Imaginary Stations on RTM.FM

Big shout to all at RTM.FM in Thamesmead, south east London for broadcasting the Imaginary Stations show monthly from this Saturday at 6pm UK time online here.

RTM.FM is also home to our good mate Jesse Yuen who broadcasts the excellent downbeat/bass/”not a” reggae show North of the River Swan every forth Sunday of the month. Here’s the last episode which featured at 1.09.00 in a repeat of “A weeds up to me knees dub special” from a couple of years ago.

Here’s the tracks for A weeds up to me knees dub special (tracklistings for the actual show are on the Mixcloud comments).

David Harrow – Sugar Dub (Workhouse Digital)
Overseerer – Madlab (Soundclash)
Sammy Dread ft Danny Dread – Follow Fashion (Volcano)
Anthony Johnson – Zuggi Zeng version (Archive)
Jazz’min & Madtone – Open up your dub retouched (Blossoms Kitchen)
The Mighty Quark – Smokescreen (King Syndrome Sounds)
Dennis Brown – Shaka the Great Warrior (DEB Music)
An excerpt of Kukan Dub Lagan – It’s about her (MikelaBella Records)
Ralph Myers & Jack Herron band – Savannah (Emperor Norton)
The Rhythm Method – Ranking Nico (Red Megaphone Music Cassette)
Jah Mason – Request Dub (Belleville International)
Johnny Clarke – Roots Natty Congo (Striker Lee)
Tyler Ov Gaia – A portal into another world (Believe France)

It don’t get (that much) better than this

And here’s one tune to lift the spirits. It’s from the mighty Mighty Sparrow (aka Slinger Francisco ORTT CM OBE) called Tour of Jamaica. With lyrics like the below it’s quite hard to beat!
“Look at confusion, rum punch in meh hand
I drink one and beg for one moreBut when ah catch mehself, I drink about four”
If all goes well the sparrow will be singing his way through the ionosphere on the shortwaves soon. As the song goes “‘Til we meet again bye-bye!”

Tunes doing well on a Wednesday evening

A big cheers to Stinky Jim out of Auckland, New Zealand for making us aware of his release Spacial Awareness this morning and what a release! We don’t really know how to describe it apart it’s a right old mix up business of a set and one that we love here. This is something that will grow and grow on us and hopefully will do the same to you.

Most of the tracks are on average five minutes but they don’t seem that long at all and to be honest with you it would do no harm if they were extended time-wise. It’s a set of suprises too as we’re going through it again bits are jumping out at us which didn’t before.

We still not sure what’s our favourites are as it’s early days yet but Loose Carry cheers us up no end. Great steel pan hook that comes in and out mixed up with a bit of the Incredible Bongo Band which gives a great smiley vibe and it’s a lovely bit of bonkers (in the best way possible). This is the stuff!

Another lovely one here is Cry For The Ute a good groove with lots going on around it that you just got to keep listening and enjoy, “Yout them a take over” it’s subtle stuff. At the end a loop that blends in seamlessly will get you thinking “I know that, what the hell is it?”

We don’t want to go on anymore, have a listen and decide yourself. It’s excellent stuff in our book. Cheers Jim!

Just to let you know Jim also broadcasts the long running radio show on 95bFM out in New Zealand called Stinky Grooves no less and another radio show well worth listening to. The archive is here.

Gardening website of the month

A big shout to our good gardening/music/radio friend from across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for starting us off on our new feature. We at Weeds (with the help of our gardening mates online and offline) will try and bring you once a month a gardening website that will hopefully inspire us all.

The first of the series is the excellent The Italian Gardening Project which is just brilliant. It was started to keep the old Italian gardening traditions alive (Nostalgia for Yesterday … Lessons for Today) and here’s a more in-depth explanation of why it was started (here).

The gallery on the site featuring some fantastic gardens and there’s some great videos about seed saving and tomato staking amongst lots more good stuff too.

One of our favourite posts is Canning Tomatoes with Mr. Ciccone. There’s some nice memories about a day of preparing and canning the produce with someone who knew a lot about the art and it sounded like a great day out including the supping of “espresso corretto, espresso “corrected” with a splash of whiskey” and some nice food imbibed with some home-made wine. Do go and have a look at the website as it’s well worth it and is bound give you ideas.

And Justin has picked an apt tune from the great Bunny Wailer as there’s some fine examples of fig trees on the website too.

Attention KMRT Shoppers

We all love a bargain so here’s the studio audio of last Sunday’s KMRT Back to School Shortwave Special. As we all know KMRT is “The only official KMART radio station on Shortwave” (subject to availability and only while stocks last).

Expect all sort of Supermarket/Back to School type classics and at 44.24 there’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “A cleaner required to Aisle 5 please” and here’s the tracklist:
George Feledichuk – The Best To You (Excerpt)
Guerrilla Biscuits – RAR
Curator – Lullaby
We Buy Records – The We Buy Records Theme (MAP remix)
Horace Andy – Money Money – Black Star Liner – evol roots money mash Version
Eric Hilton – Flowering Soul

The best to you…

Dub, Gardening and Art makes sense

Big shout to our good gardening friend Gerry Hectic for sending us a pic of what he harvested from his garden this week. Looking great! We are nearing the end of the main growing season but there’s still some time left. Send us your growing pics as we love them here and find them inspiring and send us a tune too!

Gerry sends us a great dub poetry recommendation from Lil Obeah Meets Isuru called Chaos Is Dub, a lovely bit of reggae from the excellent Romanian label Sound of Art to Come. Cheers for the pic and musical tip Gerry!

Grab yourself a Blue Light (Special)

Do you enjoy shopping? Do you love bargains? We do here at Weeds and will be tuned in this weekend for the return of the supermarket themed station KMRT in the imaginary stations series. It’s a back to school shortwave special too!

Experience the thrill of a bustling supermarket live on shortwave this Sunday 18th September 2022 via WRMI on 9395 kHz at 2200 hrs UTC. There will be lots of blue light specials, bargains galore and also an appearance of “A cleaner required to Aisle 5 please” a mix from One Deck Pete featuring tunes by George Feledichuk, Guerrilla Biscuits, We Buy Records, Horace Andy and Eric Hilton.

Have a look at the trailer above to get you in the mood and have a couple of credit cards at the ready. Expect some great tunes “while stocks last” and some crazy price giveaways “75% off on selected items only”. Shortwave is the only place this weekend to find yourself that special offer!

The decision is made. The process has begun.

Just to remind you all that on Sunday 11th September 2022 at 1000 UTC (11am UK time) there’s the return of the ethereal station Radio Lavalamp upon those shortwaves of ours.

Expect some chiilled and left-field tunes throughout the hour and at 27 minutes in there’s One Deck Pete with The Purple Nucleus of Creation 005 a mix of an alternative nature with tunes by Fila Brazillia, Past Palms and 100th Monkey. If you haven’t a shortwave radio, click the link here on Sunday morning. To tune in or not to tune in? “The decision rests with you.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys0HyevZpQg