knox

Here’s the tracklist

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13th February 2012

Peter Wyeth is a musician from Leicester, whose latest EP, the intimate and beautiful Humming New Time, is released on Olynka Records. In this interview with Adrian Arratoon, which was first broadcast on 13 January 2012, he talks about making music on mobile phones, field recording and the beauty of postage stamps.

Tracks include

Sing to Me

Hello Cow (original and new versions)

www.peterwyeth.co.uk

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February 10th 2012

Musician and illustrator Sonja van Hamel was one half of the Dutch band Bauer, and spoke to Adrian Arratoon about her career and the release of her album Transcendental Man for the November 2011 edition of You and the Night and the Music.

including the tracks

395

The Roman Empire

Snow in Spring – Bauer

 www.sonjavanhamel.nl

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February 3rd 2012

We’re here again and it’s another song of the month on dance music. I’m guessing about half have been that way over the last year, it’s not something I would have envisaged when I started writing but it’s testament to the quality of the scene that it continually proves its worth. I figured it would mostly consist of rough edged Lo-Fi and reverb heavy guitar music. It hasn’t and it seems rhythm is king.

So it’s a joy to feature a modern pioneer to keep the ears keen and the heads bopping, we welcome the mighty Omar S. Omar is a man from the home of techno: Detroit Michigan and the city has no doubt weighted his hand.

The track begins with the unavoidable – and rightly so – techno hi hat soon coupled with a pitched up machine bongo and solid 4/4 kick drum, his stall is set but it’s the oncoming track that’s the bit to get excited about, a low and slow subtle flutter builds into the track, taking it’s time at first ,you ask yourself if it’s the song or something more reality based, it’s joined with running mates of a big crushed clap and a single cheeky bass note revealing part of the future of the track. It all moves at a reassuring pace never wallowing in the now, and then it comes and you realise why you’re listening, it’s a big trance drop, yes a big trance drop in a techno track, a 2am moment where nothing else matters, it’s not the white clad, limp handshake Tiesto trance but a string masterstroke of many layers, blissfully calling and responding to each other while we’re just happy to be privy to it. It has more than a few nods to trance but it’s locked deep inside the Techno gates and it won’t be coming out. It joyfully repeats and you hope it never stops, scattered synths flutter backed up with rhythmic, harmonic keyboard chirps.

Then the surprise of the piece – of which there are few in Techno admittedly – and it’s what sounds like a steel worker grinding through a I-bar, it’s used cannily for the drop down, many sounds and pads get used for this part of any dance track but rarely the weapon of choice for a tradesman on an oil rig, but it’s sits comfortably within the Detroit sound and machine like techno fold. A Low LFO grind moves the track on from 5 minutes and the varied Hi-Hats dance and fight for room within the tight rhythmic constraints of the tune. The reason this is a special cut is the melody, every time it returns it’s just hair standing bliss and you hope it hangs around for a long time. There’s some slightly out of time drops that are somewhat reminiscent of the classic Chicagohouse track: Your Love by Jamie Principle (Frankie Knuckles) that add a human touch.

At over 10 minutes in length it’s quite a statement piece. Omar S is someone who smacks of intelligence and confidence, but is it over confidence? An arrogance? His Fabric CD contained only his own music which has to be a first, His album title ‘It can be done but only I can do it’ from which this track is taken feels again like it’s from a very comfortable person, he only releases his music on vinyl, on his own label FXHE, of which you can’t get hold of easily at all. The 12’’ vinyl seems to sell out before it even comes out which only adds to the mystical notoriety of the man. With someone releasing so much good music and maintaining the legacy of techno who cares if it comes with a little arrogance.

Here’s your Trance Now Dance is taken from the Album It can be done but only I can do it on FXHE and it’s out now.

January 29th 2012

With their short term promise of an end of month show they stick to Liam & Gem start freshly with a very strong mix of musical wonder, bounce and darkness. Featuring Techno and 4/4 from the likes of Detroit’s Omar S, Musik Maria and Hotflush producers Boddika and Scuba, a scary cut from Current 93,  gritty Indiana from Po Po, modern grunge from Cloud Nothings and Mark Lanegan alongside rose tinted bliss from Trailer Trash Tracey’s. Not to be missed…….

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Tracklistings, more info etc. click  HERE 

19th January 2012

The year starts pretty slowly so as promised I’ve put the Autechre EP show I did a while ago back online, quite easily the best “old” electronic music I discovered last year, and some of the best music I’ve discovered in my entire life. This show features one track from each of the 12 EPs released between 1991 to 2002.

This music isn’t 3am music made for your feet.

This music is made for your heart, your brain and is music to listen to until the day you die – some of these tracks are 20 years old, they will still be listened to in 20 years time and wipe the floor when compared to the majority of electronic music written since.

Time to put the old “Autechre=noisy IDM” nonsense to bed – it gets no better than this.

This music is magical.

You need this is your life!

Electronic Steve x

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Further info

January 13th 2012

First up is an interview with Leicester musician Peter Wyeth, who talks about making music on mobile phones. The result is intimate and beautiful. Then, in the second hour of the show, there’s an interview with Boston brother-sister duo Knox, whose music is beguiling and bewitching. You’re going to love them. They also provide a killer 45-minute mix of late-night darkness, with tracks from the likes of Dalglish, Pinch & Shackleton and Grouper.

It’s all after the jump.

January 8th 2012

Daniel Turner hosts another Reggae based show in the form of Vital Sound, he features masters and believers including: Sizzla, Earl Zero, Burning Spear, Sinead O’connor, Earth & Stone , King Tubby, Blackout JA, Major Lazor feat. Bitta Blood, YT, Warrior King, Phill Pratt , Protoje feat. Kymani Marley , Mr Williamz, Stush , Skeme, Big P & Fallacy. Bless x

For tracklistings and more about the show click HERE

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]]> http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/index.php/vital-sound-reggae-3/feed/ 0 http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/index.php/vital-sound-reggae-4/ http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/index.php/vital-sound-reggae-4/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:49:12 +0000 admin http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/?p=2144 Vital Sound – Different Class Radio – Show #11

February 18th 2012

Bad Boy – Courtney Melody

Have fi Fly Out – Daddy Lizard

Holla Fresh – Red Dragon

Build a spliff – Flourgan

Spectacular – Burn the Politicians

Romain Virgo – who feels it knows it

Capleton – Tun Up

Alborosie – Rudie don’t fear

Tarrus Riley – Sweet jamaica

Sizzla – Music in my soul

Turbulence – Chant Babylon down

Pressure – Oh jah

Anthony B – Fight for freedom

Errol Bellot – Know Jah

Errol Bellot – Everything Possible

Uwimana – Ready for jah judgement

Uwinama – Save the children

Sweetie Irie – UK Riots

Aqua Levi – Riots in the Street

Rebel MC ft. Tenor Fly and Barrington Levy – Tribal Base

January 3rd 2012

As it’s the new year it seems right and proper to look forward and how nice it is too, what’s even nicer is to get your teeth into some blood bubbling new music and we look forward to February in fact and a b-side on JagJaguwar from Sharon Van Etten. American Van Etten is a favourite of the music maestro Tom Ravenscroft and it was on his show on 6Music that the song first featured, the track is called Mike Mcdermott and is a slightly different sound from the Brooklynite as it veers from her usual singer songwriter path and into something rather more experimental, slightly odd and frankly gorgeous.

The track opens with a buzz and David Sitek style beat, a chumping snare drum and thicker than thick kick, just one heavy, clean and crisp loop with subtle delay that adds space.It’s closely followed by a bass line somewhat reminiscent of the Australian come London band HTRK and their late Bass player Sean Stewart’s low level growls. The rhythm section is then furnished with the first of Van Etten’s vocal parts, an ethereal backing purr that fills the gaps, there’s a plunky grand piano that caresses several joyous chords that compliment the piece and add an eerie presence. You then realize the divine awaits as the one thing missing from the piece, the part you hope is coming, arrives. When the main vocal bursts its way into the piece the other sounds are forced unto the back seat as Van Etten’s voice rips in. Her timbre nods somewhat to Kim Deal and in particular The Pixies track ‘’Where is my mind’’, although it does seem somewhat wrong to compare as the vocal is stunning and the piece something very much its own.

The song possesses no real chorus or traditional arrangement, it flows smooth and deep against the back drop of sound and Van Etten’s howl. It proves the power of the piece when without traditional, recognizable formatting it still holds its own, the simple looping background is all held and driven, one handed and wild, by the vocal.She warms the ear with the tranquil words: ‘’Planning to find a redemption, you will call and pretend, when there’s nothing but dimes in our pockets’’

As the track moves on the layers are backed by maelstrom style synths that shyly chirp their way into the song and harmonise with the notes until they grow like vines through the repetitive machine of loops and layers while detuning and upsetting until they become the focal point of the song itself, they eventually lead out and solo into mayhem while the track fades away into the background. An odd and unpredictable end to the track but somehow it fits perfectly and leaves you gasping for more.

