41Rooms

41 Rooms

A 2hr Post Punk Plus Podcast

Episodes

  1. Aug 2

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 154 – Original upload 2.8.26

    This playlist is 91% vinyl friendly. Near perfect. Philips, The Tina Century Bluetooth Turntable room.. A £350-£400 retro look to blend in with your wood panelling room, it reminds me of a car grill from the 1960s. Built-in speakers with deep (how low can you go) bass and crystal-clear highs. 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 154 Tim Hardin’s lyric and song title. 00.00 (Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info. 00.41 NEW ORDER – Dreams Never End (John Peel session: 16.2.81) – The Peel Sessions 12″ EP – Strange Fruit – 1987 Diary for Jan 16, ’81 says ‘Karl W round. NEW ORDER JOHN PEEL…‘ Those caps signal something special and the journey had begun at Heaven, London a week earlier. Two good mates called Karl were there, though I hadn’t realised the one at my house listening to the first broadcast of the session was a Carl. 03.45 THE TEARDROP EXPLODES – Second Head – Kilimanjaro, LP – Mercury – 1980 Listening to this album now it’s got a bit of a bubbly and bouncy feel. Judging by a set list suggested for the Manchester Poly night’ that followed ours/mine it doesn’t look like Second Head made into our night here. Packed with Kilimanjaro tracks though. 06.55 TOM PETTY and THE HEARTBREAKERS – I Need To Know – 7″ – Shelter – 1978 Still with a fair amount of ‘rock’ in my world at this point in time, for some reason I thought I’d had a 12″ of this but that would have been a bit daft. At just 2mins 22 plus, a fiery new wave feel that could have made it as an Elvis Costello tune. 09.17 FORMAL SPPEEDWEAR – Who Needs Spain Ball – Punch Card, LP – Melodic – 2026 “Who Needs Spain Ball?”. ‘On the surface, the single functions as a highly accessible, synth-forward New Wave track featuring the record’s biggest, most infectious pop chorus. However, the title and the song’s inner mechanics are intentionally surreal, designed to “pull the rug” out from under the listener‘. – Apologies, I forgot the source. An early Talking Heads vibe going on? They’re pulling the rug even more with their merch – with the band’s name the only lettering… album t-shirts! 12.28 BIG JOANIE – It’s You – Sistahs, LP – The Daydream Library Series – 2018 So post punk! 14.48 EGOSLAVIA – Twist Face – Self-titled, (mini) LP – 9 1/2 x 16″ Records – 1982 Not that many will have debated it but I’ve always pronounced this band as ‘Egoslayvia’ and it’s only just dawned on me it was likely ‘Egoslahvia’. Better late… and a band I was introduced to by a US guy who dropped in on John Peel’s radio show somewhere in the ’80s. Very unusual for Peely to have anyone else in the studio with him but his guest was picking tracks from three or so US bands that Peely had never heard of, something that irritated the latter, slightly. 20.08 BIFFER BONKER – 4 Prong, F****d Up, 2 Potato Thing – Biffer Bonker Is…Unabashed, download album only – ? – 2026 Anyone with a decades long history of Bedford, UK’s musical landscape stretching back to punk bands of the mid to late 70s will have knowledge of Biffer in a former life or three fronting a wealth of different bands but his present world view is available here, with something from the man for me currently getting waylaid by various postal services. ‘No god is required… ‘ Ain’t that the truth and if there isn’t a lyric sheet involved somewhere I might be requesting one :), as he’ll be back here at some point. He’s also the man who introduced me to Click Click via an early demo tape of theirs somewhere around 1984. 23.17 BROKEN SPINDLES – To Die, For Death – Fulfilled / Complete, LP – Saddle Creek – 2004 Content with having spun Induction on an earlier show, and as it turns out, rightly guessing on the album’s diversity I hadn’t been rushing to grab the physical vinyl… but here we are! One Joel Peterson, from Omaha, Nebraska. 25.35 TARWATER – 20 Miles Up – Silur, LP – Kitty-Yo – 1986 From the US to Germany and there’s a far wider breadth to this duos ‘catalogue’ than the two tracks now spun on 41 Rooms would suggest. 29.35 RIPPLE – I Don’t Know What It Is But It Sure Is Funky – 7″ – GRC – 1973 I don’t know about I Don’t Know… but with no UK release it’s unlikely our mainstream radio of the time spun this, though maybe a DJ or two down the Pilgrims or in the Anglers (Inn) Lair across the road could have. I have strong memories of hearing Willie Henderson’s Dance Master at the latter. 