41Rooms

This playlist is 73% vinyl friendly. Not bad.

From 2016, the TechDas Air Force One Premium turntable might well have been aimed initially at the present user of said plane, if features like vacuum clamping, pneumatic bearings, the Disc suction system and an impressive Wow & Flutter ratio of 0.03% (WRMS) were his or her thing and depending on the spec required it retailed at between $140,000 and $152,000. You read that right.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 151

Nearly as good as captured cinematically. A busy day in the life of Joni.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Sunrise (Writing Session Recording) – Low-Life, Definitive Edition box set – Warner Music – 2023

Yep, slower than the version most will know – either from the album or when played live, or indeed the equally vocal-less ‘Rough Mix’ take the band generously gave me for the Discreet Campaigns v/artist cassette that kickstarted the short-lived Rorschach Testing label – but it’s another where you’re practically hearing the band getting to grips with a rhythm and/or the shell of a song. My money’s on Hooky being the one who suggested the tempo should be taken up a notch or two.

04.48

THE WAKE – The Calendar (demo) – Unreleased – 1983

Onwards to become The Torn Calendar but here it was one of three tracks demo’d (along with ‘Places’ {pre Send Them Away} and Rise and Shine) on a TEAC 4-track reel to reel the band borrowed from me. They certainly made far better use of it than I ever did.

The written lyrics given to Bedford’s Katie Possum at some point, along with her review in the local paper of the band’s second gig at Winkles… and that’s Stephen, my dog, Flanagan and Mac at my house the day before said gig.

08.10

A CERTAIN RATIO – And Then She Smiles – Force, LP – Factory – 1986

It’ll be no surprise to those that know me that I’m a bigger fan of the ‘tougher’ earlier ACR but here Jez Kerr’s voice is so sublime over a more ‘reflective’ sound.

11.59

THE OUBLIETTE – That’s Enough – Stream only – 2026

This is a complete first! Here – by complete accident – sits the first ever AI generated track to feature on 41 Rooms! And who knows re the video? It’s not an area I intend actively searching out, so expect them very infrequently but The Oubliette’s Youtube channel has a bucket load of tracks if you fancy your ’80s indie and darkwave-sounding tunes on the ‘artificial’ side.

15.18

LOVELAND (feat RACHEL McFARLANE) – Let the Music (Lift You Up) (Full On Vocal Radio Edit) – 12″ – Big Beat – 1994

‘The Full On Vocal Mix, with its pounding piano and hackneyed lyrics, is undeniably old-fashioned and is about as cheesy as a lorry-load of Wotsits. But it comes with a guarantee to create absolute mayhem on all but the most elite of dancefloors. For those DJs who are more concerned about their own credibility than their audience’s enjoyment levels, there is also a much cooler garage-style remix from Olympic’s Bottom Dollar crew plus some deep and funky dubs‘. – Andy Beevers, Record Mirror (Music Week), 5.3.94

There are times when storming vocals, ‘less than critical’ lyrics and hands in the air are all you need… and this Big Beat belter had me smiling back then.

18.30

MARCO BENEVENTO – Houdini – Glera, LP – Big Crown Records – 2026

A bit of a broken beat and summery, Latin thing going on here, like someone taking a late ’60s Sergio Mendes vocal snippet on a wild ride.

20.59

MIDNIGHTROBA – Day’s Gon’ Come – Raise A Symphony, 2LP – Sonder – 2026

Roba El-Assawy has been heard far too infrequently since her days fronting Attica Blues.

22.42

THE ISLEY BROTHERS (feat RONALD ISLEY and ANGELA WINBUSH) – Float On (Bad Boy Remix) (Instrumental edit) * – Floatin’ On Your Love, 12″ – 4th & Broadway – 1996

I cut out all the ‘bump and grind’ lurrrv thang lyrics, as it was the beats, bv’s and ad libs stuff on this mix that made me buy the 12″ in the first place. Oh, and Ronald Isley could always sound like he was just itching to break into Summer Breeze any second. No bad thing.

24.31

HONEY DIJON (feat. JACOB LUSK) – Satisfied – The Nightlife, download only – Someothershit -2026

On first listen I briefly thought that Anohni (previously of Antony and the Johnsons) was on board here sounding soul sexy but it’s ‘competitor in American Idol’ (Season 10, apparently), Jacob Lusk quivering and sailing high on Ms Dijon’s production. African beat vibes sparkling all the way.

28.32

THE YOUNG DISCIPLES – Apparently Nothin’ – 12″ – Talkin’ Loud – 1991

Early in the Gilles Peterson and Norman Jay’ label catalogue and one hell of a funky strut.

The wonderful Straight No Chaser mag was always a must read, even if a lot of the sounds and artists passed me by. I could still find tunes I’d never happen on anywhere else, unless I’d stood all day in London Soho’s Mr Bongo’s shop (or the likes) back in the day.

32.55

RÓISÍN MURPHY – If We’re In Love – 12″ – Echo – 2005

Strut Part 2! Between her Moloko days and solo career the Arklow, Ireland girl is a regular of sorts at 41 Rooms. Not sure about that sleeve cover, though.

37.20

CAN – I Want More – 7″ – Virgin – 1976

‘German experimental electronic artist makes the UK’s Top 30 singles chart’ shock, horror probe.

40.34

FINITRIBE – Catch The Whistle – Promo 12″ only – Finiflex – 1993

First heard by me as a Tommy Vance-spoken ‘One FM exclusive’ on the Beeb’s lead radio station, though my mixtape forever played it slower than intended. Still rather it a tad pitched down. Squelchy sounding snares were often the order of them days.

46.14

ZIN MIYAKEZAWA – A Sanctuary Of Twilight Filled With Tranquility * – Classical Music, Vol. 108- Instrumental BGM – Download only – Audiostock – 2025

BGM = Background music, but ‘Incidental’ sounds so much classier, don’t you think? I’m slightly doubting whether Zin Miyakezawa is a real human but either way A Sanctuary… brings to mind Richard Harvey’s Elegy (the theme from TV’s 1983 Shroud For A Nightingale) and to a certain degree, parts of Harry’s Theme – Terminus (Silent Witness, S10, E10), and as all three have now made it to 41 Rooms you’ll instantly remember them all, I’m sure. You’re welcome, though a proper musician would tell me where exactly I’m right or wrong on all that.

48.39

ROBIN TROWER – Bluebird – Robin Trower, 12″ EP – Chrysalis – 1977

With a lot more guitar here than is usually found on 41 Rooms, for me with any Robin Trower I heard back in the day it was always Jimmy Dewar’s vocals that I took to.

54.07

KELELA – Idea 1 – Download only – Warp – 2026

A wash of a sound from the decade-long Warp label artist.

57.23

CALLERS – Young People – Life Of Love, LP – Western Vinyl – 2010

Dark Folk, I reckon. When Sara Lucas’ vocal gets earthy and ‘gutteral’ and let’s loose. It’s a switch that used to get me with Liz Fraser, though her ‘switch’ sounded more polarised.

01.01.01

THIS MORTAL COIL – Strength Of Strings – Filigree & Shadow, 2LP – 4AD – 1986

The first of two times vocalist Dominic Appleton fronted TMC, and I have to admit that I got the title wrong on the show. So, without time to correct it you got no title and I’d have better gotten away with it (or sounded less vague?) if there hadn’t been twenty five TMC tracks on the release, all with different personnel involved. Sod’s Law.