 Unbelieveably this track is a B-side to Serpents, everyone knows how good b-sides can slip by, Radiohead’s Gagging Order springs to mind, but maybe there’s a good and decent reason for it, a song might not suit the album as a whole or the musician may feel it’s not quite finished and the structure is lacking that finishing touch, neither of which count in this instance.

The A side Serpents is a good track but more conventionally Van Etten, the single is from the forthcoming album Tramp out in February.

It’s beautifully inspiring for lesser musicians when you can hear such beauty and form from a relatively simple track in terms of musicality, with the simplicity of notes and arrangement. Simple sometimes is best, it’s just all about vision and the blending of themes.

The single Serpents is out now on Jagjaguwar and the album Tramp is out on February 7^th.

Liam DCR

Boxing Day 2011

With all the hoo haa surrounding end of year polls Liam and Gem decided to just use it as an excuse to play all their favourite music from the year and chat about melodic based highlights across the board alongside playing some other little gems. Those highlights include tUnE-yArDs, Vlooper, Atomic Mama, Joe Goddard, Youth Lagoon, Julio Bashmore, Ramadanman, Daughter, Jamie XX & Gil Scott Heron and much more. It’s always wonderful to have an excuse to re-wind and re-spin but only once a year!

We wish you all an enjoyable and happy New Year,

Liam & Gem x

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For tracklistings and more about the show click HERE

It’s been a mad year this one, topsy-turvy for sure, but as always I’ve lived everyday of it with music. There’s nothing left to do than to try and incapsulate the year within a radio show, impossible really, but here it is, The Electronic Tonic 2011 Round-up show……..

No ‘best album of the year’, ‘best track of the year’ or any of that nonsense (I honestly wouldn’t know where to start), just the tracks that out of all the music I have bought over the last 12 months have done something to me.

Thanks for your support over this year, there will always be more music to discover!

Electronic Steve x

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For tracklistings and more about the show click HERE

In this month’s show Adrian is joined by three guests to cast a squinty eye back at the music, gigs, films, books and events of 2011. Topics include “thousands of ponies”, monster servings of Colombian food, farming whales and getting into an argument with the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Jim Reid over just exactly how Scottish you are.

My guests are:

Mei Yau Kan, from Hong Kong in the 60s, whose album, My Fantoms, is one of my favourites of the year;

Anika Mottershaw, who works for the Bella Union label, books groups for Bandstand Busking, promotes shows in London and this year published a book of comics and drawings;

Euan Hinshelwood is one quarter of Younghusband, who released a cracking EP last month on Sonic Cathedral. He also plays with Emmy the Great and can be heard on This is Christmas, the album she has released with Tim Wheeler.

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For track listings and more details about the show click HERE

The Words into Wires show hosted by Harmony Skateboards boss Adam Mondon features tracks from Shit Robot, The Rapture, British Sea Power, Feist, Sleigh Bells, I Break Horses and lots more.

For full track list and details on the show click HERE

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The show features down tempo grooves from the likes of Shabba Ranks, Ded Prez, Augustus Pablo, Blackout JA, Popcaan, Gappy Ranks & more. With Daniel Turner.

Death in Vegas – Your Loft my Acid

After listening to our regularly reliable machine based radio show The Electronic Tonic there it was: The return of Death in Vegas.

We all know what happens to bands after their first album, they get rich and fat, start frolicking with some modern fancy that was the fit one in a TV show where people sat around moaning about being hungry and slagging each other off. But ultimately they often stop releasing exciting, edgy music. It’s not true of all bands; with Radioheadand The Fall being constant exceptions (there are lots more) but it is a recurrent theme that’s difficult to put your finger on. Fortunately Death in Vegas have joined the gang bucking the trend.

bands after their first album, they get rich and fat

With the band project Black Acid behind him Richard Fearless, the man behind DiV has rediscovered the equipment he used on the influential Contino Sessions and in some ways started again, think 909s, 808s, Korg synths and a dusty old cupboard of racks. It’s pushed him in a direction he knows well, but the real art is to be yourself whilst being different.

Death in Vegas have always been a band that produce progressive songs that don’t bore, but inspire. Nowadays though, it’s hard to be a band that do ‘buildy’ songs without disappearing into the hinterland of stark banality, and unfortunately up your own arse. However, DiV are pre- and present masters, and know how to add atmosphere and flow without boring the listener.

progressive songs that don’t bore, but inspire

The Underworld-esque droney atmospherics loop and lull the opening of the track, soon joined by harmonious pads and gentle claps. Hi-hat percussion adds its rhythm a little way in and the track begins to find its groove. Standard fare you think. But then the sucker punch comes, an old school house bounce of the highest order mixed with a 2011 twist and suddenly you’re in the mood.

The buoyant loop is coupled by the aforementioned hi-hat that adds the groove, is dance music anything without a Hi-Hat loop? Slowly the percussion ups the tempo, revealing again the dance music influence, when in come the vocals and they’re somewhat reminiscent of …Death in Vegas.

definitely DiV, but not old men looking for a pay day

The tune does sound self influenced but is fresh and new at the same time, definitely DiV, but not old men looking for a pay day. The vocals begin dry and without effect, pure and present ‘I can feel’. Then gradually, ‘Fearless’ ups the tempo and the vocal begins to disappear into reverb and wash with decay, backed up by rising tides of keyboard pads and loops, an omen to a much greater presence later in the track.

The voice is that of the Canadian solo artist Katie Stelmanis, her ethereal vocal gives the track its edge over contemporaries. The repetition of the lines highlights again the influence of minimal dance music alongside the timed drop of rhythm that allows a breather before the enjoyably suffocating vocal bathes its warmth unto the listener.

the influence of minimal dance music

Stelmanis’s voice pushes through the octaves as the arpeggiated backing track pushes through the filters. The summit is nearing. Key layers are added and melodic dives accompany. Fearless harmonises the vocal with itself, as is all too common, an intoxicating recording destined for the movers and shakers.

It’s the song the DJ waits to play, the one that makes you wait until 5am, never sure but always hoping for that elusive play. When all around you are losing energy and beginning to think of bed it drops, bringing back that elative mood boy and girl all yearn for.

From the album Trans Love Energies released back on September 12th.

Tracks include British Sea Power’s Fear of Drowning, their cover of Múm’s Green Grass of Tunnel and their track with Czech band The Ecstasy of St Teresa, A Lovely Day Tomorrow.

This interview was first broadcast on You and the Night and the Music with Adrian Arratoon on 13 October 2011. The interview sound quality is “charmingly lo-fi” so you might want to listen with headphones.

Do It For Your Mum is published by Rough Trade Books and is available from www.doitforyourmum.com

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Twitter: @adriandcr

An interview with Paul Gregory and Adam Sykes from longtime DCR favourites Lanterns on the Lake, recorded a couple of hours before they went on stage at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in support of John Grant.

Tracks include: A Kingdom and Ships in the Rain from the album Gracious Tide, Take me Home (Bella Union)

This interview was first broadcast on You and the Night and the Music with Adrian Arratoon on 13 September 2011.

lanternsonthelake.com

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Twitter: @adriandcr

]]> http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/index.php/lanterns-on-the-lake-interview/feed/ 0 http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/index.php/drugstores-isabel-montiero-interview/ http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/index.php/drugstores-isabel-montiero-interview/#comments Sat, 12 Nov 2011 12:45:35 +0000 admin http://www.differentclassradio.co.uk/?p=1967 After an absence of some years, Drugstore’s Isabel Montiero is back, fighting fit with new album Anatomy on Rocket Girl records. Adrian Arratoon visited her to speak about the album, live shows and the laws of cricket. This interview was first broadcast on You and the Night and the Music on 13 August 2011.

Photo: Katja Medic

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including the tracks

Falling Rocks

Standing Still

Sinner’s Descent

http://www.drugstoremusic.co.uk/

Tracks include 
Check
She Just Doesn’t Give a Fuck
Little Slivers of Death

Download it

Lots of links here: http://www.lizardbreakfast.com/

http://bengalfuel.bandcamp.com/

This interview was first broadcast on 13 August on You and the Night and the  Music with Adrian Arratoon

October 2011

Crushed Beaks – Think Lucky

For the first time in this position I didn’t have anything in mind for this article, usually something is on the tip of my audio tongue. Not this month. It left me in quite an exciting position as it meant doing what’s most important and that’s searching for the good stuff. I’ve searched through French Electronica to Australian fuzz-core moving sideways across Baltimorean Hip-hop and spoken word from South Essex. In the end I found myself talking about a subject I’m not 100% sure how I feel about yet: Lo-Fi. It being the opposite of Hi-FI meaning High Fidelity, the enjoyment of wondrous sound and the purest of mixing, Dolby 5.1, Bang & Borethefuckoutofson, music layered in a way that few could orchestrate but everyone agrees is just the best way to listen. Or is it?

