We never knew that. Part 303

Reggae is one of those genres that if you think you know a little, you’ll always be suprised. By pure fluke we found the above tune from Ranking Toyan – Kill No Man whilst looking for another Toyan tune on youtube. We then remembered the horn version on the LP Aggrovators Meet The Revolutionaries we bought in a second hand shop many moons ago and used the title track on a “Radio Clarion Vs KDUB” shortwave mix. That thing called the internet can be great sometimes!

There’s a sheep in me garden what am I gonna do?

Thanks to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us a pic of a woolly intruder in his back garden the other day. We like the look on the sheep’s face who could be thinking “What is this human doing in MY field?”

One advantage is there’s a good chance that may be some sheep droppings left which could be a pain in the neck but looking online it looks like they’re high in both phosphorus and potassium which is great for the garden. Just like the classic horse manure it has to have time to age (as it’s far too strong and if used straight away would burn the plants) and you can even make a compost tea out of it to apply to the garden in liquid form. We’d suggest a thick pair of gloves if you intend to pick some up this weekend. Cheers for that Rich! More on sheep manure here.

Number stations for the spy in a chip shop on a friday night

 

Thanks again to Justin Patrick Moore, this time for letting us know about this great track. Sounding like a send up of the Lincolnshire Poacher number station the wonderfully named Shropshire Number Stations brings you The Minsterley Tumbler and it’s good fun. We do hope that this doesn’t start a trend of happy sounding tunes sampling/parodying number stations as it’s all doom and gloom and the end of the world  on shortwave, ain’t it?

Here’s another track that isn’t getting all serious on us when it comes to sampling off shortwave. Ax Martz brings us the upbeat Mensaje en código (Coded message).

 

If you do some bass heavy tripped out ravey number stations vibes, this is a good one. RAVEDEATH1993 with Number Station Dub.

 

00000. End of message end of transmission. Enjoy your weekend (said in a monotone robotic voice of course).

You say zuchinni, we also say courgette

It’s going absolutely crazy in the vegetable patch at Justin Patrick Moore‘s back yard in Cincinnati. Our good friend from across the pond and author of the fine book The Radio Phonics Laboratory (out now from the Peckham based Velocity Press here) has sent us some pictures of his vegetable plot. Look at the monster zuchinni plants (above) and the present harvest (below).

And as for the green beans and the corn (and the current harvest in the fridge) look at the below. It’s funny as our zuchinni (AKA courgette or baby marrow over here) and green beans didn’t get past germination stage or if they did, the “no holds barred” Forest Hill slugs had them.

Usually with zuchinni/courgettes we have a glut and there’s only so much you can do with them. There are ways around that glut though, we’ve tried this chocolate courgette cake here and here’s a great idea from Justin’s wife Audrey.

An open sandwich called Yvonne.
Put sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, and spinach, black olives if you like them, seasoned with garlic, pepper, basil and melted swiss cheese on top that you ladle over toasted bread. Add a splash of soy sauce to your taste. Sounds great for those zuchinni gluts and your own gut too.

And (above) look at this for a self-seeding/volunteer zuchinni in his garden too! What went on with our seedlings I wonder and usually our normal plants don’t even get as big as this.

And as for a tune, Justin picked this one from Tim Curry funnily enough called The zucchini song. Cheers again for the pics and recipe idea Justin and here’s more on his great book here:

On your imaginary airwaves this week

On Sunday 14th July 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz Imaginary Stations will be bringing you more summer of shortwave celebrations with COOL 3. More summer vibes and happy sunshine tunes even if though the weather outside isn’t summer-like where you live. It’s certainly don’t feel like summer here today.

Then via WRMI on Wednesday 17th July 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz they’ll be bringing you a great show in the form of Radio Ace, alas no Flash Frisbone but an array of wonderful tunes and the story of Mingling Mike. It’s a winner of a show and one well worth a listen so tune in!

Popcorn Double Feature later showing

Wow we didn’t even know it was a cover version! We prefer The Fall‘s interpretation but this ain’t bad though. While we’re there, we’re sticking this one below from The Fall as we love the Lee Perry original but this is great too.

Shortwave’s not hip? Who told you that?

On Sunday 7th July 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz the Imaginary Stations crew will be bringing you COOL 2 via the services of Shortwave Gold.

Expect entertainment of the summer vacation kind via the ionosphere. They’ll be a live BBQ in the studio with running commentary (plus amateur firefighter), a specialist towel folder to give you tips on how to place your towel on the sunlounger when reserving premier poolside seats, alongside some summer tunes. There’s a mix from our very own galloping gardener One Deck Pete with “A 7 inch single summer special” at 4 mins in featuring Earl Brown, Stereolab, Freda Payne, Anthony Johnson and Martel Robinson. So roll out the beach blanket, blow up that beach ball and get yourself comfy and tune into COOL 2.

Then via WRMI on Wednesday 10th July 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz there’ll be the debut show of COOL which was broadcast to Europe the other week which we posted about here. Tune in and enjoy the “summer of shortwave” vibes.

See you at the heel stone

Happy Solstice to all! Rather than bunking the train down to Wiltshire, English Heritage has got tonight’s sunset and tomorrow morning’s sunrise on a live stream. Sadly there won’t be Hawkwind playing Silver Machine live, Ken Barlow in full druid gear and you can’t sit on top of the stones but we are sure it will be an event. Tune in as from now to hear some ambient classics and enjoy!

It looks great, we’ve just seen a bloke walking around carrying a union jack with an acid house smiley face in the middle of it, some people eating cheese sandwiches, some sort of giant made out of bedsheets and wood and we’re loving the comments “Dave in Atlanta – Stonehenge doesn’t exist, it’s all done by projections, can you see people actually touching the stones?”

We’ll be up with the postman at 4 am for the sunrise.

Tune of the night

As we were looking for some tunes for a shortwave mix the other night we came across this track. It’s from a few years ago and one we hadn’t heard of before. It’s by Chancha via Circuito called La Victoria featuring Lido Pimienta & Manu Ranks and it’s a winner! It’s from the LP Bienaventuranza.

And as one of the comments on the Bandcamp says “I don’t think there is a better album cover. Frame worthy, and the music matches its brilliance!” Excellent stuff!

News on this week’s Imaginary Stations broadcasts here.

Tune of the night

Researching a shortwave mix as we usually do on a Saturday night we found a tune of high quality psych from someone called Giorgio called Stop and what a tune! Crazy crazy stuff with a wonderful ending with key changes and backwards effects, the lot. Guess who Giorgio is? Giorgio Moroder that’s who!