Cheers to Steve Barker from the excellent On The Wireradio show for letting us know about the wonderful online radio station that is Radio is a Foreign Countryhere. As it describes itself: “An endless stream of obscure (and mostly retro) global music and audio ephemera.” Crazy is not the word.
There’s a whole load of stations to have a listen to here from Shortwave, Exotic, 24/7 Nature Radio, Oddball (including Mechanical Music Radio), American Elsewhere (WBCM Radio Bristol) and tons more. It is such an eclectic selection and for God’s sake, don’t touch that dial. Cheers again Steve!
Here’s the fourth episode in the Downbeat on Shortwave series with Jesse Yuen and One Deck Pete that was broadcast this weekend on Imaginary Stations via Shortwave Gold.
Jesse and Pete bring you two 15-minute downtempo mixes each over the hour-long show. We’ve posted up two recordings, the above the clean studio version. The recorded off the radio, mono version complete with atmospheric sounds literally, is below. Enjoy the tunes!
Jesse Yuen Mix 1 Stress Assassin – Me We Pugilist – introspect Ft. Tamen Drug Free America – Baby Doll and the Dolphin Burger (video edit)
One Deck Pete Mix 1 Deadbeats – Got it going on (Space Hopper original) Stereo Total Vs Mad Professor – Das erste Mal dub trip 2 Transglobal Underground – Templehead – Burundi Beat mix Madtone – It is AI but WE created it
Jesse Yuen Mix 2 Leslie Winer – King of sleep 99 Cents – Adrenalin Spaceboy (Dub Boy Extended mix)
One Deck Pete Mix 2 変化への恐れ – Shinogi シノギ Mad Professor – Boombox version 2 Kuna – Decade Dub Space To Crash – Holding Hands
We woke up this morning and it’s way below freezing (-3 C at the moment) and the forecasters are telling us it will be like this for the next few days, so it don’t look like there’ll be much gardening done this weekend. Yesterday we did pop out and put some protection over the camelia that has loads of flower buds on it (above). This great bit of fabric doesn’t cover all of the plant and there isn’t any space between the cloth and the shrub where air can circulate but it’s the best we could get our hands on at the time. It will keep all the cats from the neighbourhood away thinking it’s a levitating ghost and may suggest to the neighbours that we’ve finally lost it but the big question is, will it keep the cold weather out?
While out there we saw this (below) in the wild bit at the bottom of the garden that made us smile. It’s some fungi growing beside our “economy” wild pond. This could be another picture for our Alternative to the BBC Countryfile Calendar that we will put into production one day. The wild pond is an old dutch pot that has one handle missing which we sunk into the ground, filled up with rainwater and the odd thinning from plants from the garden pond are popped in there every now and again. We salute any wildlife that enjoys our “budget-friendly” pond.
And here’s a note from our sponsors (Aldi, Lldl and Argos of course!): Please keep warm this weekend!
Big shout to Gerry Hectic for letting us know about the Shipping Forecast all-day special on Radio 4 yesterday celebrating 100 years of said forecast. All the programmes are now up online on BBC Sounds and all very well worth a listen but here’s one we caught last night about the forecast’s theme tune “Sailing By”here.
A classic tune wrote by a man called Ronald Binge at a room at the end of his garage that was thick with cigarette/cigar/pipe smoke. More on Sailing By here.
And by the powers of the internet we learned there’s a reggae connection too. From Ronald Binge’s wikipedia page here: “Best known today is probably Elizabethan Serenade. A reggae version of the tune, Elizabethan Reggae, was performed by Boris Gardiner in 1970.” Look at his writing credit under the song title.
A few days ago we heard from our good friend from Japan, Stevyn from the great Iron Feather Journal fanzine who is away on holiday at the moment. He said “Hokkaido is minus 10 and there’s tons of snow so we took a mini vacation and flew south to Okinawa (pic above) and now relaxing by the sea side”. He sent us this picture below from his holidays of part of a jungle with a genuine viper warning! That’s brilliant Stevyn. We hope you had a great Christmas and that you’re having a great holiday, cheers for the pics.
And to continue the festive themed soundtrack here’s a clever little number by Bodyswitch from the Stocking Stuffers EP a nice dubbed up version of Carla Thomas’ Gee Whiz, it’s Christmas.
And a lovely dub from from R. Santa on Nou Art Records out of Barcelona called “Time Dub”
Has Gavin & Stacey finished yet? And is it really the last one?
To coincide with Gusty Ferro‘s Hello Neighbours, The Solidarity Sound System presents an evening of dub sounds and sonic experimentation.
From reverbs, echoes, and classic dub tunes, to low-frequency bass and experimental electronic aural affects, dub’s vast musical influence includes Hip Hop, Techno, D&B, Jungle, Drill and more. But Dub’s wider social legacy is its construction of sonic and social free spaces, that parallel its emphasis on the modification, reuse and alteration of sound. DJs and performers include: Gusty Ferro, members of the Electronic Audio Club, Jesse Yuen, Florent Caillibotte, One Deck Pete, Diet Cola Sounds with more tbc. The Solidarity Sound System is a community sound system built by members of RTM and the wider community in 2021 with the support of artist Clara Smith and funded by Three Rivers Bexley.
And in the afternoon of the 26th, Jesse Yeun will be presenting his excellent North Of The River Swan show live from TACO! from 4-6 pm with One Deck Pete playing a few records and having a bit of a natter. Tune in next Saturday at 4ish on the listen live link on this page here. This tune below may be played or may not.
We were going to post up an episode of North Of The River Swan but here’s another programme presented by Jesse called Golden Apples in Dub which features a great version excursion of “Baby I Love you so”/”King Tubby meets the rockers uptown” featuring a few different tunes we’d never heard of before including this one which is excellent!
Then after that feature ends is this wonderful tune from Bandulu which we still have on a John Peel show cassette somewhere. We forgotten how good it is and it was nice to hear it again. Tune in to RTM FM next week at 4pm.
On Sunday 11th August 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz Imaginary Stations have yet another version of COOL, this time COOL 5 via Shortwave Gold. Like the last COOL shows, it’s summer vibes galore and tunes to listen to whilst on the sun lounger. Towels and suntan lotion at the ready please!
Then via WRMI on Wednesday 14th August 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz they’ll be bringing you a back to school special of KMART, your “official supermarket shortwave radio station”. Expect voucher give-aways, extended opening hours and the best blue light specials on the planet (*All subject to availability of course). Tune in and enjoy an alternative to shopping via the shortwave dial.
A Happy Boxing day to all! Here’s the audio of The imaginary Stations Winter Holiday Special which was broadcast via Shortwave Goldon Christmas Eve on those shortwaves. There’s a load of festive tunes throughout the hour plus “A holday Mix” from One Deck Pete at 40.38 minutes in. Here’s the tracklistings:
Forgotten employee – The Backroom Tapes
Snow Palms – Evening Rain Gardens (Excerpt)
Kohei Yoshi – Cold Ice Dub
Frost – Munch RIP (instrumental)
Bodyswitch – Gee Whiz it’s Christmas
Jacob Miller/Ray I – Deck The Halls
Kibble – Warm Fireplace (Excerpt)
We went out for a Christmas Eve pint and saw the first dumped Christmas tree of the year at Blythe Hill Fields (where the recycle team usually pick the trees up in January) at 3pm today. Crazy stuff and it isn’t even Christmas Day yet. Those trees aren’t cheap!
Whilst we’re on the Christmas/Yule/Solstice tip, we would like to wish all our gardening and music friends and readers a Happy Holiday and may you all have a great 2024!
A few days ago we heard from our good friend from Japan, Stevyn from the great 