Recently it’s struck me that maybe a bit of fuzz isn’t so bad? Maybe the instant quip that the acoustic isn’t perfect isn’t all that should be considered. Cast your mind back to the best gig you ever saw, was the sound crisp? Were you seated in a comfy chair? Was your belly full of rich warm foods? Did it get you really excited? It’s been said that watching a gig from the rear of the room or The Gods might not be the best way and the performance ultimately ends up a little long in the tooth and the punter starts thinking about that last tube home.

The subject brings me to the London band Crushed Beaks and the song Think Lucky.

From its initial burst of gristled guitar from the vacant space of silence it sounds honest and full of energy. The melody is one influenced by years of well honed indie listening. It’s drums and guitar. The intro fades and welcomes a verse anchored by crackly drums and rough yet slight guitar, Matthew Poile’s deep voice spits the verse in a punchy lackadaisical manner. The energy subsides allowing in the bridge, ‘’this Title is not a love song……’’ with twitchy out of key guitar leading into the punch and crunch of the chorus.  Poile saves the pinnacle of the track to display another character to his voice with a warm and whiney passionate chant. The lovable thing about this chorus that you wouldn’t be able to enjoy from a well polished gem is that you can make up your own chorus, the melodies great so just let out some words ‘’ It’s not just the way you say it, we’ve had ideals, WE’VE HAD IDEALS!’’ You can feel the power radiate through the sound. The gush of noise from the intro then bookend’s the vocal chorus, moving at a frenetic pace the feeling it’s all going to run out too quickly, like good hardcore does, becomes ever present. No Age seem an obvious comparison along with a tinge of The Pixies. The verse rumbles back into presence and the mumbled words of the vocal carry the song, but you know what’s coming and the chorus re-engages with your ears and wets your sweaty palms. The short, sharp shout of the chorus encourages you to enjoy every millisecond as you know it’s going to be over all too quickly, as the second chorus finishes you know your not complete but the track is done with you, sapping it’s distorted energy and slowly fizzling down with some barking guitar. There you have it, in 3:09 seconds more energy than you can find in a week of work, laid down on a low key computer or Dictaphone and bursting with power and energy. Even if Terry Date decided to produce Crushed Beaks I’m not sure I’d want to hear it. Isn’t a bands best stuff always their first album? Then by that token a bands first demo, in this case Think Lucky is a treasure indeed.

So let’s not delve into Hi-Fi vs Lo –Fi but maybe we shouldn’t dismiss bad sound quality in an instance but appreciate the energy, the honesty and the warmth of it. It’s certainly more fun to be involved in some roughened madness than lost in crystal clarity.

Liam DCR

Demos by Crushed Beaks“> Demos by Crushed Beaks

Radiohead

Good Evening Mrs Magpie –

Modeselektor remix.

There’s one thing about dance music and that is it tends to divide people. Dance music is seen by some as a lesser ‘Techno Techno’ form of music, devoid of intellect and not up to the creative mark. The lack of lyrical narrative coupled with a repetitive beat conjures up a snooty tone in some. Possibly the same people that may go on a gap year in Africa and while spending time embracing the sprit of the country they come across a local village and engross themselves in their culture, finding themselves one night dancing, arms flaying to a group of drummers and humming a three chord sequence, they look over to their chum and think ‘’ yeah this is real salt of the earth stuff’’. But they’re not so different, music from The Cradle of Life and music in a disused Power Station in Eastern Europe; they employ exactly the same principles. As James Brown said: ‘The drum is the communicator’. So it’s there, in our skin and bones, from the dawn of time, dancing to a rhythm.

After choosing to muse on 4/4 this month it seemed apt that I feature an outfit absolutely in tune with the scene and important to most, coupled with a band that really do need no introduction. Modeselektor remixing Radiohead. Radiohead’s King of Limbs was seen by many as an album that wasn’t instantaneous like In Rainbows, a grower, some took time to catch on, myself included. For those who didn’t get the album maybe there’s another way in as the band have released a series of remixes to accompany the LP, featuring such luminaries as Four Tet, Blawan, Mark Pritchard, Pearson Sound and in this case the Berliner’s Modeselektor.

Beginning with a reverb heavy intro, emphasizing the big hour club mood, it launches straight into the rhythm, the rhythm that is the narrative for this song. Why is there need for vocal exploits and clever wordplay when you can stamp your feet and boom the deck? The minimal hi-hats flitter and flutter like the repetition of a strobe light in a bass heavy venue, the song is accentuated with semi-regular breaks in drum to allow the track to exhale and draw back in a wet, electronic breath. Modeslektor use effects on the track to ebb and flow the timbre of the drums, bringing in and repeating the Yorke line ‘’you got some nerve’’ then mushing it to excess and ripping back in the drums. On a big system this must be an all else fails tune to get people going.

At one point distortion melts the beat and in comes yet another rhythm to up the tempo, Yorke’s vocal combined with a delayed repetition becomes Yorke and the Yorkettes and the track bounces, bounces on, ‘You stole it all, give it back’. It’s reminiscent of a track Switch might cook up in a flat in Kreuzberg.

The remix carries little from the original work, merely the vocal hook. But what more do you need than a Thom Yorke Chorus on the dance floor backed up by a deep, pulsating bounce of a rhythm? Having not seen it on a dance floor yet I can imagine plenty of sideways twitches and pelvic thrusts. You can’t avoid moving to it, unless of course you’re just not of that persuasion. It is, in basic terms, a drum pattern and vocal, no great layers of instrumentation or overcomplicated finesse, just something to make people move.

Some may call it sacrilege, a waste of a wondrous chapter in Radiohead’s career, others, and I hazard a guess at the band themselves might enjoy the dance floor draw just a little too much to even think about it.

Liam DCR

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This is a compilation of ‘Library’ or ‘Lounge’ music. Call it whatever, it’s mostly a combination of orchestra bass and drums, from a time when there were comedy duo’s
and programmes about amusingly shaped vegetables on the cathode ray TV screen, and people wore some pretty funky clobber!
These tracks were made (mostly) primarily for use in TV, movie and commercials. They were recorded by music publishing companies with weird names like KPM, Chappell, Bruton, De Wolfe,
Conroy and so on. They were pressed on to vinyl in stupidly small runs of around 500 per record and ended up in radio (national, hospital, university) film studios and TV stations all over the place from the early 50′s up to the mid 80′s. Many of the people who wrote the music were skilled session players and arrangers with CV’s as long as your arm, having worked for some of the top names in the music world.
Now these companies are still around and still doing their thing, although they no longer press vinyl. The march of digital only releases has seen the end of the vinyl versions of these
tracks.
Most of these types of records ended up in skips, landfill and charity shops towards the beginning of the 80′s (I know because I went into those skips and charity shops back then, ‘reclaiming’ and buying those strange records, they were the only one’s I could afford!) . The change of technology for recording, writing and producing music, made this particular genre unfashionable at the time, as the focus was on more electronic based music. Now these records that were sold for pennies in charity shops and thrown away, are hugely collectable, not least for the amazing playing but for the sheer range of music they contained, everything from Reggae, Soul, Disco, Easy Listening, Funk, Electronica and so on.
Here’s a chance to hear music played as it was intended, arranged and recorded by orchestra’s and bands, playing together in studio’s, often only playing the song through a few times before
recording the final take.
Studio space now is horrendously expensive if an orchestra is involved, going back a few decades it was cheaper, but it was still expensive so everything was done quickly as possible to cut down costs.
All this considered, what this casual compilation of music shows is that the sound of string orchestra in full flight with a healthy injection of bass and drums, funk, swing, mellowness and melancholy, is a wonderful thing to behold.
There’s Piano, Bossa, Disco, Flutes, Female Vocals, Horns, Harps and lots of distant strings in this. There have been a fair few well known compilations of this kind of stuff over the years, probably the most well known being the ‘Sound Gallery’ comps.
It is very much of it’s time, yet still sounds contemporary today. The sign of good solid writing and musicianship. And I tried to deliberately avoid what some people consider the more ‘cheesy’ sound (although that’s another story).
I’ve only scratched the surface, this is a selection of relaxed ‘summery’ music from the late 60′s to the late 70′s. I had to leave a lot out for time reasons, maybe there’ll be another one some time.
There are also some well known musician names and tracks in there, the underrated and hugely talented Dudley Moore, Johnny Harris and Keith Mansfield alongside Nelson Riddle, Antonio Jobim, Vangelis and Barry Gray (you’ll recognize the ‘UFO’ theme when you hear it!). There’s also some more obscure one’s like Basil Kirchen and Tony Osbourne, Duncan Lamont and John Schroeder.
I’d recommend playing this loud in the car, or prefferably on headphones/Ipod’s and the like, so you get the full benefit. Some of might remind you of being a kid again, some of it is
VERY chilled, but whatever it is it’s all really, really good. I’ll up a track list soon as well.
Come on in, the water’s lovely!
P.S, if you did enjoy it (and I sincerely hope you did) please feel free to leave a comment. It might give me a kick up the backside to do another more obscure one at some point.
I’ll put a link to the website where this is going very soon so a high quality WAV download can be yours (it’s a BIG file, 1.5GB) or you can have an MP3. Until next time………

