Cheers to Rich in the Lake District for sending this lovely snap today and don’t it look great up in the background? “A lovely day here, freezing and sunny.” It wasn’t bad here in London today either, bright and sunny. And no rain for a change.
Do you reckon sping is on its way? Or not very far away?
It’s a terrible day today here in London. It’s tipping it down, feels about zero degrees and last night we even put some protection around the mimosa plant we have in a large pot near the house, just in case.
It’s a lot better over the other side of the world in Perth, Australia where our Downbeat on Shortwave collaborator Jesse Yuen is, and he’s sent a couple of pictures of the gardening work he did yesterday in the searing heat of 36 °C but today is a nicer 26 °C. Above is a view of the front garden which is coming along nicely (in October he sent us a post about starting work on his garden here) and yesterday he put some steel edging in. Looks great!
Also he planted a hakea pin cushion plant, that we had never heard of before. He said, “They have amazing flowers when mature” and he’s right there (below).
Cheers for the update Jesse and we look forward to seeing more pictures of the garden as they are inspiring.
Last weekend, Imaginary Stations beamed their Annual 45th Parallel Midwinter Broadcast via the ionosphere using the services of the great Shortwave Gold. From a secret shortwave laboratory in the mountains way up north, the broadcast had tracks featuring the circle of latitude, music from above, below and along the magic line, and also tunes to keep us warm during this mid-winter season thanks to DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.
And at 07.15 One Deck Pete brings us a mix called Above and Below the 45th Parallel.
Tracklistings:
Radio Lario – 30 Degrees North
Boca 45 – Forty Five
Haj i Ji – Above and below (RSD remix)
The 45 King – Armen
The Soulfulists – 4 degrees warmer
So get wrapped up, get a cup of hot cocoa in your hands and make sure you’re wearing those warm comfy slippers and enjoy this show of the highest (45 degrees) order,
Imaginary Stations will be bringing another Downbeat on Shortwave (show number 3) this weekend (cheers Fred!) on Saturday 14th February 2026 at 1200 UTC and on Sunday 15th February 2026 at 1000/1400 hrs/2100 UTC on 6160 kHz.
Our good dub gardening friend Jesse Yuen from North of The River Swan, Perth, Australia and One Deck Pete from SE23, will be bringing you two 15 minute mixes each in a back to back downtempo style.
Tune in your shortwave radio or if you haven’t got one, via an online Software Defined Radio here (tuned into 6160 kHz) at the right time this weekend in AM mode and listen in and chill out to their slow-mo selection.
Thanks to Stevyn Iron Feather Journal for sending this tune on to us via Facebook messenger late last night. “Some wicked japan dub” he told us and rightly so! Cheers Stevyn.
While looking for music on Bandcamp, we found these two great locomotive related dub tracks. The first is Chu Chu Train Dub by Ras Teo. Nice stuff!
The second is Train Dub from Vin Morgan Meets Lone Ark and as David Rodigan would say “Give me some Signal!”
A massive thank you to Spike from Morschen43, who is located near Le Puy-en-Velay in Southern France. He sent over some snaps of his house and garden yesterday, and a nice slice of the world it is.
You might remember Spike from his track “MV Ross Revenge (For Ever!)”, a tune we love and featured in a couple of our shortwave mixes. As well as making music, he loves a bit of horticulture too!
As well as growing flowers he grows vegetables as well, and we’re loving the veg patch below. For those who know us, you know we have a soft spot for a good runner bean cane! The long row of canes and that classic wigwam structure to the left are right up our street. We’re already looking forward to seeing how the vegetable garden progresses as the seasons change (more photographs later this year please Spike!)
Spike spent yesterday giving his roses some attention. As he said, “Roses need concentration and attention for cutting.” He’s right there! When we worked for the council, many years ago, there was no love for the craft. No one cared about achieving that classic “rosebowl” effect or making sure the cut was just above an outward-facing bud. They’d just hack them all down to a uniform two feet! It’s good to hear that there are people who still care.
To go along with the photos, Spike picked out a track from his Bandcamp, a duet titled “J’Aime Les Brunes Sans Filtres”
Cheers for the photographs of your great house and garden, Spike! Keep those pictures coming as the garden grows as we’ll be well interested in how you get on in that great vegetable patch.
A big thanks to The Rhythm Doctor and Gerry Hectic who both told us this week about Brian d’Souza (AKA Auntie Flo) who makes music with plants. He says on his website: “I entered the world of biosonification which allowed me to listen to nature’s internal rhythms – analysing electrical biodata and converting it into sound information that in turn can be subtly manipulated and heard as a type of generative music. I created bioelectrical music for vertical farms, mycelium pavilions, mushroom dens and even Vinnie Jones’ vegetable patch!”
The above is a live ambient set on the My Analog Journal channel where he hooks a modular synth to the plants and combines the sounds harvested with some ambient tunes. We don’t know that much about his stuff but will research more on this artist as he sounds well up our street!
More on his Plants Can Dance project here. Thanks again to RD and Gerry Hectic for this.
A nice track from the Partial Records Bandcamp from King Tubby called Rising Dub, the dub of The World Has Just Begun (The Children Rise) by Earl Sixteen and The Heptones.
We’ve just listened to this weeks Great Lives on Radio 4 with John Cooper Clarke about one Johnny Green (once hippy, driver, writer and the road manager of The Clash and Tour De France fan). It’s a great 27 minutes with contributions from his kids, Topper Headon and Chris Salewicz. It’s nice to hear old JCC’s distinctive voice again. To listen to the show click here.
On the subject of Johnny Green, here’s something about him on blackmarketclash.co.uk (here) about The Clash’s Bury St Edmunds gig in 1978 (where we were also in attendance). We love the line at the end which makes us smile “I considered the Camden Town rockabilly as my friend and a passport to beer and nuts”. We all love a passport to beer and nuts.
Weeds up to me knees 