32.53 MARY KENT – Lost Generation – 7″ – CBS – 1969 It’s a slower, darker take than the version the song’s writer, Jim(my) Webb put out himself a year later and though Mary’s intro needed red carding for the show her version has some gravitas and feels ‘worthier’ now than it may have done to the UK’s record buyers back in 1969… what with the Vietnam war being… yep, somewhere else. The intro brings to my mind Common Sense’s Resurrection ’95. 36.57 LADY BLACKBIRD vs CROOKED MAN – Whatever His Name (Pt 1) * – Crooked Spirituals Remixes, 12″ – Foundation – 2025 She’s rightly got her soul audience but I much prefer her vocals set against some electronic goings on, as with the already 41 Rooms’ spun Athletes Of God and some remixing bods, including here, Crooked Man. They seem to give her vocals more of an edge for me. 42.18 ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ (feat. MAX C) – About This Love (Crazy P Remix) (Dub) * – 12″ – Compost Black Label – 2009 The vocals are incidental but the track just keeps building, dropping, shifting. A head-nod-a-thon of slight unease. 45.42 CLICK CLICK – Stay Out Of The Water – 12″ b-side – Rorschach Testing – 1985 Great times in the summer and autumn of ’85. Our RT label is off and running with a party at Winkles (Bedford), a P(roduction) and D(istribution) deal with Rough Trade, 500 copies of the initial yellow and blue sleeved 12″ pressing head straight to the US off the back of A-side (Sweet Stuff) getting CC Single Of The Week in Sounds and with spins on John Peel’s radio show there are one-off gigs in London, Brighton and Northampton and rehearsals are sounding great. Gig poster for 28.11.84. Part of a Rorschach Testing ad, The Catalogue #29, Aug ’85. 49.24 SIMPLE MINDS – Premonition (John Peel session: 7.1.80) – Silver Box, 5CD – Virgin – 2004 Having already seen them on the OGWT (live from Hurrah’s New York) and live at the Marquee the previous month I must have heard this session but for whatever reason I definitely didn’t record it. A ropey photo below of mine from London’s Hammersmith Palais, 26.8.80. 54.28 THE FALL – Dktr. Faustus * – Bend Sinister, LP – Beggars Banquet – 1986 It’s about time Mark E Smith (RIP) and his gang made it back here… so they have. 00.01.00 ECHO and THE BUNNYMEN – I Bagsy Yours (John Peel session: 22.8.79) – The Peel Sessions 12″ EP – 1988 This show’s third Peel session track of the era and the song renamed Monkeys in time to nestle next to the track Crocodiles months later on their debut album. I’m with ‘Bagsy’, though. Even us southerners used the term back then, though it might be best to not remember how it was being used here. 01.02.47 THE MOVE – I Can Hear The Grass Grow – 7″ – Deram – 1967 ‘An early, proto-psychedelic freakbeat masterpiece‘ in some modern day circles but a fab bit of wild pop back then. As the years rolled on though, the ‘weedier’ (sadly) Roy Wood’s guitar interjections have sounded. 01.05.52 PETULA CLARK – The Other Man’s Grass (Is Always Greener) – 7″ – Pye – 1967 Husband and wife writers, Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent (or in this particular case, Jackie Trent and Tony Hatch :)), with their key and tempo changing swirler giving ‘Our Pet’ her last Top 20 hit. So idiosyncratic it never got covered by anyone else or maybe offered as an exclusive to Petula? Either way, I bet Trent (no mean singer herself) forwarded a guide vocal version and I’d have been interested in hearing that. And it’s taken me a week to realise I’ve placed two songs next to each with ‘Grass’ in the title. Very unintentional but spooky and true. 01.08.49 BROOKE COMBE – Tears Won’t Lie * – 7″ – Fontana – 2026 I reckon Northern soul’s younger followers will dance and some older purists will very likely pick at the production but Combe and co-writer, James Skelly have nailed it, and if this song had been recorded in the mid 1960s – and maybe on the label this 7″ now pays homage to (with say Kiki Dee?) – there’d be an even bigger price tag on it than this barely out of the 2026 pressing plant £18 7′ already commands. Also, all involved in the Combe camp will have been as meticulous on the look for the dancers in the video as was MT Jones for his I Don’t Understand. Paying homage can be tough stuff. 01.11.19 TERRY CALLIER – Ordinary Joe – 7″ – Cadet – 1972 Terry and producer, Charles Stepney with a ‘skipping along the road’ feel. An even more expensive buy than the above… and I have neither. 01.15.17 CHAIRMEN OF THE

  2. Jul 5

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 153 – Original upload 5.7.26