01.05.11

DRY CLEANING – Sliced By A Fingernail – Download only – 4AD – 2026

And from the 4AD label in 1986… to their 2026 output and I’d be slight wary of anybody saying ‘Happy birthday’ in this tone to me.

01.09.10

GNAG OF FOUR – He’d Send In The Army – Solid Gold, LP – EMI – 1981

Always saying it like they saw it.

01.12.56

YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS – Cakewalking – Final Day, 7″ – Rough Trade – 1980

In a most understated manner they sort of made a statement when they appeared on BBC 2’s Something Else in late ’80.

01.15.42

OSCAR FARRELL – Tripping Up In A Rush – I’ve Already Called, 12″ EP – dh2 – 2025

I might have to keep an eye and ear on this chap.

01.18.40

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Sleepwalking (John Peel session track, 1984) – Radiation (BBC Recordings 84-86), LP – Get Back – 2001

Having earlier been Cakewalking, now we’re Sleepwalking. All part of the service. Though actually released three years earlier (but only on CD) the above Get Back-label vinyl release has been followed up in 2026 by a bootleg version. The people dictate… and I’ll be with them catching the very last CV gigs ever, near the end of the year.

01.24.03

GIFT – Pinkhouse Secret Rave (Redux) – Download only – Self-released – 2026

A track from their 2022 debut album, Momentary Presence given a 2026 rework/remix, sorry ‘Redux’ and according to Discogs there are at least 33 acts called Gift! In this day and age – what with both the clamber for attention and the availability of info out there – you’d think…

01.28.16

GANZHEIT – Bolt It Down (Why Work?) * – Summer Of ’84 (demo cassette only) – Self-released – 1984

Out of Bedford. Clattering and driving punk electronic stuff. From the same time-frame, this one reminding a bit of Portion Control, a band who’d played the town earlier in the year above.

01.34.21

SUPER EXTRA BONUS PARTY (feat SORCA McGRATH) – Some Dark Forces – LovesVinyl Issue 02, v/artist 12″ – LovesVinyl – 2019

Ex-Ships vocalist sails over a Running Up The Hill-like drum pattern.

01.38.30

TRACEY THORN – Easy – Out Of The Woods, LP – Virgin – 2007

On the quieter side, One of the ‘signature’ voices,

01.41.49

BETH HIRSCH – Miner’s Son (Aquatic Mix) – 10″ – Artefact – 1997

Bang Bang’s mix sets Beth back a bit in the mix but if lesser known than Ms Thorn above, it’s yet another signature voice.

01.46.43

JONI MITCHELL – Song For Sharon – Hejira, LP – Asylum – 1976

Epic storytelling in a single song.

01.54.46

WAR (feat JOSE FELICIANO) – East L.A. – Peace Sign, 2LP – Avenue – 1994

This show had to be totally put together on the fly, between daily meet ups with friends back in Bedford and London, but the weather was brill right through and the piecing together ended up in the Leytonstone sunshine… even though that’s nowhere near East L.A. There’s a longer, more up front vocals version of the song where Jose also takes on the verses and given my JF leanings I could have placed that one here, but I actually like him ‘countering’ to War vocalist, Lonnie Jordan. Everything about Jose’s vocal when he first drops in here is why I first loved the man back in the late 60’s/early ’70s. I once reminded Jose of the track’s two versions and also (importantly) why I liked this one more… and maybe understandably he seemed a bit disappointed.

Show 152 will be here June 7.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 151 – Original upload 3.5.26 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 68% vinyl friendly. Poor.

Teenage Engineering’s PO–80 Record Factory turntable.

In a move to avoid wrecking their dads’ pride and joy, maybe an inexpensive (approx £300) route to young kids getting the feel of spinning vinyl? Beyond maybe playing a Factory Records record on this Record Factory turntable, with six black five-inch blank records plus sleeves included they can even cut their own recordings! That’s all after you’ve built the thing… as it comes in a kit.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 150

‘And the award goes to… ‘ Tracey Thorne and Ben Watt… A long, long time ago some of their words would have rung true here.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Crystal (Lee Coombs Remix) * – 12″ – London – 2001

Fresh from the release of the band’s Get Ready album, both its opening track and their set opener on all three of the Brixton Academy, London gigs I caught in 2001, this version is maybe weighted more on the remixers side than usual when kicking off 41 Rooms with New Order but this one really drives.

08.13

MESOSAUNA (feat DANIELE GAS) – Rotta Calabra – Download only – Factory Flaws – 2025

Out of Milan and Italy (albeit with a bit of a Teutonic feel) the title translates as “Calabrian Route”, ‘naming the path many take across the sea, hoping for something better on the other side‘. That fish below though needs to stick to the water.

13.46

FOUR TET – A Joy (Album version) – 7″ – Domino – 2005

The ‘Album version’ on a 7″ single and to these ears, Kieran Hebden sounding a long way from anything joyous.

16.42

WIELORYB – Iron – Stream only? – ? – 2026

‘Spongey industrial’ sounds from Poland and best explained, aurally and visually, within his regular Meta/Fb page posts.

19.08

CHOZE x BARBARELLA – Heartbeat Drums – Stream only – Facebook – 2025

‘Built from the ground up, written, recorded and filmed in a single five hour session‘… with, as I hint on the show, Massive Attack’s Bristol, UK in their bones it would seem, even though with far flung ancestry they’re based in London.

22.40

MASSIVE ATTACK – Safe From Harm (12″ Version) – 12″ – Wild Bunch – 1991

And to the slow beats bosses themselves…

‘Wailed like ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ by Shara Nelson, this wind swept strange very densely rumbling slow swaying tugger is out first (contrary to the sleeve listing) in Nellee Hooper’s (0)-81.6bpl 12″ Version and 0-81.4bpm Instrumental, plush group’s 0-82.3bpm Original, with apparently a Paul Oakenfold remix to follow‘. – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 1.6.91

29.13

RAE & CHRISTIAN – Anything U Want – 12″ – Grand Central – 1998

The instrumental dub side made it to 41 Rooms eons ago but contrary maybe to the ‘antennae’ of a hardcore rap fan, this vocal version is an example of how my senses tend to pick up on any counter vocals or sounds to the rap – and here it’s that soulful bv. If they weren’t there this tune would have passed me by without much fuss – even though it’s Mark Rae (and Steve Christian) at the controls.

32.47

ADDIS ROCKERS – Enter Addis Ababa – Enter Addis Ababa, LP – Warriors International – 1985

An album I only honed in on decades after John Peel played the album’s Broadwater Farm Affairs track and if ever anyone can find a near mint copy of this album, they’re a better soul than me. It’s the sleeve that’s always the bigger problem. Lamination of some sort might have done the trick.

37.06

MISTY IN ROOTS – Soddom and Gomorrah (Peel session, 27.11.79) – The John Peel Sessions, CD only – Strange Fruit – 1995

Importantly for me, The John Peel Sessions covers four of the seven tracks recorded for the band’s first two (and best?) visits to the Beeb’s Maida Vale studios, with the second being right up there with any or most done for Peel’s radio show, and before the dawn of Discogs I had the notion the above release might have been on vinyl as well. Sadly, to date it’s not the case.

