Meanwhile, in Japan…

Playlist 9 June 2011

all vinyl…

Spike Jones – Pimples and Braces

John Shakespeare Orchestra – Number One Theme. BEA commissioned this track and had it played before every flight.

Richard Youngs – 171 Used Train Tickets. Legendary. Epic. Must post it back to Barry some day :s

Marvin, the Paranoid Android – Marvin

Laurie Anderson – Walk the Dog – a favourite of John Walters.

Alphorntrio Eidelweiss – Zermatter Echo

Senor Coconut y Su Conjunto – Showroom Dummies (Cha-cha-cha)

Breeding flock of greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), Great Rift Valley.

Playlist 26 May 2011

The Eagles – Journey of the Sorcerer – nice to hear the whole thing, rather than just the bit used on The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Brian Eno and David Byrne – Help Me Somebody (can’t find a good link!)

Yoko Ono – Walking on Thin Ice

Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls – Dream Sequence I

Scott Walker – Jackie

Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band – Sport (the Odd Boy)

and some talk about panic attacks (not much cop).

An ever-expanding miserable sect

According to one Ashley ffffffrench.

You are a hologram projected from the edge of the universe

Humanitarian mission

On Monday I mixed a live band for the first time. despite it being my first ever go at this, it came out fine, even though I couldn’t hear anything because of the worst headphones in town.

Any road: Here’s Totnes Monster’s page on the day and here’s the band’s website. Enjoyez!

And aren’t the totnesmonster peeps nice?

How about that

So I got myself a radio show on the small-but-perfectly formed Soundart Radio, which lives here.My playlist for the first ever show was…

Chosen mainly to test sound levels and stuff…

• The Strolling Ones – Return of the Calamitous Wart – does it count as self-promotion if I’m not actually on the track?
• Swell Maps -Let’s Build a Car – because i’m a huge Swell Maps fan.
• Anne Briggs – Blackwater Side – from Swell maps to Anne Briggs! I had to!
• Augustus Pablo – Keep on Dubbing – the best mixed of the lot. King Tubby was a genius.
• Delia Derbyshire – Blue Veils and Golden Sands – I couldn’t not have Delia.
• Wire – Outdoor Miner – everybody likes Outdoor Miner.
• Husbands N knives – Song for Aurelie – the loudest CD of the lot!
• The A Band – Live at the canning factory, Nottingham. – no compression! The producer was pleased.

I gabbled a bit and was a bit too quiet. I must learn to proJECT!

The A band revied by bthe NME's Sam Taylor

“You’re not gonna believe this. A guy and a girl, both stark naked, are swigging petrol and breathing fire at a pile of trombones, keyboards and rusted tubular bells. Huge clouds of flame roll along the ceiling, and people edge towards the fire exit, not wishing to be trapped in Waco II with a bunch of art school wankers who’ve just treated us to 20 minutes of ‘Dadaist’ noise masturbation.”

Edinburgh (first in a series of random recollections)

Five days playing with the A band, topped and tailed with a few hours in London (where I walked past Polly Harvey – swoon!)

Touristy stuff out of the way first: Edinburgh is brilliant and I must go back to see it properly. End touristy bit.

Where do I start? MCing An Audience with Vince Earimal on my birthday? sleeping on floors with total strangers? Cake? Stewart’s black pudding? There’s so much.  here’s something: I got interviewed by someone from a newspaper – god knows why. Maybe it was because i spent half the concert wandering up and down the place chanting “hit it with a hammer”? Three men ran out of the room when i did that. Some people just have no appreciation of high culture.