    This playlist is 73% vinyl friendly. Not bad. The ‘cack handed’ HMV 1507 portable radiogram. When from? It’s old. An online post from nearly two decades ago… ‘… came across this rather strange record player, though quite admirably I resisted buying it! The casing is a bit weird in that the lid seems to cover the entire thing rather than sitting on a bottom half. Then a closer look at the record deck itself made me wrinkle the noble brow in surprise. The pickup arm rests at 90 degrees to the usual resting place. It looks almost back to front! Unfortunately it didn’t have a maker’s or model name, so unless someone can identify it and leave a comment then it will have to remain a mystery for another ten years or so… ‘ And then a decade later, the answer… ‘Your cack handed record player is an HMV 1507 portable radiogram. The type C cartridges almost never work when found now. It’s a cack handed design alright. The radio part is a transformerless AC/DC design but the record deck motor is AC only. 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 153 Gil… by a mile! 00.00 (Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info. 00.41 NEW ORDER – World (The Price Of Love) (Perfecto Mix) * – 12″ – London – 1993 Nineties house music legend and a fave remixer of the band, Paul ‘Perfecto’ Oakenfold adding some clout and drive to an already sparkling song that, if I’m honest, didn’t in its era always transfer successfully to a live setting. Some of what was floating Oakenfold’s DJ’ing boat back in the day. DJ mag article, 15.10.94 06.51 BESERK IN A HAYFIELD – Club Paris – Cold Waves Of Color Volume 3, v/artists LP – Color Disc – 2016 ‘Packaged in a fancy pants paper cut Whoever Beserk In A Hatfield was/is, their mid ’80s output has regularly featured on re-activated label, Color Disc’s compilations… and they’ll be back here. 10.03 CHRISTIAN PROMMER (feat JUSTINE HOERWARTH) – Tryin’ Times – Rhythmique Nocturne, 2LP – Compost – 2026 Tryin’ Times? Ain’t they just! Maybe not a stream of consciousness in the vocals/lyrics department, at times they’re on more like a bit of a languid ramble… up against busying keyboards that occasionally remind me of Keith Jarrett… but it works! Classy Prommer over some ‘transparent splatter’ vinyl, with a ‘silver particles print’, to boot.  15.24 WATER FROM YOUR EYES – Nights In Armor – It’s A Beautiful Place, LP – Matador – 2025 That’ll be tears then. A duo out of Brooklyn, New York with more motif biziness and on exclusive ‘Clear Blue Smoke’ (with a signed 12″x12″ print, 500 copies) or ‘Coke Bottle Green’ vinyl. 18.34 LA RISSA – Surrender – Download only – 2026 Still with duos but from Brooklyn to Bradford, and never has ‘I wanted to knock your f*****g lights out… ‘ sounded so dark wave pop. 22.45 BLONDSHELL – Heart Has To Work So Hard – Download only – 2026 Vocalist, Sabrina Teitelbaum is for some unclear reason doing her best to physically show us her heart on the accompanying promo shot (upcoming Violins album cover?) and I get the feeling her sound is possibly influenced by a bunch of bands in the ’90’s and noughties that passed me by. Could be wrong. 25.53 CABARET VOLTAIRE – Just Fascination (live) – But What Time Is It Really? LP – MemeTune – 2026 Given that the whole album was ‘Recorded on the UK tour Oct-Nov 2025’ and I was at four of the six dates, there’s a 66% chance I was at this performance and that of each of the other tracks. And as it stands right now, I’ll be at the last three of their last ever gigs come October 2026. An iconic and groundbreaking band bowing out, forty four years after I first saw them, below in 1982. 29.46 A CERTAIN RATIO – And Then Again (Flight 12″ version) – 12″ b-side – Factory – 1980 Simon Topping’s vocal on any ACR is such an era capturing moment for me. I can nearly feel the people, ‘sense’ the places etc I knew then. Thanks to the band’s gigography it seems though this track is not one I heard them play live in the times (including the above) I saw them before Topping’s departure in late ’82. 