41.42

MAE McKENNA – Sayonara – Nightfallers, LP – Virgin – 1988

Find me another online playlist where Mae McKenna has sat next to Misty In Roots. It won’t be happening. Somewhere soon after this album came out I was on a holiday back in Ireland and after an evening in the pub with cousins we reconvened in my mum’s childhood home and were playing ‘Rings’ (look it up, kids) on a Ring Board on the door down to the ‘parlour’ and this tune came on the radio. The things you remember…

47.04

RAIN TREE CROW – Every Colour You Are – Rain Tree Crow, LP – Virgin – 1991

With all four (ex)members of Japan involved, Rain Tree Crow was seen at the time as ‘a long term project, with a fresh artistic start‘. Keen to avoid any notions of a nostalgic Japan reunion, David Sylvian, especially, was aiming to ‘create improvised, atmospheric music departing from their past commercial sound.’ Unsurprisingly, I’ve gone for the track that maybe could most happily have sat on any new Japan album of the time. :)

50.44

DAVID BOWIE – Right – 7″ b-side – RCA – 1975

This mistakenly slipped off the 41 Rooms radar til now. Gold star quality from my fave Bowie era.

54.55

CHAKK – Falling – 10 Days In An Elevator, LP – MCA – 1986

From the early doors, tougher industrial funk of Out Of The Flesh through to the ‘10 Days… ‘ album and Falling, where he’s absolutely soaring, Jake Harries was well suited as Chakk’s vocalist, even if (it seems) singing didn’t transpire to being a long term career path.

58.35

TERRY CALLIER – Love Theme From Spartacus – Timepeace, LP – Talkin’ Loud/Verve – 1998

Folk… soul… class… The film’s instrumental theme tune re-imagined.

01.03.01

LYNDA SLOANE-CUSACK – Dreams (part) – Stream only – 2026

I’ve side-stepped matching the track after this, here with the more obvious Fleetwood Mac reference point (Rhiannon) – and albeit a short, one-time take, this is a beaut of a FM cover. Cork, Ireland-based, Lynda’s actually a wedding ceremony singer and guitarist, so that accounts for the church acoustics in the mix.

01.04.50

KELLY JEAN CARTER – Yellow-Back Novel – Yellow-Back Novel, download only – Red Bird Music – 2025

Seemingly out of nowhere (though there’ll have been an algorthymic reason) this quality song popped up on my Fb/Meta feed and seeped into my brain. A sleeper of a song that maybe mostly hits the mark with anyone who grew up in the ’70s hearing singer-songwriters regularly on the radio.

01.09.53

DAVID McWILLIAMS – As I Used To Know Her – Livin’s Just A State Of Mind, LP – Dawn – 1974

The first of two artists from Northern Ireland on this show and until recently, McWilliam’s signature tune, Days Of Pearly Spencer was the only single/track of his I (back in the ’70s) ever owned. If I’m honest, this was one of those grab-the-album-for-the-one-and-only-track-I-like sketches… but I recently spotted and bought this acetate, so that added some appeal. Maybe half a dozen at most ever cut?

01.14.11

THIS MORTAL COIL – I Want To Live – Filigree & Shadow, 2LP – 4AD – 1986

Deirdre Rutkowski owns it here but I remember thinking F&S was a single album at best and listening now to the two LPs it still feels ‘patchy’ and like a project that fell short of its initial goals. Could be wrong, of course.

01.18.04

JAZZ THE GLASS / GOT-TA-SCATTA – The Journey – Demo, unreleased – Stream only – 2015-2025’ish

Dave Summersgill and myself (GOT-TA-SCATTA) with the ‘ingredients’ here and judging by the working versions I have, this track is only(!) a little over a decade old, though this version was fine-tuned in more recent times by Dave (Jazz The Glass). With our favourite unwitting contributor of the time, Maya Angelou on the mic and samples from elsewhere.

01.22.16

BUNNYDRUMS – Ugh

and…

01.25.13

BUNNYDRUMS – Sleeping – P.K.D., LP – Red Music – 1983

Such is the way I put these shows together I was smugly thinking Sleeping very neatly fitted after Ugh before I realised it was the same band! So, an accidental and rare ‘double tune’ outing on 41 Rooms.

01.29.28

JOY DIVISION – The Only Mistake – Still, 2LP – Factory – 1981

Yep, my copy of Still sadly water damaged along the way. As for the ribbon that ‘wrapped’ it in 1981, that would have been low on my radar to conserve back then.

01.33.28

MOUNT PALOMAR (feat ENOLA GAY) – Feeding Frenzy * – Stream only – 2026

Tuff!!!!! Something akin the traits I mention above with Rae & Christian, I’m a bit of a sucker for a verse and chorus structure that wildly contrasts… and this really smacks.

01.37.04

ATRIC & FRIDA DARKO – My Dog – Download only – 2025

Even though they’re from Leipzig, Germany, this sounds darker than some of their profile pics and track visuals would suggest.

01.42.13

SHIPS – Where We Are – Precession, LP + 7″ – Self released – 2017

Actually, the a-side of the (blue vinyl) 7″ part of the package – with the album being clear vinyl. With my copy currently residing in California, let’s hear it for the bespoke packaging approach! The Dublin-based duo, Sorca McGrath & Simon Cullen’s first and only album, to date.

01.46.47

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL – Missing – Amplified Heart, LP – Blanco y Negro – 1994

It’s maybe hard to remember there was a time – before Todd Terry’s intervention took the song global – when Missing was (just) a track on an album, as classy as the duo, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn are. If I’d gone for the purest ‘least cluttered by other tracks and/or mixes’ vinyl to get this original version, it would have been on an expensive Italian promo only 7″… but I haven’t.

01.50.25

FAYLEINE BROWN – You Know I Missed You (Todd Edwards Remix) – 12″ – Azuli – 1996

‘Device and Devibes deliver a mature-sounding vocal with a smokin’ underground break which continues in the dub with whirling vocals and swinging drums. The Todd Edwards mix has his typical anagramatic vocal arrangements and although it will not win him any new fans, it will certainly keep a confused but contented smile on the faces of his existing ones. Finally, there is D&D Tribal dub which will work well for those who prefer harder repetitive house‘. **** Jeremy Newall, Record Mirror (Music Week), 2.3.96

And from a song with the line ‘and I miss you’ to one with the title, ‘You Know I Missed You’. Totally coincidental… with Todd Edwards in the house garage! Maybe with a bit of a nod to M(ark) K(inchen)’s vocal cut up style, this had me bouncing and cheery in its time, as it did with the London underground scene… and yet it’s another 12″ you can now pick up, still in mint condition for less than the price of a pint.

01.55.32

ST. GERMAIN – Alabama Blues (Todd Edwards Vocal Mix) – 12″ – F Communications – 1995

‘This label’s best release gets another chance with some more radio friendly mixes that feature a lot more vocal and mixes by Todd Terry that make the blues/house combinations less effective but still catchy. The sparser deeper original mix is still the best with its simple moody organ creating the atmosphere, but this groundbreaking tune deserves a re-release and the new versions at least give it a new angle‘. – Tim Jeffery, Record Mirror (Music Week), 11.11.95

‘Todd Edwards is New York’s fastest rising production star. Here, he helps the leading light of the French new school jazzers to forge stronger links to the dancefloor. With his distinctly smooth yet hyper style, the MK-like vocal snippets work particularly well on the dub, where Stevie Wonder cut-ups jump off the vinyl. And for those who missed out on the first release of this in 1993, the oh-so-cool original is also included‘. ****1/2 Michael Morley, Muzik #6, Nov ’95

Yep, with the wrong Todd noted in the first review, it’s a Todd Edwards reprise as he works his skills on the French producer’s original.