‘The Appartment’ Duncan Lamont
‘Double Take’ James Clarke
‘Love Beat Of The City’ Les Baxter
‘Metropolis Now!’ Steve Grey
‘Half Forgotten Daydreams; John Cameron
‘Interlude’ Johnny Harris
‘Footprints On The Moon’ Johnny Harris
‘Industrial Highway’ Basil Kirchen
‘Brass Buy Lightly’ Neil Richardson
‘Sunny Speed’ John Cameron/Alan Hawkshaw
‘The Millionaire’ Dudley Moore
‘Soul Sleeper’ Astra Nova Orchestra
‘Tallyman’ Big John Sullivan and his Sitar
‘First Light’ Percy Faith
‘International Flight’ David Snell
‘End Titles’ from ‘The Missuori Breaks’ John Williams
‘Children’s Games’ Antonio Carlos Jobim
‘Paisley Window Pane’ Wendy And Bonnie
‘Girl On The Beach’ James Clarke
‘U.F.O end titles’ Barry Gray
‘Soul Street’ Tony Osbourne’s Three Brass Buttons
‘Sort Of Soul’ Birds And Brass
‘Joy’ Alan Hawkshaw/Alan Parker
‘Picture Of You’ John Schroeder
‘Happy Flutes’ John Scott
‘Meandering’ Nelson Riddle
Outro-
Vangelis- ‘Les Animaux Apocalypse’

In this interview with Adrian Arratoon, Gwen talks about she came to be mentored by Chris Dedrick, of The Free Design, work with Fleet Foxes on their debut album, and why Holland is now her home.

Tracks include Food for Thought, North Star and the new seasonal track, Winter Birds.

The Luckless Pedestrian Years is released by Smoking Ant Records.

For more infomation, visit www.gtthomas.com

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I haven’t written on this blog for a while so thought I would share my current albums of the year so far (in no particular order):

1. Zomby – Dedication (4AD)
2. Lucy – Wordplay for Working Bees (STROBOSCOPIC ARTEFACTS)
3. 2562 – Fever (WHEN IN DOUBT)
4. Autechre – EPs 1991 – 2002 (WARP)
5. Instra:mental – Revolution 653 (NONPLUS)
6. Andy Stott – Passed Me By (MODERN LOVE)
7. Nicolas Jaar – Space is Only Noise (CIRCUS COMPANY)
8. Cyclo – ID (RASTER NOTON)
9. Falty DL – You Stand Uncertain (PLANET MU)
10. Radiohead – The King of Limbs (and remixes!) (XL RECORDINGS)

I’m already bored of the SBTRKT album, too many vocals……

And albums I am really excited about, coming soon:

• MODESELEKTOR (!!!!!)
• Actress (Potentially two on the way!)
• Aphex Twin (fingers crossed)
• Cosmin TRG
• Martyn

Electronic Steve x

Usually when I come to write this piece I put the featured song on the stereo and engross my mind in it, trying to glean every nuance and groove from the song, no need this time. I believe I’ve listened to this song over 100 times in the last few weeks, I’m a repeater you see, I’ll listen on repeat ad infinitum especially when it’s of this calibre. It’s a wonder I get any other music in the radio show ‘’Augustus save some room for later!’’. But fortuanetly I get to enjoy this habit on a regular basis as we’re blessed with so many musicians hitting the peak of their powers on a  regular basis, a wonder made ever more surprising when you realize most of them don’t earn a dime.

This month we look over the pond and focus on, as promised, a lesser known artist.

Trevor Powers is Youth Lagoon, new to his 20’s and new to this solo project, he lives in Boise, Idaho, The City of Trees, a place with a decent alternative music scene it appears, sharing space with the likes of Atomic Mama and Mozam Beaks. Powers is an anxious musician that chooses to put his feelings, like the best of them, into his work and we’re very thankful of that. He records lo-fi, shoe-gaze on his own at home. Under the haze and the whir are blissful melodies which are up there with the best I’ve heard for some time and July in particular earns it money.

It begins with a slow misty start -so you check the volume, yeah it’s up- your just a bit desperate for those gushing sounds to hit the ears. ‘Explosions pillaging the night’ whispers it’s way into the track with Powers timid vocal amid roughed up ambience, it’s followed by the gentle hummed chorus coupled with delicate keyboard. The track has a childish nature to it, easy to adjust to and immerse yourself in. The drum machine pops and crackles into metronomed time, sounding like a machine running out of bearings and in need of a service but just so happens to hold the track up, broken machines can sound good, they do here. The melodies merge and melt into one another’s arms, the guitar weeps a fuzzy chord. The placid, echoey pads only add to the enchantment. The broken drum machine picks up the pace with a flabby yet perfect 4/4 kick drum, the atmosphere builds and you start to switch off from the world around you, then it reaches the dizzy heights of the middle 8 and you realize it’s really something special: ‘’If I had never let go then only God knows where I’d be now’’. This peak of the track is why new music has such an appeal, anything that can make you feel this good without touching you need’s to be remembered and enjoyed regularly. After the joy the track hollows out and disappears into itself, you yearn for one more round, one more chance to close your eyes and add a dream into your day. Powers lyrics are particularly special, most of which are indecipherable at first, for me anyway, but once you read them it adds so much power to the tracks. But I suggest not doing this for a while, makes things more worthwhile, they’re available on the internet, you’ll find them and if you don’t then it’s all lost on you. I’m not expecting Youth Lagoon to remain unknown for long, he’s just not that sort of talent, people will always have an affinity with the beautiful.

The album The Year of Hibernation.  Will be out in the Autumn on Fat Possum Records.

I tried to avoid it again this month, the semi big name, the rising star that everyone’s watching, but sometimes the masses are right.

Since the four late London teens started The XX their inimitable sound has had a huge amount to do with Jamie Smith. I remember the first time I saw them, around 2008 at the sorely missed Bardens Boudoir in East London, Jamie tapped his beats out onto a digital sampler, hit for hit, awkward yet commanding. It’s a modern sight that may well become the norm, the upright digital drummer, Kraftwerk still creep in don’t they? He had an air of knowledge about him, knew what he was doing and was truly comfortable with his own sound. The XX went on to win the Mercury Music Prize and their music was used in hundreds of sombre, thought provoking TV adverts. Their sound was born, grew up, was sold, pillaged and came out the end of it still sounding great.

So since then Jamie hasn’t rested, turning his hand to remixes for the likes Adele and Jack Penate climaxing in the reprise of the Gil Scott-Heron album I’m New Here.  He retained the great mans vocals whilst adding his distinctive production skills to the LP, all this only a few months before the sad passing of Mr Scott-Heron, poignant timing indeed.

I spotted with some anticipation his new single Far Nearer on Bleep.com and as soon as I heard the steel drums I was fixed. That magical, far off sound is instantly timeless. But with any track by the young producer you know there’s a beat, you wonder how it’ll come and how it’ll fit to this Carribean groove, it comes a minute and a half into the six minute plus track, the quick skipping bass drum, three to the one of the crisp snare. Off kilter, slightly sparse, with the deep seeded bass that screams for the Funktion 1 soundsystem. Dubby dancefloor tunes of the moment usually opt for the female vocal, calling and responding to the reverberating bass line, but this song opts for a pitched down male vocal with the line ‘’I feel better’’ repeating in different forms throughout. The drops in the track are accentuated with hypnotic swooshes only to be taken over by the beat that returns and pushes the track on. Friendly to the dancefloor and friendly to you, home alone. It’s beat heavy, which in this day and age is nothing new, but with the timeless melody of the steel drum it gives you something its rival tracks will never have.

There’s been rumblings that he’s ripping off Burial, stealing the vocal styles, minor chords and vacant mood. I just don’t think that’s the case, they’ve both evolved from the same city at the same time. Maybe they sound the same as they grew up in the same environment but both are individualists in their own right. While Burial remains in the Shadows, Jamie XX stays just adjacent to the spotlight, continuing the kinetic energy from The debut XX album and moving into tunes that allow him to show the dubby hip-hop influences he’s so fond of.

Word on the street is steel pans may feature on the next XX album, we wait, only they’ll decide when it’s right and good luck to them. But let’s not forget Jamie XX stands strong on his own.

Out now on Glasgow’s Numbers label.

For the last two months I’ve focused on tracks by fairly well known artists, especially for those reading this. It’s just the way it’s gone and they’ve been the tunes with the best vibe at the time.  Next month, I promise, it’s going to be less known.