32.14 LONELADY – The Catcher – Former Things, LP – Warp – 2021 Julie! New music, if you please! Best, Dec. 36.29 THE DURUTTI COLUMN – Liars – Renascent, LP – London – 2026 Vini Reilly’s first album in fifteen years… and with maybe more lyrics on this track than on his entire back catalogue! Good to have him back. 40.13 BROKEN SPINDLES – Induction – Fulfilled / Complete, LP – Saddle Creek – 2004 A 180g vinyl album maybe before they became all the rage? Dunno, I lose track of time. Anyway, Broken Spindles was one Joel Peterson and the many layers Fulfilled / Complete was the second of six album sized projects he/it/they released in the noughties. I often wonder what peeps do when they stop making music… and I always hope it’s ‘keep being artistic’ 43.01 RAE & CHRISTIAN with TEXAS Vs THE WORKS – Hush (The Works Remix) – Grand Central Vs The Works-The Soul Sessions Vol-1, download only – ?? – 2026 The ‘Texas’ being wholly that band’s driver Charleen Spiteri, and here with a tad more motion/movement/swing than the original beaut. Hush is still lush. 46.51 GIL SCOTT-HERON (with PRETTY PURDIE and THE PLAYBOYS) – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – 7″ – Flying Dutchman – 1971 Boy, would he have something to say if he were still alive. 49.50 SHY FX & KINGH – La Prima (B-side) – Download only – 2026 With a third of the utuuuube views that the dub-step’y and longer version has attained in the two months since release but this funkier take is the proper version. 51.16 DOROTHY ASHBY – Soul Vibrations * – 7″ – Cadet – 1968 In her time, a jazz harpist of some standing, with both the album (1968’s Afro-Harping) this cinematic feel track leads off and the single itself now costing serious money in their original form. 54.24 PATRICK COWLEY (feat PEGGY GIBBONS) – Ice Age – Hard Ware, 2LP – Dark Entries – 2025 Whether Ms Gibbons sounding a lot like Donna Summer was a coincidence or Cowley ideally would have liked the latter to get involved on this simple plodder I’ll never know but at least he got to later remix I Feel Love. 01.00.27 SHEILA CHANDRA – Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram – The Struggle, LP – Indiepop – 1985 After her Monsoon ‘Ever So Lonely’ days but she was still crossing over. 01.05.09 JAZZ THE GLASS – MeMorY PalacE – Download only – 2026 Dunbar in the area! Averaging a 41 Rooms appearance roughly every ten shows but in case there’s any suggestion of nepotism, with a whole bunch of tunes I haven’t played. 01.08.12 JC-001 – All My Children (Mother’s P-Phunk Mix) (41 Rooms – edit) * – 12″ – Anxious – 1993 A massive 41 Rooms edit to be honest… and if I was ever to have carried on DJ’ing, I’d have maybe opened any set with the a cappella of ‘All my children now… ‘ An idea to others? You’re welcome. 01.11.39 SIOUXSIE and THE BANSHEES – Happy House – 7″ – Polydor – 1980 Siouxsie once said of this, the band’s second top 20 hit: “It is sarcastic. In a way, like television, all the media, it is like adverts, the perfect family whereas it is more common that husbands beat their wives. There are mental families really but the projection is everyone smiling, blond hair, sunshine, eating butter without being fat and everyone perfect“. 01.15.03 EYELESS IN GAZA – (Across The) Pulse Of The Rain – Mania Sour, CD only – Ambivalent Scale – 2014 Often performed live in early EIG gigs but it took thirty plus years for them to lay down a studio version… and apologies for the slightly brutal intro I edited. 01.17.25 THE SOUND – Unwritten Law (Mike Read session, BBC Radio 1, Oct 1980) – The BBC Recordings, 2CD only – Renascent – 2004 Those BBC sessions – produced in just a few hours – very often turned up superior versions and though I’d possibly be outvoted on this, with more edge in the production and presence in the vocal I prefer this take to the one on their debut album, Jeopardy. 01.21.00 MISTY IN ROOTS – Wise & Foolish (John Peel Session) – The John Peel Sessions, CD only – Strange Fruit – 1995 For me, they were absolutely flying in their earliest (1979-1980) JP sessions, with Wise… being from the third of the nine they did for the great man. 01.25.49 MOUTH – Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea – Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, 12″ EP – Emotional Rescue – 2016 Released thirty five years late(r) but added here to their only ever releases (2 singles)… and that’s definitely Mark Stewart ranting in there at the end. 01.32.24 BLACK UHURU (feat MICHAEL ROZE) – Party – 7″ – Ajang – 2000 A tough reworking of the band’s Party Next Door from 1983. 01.35.43 LADY BLACKBIRD vs CROOKED MAN – When The Game Is Played On You – Crooked Spirituals 12″ EP – Foundation – 2025 The power of electronics – in this case Sheffield-based Richard