Show 151 will upload May 3.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 150 – Original upload 5.4.26 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 63% vinyl friendly. Very poor.

The Vertere DG-1 Dynamic Groove.

One commentator queried whether ‘the design wandered in the direction of form over function‘, but this, the company’s entry level version, was voted in What Hi-Fi‘s updated 2025 ‘20 very best turntables of (the magazine’s) lifetime‘… but it had detractors elsewhere.

My first thought was ‘sandwich’ and lo and behold the review mentions the plinth’s ‘three layers of acrylic reinforced with a steel chassis to give a rigid yet well-damped structure‘ with that middle layer, from a distance, reminding me of some marbled cheese. Near £2k for one standard version spotted on eBay and £3550 for a DG-1S updated model, with a bullet pointed spec to match. When you get up to these prices (and way, way beyond) manufacturers are duty bound to work overtime to justify their prices.

NB: Apologies. A bit of a glitch in recording my parts for this show but they just about do the job.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 149

On another day and in another frame of mind it could have gone to Baby Rose but much aided by a gorgeous key change backdrop, the gold star sticker goes to Banderas! It’s hard to tell though if their ‘There is no rehearsal. No second chance. No false start. No better circumstances… ‘ words of wisdom would change much with the type of peeps in their video.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Doubts Even Here (Instrumental) (Cargo Demo) (2019 Remaster) – Movement, Definitive Edition Boxset – Warner Music – 2023

Doubts Even Hear? I should coco, and if you want ‘tentative’ in your music then this has it in shed loads. My guess is this maybe wasn’t Hooky’s first stab at the track in the band’s rehearsal room but you can nearly hear him finding his way into and over the ARP Quadra’s strings.

05.15

COCTEAU TWINS – Road River and Rail (Live) – Stream only – 2026

Live in 1991 but only very recently uploaded to the net, a mixing desk recording from The Warfield, in San Francisco and a rare treat to hear Liz this clear in a gig setting. At your leisure, search out the rest of the gig.

There’s no visual from the above show, so here’s a barely rescued – but previously unseen/unpublished – photo of mine. Liz and Simon soundchecking at Newcastle’s Tiffany’s, 19.4.84.

Photo credit / copyright: Dec Hickey

08.37

JOHN CALE – Thoughtless Kind (M:FANS) – M:FANS, 2LP – Double Six – 2016

A pedestrian, sledgehammer beat and a more forceful take on the lyrics than found in the ex-Velvet Underground man’s original. To my ears, they’re better suited here.

13.59

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER – Take A Pebble * – Emerson, Lake & Palmer, LP – Island – 1970

I bought this album maybe four or five years after release and without doubt after having heard maybe just one of the three tracks on it I had taken to. I wouldn’t have been listening to any radio that might have played this album, so I’m guessing I borrowed it from a mate – very likely Phil Harris or Tom Locke (RIP). Greg Lake’s vocals were the thing for me back then and on my National Panasonic SG-1070L I’d have skipped Keith Emerson’s often lengthy rock-orchestral leaning keyboard workouts from all three… and likewise it’s a massive edit on the show for Take A Pebble.

17.33

BABY ROSE – Stop The Bleeding – Through And Through, LP – Secretly Canadian – 2023

If I thought the vibrato in Baby Rose’s vocal on the last 41 Rooms’ show entry (‘Go’) reminded me of Anonhi/Antony and the Johnsons then this does so with knobs on… as it maybe sounds even more of a song and arrangement the latter could have penned.

21.17

A RACE OF ANGELS – Golden – Broadcast No. 1, CD only – Luv Classics – 2005

It’s not often a CD gets a visual look in on 41 Rooms but the majority of Broadcast No. 1’s tracks have been or are on course for inclusion… and there was no vinyl. A 21st century left field folk soul beaut. Saluting Yeofi Andoh once again.

23.56

KRAFTWERK – Boing Boom Tschak * – Electric Cafe, LP – Kling Klang / EMI – 1986

The German maestros with some playful mid ’80s electro. Who else could it be?

27.01

BESIDE (with BERNARD FOWLER) – Odeon (Dance Mix) – 12″ – Celluloid – 1984

In 1984 the only place I’d have heard this was on John Peel’s radio shows – and he was partial to some electro. With the other side playlisted on 41 Rooms years ago, that would make this Afrika Bambaataa-produced 12″ a bargain to me these days, at less than the price of a pint on Discogs. Back in 1984, ordering it on import from Bedford’s HMV (as I did) its £5.29 price tag would seemingly have between five and ten pints plus worth!

32.37

MIDNIGHT STAR – Midas Touch (Vocal Extended Remix) – 12″ – Solar – 1986

With Electro roots, some breezy mid ’80s glitzy dance which has aged far better than – ‘Look away now’ (or don’t look at all) – the clothes and hair in the video.

38.42

ROZALLA – Born To Luv Ya – 12″ – Pulse-8 – 1990

At some point, when I do get to wade through the Record Mirror‘s I have from the the late ’80s/early ’90s I’d put a quiet fiver on the late James Hamilton having used ‘bubbling’ in a review of this particular mix of the tune. Par for the course lyrics but given some decent beats Rozalla has a voice that more than matches.

43.00

THOMAS LEER – Forgive and Forget – 1982, CD only – Klanggalerie – 2015

When I first happened on the 1982 CD recordings I thought Leer had re-found his youthful energy in the ‘now’. It’s in the title, Dec… so, a ‘series of tracks for unreleased album circa 1982‘ states the man himself. That would put them around the time of his Letter From America and Contradictions EPs but way before the ‘pop’ album, The Scale Of Ten. Forgive and Forget is though definitely a dry run for that album’s belter, Control Yourself.

47.23

MINT ROYALE – I Don’t Care – See You In The Morning, CD only – Faith & Hope Records Limited – 2005

Aagghh, it’s another CD… but needs must, as no vinyl surfaced and by this point Neil Claxton was flying solo as Mint Royale.

51.48

OSCAR FARRELL (feat SAMPHA) – Dream Therapy (George FitzGerald remix) – Download only – ? – 2026

The So Far South EP original rightly has many admirers but I’m more with this moodier take.

Screenshot

55.22

NOSTALGIX – Mess With Me – Download only – Confession – 2019

Out of Vancouver, British Columbia, she seems through the years to have occasionally just digitally floated singular tracks out there.

58.32

SUICIDE – Ghost Rider – Self-titled, LP – Red Star Records – 1977

There’d be a bunch of my early ’80s mates who’d have gone for the album but it’s only this track that grabbed me.

01.01.01

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Nag Nag Nag (Live 2025 Single Edit) – Download only (for now) – Mute – 2026

‘Updating’ and then capturing – just ‘right’ – this classic track’s first live outing in forty five or so years could have gone wrong but all involved nailed it, and seeing as I caught four of the Cabs’ six gigs last year there’s a good chance I was in on this actual recording. In fact, given the advances in sound technology Nag is likely sounding better in the room than it would have done live back in 1979-82… something I never witnessed.

01.05.10

THE SOUND – Heartland (Mike Read session, 1980) – The BBC Recordings – 2CD only – Renascent – 2004

If Adrian Borland and crew were pushing for a radio session in their early throws (who wasn’t) I’d have thought John Peel would have got in there first. The band did subsequently do a Peel session but here Mike Read edged it and the band were firing.