Interview with Jonathan Lees of Hibernate Recordings

Hibernate Recordings mix

1. Ian Hawgood: Wolfskin

2. Andrea Ferraris & Matteo Uggeri: Zapping TV at home, old clock charging and then walking on wooden floor

3. Offthesky: Whittling you little lights

4. Relmic Statute: Rehoiyo

5. Talvihorros: A continual echo of the sound of loss (part 1)

6. Clem Leek: Mystery Moor

7. Wil Bolton: Slate

8. Mark Harris: I am a long way from home

9. Field Rotation: Shoreline (Adrift, Dream)

10. Simon Bainton: Arrival

11. Warmth Terminal: On that day

12. Bengalfuel: Mad Daddy Clawbone

For details on all the artists, please visit: www.hibernate-recs.co.uk

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Including the tracks:

Maw

Pour More Oil

Thom is second left in the photo, which is by Abi Harrison

www.hernameiscalla.com

@adriandcr

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‘What’s that? An original piece of music, yeah course mate…..’

 tUnE-yArDs – Bizness

I was not quite sure what way to go this month. I thought that by the time this went to print this tune would be huge, adorning an advert for a small computer or a stripy pair of trainers, either way I was sure it would have been used and I said to myself if it did I’d leave it and concentrate on something less obvious, a song with no exposure that needed all the little help it could get. But Bizness is not everywhere, not soiling my TV with poorly matched visuals and not sickening me with its relentless presence. It remains, in the most, pretty unheard and that’s one good reason to write about it. But primarily I’m focusing on it because it happens to be an incredible piece of music that needs to be heard.

Every so often you latch on to a track that is enjoyed by one and all, the track you reserve in the memory bank for pissed up song wars at summer barbeques. This is it. You’ll be hard pushed to find someone that does not like it. It begins with a strangely enjoyable shrill introduction opening the door to the vocal layers to come. They run through the song like a snake escaping from a sack of corn, they ebb and flow yet don’t repeat, don’t bore and certainly keep you interested – from dubby words and subtle charms to full on harmonic backing vocals, it’s a master class in singing. Merrill Garbuss’s voice is one you will not forget in a hurry. It’s a surprising, androgynous mix that is hard to put a nation on, highlighted in the Chorus, with it’s crush of words crammed in to the catchy tones: “Don’t take my life away, don’t take my life away”. It contributes wonderfully in its part but this song is not solely about the chorus, it is about the whole, exploding package . The song has an Afrobeat influence, the plucky guitar and off-kilter, M.I.A type drums in particular with the production not far – but also very far – from TV on the Radio. Again, it comes back to those layers – it is all about those layers. Layering like this can be attributed to decent Techno as well as Afrobeat – free to drop in bar by bar from the brrr brrr bass to the tappy percussion before ascending into the horn section, which arrives in a recognizable manner first time around before returning with a sound eluding to synthetic steel drums forces forwards to the majestic summit.

Bizness’s accompanying video is an eccentric revelation, a visual pleasure that lends to oddball humanity, Contorting faces and displaced dancing marry well with all the shiny goodness a video for this fascinating song is expected to contain. If it is your first exposure, then the full monty is highly recommended -I suggest both as big and as loud as you can.

I would like to thank a certain Jon Hillock and his New Noise Podcast for putting me on to this song. Hillcock is an unsung hero of radio that I cannot believe isn’t on the radio more regularly. Maybe it’s time for a few of the very good and well respected guys, particularly within The BBC, to step aside; after all you cannot replicate fresh talent.

Tracks include:

Heart Paper Lover

Days of Rum

www.marissanadler.com

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Including the tracks

White Material opening

35 Rhums opening

The Black Mountain

Trouble Every Day

www.tindersticks.co.uk

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www.arnaudfleurentdidier.com

I’ve just finished a book called ‘Listen to This’ which is written by a guy (Alex Ross) who writes for the New Yorker. Up until he started college he hadn’t listen to anything other than classical music. When starting college he realised that he was the only person that listened to this kind of music and that he was the only “classical nerd” in the whole college.

His newly found friends started playing him hardcore punk records (talk about breaking him in easily!), Dylan and Sonic Youth which eventually he grew to love – but when he turned the tables and played these guys Mozart, Bach, Beethoven they completely closed themselves off to it.

As he grew up he realised that there is a different attitude towards classical music than there is to other music, that generally classical music is seen as something that is stuck in history and something that doesn’t progress.

The book explores this, he goes to visit Radiohead and Bjork while they’re making albums using classical musicians, he follows Dylan while he’s touring and he writes about Kurt Cobain, Frank Sinatra, Sonic Youth; but he also considers the operas of Verdi, the music of Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven as well as looking back at the history of classical music and asking where did this attitude come from? How come you can’t go to a classical music concert dressed in jeans and t-shirt?

It’s a brilliant book and by the end you truly realise what a wonderful thing music is, in all its forms.

On the back of this I have purchased records by some modern classical composers, some of which are are still alive today! These are: Steve Reich, Stockhausen and Messiaen; believe me, some of the Stockhausen stuff is mad but check this by Steve Reich, beautiful minimal music.

Electronic Steve x

On the first of every month I’ll use this column to promote some unsung musical heroes. I’ll be focusing on one song a month, a newish single of sorts but it could also be retrospective, either way it’ll be a track I hope you haven’t heard and will surely be of fantastic quality.

For me the most important thing about pushing music is focusing on something you believe in. There is an awful lot of back slapping that goes on in music, some people get credit just because they’ve got credit somewhere else, as if to say “well people are talking about them so they must be good”. Most people have got bad taste. Look at the sort of bands that play huge stadium concerts and the atmosphere created therein, it can be close to non existent, what once was a great band with good music has now been filtered out by the modern clunk of life, there’s always lots of people, sure, but not much going on. How many people get involved in reality TV? I don’t know, but I’d imagine they would be able to fill a continent. Again, lots of people but not much going on. The best gigs I’ve been to have involved a number more suited to a seven a side football match but they’ve been electric with excitement!  Which leads to this column of mine. My hope is few will have heard of the bands I’ll be featuring and it’s not going to be to everyone’s taste but the music will be immense, diverse and always involve the underrepresented. This, for me, is where the fun is. And on to the first band:

Fists – Stag

 Out now on Hello Thor

The first time I heard this I wanted it again – immediately! The vocals have a unique quality to them – slightly menacing with literal lyrics that draw you into their story, reminiscent of a young Mark E.Smith without the far leftfield gabber. The story seems to be about a family member missing a rather important body part, yes indeed. The drums begin with a military march on flabby skins that lead into neat guitar work akin to Nick Zinner without the pedals, the bass licks and flows while anchoring the track but the real highlight of the track is the buoyant flow brimming with anticipation that leads into an outro few could top, one line of repetition I can’t understand on top of a cracking melody you could listen to for hours. British Indie as it should be: emotive and rough around the edges This has to be not only my single of the month but my highlight of the year and it’s all about that sing a long chorus at the summit of the track.

This single represents the Nottingham five piece at their stunning best with production duties care of Rory Bratwell (Fair Ohs/ Male Bonding).

The single is a double A side with ‘Ascending’ available as a download and rather more romantically as a limited edition 7″ – it’s got to be the latter I say. ‘Ascending’ has been getting the reviews but, for me, of the two tracks, Stag has to be king – a great and unusual Indie cracker.

 Fists have promised me they’ll be touring the U.K soon too.

 Stag by Fists ]

 Liam

I just had to put up a post dedicated to the above record labels – Exit, Nonplus and Autonomic Records. Over the last few years they have each been responsible for really pushing forward fresh drum and bass and infact, challanging what DnB is. Dark, groovy and thoughtful music made for home listening as well as the club.

I have previously written on this blog about the Autonomic podcasts, put together by dBridge and Instra:mental – a must for anyone with even passing interest, also check out Mosaic Vol. 1 a compilation released by Exit and as for Nonplus, they’re  totally on it at the moment with releases from Actress, Bodika, ASC and of course the impending debut Instra:mental album.

For people who aren’t fans of dark, moody, agressive DnB look no further, as a genre it could promise so much and these guys are finally realising this promise – personally it’s probably the music I am most excited about at the moment.

Electronic Steve x

Stephen@differentclassradio.co.uk

So if you are thinking of flexing your PayPal account on eBay, everything I make form this will be going to the British Red Cross’s Japan Tsunami Appeal. Good luck.

See the eBay listing here

Adrian

Interview with Dustin O’Halloran

including the tracks

A Great Divide

We Move Lightly

Opus #12

Opus #43 (featuring Adam Wiltzie)

www.dustinohalloran.com

http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/index.php?

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Absolutely nothing that’s what, and released in 5 day’s time!

http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/

And perhaps my favourite tune of theirs (although I have hundreds): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AQSLozK7aA

I love this band more than words.