  3. Jun 7

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 152 – Original upload 7.6.26

    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 andhorn 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.

  4. May 3

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 151 – Original upload 3.5.26

    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

  5. Apr 6

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 150 – Original upload 5.4.26

    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 m

  6. Mar 1

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 149 – Original upload 1.3.26

    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

  7. Feb 1

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 148 – Original upload 1.2.26

    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 wer

  8. Jan 4

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 147 – Original upload 4.1.26

    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

  9. 12/07/2025

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 146 – Original upload 7.12.25

    This playlist is 65% vinyl friendly. Very poor. Scorchio! ‘1960/1970 Vintage Stereo Design Record Player, in bright orange, the emblematic colour of the 1960 and an example of Mod Ultra Space Age Pop Art Raymond Loewy? France French Designer Museum-worthy‘ says the Etsy seller, adding ‘It has a few cracks, one of the speakers has a small tear in the cloth and may need an overhaul, a full check up to see how and if it works and if it is complete… WE HAVE NEVER TRIED TO USE IT AND I DO NOT KNOW IF IT WORKS OR PLAYS.‘ Thank flip it’s down to €4600, from €7100. 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. And a bit of a croak in my voice here and there. A temporary glitch, hopefully. Lyric of Playlist 146 Trickery involved but it has to be The Bots! 00.00 (Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info. 00.41 NEW ORDER – Ruined In A Day (Reading Festival, 1993) – In Concert – 577, CD – BBC Transcription – 1993 I and my four-year-old, Alice were there, on what was a triumphant return, with the wonderful ‘Ruined’ in amongst new numbers from the band’s then recently released Republic album nobody would have previously heard in a live setting. BBC Transcription Services recordings – produced to service radio stations and usually for a very limited time frame for broadcast – had moved from vinyl to CD but with runs still only in their low hundreds New Order completists would be struggling to own a copy of this one… and I don’t. 04.42 MERIC LONG – A Small Act Of Defiance – Kablooey, LP – Polyvinyl Record Company – 2025 Book-ending a bunch of releases through the years as a member of The Dodos, Kablooey is seemingly Long’s first solo release under his own name since 2006. 07.43 BIOCHEMICAL DREAD – False Kings Of The Earth – 12″ – Pulsolid – 2004 Besides Richard H. Kirk’s work with Cabaret Voltaire this 12″ demonstrates there have been gaps in my knowledge of his lengthy discography elsewhere. RIP, Richard. 13.21 DARKSIDE – One Last Nothing – Download only – Matador – 2025 Including a past member of the 41 Rooms playlist parish, Nicolas Jaar, a US trio currently NOT releasing a 12″, though their Bandcamp visual hints otherwise. 18.32 AGENTS WITH FALSE MEMORIES – Agents With False Memories (extract), CD only – Ash International / Soleilmoon Recordings – 1996 Extract, indeed as Richard H. Kirk promptly returns to show 146 with this four minute snippet from a 53 minute track. 22.34 HUMANIZER – Shinobi – ? – ? – 2000s? Ignoring the slight Liam Gallagher drawl and with zero connection to any Death Metal band of the same name, this might have been Manchester sourced… and maybe with a Peter Hook connection. That’s what I’m vaguely remembering… from over a decade ago. Dunno… A ‘demo’ version, minus vocals, might also get an outing here at some point. 27.08 DIFFERENT GEAR – A Little Bit Paranoid (Extended Mix) * – 12″ – City Rockers – 2002 Courtesy of a ‘Phil Dirtbox’, the vocal is the winner here. 32.59 MERZ – Sorrow In The Sky (Nightingale Vs The Crow) – 7″ b-side – Lotus Records – 2002 The stuff that people sing about… and here with gusto and passion, to boot! 36.55 LUSCIOUS JACKSON – Why Do I Lie? (Sessions at 54th, 11.97) – Stream only – 1997 Vocalist, Jill Cunniff’s tale of lying sounding best live! 40.13 THE POPPY FAMILY – I Was Wondering – 7″ – London – 1971 A bit of a strange arrangement, this one. Albeit with a key change in there – verses with no choruses! Weird and wonderful… and maybe a bit brave in the pop world of the early ’70s, where the only PF track I remember hearing as a young teen was Which Way Are You Going Billy? That won’t be getting a 41 Rooms spin. 42.43 SOPHIE JAMIESON – Camera – I Still Want To Share, LP – Bella Union – 2025 Being over in Brighton recently it seemed appropriate I buy her clear vinyl album from the Bella Union shop and re Camera? It’s the subtle build in Sophie’s vocal and she’ll be here again at some point. 