01.08.19

JOY DIVISION – Warsaw – An Ideal For Living, 7″ EP – Enigma – 1978

I never owned this original 7″ but somewhere around 1980-81 and through the back pages of the inkie press I bought the subsequent 12″ from an ‘MJ’ in Crewe who reckoned in an enclosed note he’d leant Steve Morris £60 to pay for the sleeves. When I sold the single years later I thought I’d kept the note… but if I did, it then went AWOL.

01.10.40

TURNSTILE – Dreaming – Never Enough, LP – Roadrunner – 2025

They’ve eased up here on their early hardcore leanings which might go some way to why this tune gets a thumbs up from me and those who take occasionally take a punt on an album because of the sleeve could still be in for a shock.

01.13.00

TV21 – Ideal Way Of Life – A Thin Red Line, LP – Deram – 1981

Other tracks on the album have already graced 41 Rooms as indeed they did back in Winkles in 1981-82.

01.15.27

THE TEARDROP EXPLODES – Went Crazy – Kilimanjaro, LP – Mercury – 1980

Julian in 1980. Sounding ‘quirky pop’ in 2026?

01.18.03

NATURAL SCIENTIST – See Through You – 7″ – Dental Records – 1982

Even though I bought their Terminal Velocity debut 12″ at the time, this their follow up somehow by-passed me for four decades.

01.22.07

IRMA THOMAS – My Heart’s In Memphis – My Heart’s In Memphis – The Songs Of Dan Penn, CD only – Rounder Records – 2000

Criminally, only seven thousand plus peeps have ever viewed the fan video online of Irma on an outside stage, live in New Orleans from 2003 and I nearly went with its muffled sound here, as the more she gets in to the song the more she really lives it.

01.25.53

STEVIE WONDER – (I) Don’t Know Why (I Love You) – 7″ – Tamla Motown – 1968-9

For the UK release Motown couldn’t quite make up there mind on the title – but this stark outpouring and arrangement is still a killer, even though it was maybe trumped for radio play by the lusher, romantic appeal of the b-side, My Cherie Amour.

01.28.25

MT JONES – I Don’t Understand – Joy, LP – ? – 2026

New(ish) blue-eyed retro soul with as much effort on the visual. A fab single but I’ve got a feeling an album of his accentuated vocal might be too much for me. We’ll see.

01.31.49

WILLIE HUTCH – Hurt So Bad – Season For Love, LP – RCA – 1970

Before his switch to maybe his more spiritual Brother’s Gonna Work It Out home of Motown.

01.34.39

BANDERAS – This Is Your Life (PanoΣigma Edit) – Stream only – ? – 2019

Just the one album, squarely aimed at the mainstream, and some cerebral tunes from these two shaven-headed girls. I’m not sure how much the decent lyrics and sumptuous key change helped but this was their biggest UK hit. Even in the sometimes throwaway nature of ‘pop’ charts, quality will out.

01.39.36

DIANA BROWN & BARRIE K SHARPE – Eating Me Alive * – 12″ – FFRR – 1992

‘Weaving together many different dance music sounds of the late sixties/early seventies, including such as vintage Jackson 5 and Norman Whitfield era Temptations, Timmy Thomas beats and Chicago Transit Authority guitar chords (“I’m a man, yes I am, and I love you so”), this brilliant intensely driving jiggly chugger has been promoed as a twinpack with 0-104.7-0bpm Undisputed Mix Part 1 & Part II, 0-104.7bpm Original Groundbeat, 0-105.25-0bpm Funky Funky Sugar Heavy Groundbeat Mix, 0-105.4bpm One Trip Too Many Mix, more recently influenced grooving 115.8-0bpm Groundbeat House Ensemble/Instrumental, hi-hat hustled 118.7bpm Undercover Dub Mix 1 and 118.6bpm Undercover Dub Mix 2, Dianamite!‘ – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 20.6.92

Any time I re-edit etc I really should remember the source of the original… and there’s a heavy 41 Rooms re-edit going on here. Whatever. James Hamilton’s ‘vintage Jackson 5’ reference is spot on and the bridges and chorus are so strong they make the verses sound absolutely tepid. Weird.

01.45.08

RHYTHIM IS RHYTHIM – Strings Of Life (‘Original Piano Mix’) – 12″ – Transmat – 1987

‘So enduringly popular and still steadily selling that it could follow A Guy Called Gerald up the chart, Derrick ‘Mayday’ May’s synthetic strings stabbed and sawed techno pioneeringly jerky instrumental leaper is now out here in its frantic acidic 130/129 1/5-130-0bpm Exclusive Remix, more scrubbingly hustling organ accented 128 1/5-127 4/5-128-128 1/5bpm Flam-boy-ant Mix, and piano emphasising jerkier 122 1/5-122-121 2/5-121 1/5bpm Piano Mix, flipped by the washing machine ‘sizzled’ 129-129 1/3bpm ‘Kaos’ plus the ‘Magic Juan’ Atkins created jiggly wriggling Model 500 ‘Off To Battle’ in its 125 2/3-126 1/5bpm 2emix and 126 1/5-126 2/3bpm Original Version‘. – James Hamilton, Jocks, 3.89

‘Based on a piano sequence by May’s friend Michael James. He dropped in for a visit at May’s house and sat down to play a piano ballad he had been working on called, “Lightning Strikes Twice”. This piece went into May’s sequencer and was kept there until May decided to listen to it all the way through. He found some portions which interested him, and he started to work with it. The song was originally at 80 BPM before May increased the tempo, chopped it up into loops, and added percussion and string samples’. Wikipedia

The history of this stark track is interesting. I called this ‘near punk like, house / techno’ on the show, what with its crude/rough arrangement feeling like it nearly takes four minutes to settle… just in time for it to sound like it’s breaking down on the outro! And it’s become a classic! Enough to warrant a bunch of remixes and the mighty ‘live with orchestra’ version that follows.

01.52.18

RHYTHIM IS RHYTHIM – Strings Of Life (Live, Weather Festival, Paris, France) – Stream only – 2015

Derrick May, with Francesco Tristano (ex-Aufgang) loving it big time on extra keyboards, with the weight of the full Philharmonic Orchestra Lamoureux, under the direction of Dzijan Emin… and all beautifully captured by ‘producer, Amos Rozenberg and Paramax Films in 4K with 9 Cinema cameras by Samuel Petit for Arte TV‘… it says somewhere. Strings Of Life, indeed. Catch the video in the usual places.

Show 150 will upload April 5.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 149 – Original upload 1.3.26 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 72% vinyl friendly. Not bad.

The SL-1300G in 2025. Technics keeping it simple with the design, if not with the spec trying to convince punters they need one.

‘Coreless Direct Drive Motor Achieving Stable Rotation

The use of a coreless direct-drive motor with no iron core eliminates uneven rotation of the turntable known as cogging. Also, the twin-rotor construction reduces the bearing load while maintaining high torque and reduces minute vibrations during rotation. Furthermore, the SL-1300G’s motor was redesigned to eliminate subtle vibrations that could affect sound quality. To improve rigidity, the same reinforcement pattern as the Reference Class SL-1000R/SP-10R was used for the coil mounting base‘.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

NB: THIS PLAYLIST INCLUDES EXPLETIVES.