Electronic Steve x

Exploring the Landscape

Interview

The Flower at Quince House

Interview

Footsteps

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http://hongkonginthe60s.com/

Adrian Arratoon on Twitter: @adriandcr

I finally got around to buying the Forest Swords EP ‘Dagger Paths’. Incredible music, simple guitar riffs drenched in reverb; from the moment I pressed play for the very first listen the music had a profound impact on me, to the extent where I was welling up. Totally original, I can’t think of anything I have heard like it before. Bloody amazing…..

Electronic Steve x

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-1220914

Albums will always be the best way to listen to music………save them!

Electronic Steve x

Bloody fascinating

http://www.scionav.com/music/houseparty/index.html#general4,17253043

Electronic Steve x

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So we made it all 13 Days are here for you to enjoy at your leisure, to conclude the series we’d like to give a warm welcome back to our podcast producer Rich Elms. For a special final show Rich welcomes three guests in the form of Danny James from the Addvoid blog and Simon & Ben from the wonderful band Bleeding Heart Narrative, they cover subjects such as Science, living forever, Stephen Hawkings being hip and of course Christmas music from Ryuichi Sakamoto, LCD Soundsystem & Tom Waits.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND THANKS xxx

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So we understand it’s a bit of a ballache to download every show every day so we’ve done the hard work for you, by downloading the link above you get over two hours of the best music and chat from all our 13 shows with an exclusive from tomorrow’s Christmas Eve show. Inside you’ll find plenty to keep you busy at Crimbo with DJ’s, guests and of course excellent music including Tom Waits, Can, Lou Reed, Summer Camp, Yellowman, Procol Harum and much more!

Available from 7pm Decmeber 23rd

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Having had a quick scan of the Christmas Radio Times it seems that listening to music and reading books, rather than watching telly, will be the order of the day this festive season. So here are three lovely tracks to roast your chestnuts, as it were.

O Tannenbaum – Wooden Shjips
Stolen by Sailors – Golau Glau
Christmas Dinner – Lilian Hak (featuring Wouter Hamel)

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For the second installment of my Words into Wires xmas specials I have
chosen three short but sweet tracks to inspire some festive cheer.
I start off with some Lou Reed from 1989 and then onto one from Jacob
Golden’s debut album and finally finishing up with the only track I’ve
ever liked from Lightspeed Champion. If you blend all those up with
some mulled wine induced banter from me , then you get a merry old
show indeed.
Raise a glass to DCR !!!

Lou Reed – Xmas In February – New York

Jacob Golden – Feeling Like Christmas – Self Titled

Lightspeed Champion – Xmas Song – Unknown

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For Digby’s second festive Debris Slide show he runs through some
alternative Christmas numbers that show that Christmas songs don’t just
have to be novelty tracks. Starting off with Summer Camp’s twee pop
cover of The Waitresses’ Christmas classic and then taking in some
wintery modern classical from Peter Broderick, the show ends up with a
nine minute techno dub track by Nathan Fake.

Summer Camp – Christmas Wrapping

Peter Broderick – Family, Giving

Nathan Fake – Xmas Rush (Dub)

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In this the second episode from Liam & Gemma it’s Liam’s turn to pick the tunes and he’s rather more far fetched in his festive choices. In this the second year of The 13 Days a lot of the songs have already been used so Liam chose to pick songs that reminded him of Christmas or just had vaguely jingly titles, which just happens to mean some cracking music.

Sleighbells – A/B Machines

Riad Michael - Lights

Can – O Little Town of Bethlehem

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A mixed bag of tunes here for your listening pleasure. Starting off with a tune that reminds me of Christmas through the association of who made the record – Obima was a band that was made up by some of my friends back in early 90’s in Essex/Suffolk – I have included one of their best dub excursions ‘Roar Dub’  which was on the only record they released – a four track 12” in 1993, various issues forced them to split into a succession of other bands, the most recent of which is ‘So Called Humans’ which features the singer and original guitarist of Obima.

The next tune is a typically cheesy version of ‘We wish you a merry christmas’ by 1980’s dancehall legend Yellowman but with the word ‘reggae’ inserted instead of ‘merry’ – that is about as dynamic as the vocal gets but its good fun

Next batch of tunes is a medley of some 2009 Jamaican dancehall Christmas tunes, topics in the lyrics range from the positive to the super negative (shooting santa!) but the take on some of the well-known Christmas carol melodies has to be heard to be believed. The medley finishes up with Gally Christmas which takes the tune of Jingle Bells to sing about getting a christmas girl to ride on your ‘sleigh’.

Listener beware some of these later tracks are pretty full on and represent a certain side of Jamaican ghetto culture; Mavado and VybzKartel represent two different crews from different parts of Kingston ‘Gullyside’ and ‘Gaza’ and this is a very real war situation on the streets – if you are easily offended then you might not be too keen.

Obima – Roar Dub

Yellowman – We Wish you a Reggae Christmas (wish you a merry christmas)

Assassin – Christmas is Here (Come all ye faithful)

Elephant Man – Badman Christmas (Hark the herald angel sing)

Mavado – Gully Christmas

VybezKartel – Gaza Christmas (12 days of christmans – partridge in a pear tree)

Torch &Slu – Gally Christmas (jingle bells)

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So what is an electronic music presenter supposed to do when asked to present a Christmas show? Well Electronic Steve went all ‘conventional Christmas’ last year; but not this one!! Here is 15 minutes of truly alternative Christmas  music, Christmas music that surely should be heard more this time of year?

Tracklisting:

1. Less Affair – Rudolph Red Nose Reindeer (2008 Club Version)
2. Snow Patrol – We Wish You A Merry Christmas Dance Version
3. Alternate X-mas – Jingle Bells Techno Bells
4. Hardcore  Nation – All I Want For Christmas (Hardcore X-Mas)

With just over one week left to go, T packs in some reggae, rock and reindeer in a short Christmas cracker. You don’t even need to like Christmas to give it a listen; tunes from Winston Groovy, Cocteau Twins and The Knife.

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It only feels like a short time ago that I was saying on my show how I didn’t get dubstep – that I didn’t get its moodiness and more importantly its beat; it felt really quite alien to me and that still holds true with the earlier dubstep sound. But bloody hell, how things have changed……..

Its influence on electronic music cannot be overstated – well it would be a little over the top to say that it has shaken the very foundations of dance music but you know what I’m getting at. Genres have crumbled; techno, house, garage, dubstep etc are now all one. It seems like dubstep has been the catalyst for artists such as Untold, Pariah, James Blake, Ramadanman, SBTRKT, Mount Kimbie, 2562 to really push the boundaries and throw some different beats out there and personally I have lapped it up.

The main reason for this post was to share this website which attempts to get some hold on exactly what is going on in the post-dubstep world (and whatever you think of genres it’s too simplistic and not fair on the artists to blanket them all as ‘post-dubstep’ or ‘Future Bass’ etc).

It’s worth noting that drum and bass hasn’t been untouched, just check out dBridge, Instra:mental, ASC etc for some mind blowing, inspired music.

So at the close of 2010 I am finding that I am listening to music that from as little as a year ago I never thought I would be in to, but not only that, I don’t know if I have ever loved music so much, finding inspiration in so many different beats. 2010 has been the year where my electro/techno bubble has well and truly been burst and it feels amazing and truly inspiring. Who knows what I’ll be listening to this time next year?

Electronic Steve x

Since the soft release of their stunning debut album, We’re All In This Together, in 2009, on her own Gift of the Gab label, Gabby Young and Other Animals have taken off in a big way. The eight-piece have spent 2010 touring, playing lots of festivals, including Glastonbury, as well as scores of smaller shows around the UK and Europe. Gabby is a great show-woman, which, coupled with an amazing voice, is a winning combination.   After building up a loyal fanbase of music lovers and those of sartorial discernment alike, the album has recently been given a re-release and 2011 is sure to be hers for the taking.   In this special Christmas podcast, which was first broadcast on 16 December 2010, we learn that Gabby really loves Christmas. And I mean really *really* loves Christmas. She chooses three of her favourite Christmas songs and tells us about her amazing year.

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www.gabbyyoungandotheranimals.com

Adrian’s Twitter: @adriandcr

The first of my ‘Words into Wires’ Xmas specials has three tracks that come together after being recorded twenty years apart from each other.
We start off with Procol Harum in 1967, then on to Run DMC in 1987 and finishing up with the Magnetic Fields right here in 2010.
They don’t especially make you feel all festive inside but are well on the way to getting you there and far away from bloody Slade too !