46.59 MARTYN BATES – The Rhyme Of Miracles – Arriving Fire, CD only – Ambivalent Scale – 2014 Martyn instils presence in a tune like few others for me. 50.28 JOSE FELICIANO – First Of May – 7″ b-side – RCA – 1969 ‘Feliciano seems to be on a heavy Bee Gees kick… after ‘Marley Purt Drive,’ he now does ‘First Of May’ and ‘Gotta Get A Message To You.’ And with his highly stylised projection, Jose manages to make them sound totally removed from anything the Gibb brothers originated’. – Disc (edited review of the album, 10 to 23), 15.11.69. As far as I know the Bee Gees tune was only ever released on a 7″ (my ‘format of choice’) for Jose in Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines and Spain and never as an A-side and arranger, Al Capps most probably winced if he ever got to see the NZ pressing below. Strangely, Jose’s very rarely performed the song live. I’ve only noted it three times, including two at London’s Jazz Cafe, in 1996 and again in 1998 and at the former it surfaced nearly under duress. With the audience (maybe unsurprisingly) constantly shouting out for past JF favourites Jose countered, ‘You know there’s a lot of songs you people ask me for that unfortunately… and I’m not being rude, a lot of artists are rude, they do it on purpose, but some of the songs that you ask me to sing, do you know that I haven’t sung them in years and I’ve forgotten the words and rather than make an ass out of myself that’s why I don’t sing them, OK? So, don’t take it personal… I don’t sing those songs anymore. But I’ll tell you what though there’s some that you ask for that I do remember, like this one. I hope that this one will satisfy you.’ That rare sighting was even more surprising considering Jose had taken the rare move of including his own recording of the song when guesting on Brian Matthew’s My Top Twelve for BBC Radio 1 back in June 1974. 54.11 JAPAN – Alien – Quiet Life, LP – Ariola Hansa – 1980 Bedford: Heronscroft, Putnoe, 1980 and Winkles, 1981… with a few Japan gigs thrown in at the time. 58.47 JOHN CALE – Chinese Envoy (M:FANS) – M: FANS, 2 LP – Double Six – 2016 ‘Approached as a reinterpretation of Cale’s 1982 improvisational album, Music for a New Society… M:FANS is something of a funhouse mirror reflection of that work, using the basic song-structures of the original album as a starting point and using time, experience and the technological advances of the ensuing years to bring a new focus to the tunes. Some selections are comfortably familiar, while others have a significantly different footprint‘. – KCRW 01.02.32 ICEHOUSE – No Promises (Dance Mix) * – 12″ – Chrysalis – 1990 Fully five years after the track had seemingly done its thing it got an extended outing in Spain. 01.07.58 DAVID BOWIE – This Is Not America (BBC concert) – Bowie At The Beeb, 2CD – EMI – 2000 Part of Bowie’s special set for a small invited audience at the BBC’s Radio Theatre, in London, June 2000. 01.11.29 JOHNNY KEATING – Theme from Z-Cars (Johnny Todd) – 7″ – Piccadilly – 1962 Did I realise the grittier scripts involved here than had been delivered by Jack Warner’s strolling forerunner, Dixon Of Dock Green? Nah, I was five when Z-Cars kicked off but the theme (based on the traditional folk song, Johnny Todd) still brings a fuzzy feel. And Wikipedia will give you the full story on why Everton FC players come out to the tune at home games. 01.13.22 MARC COHN – ‘Walking in Memphis (Mahna Mahna)’ – Stream only – 1990’s? Cohn definitely wouldn’t have seen this coming, as the self proclaiming Mahna Mahna and the Snowths duo upstage him in a short but cheeky mashup (of sorts) I happened on via Youtube a couple of decades ago. I’ll openly admit I was a Muppets fan when they first aired on UK TV back in the mid ’70s and with Statler & Waldorf the stars for me I remember walking my girlfriend of the time, Jill home from work and then running up the hill to my house to record the show. Pre the age of video recorders, at one point there was a stack of ten to twenty AGFA(!!) cassette tapes of the shows in my bedroom. Getting back to Cohn, the fact he’s ‘racing’ a bit here actually adds to the cheeriness and I salute whoever was involved. 01.14.44 BERNARD CRIBBINS – The Hole In The Ground – 7″ – Parlophone – 1962 And like the Z-Cars theme I was five when this was released and I’d have definitely been singing this one in the years close after – and weirdly, although it’s the second tune from ’62 on this show, it’s not the last. 01.16.27 THE BOTS – Fuzzy Math – George W. Bush Greatest Hits, v/artists, CDr only – Spin The World – 2004 I heard this cut and paste work of art somewhere around its ‘release’ and as of 2004… ‘… utilizing the revolutionary Presidential Truth Filter(PTF). The PTF operates like this: All presidential statements are recorded, and made into a huge database. The database is searchable by speech, phrase, keyword, emotional intensity, etc. In parallel, an analysis is made of the historical circumsta