Lyric of Playlist 148

For the reality…

Courtesy of Crooked Man, Jarvis’ by a country mile, but…

For the idyll…John Sebastian.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Turn – Waiting For The Sirens’ Call, 2LP – London – 2005

With Barney’s lilting, slightly forlorn vocal, a little gem nearly lost on one of the band’s least successful albums.

05.02

LITTLE NEMO – A Day Out Of Time – Past And Future, LP – Domestica – 2013

Though the track originally surfaced in 1987 on the 500 run, cassette-only format of the (debut) album. Even back then it could have been seen as yet another ‘sound’ out of Europe that seemed to echo the UK alternative/new wave scene of a few years earlier.

08.48

KIM GORDON – Not Today – Play Me, LP – Matador – 2026

Get past the intro – where it very momentarily sounds (to my ears anyway) like the batteries ran out – and Kim Gordon drifts nicely across the wash of sound.

12.03

THE COMSAT ANGELS – The Eye Dance – Sleep No More, LP – Polydor – 1981

Judging by a known set list for late Nov ’81 and the fact the band were then promoting the recently released, above album, this track was likely in the set list for my Bedford Corn Exchange gig promotion earlier that month. Big smiles when I hear them… though I’ve sadly never heard a tape of the Bedford night.

15.40

BUNNYDRUMS – Holy Moly – Holy Moly, LP – Fundamental – 1984

The short-lived, mid ’80s Philadelphian band with a quirky mix of ‘new wave’ vocal and a belting soul vocal bv in the backdrop of a low slung, punk country’ish workout. Maybe it’s the ‘yippee-ki-yay’ and pseudo peddle steel guitar? The band have been here before – and will be again.

21.30

COSTUME – Once I Loved (Original Mix) – Download only – 2021

Claudia Placanica’s slightly disconcerting delivery is always the thing for me!

23.54

THE IRONSIDES – The Web – Changing Light, LP – Colemine – 2023

Cinematically soundtracking the ’70s like a good’un! The Streets of San Francisco and its like… which is apt… as that’s where The Ironsides are from.

28.57

BABY ROSE – Go – Through and Through, LP – Secretly Canadian – 2023

My fave 21st century track of the show, Jasmine Rose Wilson (to her mum and dad) with a quivering/vibrato indie soul vocal – on this tune anyway – that Anonhi/Antony and the Johnsons could have penned and rolled out, albeit with a slightly different sound, no doubt. And that really is the sleeve, honest. I could be wrong but I reckon it’s a photographer’s dud that someone subsequently had a weird liking for. I struggle to actually look at it!

31.56

THE DRIFTERS – Like Sister and Brother – 7″ – Bell – 1973

I had this single in the mid ’70s but with the years since maybe ‘softening’ the senses, this made-to-measure ballad (with lead vocalist, Bill Fredericks sounding more like Johnny Mathis than I’d have remembered) sounds better now than it did back then but in the world we now live in there will be few if any songs written like this again.

I had to run the idea past one of my teenage years mates but I reckon that, along with Jimmy Ruffin’s What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted (and others, no doubt), this was a last-dance-of-the-night/grab-a-girl-type tune at Bedford Rugby Club’s Saturday night ‘discos’. I’m making this actually sound like the ’40s but it was the era and I was in my late teens… and until I find my membership card, this’ll have to do.

‘Swing to Boomerang’ indeed. I don’t think they came back.

34.52

EYELESS IN GAZA – Flight Of Swallows – Back From The Rains, LP – Cherry Red – 1986

The intro to my 1984 Rorschach Testing article below sums up my thinking on Flight back then – and though the track was being played live at the time it was a couple of years before it surfaced on the above album.

EIG article, Rorschach Testing, 1984

39.22

JONI MITCHELL – Eastern Rain – Archives – Volume 1: The Early Years 1963-1967, 5CD – Rhino – 2020

Truly a legend, such is the quality of the lady’s songwriting this beaut – from a Folklore Radio broadcast, of March 19, 1967 – never even made it to an official album and though it was covered by others and turned up in Joni live appearances of the time it took until the above retrospective to be released officially. And she’ll be back here quicker than you might be expecting.

43.13

SÓLEY – I Will Find You (Live, at the KEX Hostel in Reykjavik: 30.10.13) – Stream only – 2013

With a whole different tone to Liam Neeson’s ‘I Will Find You’ :), a production from the classy KEXP and a song only found on Sóley’s 5 track, 10″ EP, Don’t Ever Listen. This take however is a far more endearing version.

45.54

NORMA TANEGA – Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog – 7″ – Stateside – 1966

Was Norma ‘indie’ before there was such a thing? Sadly, she died in 2019 but search out a short Youtube interview and snippets piece (and the comments that followed) from a decade or so earlier. It was meant to be included in a proposed documentary that never then got going.

48.06

THE ELECTRIC FLAG – Look Into My Eyes – A Long Time Comin’, CD only – Columbia – 2003

From a handful of tracks that possibly didn’t make the cut for the initial 1968 release of the Chicago soul rock band’s second album, this is one of two that were first added to the above reissue.

50.52

LOVIN’ SPOONFUL – Summer In The City – 7″ – Kama Sutra – 1966

Maybe the best known tune on the show, with a forceful sounding John Sebastian and his/their ‘city’ being New York and its Greenwich Village hub back then.

53.13

THE FORTUNES – Here It Comes Again – 7″ – Decca – 1965

Innocent ’60s ‘pop’ with a classy arrangement, and another the likes of which will never be made again… and certainly not by anybody aiming for the charts.

56.09

THE MINDBENDERS – Groovy Kind Of Love – 7″ – Fontana – 1965

Wayne Fontana at the helm (and co-written by a pre-Sager Carol Bayer, I’ve just noted) I think this might have subconsciously stuck with me enough in its chart days (I was 8), to then make it to my record collection in the early ’70s. It felt then like a great many happily got rid of their records (certainly singles) after just a few years coz every second hand record shop had loads of chart stuff from just the 5-10 years prior. I was too young to have been buying the height of ’60s ‘pop’ during its time but picking it up a decade later was dead easy. Bet this cost me 10p or thereabouts.

58.05

SPUDDHA – Ton – Unreleased demo – 2014

‘Recorded in a single take with a pair of £100 analog groove boxes (Korg Volcas) and there’s no multi tracking, effects or post processing. One of the boxes is a three voice paraphonic synth and the other is an analogue drum machine.

‘At the time I was interested in making big, immersive music with an organic quality with sparse loops and a minimal setup. There’s a lot of live tweaking and you will notice that the limitations of the synth mean that 1) only 3 notes can sound simultaneously and 2) the voices interrupt each other. Also presets couldn’t be saved… if I didn’t record what I was doing I couldn’t move onto making something else without losing it all‘. – Spuddha.

‘Spud’ to me.

01.04.46

LONELADY – Hinterland – Hinterland, LP – Warp – 2015

Julie Lonelady groovin’ a tune and lyric that should have been here before now.

c/w Julie ‘helping out’…

01.09.32

JONI MITCHELL – River (acapella)

01.13.30

ATRIC & FRIDA DARKO – Hide & Seek – Download only – 2023

‘Always trying to combine genre fluid compositions, qualitative mixing and to take the whole process with a good sense of humor‘. – Them, via Bandcamp

01.17.26

A CERTAIN RATIO – Knife Slits Water (Peel session, June ’81) – Sextet, 2LP reissue – Factory Benelux – 2013

Yep, with Martha ‘Tilly’ Tilson’s oh-so-right vocal, the slightly epic Knife Slits Water. Very coincidentally, the day ACR recorded the above Peel session (according to the Keeping It Peel site) I saw them live supporting Cabaret Voltaire at Leicester Uni and the day the session was broadcast my diary says I had a long phone chat with Rob Gretton – no idea about what, other than re what New Order were up to at that point.

