41Rooms

This playlist is 87% vinyl friendly. Impressive.

Döhmann Helix One MK III Turntable with Vacuum Hold-Down

Previewing at The 2026 AXPONA Show, I’m not sure whether the $150,000 price tag included the Wilson Benesch Graviton Ti arm, Tessellate Diamond cartridge, Supatrac Nighthawk 12** arm with DS Audio Grandmaster EX cartridge, analog front end feeding the ARC Ref 10 phono (or DS Audio TB-100 tube equalizer), the new ARC Ref 20 preamp, ARC Ref 330 mono amps, Wilson Audio XVX loudspeakers, cables from Transparent and the Olympus Ultra racks from Critical Mass Systems… or not.

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 152

Sad Alex!

00.00

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

00.41

NEW ORDER – The Village (Kilkenny Rose Hill Hotel, 24.4.83) – Power Corruption and Lies, Definitive Edition – Warner Music – 2020

It gets off to a slightly shaky start at what was a legendary night in early years New Order history, with Barney and Hooky acting as a modern day comedy double act for the evening.

The onstage antics were definitely inspired by seeing the hotel’s flyer in the afternoon… and I don’t remember Liam turning up.

Me on photos duty, none of which I would have remembered until Steve Morris sent me photos I’d taken this night… with my writing on the back… followed by the above Movement Definitive Edition then including the video. I remember the afternoon soundcheck chat and Ozzy leaving the mixing desk mid gig and standing next to me but the things you forget…

05.03

PAUL HAIG – Trip Out The Rider – 7″ – Impotent Fury – 2010

‘Packaged in a fancy pants paper cut sleeve that is hand screen-printed, foil embossed and limited to 500 copies. Rumoured to be the first of six vinyl releases… ‘ – Discogs

His albums surface only very occasionally these days and any teaser singles even less so. This 7″ – driving with the zest of his early years – appears to have been the most recent but he’s a ‘signature’ voice we should hear more of.

07.41

LINES OF SILENCE – Lines In Opposition (Radio Edit) – Lines In Opposition, LP – Sprechen – 2026

These sleeves aren’t getting any easier to look at. An experimental krautrock band (Can? Neu?… ) out of Todmorden, UK – ‘a hotbed of UFO activity and home to the UK’s highest ever beach‘ – and I slightly cheated the vinyl thing here, as the Radio Edit is only downloadable, with the full version on the just released vinyl album. Should have gone with the latter.

11.12

SILICON VALLEY – X-Cell – Cold Waves Of Color Volume 3, v/artists LP – Color Disc – 2016

Whoever they were/are, they seem to have only released six singular tracks over a period of forty two years(!) * and on Color Disc label, v/artist albums only. A side hustle, the SV releases are not.

* Makes Got-Ta-Scatta look prolific.

15.09

CLOCK DVA – 4 Hours (7″ Version) – 7″ – Fetish – 1981

Adi Newton is a voice that sits you up but they’d had a bucket load of self and semi released material before I tuned in with the Thirst album that includes this their debut 7″.

18.59

THE EVENT GROUP – Approach Work (Pt B) – Approach Work, self released, cassette only – ? – 1983

For any kids picking up on this, the voice you hear here is of England cricketing legend of yesteryear, Freddie Truman, also featured on the main Approach Work track already playlisted on 41 Rooms and the cassette’s cover, obviously, where he nearly looks like he’s got his ever present pipe on the go. And as for the church bells on the track… maybe adding to the image of a village green setting? Search out the band’s Feb ’82 Riverside TV appearance at some point. An entertaining watch at the time and another release for me to upload (the images anyway) to Discogs at some point, maybe.

25.11

UT – Evangelist – Split 7″ – Blast First – 1989

Yep, also the lead track from the 1987 album, In Gut’s House but I’ve gone for the, split with Dinosaur Jr., 7″ and as mentioned before here at 41 Rooms, a band I’ve grown to like more now than I maybe did back then. Cheers for the 41 Rooms iD snippet, Nina!