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1. Procol Harum – A Christmas Camel
2. Run DMC – Christmas In Hollis
3. The Magnetic Fields – Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree

12th December 2010

Saturday took me to the marvelous theatre that is The Union Chapel, Islington. I’d been keen to visit this venue after hearing how special it was and it is indeed a treat, it’s great to see a church being used for something and not just gathering dust, we’ve a wealth of these spaces in London and frankly most of them are wasting space, once built  for occasions of joy and hoards of people but as religion went out of fashion so did it’s home, fortuanetly The Union Chapel have decided to use this awesome octagonal space for what it’s designed for, being filled with noise.  The band responsible on Saturday were Bleeding Heart Narrative. We’re already fans of BHN here at DCR but Saturday reminded us why, with a backbone of 7 musicians, mostly strings, they’re perfect. They fill the space with waves of cello, violin and electric strings backed up by layers of vocals from the whole band, the latter half of the performance saw the band joined by an additional four string players which only added to the atmosphere. Highlights were new single ‘Perun’ and the room filler ‘David Foster Wallace’. You can listen here.

Union Chapel do lots of free gigs as well as gigs you get your wallet out for, they also run regular church services and act as a homeless centre. You can check them out here.

For the first of my 13 Days of Christmas
podcasts I’m taking a look at the flipside to some of the UK’s
Christmas number one singles. Even though the songs that were number
one sold in their millions and are now seen as classics some of their
b-sides were still quite unusual. This show features three of the most
interesting b-sides, including synthpop from the Human League about the
assassination of JFK, ambient prog from Pink Floyd and The Beatles’
surrealist pop.

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This first of two shows from Liam & Gemma  features Gemma’s choice of festive music. She opens up with a beautiful track from Sufjan Stevens which ticks all the yuletide boxes in terms of title, lyrics and content and that’s followed by a classic from The Walkmen’s album Bows and Arrows, the show closes with the on trend ‘Allo Darlin’. We hope you enjoy the show. Their other show is on the 20th and features Liam’s music, it promises to be a little more leftfield in terms of Christmas connections.

photo: Rebecca Miller

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Alessi Laurent-Marke records under the name Alessi’s Ark. Since her first release, the Bedroom Bound EP, in 2007, she has released a well-received album, Notes From the Treehouse, on EMI, and, in 2010, following a move to Bella Union, the home of Fleet Foxes, John Grant and Midlake, she released the Soul Proprietor EP.   Her latest album, Time Travel, is released by Bella Union on 25 April 2011. She has toured with the likes of Laura Marling, Villagers and Sons of Noel and Adrian.

In this special podcast for Different Class Radio, which was first broadcast on 12 December 2010, Alessi tells Adrian Arratoon about Christmas when she was growing up, appearing in radical nativity plays, her highlights of 2010 and chooses three of her favourite festive tracks.   www.alessisark.com

www.bellaunion.com

Adrian Arratoon Twitter: @adriandcr

I was first introduced to this Minneapolis quintet through the wonderful Tom Ravenscroft on his radio show, but they get plenty of kudos at the moment.

My route in was the sublime track Daydreaming which you can hear below, but the recently released longplayer WILD GO on Supply and Demand has plenty to offer apart from this, singer Nona Marie Invie’s vocals are as naked as the enticing front cover of the LP but that’s not where it ends the album is of classic folk and pure,  I’m not a folk fan.

They play The Lexington in London on Tuesday (30th Nov) with a live recording later to be featured on 6 music, which I believe is a tie in again with Mr Ravenscroft.

Liam & Gem feature them in their recent show here

by Adrian Arratoon

There have been fewer more heartening things in music this year than the return and resurgence of singer John Grant.

The Czars, his previous band, were lauded critically but, almost inevitably, failed to find favour outside of a small coterie of admirers. Five years ago, at one of the final shows before his previous group fell apart, at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, Grant came on stage to a three-quarter-full house. “I want to thank you all for not going to see Beck tonight,” he deadpanned, as the latter was playing to sell-out crowds at the Apollo up the road. But in the joke lay the bitter reality of singing your heart out to a non-appreciative world.

Here was someone whose gorgeous baritone could surely make aeroplanes fall from the skies, make the leaves fall from the trees, and make you believe that if you had his voice, if only for a few hours, your life would be much, much better.

But crippled with self-doubt, drug addiction and a legacy of growing up gay in a hostile America, Grant all but disappeared as a musical force for a few years, save the odd guest appearance with the likes of Piano Magic.

Fast-forward to the present, and his date at the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank, has been upgraded to the altogether more impressive QEH. It’s practically a sell-out. And the wave of love that hits him from the audience is palpable. Buoyed by the support of labelmates Midlake playing on Queen of Denmark, his revelatory, cathartic album of this year, the John Grant of 2010 seems a much more confident man. With only a violinist, Fiona Brice, and Midlake keyboardist Jesse Chandler playing with him, theshwo would be carried by Grant’s new-found brio and, damn it, showmanship. We’re not talking Sammy Davis Junior but today’s John Grant knows how to engage an audience.

Introducing Where Dreams Go To Die, he quips: “This is dedicated to the Travelodge in King’s Cross.” Most of the songs, the majority of which are culled from the album, are preceded by amusing introductions. For JC Hates Faggots, he talks about having been asked to make a video for an organisation that tells youngsters that things will get better when they grow up. But he’s been putting it off: “It does get better, but not much.”

But all this would be nothing were the music, and his voice, not so simply stunning. Stripped down from the record’s layers, these songs fly, and his voice, an amazing deep velvet baritone, makes tears form. Caramel is near unbearable in its gentle force, Chicken Bones transcends the tale of a Thanksgiving from Hell that precedes it. And, finally there’s an encore from heaven; The Czars classic Paint the Moon and their cover of Connie Francis’s Where the Boys Are, backed tentatively by guests The Smoke Fairies, are concrete proof that here is an artist whose return from obscurity means that there is hope for us all, that good things do happen.

A triumph. Nothing less.

John Grant will be returning to the UK for an extensive tour in 2011.

For details, please see here.

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Tracklist shortly……..

A bit about the show

I have been into music since I was a small child growing up in Colchester, Essex. The first record I bought was the theme to Monkey Magic in 1981 when i was six. Early music memories involve me and my brother  taping our favourite songs off the top 40 on a Sunday afternoon, and also on the family holidays my dad had a Specials album, a Bob Marley album and a Ska greatest Hits album and they were on rotation in the car when we went on holiday so I think that is where I got an early ear for reggae music.

Just before the release of the album she spoke to Adrian Arratoon on You and the Night and the Music. This interview was first broadcast on 13 September 2010.

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He also runs his own label, Schedios Records.

This interview with Adrian Arratoon was originally broadcast on 13 September on the You and the Night and the Music show.

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Photo by Mapsadaisical: click photo for link

In April 2009, Adrian Arratoon spoke to him ahead of a series of dates in the UK.

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Afghan-American singer Ariana Delawari partly recorded her debut album, Lion of Panjshir, in Kabul, Afghanistan. In this exclusive interview for Adrian Arratoon’s You and the Night and the Music programme on DCR, she talks about the challenges of recording in a country where electricity is scarce, and of having David Lynch as a fan and collaborator.

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Zekkas Ten DJ’s a blend of Bass & Beats with Hardcore, Noise, Experimental and downtempo; with the likes of Fly Lo, No Age, Ben Frost, Future Islands, The Field, Fuck Buttons and more and more!

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Liam Interviews Bleeding Heart Narrative in an exclusive for DCR, they discuss line up, live show and the mechanics of the band with chosen tracks from the album Tongue Tangled Hair.

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”This mix is an example of some of my favourite tracks from the last couple of years and has no fixed genre, mixing together different styles is the beauty of DJ’ing”

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For those of you who don’t know Zekkas Ten is Liam Turner, he runs a lot of stuff on this station and presents the IF show with Gemma, but when he finds time and isn’t making excuses he does things like this.

Mixing crackly vinyl with CD’s, as they allow more room for creativity, he manages to traverse LA Bass & Beats from the likes of Flying Lotus, Noise from Ben Frost and Fuck Buttons, Hardcore from No Age and some Post-Punk while also finding room for more centralised 4/4 music. Liam loves Techno but appreciates that not everybody else does ” I’ve always loved Techno, Detroit Techno in particular, they’ve been doing it right for so long, but unless it’s a Techno crowd it can be wasted and I understand when people don’t feel it, so with this mix I just wanted to put together some great, great music, no matter of style or tempo and blend it together, you’ve gotta keep others and yourself for that matter, interested”

For a look at the tracklist you can click here, but don’t ruin the surprise.

To contact Liam for Bookings etc:  liam@differentclassradio.co.uk

Flying Lotus – GNG BNG

Darkstar – Need You

Qoso – Jurassic Park

The Fun Years – I Am Speaking Through Barbara

DJ Shadow – Enuff

Ital Tek – Archaic

Evil Nine – Icicles

The Field – The More That I Do (Foals RMX)

No Age – Everybody’s Down

Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love For Planet Earth (Andy Weatherall RMX)

Joy Division – No Love Lost

Zekkas Ten – Gone Into The Land

Future Islands – Little Dreamer (Jones RMX)

The Paris Riots
Bleeding Heart Narrative

buy tickets HERE

Liam interviews Bleeding Heart Narrative in an exclusive for DCR:
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On the Electronic Tonic I have played tracks from the likes of Redshape, 2562, Modeselektor, Ikonika, Kode9, Trentemoller, FaltyDL, Instra:mental etc not realising that there are free Podcasts available from all of these artists. Amazing.