  10. 11/02/2025

    Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 145 – Original upload 2.11.25

    This playlist is 73% vinyl friendly. Not bad. Anonymous ‘radiogram’, 1960s… and even at its size, the sort of set up that most families of the time had when music was really just a household component. Ours followed on from a legless Dansette-type turntable and was initially used primarily for the radio, with Dad wiring it through to the kitchen where one or two very discreetly hidden grills under a cupboard relayed Worldwide Family Favourites to the family Sunday lunch. 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 145 ‘You could be laughing sixty three percent more of the time… ‘ When Grant’s in the house he’s a likely contender here. 00.00 (Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info. 00.41 NEW ORDER – Hey Now What You Doing – Waiting For The Sirens’ Call, 2LP – London – 2005 On what is arguably the band’s weakest album, a gunslinger strum of a song that’s easy to skank around to on the dancefloor and if I ignore the ‘rock drawl’ that Barney sometimes gravitated to in later years (and touches on here) I’d suggest it’s one of his finest vocal performance, with some beaut guitar to boot. 05.40 PRESENCE – Better Days (Presence Vocal Mix) – 12″ – Pagan – 1997 One of producer Charles Webster’s many monikers, here with some class house music peeping out of a genre that’s been littered with sterility through the decades since its inception. He’ll be back here. 09.37 DISCLOSURE (feat JESSIE WARE) – Confess To Me – Settle, 2LP – PMR/Island/Method – 2013 Saw this pairing delivering this on Later With Jools. 13.37 SERMONS BY THE DEVIL – Synesthesia – Exorcismo Electronico, LP – Library Of The Occult – 2025 A ‘Sermons By The Devil’ search online is likely to lead to no good I tell ya, and the album’s imagery etc doesn’t grab me either but this is some cheery funky electronica. 20.42 CABARET VOLTAIRE – Yashar (John Robie Mix) – 12″ – Factory – 1983 This would have been here a good few years earlier if it hadn’t slipped through the initial 2016 ’41 Rooms Potentials’ folder. Richard and Mal pretty much namechecked Robie’s mighty work here as having single-handedly opened them up to the possibilities of ‘branching out’ and it’s a tune and mix that’s as synonymous as any with Wednesday nights in Winkles, Bedford back in the day. Even Pete Care’s video was ever present with the times. The US acetate below is likely to be the Robie mix and the owner (not me) will know. 27.58 BLAWAN – NOS – SickElixir, LP – XL Recordings – 2025 Given the music he’s been knocking out since 2010 a move to Berlin for northern producer, Jamie Roberts isn’t such a surprise. 31.01 THE HUMAN LEAGUE – Being Boiled (Album version) – Travelogue, LP – Virgin – 1980 Faster and definitely ‘funkier’ than the already playlisted original but it’s a toss up… 34.51 DEEP PURPLE – Emmaretta – 7″ – Parlophone – 1969 I had the stock/shop copy of this back in my mid ’70s ‘rock, pop and soul’ years when I saw DP at Wembley Empire Pool and though classic rock rarely gets a look in on 41 Rooms this sounded more than fine. I’d maybe even have a belated stab at buying the demo/promo copy (below, and reminiscent of Motown demos of the time ) if it hadn’t gravitated to a £150 and well beyond price tag. 37.29 JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – White Rabbit (Ursula 1000 remix) – Stream only – 2000-2010? This mix turned up on some radio show… and has since disappeared. File Alex Gimeno’s efforts here under Psychedelia Plus. 41.30 RADWIMPS (feat TOAKA) – Suzume – ‘Suzume’ Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2LP – All The Anime Music – 2023 The sonics you can bump into on the net… 45.24 LANA SOY – Mind Games – Stream only – 2021’ish ‘‘Pure’, ‘softest’ and ‘soulful’ are usually the words thrown to describe Svetlana’s voice. Originally from Moscow and Londoner since 17, Svetlana’s music has been inspired by Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, Evanescence, Des’ree, Brandy and Sade‘. – Soundcloud On a recent whistle stop trip back to Bedford I caught Lana at an open mic night and the best grouping of her songs is possibly her Apple Music presence. However, this version of Mind Games is one of two that are elsewhere, certainly including Soundcloud. 