01.25.11

EARL16 – Changing World (Remix) – Cyber Roots Reggae, LP – Merge Records – 2001

I caught this on a late night KISS FM radio show. His conscious sounds here taken up a few BPM.

01.30.05

COURTNEY BUCHANAN – R U Conscious (Album version) – 12″ – Conscious – 1993

And speaking of ‘conscious’…

‘Courtney has one of the most soulful, spiritual voices to come out of the UK. His music here combines jazzy acoustic sounds with delicate use of technology on a rhythmic, down-paced head nodder. I various mixes, the track’s ‘conscious’ lyrics and impressive vocals are a fine showcase for this British talent.‘ – Ralph Tee, Record Mirror (Music Week), 3.7.93

01.34.42

DELTA HOUSE OF FUNK – Lovers & Losers – 12″ EP – Go! Discs – 1996

Decided to playlist this before I remembered it was another of Ashley Beedle’s works. So, this is with a big nod to a top lad who’s been going through the health ringer in the last few years.

01.39.38

DRAX – Middle Earth – Drax Two, 12″EP – Trope – 1993

Clear vinyl gentle German techno.

01.44.51

CROOKED MAN – Cunts – Crooked Stile, 2LP – Viscous Charm – 2026

The reimagining here courtesy of Richard ‘Parrot’ Barratt.

‘Jarvis Cocker released Running The World in 2006
The line ‘cunts are still running the world’ is more relevant than ever…

20 years on and Crooked Man thought it needed to be said again
His razor-sharp reimagining is a call to arms with added electronic bite
He’s skipped the niceties and titled it CUNTS.
Out today on Vicious Charm today.

The track is accompanied by an Agit-Prop video directed by British contemporary artist Dominic McGill, who, armed with a photocopier and a scalpel, has cut & pasted a perfect accompaniment to the song – breathless and furious.

They are still running the world.

It’s a work of “northern genius”, Jarvis’ words, not ours‘. – Bandcamp.

01.47.21

DESPERATE JOURNALIST – 7 – No Hero, LP – Fierce Panda – 2024

Driving indie rockers ever present on Simon Williams’ Fierce Panda label, with a nod to Jo Bevan’s confident vocals.

01.50.22

GANZHEIT – Motions – ‘Summer Of ’84’ demos cassette, unreleased – 1984

With a couple of this cassette’s tracks now playlisted on 41 Rooms, there are more to come from this lost Bedford-based band.

Show 149 will be here March 1.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 148 – Original upload 1.2.26 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 67% vinyl friendly. Poor.

‘In the year 2021, few turntables have captured the essence of that time the way that the Old Future Turntable and Speaker has. The silhouette of the player itself pays homage to ’70s architecture in Seoul. Slanted roofs were common during that era, and when you place the turntable and speaker side-by-side, they look like part of a ’70s city skyline. Some vinyl-lovers may not like this product initially because a flat, horizontal turntable would be preferred for sound quality. For those who care about audio quality over aesthetics, the turntable’s legs are adjustable, so you can make the table more even‘. – yankodesign.com

Looks like it could more readily blow out hot and cold air than music.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 147

‘Observational, not sexist‘ noted Jean-Jacques Burnel.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Face Up – Low-life, LP – Factory – 1985

Face Up? More like Jump up, given the NO audience reaction when the chorus kicks in.

05.25

THE YOUNG GODS – Mes Yeux De Tous – Appear Disappear, 2LP – Two Gentlemen Records – 2025

Given that in the mid ’80s they were initially loosely bandied around in the same ‘industrial’ bag as my ‘charges’ Click Click I’ve heard very little of their lengthy and regular catalogue. This though is a mighty tune.

09.19

BLAWAN – Toast – Dismantled Into Juice, 12″ EP – XL Recordings – 2023

Nicely odd, with a ‘chorus’ that makes me smile.

11.56

BASETANK – Got Some Skills – The New Breed, v/artists promo only CD – Detonation – 1999

If it wasn’t for the 35 year age gap I might have said the vocalist on Got Some Skills and the modern day Microwave Man and his electric dirt bike online ‘Let Me Tell You Something, right?‘ words of wisdom sketches were of the same family.

15.44

9 LAZY 9: Turn Me Loose; UP, BUSTLE & OUT: Nightwalk; DJ FOOD: Klutes Groove; DJ TOOLZ: Rusty Goes GaGa; FUNKI PORCINI: It’s A Long Road – The Morning After The Night Before (one half of a CD free with DJ magazine – 1994

Old skool mixing from Cold Cut. ‘It’s (been) a long road… ‘ indeed.

22.00

HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR (feat HIPS & LIPS) – Someone Else Is Calling, 12″ EP – Stratasonic – 2025

The sort of hypnotic beats that could have fitted in with a Winkles, Bedford set list back in the ’80s… although someone might point a sound or two here didn’t exist back then.

26.12

FUNKY GREEN DOGS – The Way * – 12″ – Twisted – 1997

‘Anyone who ever liked That Sound from the Murk camp will like this just as much, even if they do whinge that it’s very similar to their previous favourite. The original is the heart-winner with its quivering vocal and acid-meets-funk groove, but the mixes are all attractive in their respective ways – Farley & Heller plod sweetly, Canadian Crash Productions do something along the same lines. Dirty White Boy rock and roll and Club 69 kick up a noisy messy rumpus. The best track of all is possibly the excellent FGD way-out beats. **** Daisy & Havoc, Record Mirror (Music Week), 10.5.97

Tough, liquidy goings on from the Murk camp. I was a fan.

32.51

JOY – Fragile Space – 7″ – DB-Low – 2000

‘Isaac Hayes meets Led Zeppelin‘ ran the press release for Joy Jones’ one-off (at the time) dip into music, and there’s something sad about a single of substance that didn’t do enough for the artist to build on.

35.52

TALKING HEADS – Listening Wind – Remain In Light, LP – Sire – 1980

Just checked. This is the last in a near complete run of the album’s tracks making it to 41 Rooms. So, that must make Remain In Light a bit of a classic to my ears.

39.36

THE SOULSAVERS –Rumblefish – Promo only 7″ – Ghost Ride Music – 2002

The sort of drifting beats thing that would crop up late night/early morning on KISS FM or maybe Ross Allen radio shows of the time.

43.28

BETHANY & RUFUS – 900 Miles – 900 Miles, CD only – Little Monster Records – 2005

With Bethany being the daughter of ’60s folk group, Peter Paul and Mary’s Pete Yarrow, an ancient tune reworked. And it’s a cello apparently, not a double bass.

46.48

STARGARD – (Theme Song From) Which Way Is Up – 7″ – MCA -1977

As funky now as the day it was delivered. I was 20… and this would have been hitting someone’s decks at Bedford’s Nite Spot, Spectrum, Pilgrims, The Anglers’ Laird bar and elsewhere out of town I went.

51.29

THE STAPLE SINGERS – I’ll Take You There – 7″ – Stax – 1972

They never let on where exactly ‘there’ is but with their gospel background we can maybe guess. Good luck with it.

