Here’s some lovely downbeat business which will appear in a forthcoming mix for KMRT in the Imaginary Radio Stations series on shortwave in a few weeks time. It’s by Curator (who is out of Brooklyn) and it’s called Lullaby (Chopan) and it’s a tune and a half.
Fingers crossed all stops will be pulled out this weekend via WRMI with the broadcast of TOOTS vs WELK. This programme in the Imaginary stations series will be a showdown of music from Toots Thielemans in the left hand corner and the great Lawrence Welk in the right. The transmission will be on air on 9395 kHz from 2200 utc on Sunday 28th August 2022. Tune in for a great musical encounter!
At 16 mins in there’s One Deck Pete with A Harmaccordian mix Kimmo Pohjonen & Frane Milčinski, Les Negresses and Errol Dunkley featuring Dreadful Julio amongst others.
And for a Monday afternoon here’s a nice downtempo number from Aux25 called No Turning Back (Adham Shaikh Remix).
Thanks to our good friend John F who sent us this great version of The Abyssinians – Satta Massagana by Los Miticos Del Ritmo called Satta Massa Cumbia from a few years ago. We’ve never heard this before. Great stuff John!
And thanks also to our mate Gerry Hectic for this horticultural related number. It’s from Fug and it’s called From Little Seeds We Grow (4Hero Folk Soul Remix) and it’s a lovely number with a brilliant Instrumental too.
All these tunes above are perfect for a chilled out weekend in the heat. Keep hydrated!
The sun’s out again and it’s 27°C and very dry in the garden this afternoon.
Last week we heard Christine Walkden on Gardener’s Question Time who said she likes to give her garden a good water with just a watering can and it can take her up to 2 hours at a time.
Since ditching the hose after watching a great special about conserving water on Gardener’s World a while ago it now takes us quite a while too just using a watering can without a rose on the top. We enjoy the slow ritual, the endless walks back and forth to the tap, making sure the soil gets a good soaking. We probably wouldn’t like it that way if we were going to catch a train but it’s a nice thing to do on an early morning on a day off work or in the later evening after a day of toil.
Is there such a thing as “meditative gardening”? There was a lot of staring into space with one foot on a garden fork when we worked at the council so it may have been around for years.
Talking of meditative gardening, there’s a great horticultural themed set from Monster Rally (we have a feeling that someone may have mentioned this to us before, our mates Gerry Hectic, DJ Frederick or Justin Patrick Moore perhaps?) called Botanica Dream. It’s full of some lovely downtempo business and at the moment the track above is our favourite but they’re all excellent.
And here’s a promo from the Skybird Council Gardeners Association for The Scented Garden radio show for you all to enjoy.
And an episode of The Scented Garden from earlier this year for your gardening/listening pleasure. Tune in, turn on and sit yourself in the middle of a flower bed preferably and enjoy the flowers.
This Sunday the imaginary radio stations crew have a right treat for you. KTAB will be featuring “Yesterday’s music today” on 9395 kHz at 2200 utc on Sunday 31st July 2022 via the magic of the wireless.
The show will feature all sorts of old time music from the year dot to the late 1950’s including a mix called “I’ve got those broadcasting blues” from One Deck Pete at 24 minutes in featuring this classic from Keith & Enid called “Worried over you”. Tune into the shortwave time machine.
Many thanks to Steve Barker again for recommending more great squeezebox tunes, this latest one is a belter! It’s from Los Corraleros de Majagual from Colombia and called Los Sabanales. This video is something else. Cheers Steve, great tunes are always appreciated here at Weeds!
And cheers to DJ Frederick Moe for the following top music tips. Firstly this radio DJ themed one by Houston (Bob) Mills called The Early Morning DJ with the great line: “most people are still sleeping, his wife and kids he leaves at home, it won’t be long before he’s signing on”
And then this wonderful LP of chilled out dub LP by Sumac Dub with the very apt title for us called Le Jardin de Lucy. Cheers for the recommendation Fred, this is a brilliant LP! More on the band here. The title track is a tune!
Thanks to everyone who’ve been sending us their accordion classics since last week’s transmission of WELK.