48.28 AIR (feat BETH HIRSCH) – You Make It Easy – Moon Safari, LP – Virgin – 1998 Any excuse to feature the voice of Beth Hirsch… and here it’s the avenue that most of the world got to first here her through. 52.06 JOHN GRANT – GMF – Pale Gree Ghosts, 2LP – Bella Union – 2013 With Grant’s usual wit and Sinead O’Connor (RIP) guesting, a few TV appearances of this song also included the latter on BVs, and certainly on Irish TV also Sinead’s daughter, Roísín’ where the phrase ‘The G(reatest) M(other) F(ucker)’ is still not one you’ll hear clear as day too often. 57.16 JAKE NAJOR and FRIENDS – Midnight In A Perfect World (live) – Stream only – 2021 ‘American drummer, active as musician for numerous bands and band projects… ‘ says Discogs and here Najor faithfully recreates – in a video’d 99% live setting – to within a hair’s breath of DJ Shadow’s already 41 Rooms playlisted original. 01.01.54 DONOVAN – Hurdy Gurdy Man – 7″ – Pye – 1968 Another of the songs that when heard at the time, stood out over the Radio One airwaves, amongst its diet of pop music. Donovan himself even seems to be at odds with others involved in the session as to who added the electric guitar. Check the song’s Wikipedia entry for all the fun. I do know from research in a slightly different area (musicians playing live in the UK, but in the same time period) that sessioners were known to sometimes get paid in cash, with the deal and details being kept off the books for whoever it suited. 01.04.58 KIDDA – We, Do, Da Dirty Soundbwoy – Fresh Mess, DJ mix CDr – Catskills – 2005 The only place to find this barely 2 mins bouncy hip hoppity skit. 01.07.09 D’ANGELO – Unshaken – Red Dead Redemption II, video games soundtrack, 2LP – Lakeshore Records/Rockstar Games – 2019 “Produced by Daniel Lanois, co-writer of the track along with D’Angelo (RIP) and Rocco DeLuca, and on transparent red, should vinyl soundtracks be your thing. 01.10.59 MARK S. WILLIAMSON – Encounter On The Moor – Folklore, Facts And Fables 5: The Eve Stone, CD only – Forged River Recordings – 2025 ‘For the fifth instalment in folklore, facts and fables series, we finally get a fable. We return to Todmorden and the story of Rob o’Harry’ot’Deans and his encounter with the fairy people up on the moors above the town… ‘ – Bandcamp It quickly gets on a sonic plain and just stays there but I’m not qualified to work out whether multi-instrumentalist Williamson’s one string biscuit tin violin made it to the proceedings. 01.17.38 BREAKBEAT ERA – Breakbeat Era – 12″ – XL Recordings – 1998 And from one of my fave 21st century sounding albums (d&b is just that way). even though it was made a shade earlier. 01.21.51 ??? – ??? – ??? – 1997? Taped off a d&b show on London’s KISS FM radio of the time, I had this down as Comin’ Down by Kapricorn… but in amongst the swamp of anonymous and/or barely iD’d white label/promo/acetate/DAT tape etc tunes DJs on these sort of shows were buried in, this one was maybe confused with the aforementioned on a playlist, and it’s not anything Shazam can identify either. If you know… then let me know! 01.26.38 MATRIX – The Message 96 – New Identity Recordings – 12″ – 1996 One Jamie Quinn with some sparkling d&b! 01.30.05 LONDON ELEKTRICITY – Fast Soul Music – Billion Dollar Gravy, 3×12″ – Hospital Records – 2003 Given the title I’d have expected LE’s near-resident vocalist, Liane Carroll to have featured more here than with the occasional scat. 01.35.45 PARANOID LONDON (feat JENNIFER TOUCH) – Fields Of Fire – Arseholes, Liars, And Electronic Pioneers, 2LP – Paranoid London Records – 2024 The shuffling ‘hi-hats’ drive the stark beats like a real driving thing. If this had come out in 1981 I’d have made a home for this on the turntables for a good few week at Winkles. 01.43.01 MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO – Radio Babylon – 12″ – Play It Again Sam – 1990 Any year but 1990 certainly and I may have heard it at the time. 01.49.21 MERZ – Many Weathers Apart (Album version) – Merz, LP – Epic – 1999 A remix of MWA featured here a few years ago and it’s not the last time you’ll hear Conrad Merz’s idiosyncratic vocals here. 01.54.00 JOHN MARTYN – I’d Rather Be The Devil (Scrimshire Edit) – Download only – 2016 Adam Scrimshire adding beats and things to the already beat’y. Show 145 hopefully surfaces Dec 7. Dec x The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 145 – Original upload 2.11.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

A 2hr Post Punk Plus Podcast

You Might Also Like