Supporting The Fall, Bedford Boys Club, 1.10.83

Photo credit: Dec Hickey

27.57

YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS – Include Me Out – Colossal Youth, LP – Rough Trade – 1980

In YMG world this is them nearly rocking out!

29.50

KAREN MARKS – Cold Café – 7″ – Astor – 1980

Out of Australia and her only release at the time but the price tag the single has acquired through the years since (one of a few on this show), brought about a 2019 EP of tracks also recorded back in the day. Definitely an ‘indie’ sound.

32.42

DEENA WEBSTER – Scarborough Fair – 7″ – Parlophone – 1968

A folk standard I seem to remember hearing fairly regularly when I was young, so in one guise or another it must have cropped up on the radio and TV, though I never had the urge to buy it until I heard Deena’s version in more recent years and though she maintained the tempo of the song’s more traditional singers it’s everything backing her wasting no time in getting ‘busy’ that helps this version get my vote. ‘Bustling folk’, so let’s hear it for Deena and her arranger…

“I chose none of the singles (from the album Is Tuesdays Child) apart from Scarborough Fair.” The track was one of the first arrangements for another artist by Barbara Moore. She was best known for her work as a singer with The Ladybirds and, when she arrived at the studio, many of the musicians thought that she’d come to help with backing vocals. She remembers that when she got onto the rostrum to conduct,
the baton “it fell out of my sweaty little palm and ended up on the bass drum – that relaxed the whole atmosphere”. At the end of the session, Moore received a standing ovation from the 60 string and
horn players present. – Record Collector/Ian Shirley, #424, Jan 2014 edit

35.38

AL STEWART – Turn Into Earth – 7″ b-side – Decca – 1966

The flip may from Stewart’s debut release and his vocal ‘swagger’ makes this a rarity, in that it’s the only time I can think of where I’ve preferred a Yardbirds song performed by others… not that there are many of those.

38.29

MASSIVE ATTACK – Angel (Live) – Stream only – 2006

Performed as part of UK Channel 4’s first season of Live from Abbey Road series, with the Bristol band and Horace Andy managing to give the track even more gravitas and tension than on the its studio recording. No small feat.

43.15

CALLERS – Bloodless Ties – Life Of Love, LP – Western Vinyl – 2010

Sara Lucas’ vocal is just sublime, even if that bass guitar keeps hitting a note that I DO NOT LIKE.

47.39

PLATON DAVYDOV (feat OLEG KIRILKOV) – Sadness * – Stream only? – 2019

Violins…

49.02

MARTYN BATES – I’ll Wrap Your Hopes – Letters To A Scattered Family, LP – Integrity – 1990

Poetry, with a rippling outro.

53.01

FINK – Memorise Your Senses – The City Is Coming To Erase It All, LP – R’COUP’D – 2026

It took this his ninth album for me to have even heard of him, so I might have to rewind on him.

56.41

BÔA – Duvet – 7″ – Cinema-Kan – 2018

Or bôa… and on listening to the 1998 debut album, The Race Of A Thousand Camels, that first included this song, a band even at that point sounding like they might have been fighting to be two bands? I’d never heard of them until this track recently bumped into me but you then do a bit of a dig and Duvet has 43million Youtube hits… so you have to do a bigger dig. Here they sound not unlike The Sundays but that bigger dig explains some of the above.

01.00.00

RENAISSANCE – Back Home Once Again – 7″ – Warner Brothers – 1977

And what were the chances? Looking for something to follow Boa’s Duvet I decided on this 1977 single from Renaissance, a ‘prog folk’ band who for a couple of years in the late ’70s I had a real liking for. It turns out that Bôa’s drummer, Lee Sullivan is the son of Renaissance’s former drummer, Terry Sullivan. Who’d have thunk, eh?

01.03.03

HANNE HUKKELBERG – Do As I Do – Little Things, LP – Leaf – 2005

Promo’d (albeit as a CD only) as the single off the album at the time, so this was the ‘teaser’ – and it’s easy to see why. Cute!