Many of these guys I haven’t seen live in the flesh, so until I rectify this, the Podcasts provide an excellent way of knowing what their DJ sets would sound like.

Here are the pick of the bunch I have found so far (apologies, they are all electronic but then that’s really no surprise is it?):

Autonomic

Maybe the best of the lot; 12 “layers” that can be downloaded from the above link. Put together by Dbridge and Instra:mental, each layer features an ‘Influences’ section and then a mix. Absolutely brilliant music, these guys are seriously talented producers.

XLR8R

Past mixes have featured Floating Points, Ikonika, Nosaj Thing, Kode9, Cooly G, Modeselektor, Martyn, Trentemoller and as I write they have just put up an excellent ‘cast from FaltyDL, a guy I have bigged-up loads on the Tonic.

Whitenoise (Dave Clarke)

What can I say, two hours of the Baron playing techno every week………

Resident Advisor

Got to be on the ball with these, online for three weeks and then gone; 2562, Carl Craig, Starkey, Thomas Fehlmann, Surgeon, Erol Alkan, Redshape have all done ‘casts.

FACT

Past podcasts from Autechre (!!!), The Black Dog, and current one is Marcel Dettman. Tends to feature more “out-there” artists.

Fabric

London club have offered ‘casts from FourTet, Surgeon, Mad Professor, Andy Weatherall and loads more.

Hotflush

Podcasts from Scuba’s label

I’ve only just scraped the surface, if you know of anymore worth checking out please let me know!

Electronic Steve x
Stephen@differentclassradio.co.uk

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So today is National Record Store Day and what did you do to celebrate?  I awoke at 6am groggy after one too many rum and ginger ales on a sofa in North London. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I made my way to Rough Trade Records to spend two and a half hours queuing for the Blur record, ‘Fool’s Day’; limited to 1000 copies, in the whole world! On arrival I was 25th in the queue, someone mentioned that the store had 50 – 70 copies; I should be fine.

The queue was a great laugh – let’s face it, people who are mad enough to get to a record store at 7am to buy a 7” are going to be sound – it all adds to the event. It reminded me of when I queued for 6 hours on a freezing January morning as a teenager with my Dad to get tickets to see Blur play at Southend, or the time queuing to get in to the closing night at the End nightclub in London – all little adventures that I will never forget, moments of excitement shared with strangers queuing. We were all concerned though, maybe we’d all have to frantically search around the shop to find the record, and by which time……maybe they had fewer copies, perhaps only 24….

In the end they gave out paper tokens and I got one, pretty easily. I was concerned that perhaps they’d made an error, perhaps giving out too many. By the time the store opened at gone 9am the queue was down the road and around the corner, easy over 200 people. Amazing.

Inside the store it was carnage, for those unaware – there weren’t just Blur records up for grabs. A Flaming Lips record was ridiculously popular, as was a Stones’ record. People were grabbing records left, right and centre. Records fell on the floor, people were getting squashed – madness.  In the end I left with Beatles’, Hendrix, Stones’, Babyshambles’, Gorillaz’s records limited to 1000 copies in the UK, a Factory Records’ release limited to 750 and the golden prize, ‘Fool’s Day’ by Blur. I am one of only 999 other people in the whole world who own it, but not only that (and more importantly) it’s a new Blur track, a band which I have always loved and cherished. People said I was crazy, even sad – but then I’ll never forget this morning and every time I ever play this record I will tell the story. Well worth having a great time in a queue for 2 hours in front of a record store.

Happy National Record Store Day!

Electronic Steve x

stephen@differentclassradio.co.uk

With the day off to prepare it helped with our preparation but not with an early influx of people, Gem and I sat there at 9:15 like school kids in an empty classroom waiting for a telling off, but with a sudden rush  nerves were settled and Victoria & Jacob took the stage, Victoria has a great voice which becomes even more apparent live; bright, powerful and guided superbly by Jacob’s electronic backdrop, a bright future awaits.

Recent years, to me, has seen slim pickings for aggressive guitar bands, with the likes of Paramore and Lost Prophets often being described as punk or hardcore bands it’s always going to be a battle to find decent new ones, welcome Kurtz, they took the stage and from the first moment stated intent, playing through a flurry of drums and baritone guitar these lads from Wakefield play with hurt. No vocals just powerful string play and individualist drumming, the crowd wanted more.

There is a reason you ask people back for more live shows, maybe a few, one being the music, obviously, but what also helps is people that are good to work with, reliable, positive etc. Angrydan personifies this and happens to be pretty decent live, he’s ditched the laptop in place of a sampler and visual edge and it’s added to a great show, a true modern one man band with a big glitchy sound that while staying interesting never strays from a poppable melody.

Drum Eyes were put onto me by Digby as a band that had to be seen, so we put them on, they filled the stage with boxes, gear and people, two drummers driving the sound with a bass so deep I doubt I’ll get that range back in my ears, most people loved them and a few wanted their money back, just the way I like it!

Me and Gem made a big decision this week, we decided to go bi-monthly with the shows, it was always meant to be a part of DCR but it’s taken over, I never wanted to be a music promoter and I still don’t, I just want to see and be involved with good bands, so when I couldn’t find time to do my show something had to give. The next IF show will be mega.

Next show June 11th – Bardens Boudoir – Line up to follow !

Even though it is tiny it has one of the best sound systems in the county and is increadibly important as a home to the kind of forward thinking music we play on Different Class Radio. It has hosted nights such as FWD>>, Bash and CD-R. Producers such as Four Tet (anyone notice a song called Plastic People on his new album), The Bug, Kode9 and Erol Alkan have all played there.

The most up-to-date info about the situation can be read here but it seems that the reasons the police have given to shut it down are very poor.

To find out how you can help the club have a look at this Facebook group or sign this petiton, which will be given to Hackney Council.

Digby

Cheaplist: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/71532

See you there ! ! !

thanks,

DCR

The Brighton band Tall Ships will replace Talons on Feb 5th, we did’nt want to replace Talons with any old band just to make up the numbers but we were recommended Tall Ships and we’re happy to welcome them on our night.

http://www.myspace.com/tallshipsfromfalmouth

DONT FORGET TO GO HOME !?

THREE TRAPPED TIGERS

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year

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But let’s face it, you’re tired of people banging on about the true meaning of Christmas; whether it’s the little baby Jesus, time spent with family and friends, remembering the less fortunate and so on. But just listen to Kellarissa’s The Eve of Christmas Eve, my favourite Christmas song this year, (played today, along with Jane Siberry, Holly Golightly and The Walkabouts) in all its realistic warmth, and when she sings: “I don’t care what we do each Christmas/Just as long as you’re with me”,  can anyone doubt that the true meaning of Christmas dwells in those lines?

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Merry Christmas x

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So sit back relax, pour yourself a coffee with Baileys and enjoy Christmas on DCR.

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But for every song that heigh-hos, there’s another that takes on a
less festive hue. In today’s Christmas podcast, James Brown languidly
lambasts us for neglecting those worse off than ourselves, The
Youngsters warn us of the pitfalls of over-indulging, the lovely El
Perro Del Mar may be sighing ‘Oh, What a Christmas’, but in a voice
that simply cries out ‘Bonjour, tristesse’. And finally, when the
quixotic Mary Margaret O’Hara sings that it’ll be a blue Christmas
without you, one knows, that for her, it truly will be.

So if you are, during this festive period, paper hat on head, feeling
like a character in a Bergman film, while all around you sit sunny
people who long to be in Friends, remember you’re not alone. This too
will pass. So buy yourself a present, unpop a cork, and have Christmas
on your own terms. And if your mood clears and your spirits cheer,
join me on 23 December for the other side of the coin in the plum
pudding, a show made up of songs that celebrate Christmas.

We’re getting truly festive here at DCR and offering you a plethora of daily yuletide shows to keep you busy over the festive season.
Our DJ’s will be airing a new mini-show every day from December 12th right up until Christmas Eve featuring their favourite Alternative seasonal tracks.

“>

There will be no Pogues, no Slade, no Wham and certainly no Cliff. We’re talking about The Fall, Slow Club, Das Wunderlust, The Ramones, Kellarissa, Radiohead, Mogwai, Bright Eyes and so on and so on.
All our regular DJ’s from Liam and Gem on The IF show to Adrian’s 13 show, Digby’s Debris Slide, Ladies Day, Steve from The Electronic Tonic and Adam’s Words Into Wires will all leave their regular format for this fortnight and get all festive, we’re also welcoming Richard our podcast producer for a special Christmas Eve show with guests. The fresh show will appear in this space just after midnight every day from 12th December to Chrsitmas Eve.
Ahhh, the wonder of an alternative Christmas x