Thanks to John F. who alerted us to Kimmo Pohjonen. We had no idea that this sort of madness existed, talk about taking the accordion to the next level! We love Kimmo’s get up but don’t think the local allotment committee would allow this sort of gear to be worn on-site especially in this forthcoming heatwave. A great tune by the way.
And he reminded us about this great tune by Les Negresses Vertes a band we here have seen a few years ago but had well forgotten about.
And also Slim of the Urban Voodoo Machine, Slim Cyder Co etc. Here’s the great man in action with Joe Ely from a few years ago.
He also mentioned the Grace Jones tune “I’ve seen that face before” a reworking of Astor Piazzolla‘s “Libertango”.
Steve Barker had also said about the maestro Astor Piazzola amongst lots of others (Clifton Chenier, Rocking Sidney, Boozoo Chavis and Amédé Ardoin and many more) which we’ll look into soon. He also mentioned Flaco JImenez and this tune with Ry Cooder.
And last and not least Mark Paytress who sent us this classic and called it “perhaps my fave squeezebox tune of all time” and he may be right! The Three Suns “Delicado”.
Keep on squeezing as they say and thanks to everyone who have got in touch with their recommendations.
Big shout to all the bus and train spotters out there! This Sunday grab yourself a shortwave platform ticket and hop on aboard CTRN via WRMI at 2200 utc on 9395 kHz for some locomotive classics.
Below is an old CTRN from last year with all sort of railway tunes including a mix from One Deck Pete at 40 minutes in called “Off the rails”.
Here’s the track listings:
Instantly Distant: Samples, Foley and Field Recordings – Bank Negara Station
The Lamplighters – London Station
Commodore 98 – Mind the gap (interlude)
Dennis Brown – Westbound Train/Version
Dub Syndicate – Night Train
We’ve been away for a few days to sunny Sudbury where the only stress was making sure a couple of cats, the garden birds and the guest ducks were fed and cat treats administered. It was nice to get away for a break after the last couple of years of the on and off madness of lockdown.
When we returned, the garden at home had certainly grown even after 5 days. The spuds we put in early (in February under cover here) were looking well happy and flowering like anything and so was the courgette seedling we put in a big pot (above). One tip, don’t even consider consuming the fruits that may appear on the potato plant after flowering as you’ll certainly keel over. This is how one website put it “…if you are feeling adventurous, you could try tasting a ripe berry, but don’t swallow it unless your health insurance is paid up.” We always knock them off if we see them growing just to be on the safe side.
Now it’s back to that age old “When do we pull the spuds up?” conundrum. It’s all confusing, as far as we can remember these were Golden Wonder maincrop potatoes which you supposed harvest in August/September, but we put them in earlier than they should have been so that’ll make a difference won’t it? If you want to find out more, there’s a good article about the various potato types explained on the Gardener’s World website here.
We usually wait until the flowers and foliage have well died down before we go in with a fork (remembering what Joe Maiden used to say about going in a few times so nothing is left in the ground. “Volunteer” potatoes can muck up an OCD laid out vegetable bed the year after if not) but there’s nothing stopping the impatient digging around in the compost earlier seeing if there’s anything small to harvest. If you’ve got raised beds filled with general purpose compost it shouldn’t take much effort get in there with a trowel and be like a careful archaeologist. If there’s nothing of a decent size just cover them back up and let them get on with it. We’ve read online some people enjoy spuds when they’re marble sized, each to their own we say.
Another thing we actually got around to doing was “side shooting” our tomato plants. This is simply taking out the side shoots that appear between the leaf joint (making sure they’re not the fruit bearing trusses that grow from the stem not on the junction between leaf and stem). The whole idea of doing this, is the plant will put all of its energy into making the fruit rather than into making leaves. If you have a butchers at this video below though the great Bob Flowerdew suggests growing Tomatoes on a couple of main stems. We love the bit that starts at 2.25 “I thought you were a good gardener?”
But the big question here isn’t if he’s a good gardener or not, it’s is he a reggae lover or a Kraftwerk fan or both, we need to know! If anybody knows please tell us.
Weeds up to me knees 