01.06.39

08/15 – 1000 Gelbe Tennisbälle – 7″ – Sterbt Alle – 2025

If you had thoughts of releasing music on the subject of 1000 yellow tennis balls then someone’s beaten you to it. A 300 run re-release of their 1981 and only single.

01.11.25

COLDCUT – Beats + Pieces (Mo’ Bass Remix) – 12″ – Ahead Of Our Time – 1987

With a nod to Steinski, they were ahead of most of the others.

01.17.15

RAE & CHRISTIAN – Check The Technique (feat Tony D, Jazzy Jeff and Agent 86) (edit) – Mercury Rising, 2LP – LateNightTales – 2013

Minus the wonderful Veba’s vocals but with Mark Rae’s hip hop credentials they still produce.

01.21.10

THE JUJU ORCHESTRA – What Is Hip (Mo’ Horizons Hipstyle) – 12″ – Remixes – Agogo Records – 2006

TC (RIP) spending some time in the studio with the youngsters.

01.26.55

SAD ALEX – Ice Ice Baby (But You Have Anxiety) – Stream only – 2025

The only way Vanilla Ice was going to get on 41 Rooms was via som break borrowing… and songwriter Alex Saad has done just that.

01.28.59

SIMPLE MINDS – King Is White And In The Crowd – 12″ b-side – Virgin – 1982

Thankfully still here holding on to their futurist feel, even if the sound is housed in a contender for Worst Record Sleeve of all time. So, you’re only get the reverse… and that’s bad enough.

01.34.27

WAMDUE PROJECT – King Of My Castle (Original Version) * – 12″ – Eruption – 1998

More kings! Unusual for a dance track with nothing special in the vocals department to chart mainstream but this did just that. Maybe some intrigue and charm in the ‘Must be the reason why I’m king of my castle‘ lyric as it chugs along? Sometimes there’s just no knowing…

01.39.04

JOHNNY MAESTRO & THE CRESTS – I’m Stepping Out Of The Picture – 7″ – Scepter Records – 1965

If there’s a world in music I won’t stop finding ‘new’ gems it’s the rare/northern etc soul scene. I heard this gritty and restrained-in-equal-measures brassy belter for the first time only recently, via Beth Arzy (Jetstream Pony and others) capturing herself in front of a DJ spinning this tune.

Re-released a couple of times in the intervening years, I won’t though be getting an original copy any time soon, as that could be anywhere between $800 and for a promo copy, $1700!

01.41.17

JIMMY RUFFIN – It’s Wonderful (To Be Loved By You) – 7″ – Tamla Motown – 1970

Motown still in their prime in these years and come the mid-late 70s I had the grand notion of collecting every UK Motown single between TMG 501 and TMG 801… but I soon gave up the ghost, though this one made it into the fold.

01.43.58

McFADDEN & WHITEHEAD – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now * – 12″ – Philadelphia Int – 1979

Reminds me of Bedfordshire clubs of the time, and footballing mates and girlfriends and not a care in the world.

01.49.53

THE TYRREL CORPORATION – Going Home (Original Mix) * – 12″ – Cooltempo – 1992

Had three or four biggish tunes that gave them an identity of sorts.

Not sure why great train robber, Buster Edwards is here but this was a 15.8.92 ad, most probably in Record Mirror.

01.55.08

NEW ORDER (Again!) – World In Motion (1990 No Alla Violenza Mix) * – 12″ – Factory – 1990

It’s World Cup time again! So, for only the second time (I think) in 41 Rooms’ history it’s New Order twice in one show – and the last time was Show 1! With a break in there nicked from somewhere I can’t quite grasp and Barney’s vocal deservedly getting some real breathing space here in between the Italo piano, will it do the job for us footie fans this time around? Who’d be an England fan, eh? If we’re still in the mix by show 153 we’re doing OK.

Show 153 will be alive July 5.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 152 – Original upload 7.6.26 appeared first on 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

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