55.30

CARLA THOMAS – Things Ya Make Me Do (Summer Mix) – 12″ – Ruff Justice – 1994

Not the ’60s Stax label Carla Thomas but it’d be nice to think this CT’s parents had that lady in mind when naming this lady. What might have been tagged ‘street soul’… and possibly out of Manchester, UK.

59.06

THOMAS DYBDAHL – All’s Not Lost – That Great October Sound, CD only – Checkpoint Charlie Audio Productions – 2001

Delicate sounds from Norway.

01.04.06

PURESSENCE – Don’t Know Any Better – 7″ – Reaction Records – 2008

James Mudriczki’s vocal…

01.07.22

DAVID SYLVIAN – Nostalgia – Brilliant Trees, LP – Virgin – 1994

Post Japan, his first solo album making its mark in fine style. It was unlikely to do otherwise.

01.12.57

JOY DIVISION – Insight – The Peel Sessions, 12″EP – Strange Fruit – 1986

Peel sessions sort of mimicked a live gig recording at its crystal clear best… this one included.

01.16.50

SIOUXSIE and THE BANSHEES – Christine (Warner Chappell demo) – Kaleidoscope, CD only – Polydor – 2006

With everyone and everything here ‘battling’ to be the most understated – and with it all quite possibly recorded in a rehearsal room, on the likes of (say) a 4-track Portastudio – this is as demo’ish as a major act’s demo could sound back then.

01.19.32

THE FLAMINGOS – Shone Like The Sun #3 (unreleased demo) – 1984

With Cliff (Peacock) in Scott Walker-mode there were a few versions of this tune and to these ears it sounds even better now than it did back then – and a link here to the song being performed live when the Flamingos supported New Order at Leicester Palais, May 21, 1984.

In effect the above might have doubled as my 27th birthday party and Shone Like The Sun was very likely on the Flamingos set list.

01.24.12

THE WAKE – Make You Understand – Here Comes Everybody, CD only comp – Factory Benelux – 2015

Recorded for a Feb ’84 BBC Radio 1 session for David/Kid Jensen and played live but the former only ever surfaced on the above.

Stephen, Mac, Carolyn and Caesar: Winkles, Bedford, 13.11.83

Photo credit/copyright: Dec Hickey

01.26.33

LITTLE NEMO – Bed In Summer – La Cassette Froide, split cassette (with Rain Culture) – self released – 1986

Not the first European band in the mid to late ’80s to have sounded as if heavily influenced by UK bands of the early ’80s and with a track only to be found on this cassette. I won’t be acquiring one any time soon.

01.30.27

THE STRANGLERS – London Lady – 7″ – United Artists – 1977

Yep, Jean-Jacques Burnel with a lyric or two (well, one in particular) that we youth most probably laughed through back in the day but now would maybe slightly wince at. The times…

01.32.52

ELVIS COSTELLO – (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea – 7″ – Radar – 1978

I had a brief moment with Declan’s singles around this time… and you had to admire the balls of a musician who wanted to strike out as an Elvis.

01.35.53

THE SUB ENSEMBLE – Faster Than The Sun (Domu Remix) – Download only – 2008

Very short-lived crew aided and abetted here by acclaimed Bedford-based (then, anyway) DJ, producer, remixer, Domu.

01.41.01

JAZZ THE GLASS – 16 Seconds – Download only, Soundcloud – 2019

A 41 Rooms regular, with another winner. Dave reminded me it uses a sample from a US boy band. I think it was a white label 12″ with anonymous writing (just initials?), that I took a punt on at no more than 20p.

01.44.47

FPI PROJECT – Come On (And Do It) (TC Funky Mix) – 12″ – Synthetic Records – 1993

‘Tremendous funky Italian offering as ever from those talented members of Ital’s most consistent band. Chocca full of good alternative mixes, including a wicked guitar ladened TC Funky mix… ‘ – Kenny Grogan, Mixmag Update, 28.4.93

‘Everything you love/hate about Italian records in double helpings. Very FPI Project but bang on time with its riffing flamenco-style guitar and a bundle of irresistibly funked up mixes firm Mother-man Lee Fisher, which include a wonderful reinvention of the bouncy original into a big booming beast of a track‘. Matthew Cole, Record Mirror (Music Week), 10.7.93

‘Girl chanted powerful Hamilton Bohannon-ish happy party pounder’s original Gypsy Kings-like guitars strummed 125bpm Official, 125.2bpm Gipsy, TC 1993 wukka-wukked 125.2bpm TC Funky Mixes, new sax squawked jerkily percussive building 124.9bpm Mothers At Work Remix and Dub‘. – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 7.8.93

As mentioned on the show, a one and a bit trick pony but sometimes a funky break and some vocal snippets is all you need for some head nodding bizniz.

01.49.36

CHEZ DAMIER & CO-INSIDE – Give A Little Love (Made In Detroit Mix) – The United States EP, 12″ – t:ime – 1993

‘Nottingham’s Sine boys have always (worn) worthier US influences on their sleeves. This time they make a more permanent connection with two excellent transatlantic collaborations. Their Made In Detroit Mix of Give A Little Love by Chez Damier & Co-Inside is a supremely cool organ-washed garage groove with the repeated title line drifting in and out of the mix. It becomes less mellow and more dubby as it progresses…‘ – Andy Beevers, Record Mirror (Music Week), 4.9.93

And yet another tune with a minimal use of different lyrics… and here you’re not getting the full nine minutes they’re spread over on the 12″. Still, jaunty US house with a bit of a UK ’90s garage’y feel… and I think I edited out some frogs sounds.

01.53.15

THE REESE PROJECT – The Colour of Love (Groove Corporation Trance Mix) * – 12″ – Network – 1992

‘Even by his own standards, Kevin Saunderson is having a good year. With Inner City firmly re-established as one of the world’s leading dance acts, he now takes the limelight under his alter-ego for what will be one of the biggest tunes of the year. The Deep Reese mix (featured on the Network ‘Elixir Vitae’ double pack extravaganza that some might say is their apology for KWS) is still the one for me. The coffee table intro soaring into a menacing groove with the hookiest of vocal samples… bliss. But wait, let us not forget Groove (aka Electribe 101) Corporation’s four mixes full of true British grit and trance appeal… ‘ – Dave Seaman ****1/2 Mixmag Update, July 9, ’92.

‘Kevin ‘Master Reese’ Saunderson’s powerful Rachel Kapp wailed Club Chart topper is now out on one single in brilliant swimming bass pulsed wriggly warbling 121.6bpm Magic Juan Atkins Mix, gospelishly started hypnotically chugging (0-)123.4bpm Deep Reese Mix, piano plonked 121.6-121.5bpm Underground Resistance Mix, repetitively stuttered Kym Sims-ish 122-122.1bpm MK Deep Dub, good insistently rolling 114.7-114.8bpm Groove Corporation Trance Mix and bass bubbled blippy 114.9-114.8bpm Groove Corporation Wobble Dub, while the first of the separate promos had its throbbing somehow then steady 115bpm Vocal (Trance Mix) and 115-114.9bpm Acid Revival (Wobble Dub), plus alternative swirlingly chugging 115bpm Plae Blue Mix and Instrumental Groove Corporation 021 Remixes‘. – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 1.8.92

Slinky Saunderson… and albeit it the same theme, a thousand miles from Terry Callier’s What Colour Is Love in every other way.

Show 148 should surface here Feb 1.

Dec x

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