Around the world on the 45th Parallel

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,

Music for winter walks

Cheers to WillJeff for sending on his latest mix called “Music for winter walks 2026”. It’s a mix of songs he’s been listening to while out walking the dog. It’s a lovely mix of stuff we’ve never heard of before and one to have on in the headphones while stepping out for a stroll as there’s some wonderful stuff on here. Cheers Will!

Tracklistings:
Marku Ribas – Musseke
Kwashibu Area Band – Mpaebo Mu Asomdwee
Sabine McCalla – Sunshine Kisses
Jonny Faith – Ibrium
Gelli Haha – Normalize
Saul, Natty Wylah – Coalesce
JIM – Phoenix
Land of the Loops – I Confess

Slow mo shortwave

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.

Buses connect us all

Here’s KBUS from last weekend, a tribute to the ‘umble autobus from Imaginary Stations. There’s all sorts of bus related tunes from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore and the show really is the ticket if you love bus travel!

The show includes at 03.49 a mix from One Deck Pete called Mind The Closing Doors and here’s the tracklistings:
Alan Doyle [f/ Steph Simon] – Confessions Of A Bus Rider
Hoovobot – No fair Bus Fare
The Salsoul Orchestra – Chicago bus stop
Lifetime Pineapple – Double bus fare

Big up the bus!

Japan in dub

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.

A Saturday tune

 

Here’s a great tune recommended by our good mate Will Jeff who presents the great Lingua Franca show on Love Will Save The Day FM (below). He told us about the artist Land of the Loops and The Bundle Of Joy LP. It’s a great set and we picked this tune from it called Multi-Family Garage Sale (Bargain-Bin Mix) as we love a garage sale and a bargain. The bass puts in mind of a certain Peter Hook(y). Land of the Loops is an artist well worth investigating and do check out Will Jeff’s output on LWSTD-FM!

Have you ever seen a rubber plant pogo?

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.

First sowings of the year

We know we mentioned a couple of posts ago that you don’t want to be too keen on sowing seeds at this time of year, but we’ve started a couple off, seeing as both seeds need a few weeks to germinate.

This morning, we put 3 pots each of Reals Seeds Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper in a heated seed tray. This year we’re using some B&Q bought Rocket Gro seed/cutting compost as the cheap supermarket shop-bought peat-free we bought a while ago just weren’t that good and we lost a load of seedings to the dreaded damping off.

On looking at the packets, the Prairie Fire takes 2-3 weeks to germinate and the Lemon Drop 3-4, now that’s a long wait. We will be training patience in this exercise and will keep you in the loop if we see any movement at all.

It don’t get better than this (again)

We have no idea how to describe this excellent track, it’s absolutely bonkers and something else! It’s by Lifetime Pineapple and called Double Busfare and what a wonderful graphic too.