Category Archives: Tunes to cheer you up

More stones of the standing variety

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve had some communications overnight about standing stones and we are well chuffed that people are interested in the stone giants like we are. Thanks to Rich in the Lake District for kicking it all off.

The first is from an old friend of ours, Pete B in Woolwich. Thanks for getting in touch and for sending us a great picture of The Callanish Stones (above) on the Isle of Lewis, the one Justin used on his yard sale flyer in the last post. He also sent us a link to a wonderful panoramic photograph (nearly 140 degrees!) of the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

He emailed “Nice to see the Castlerigg stones, some years ago I caught this panorama of Castlerigg when we were camping in the Lakes.”

For the picture click here.

As Pete added “Best viewed on mobile phone in landscape mode, maximised and with controls hidden – downward pointing arrow to the left-hand side of the control bar.”

Thanks also to Bongo Twisty for getting in touch via the comments and for sending us a great photograph. “The picture is of the Standing Stones of Stenness in Orkney. I was up there cycling about a couple of years ago.” Thanks a million for sending it over Bongo Twisty and for following the blog for a long while! All pictures are copyright the owners.

Ta for the pictures again both, keep cool in this present heatwave and take it easy!

 

 

 

Tomato fruit puller. Puller, puller

Posted on by
Reply

Whilst researching a future post, we found this great variety of tomato from Seed Spring Seeds (website here).

As it says in the blurb on the site:
A Romanian tomato producing large, roughly heart-shaped fruit that weigh an average of 365g and measure about 8.5cm in diameter. Captain Beefheart’s big taste is combined with a juicy flesh, tender skin and few seeds, making it one of the best large-fruited tomatoes you are likely to encounter. The plants are good growers and will produce fruit well into the autumn.

A pepper called Frank Zappa anyone?

The above is a fantastic Beefheart tune as played on the excellent Andrew Weatherall – Live at Antenna Studios mixtape here.

A bit of downbeat for the weekend

Posted on by
2

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

It ain’t in FM stereo, but we like it!

Posted on by
Reply

Earlier this afternoon we tuned into Downbeat on Shortwave (brought to us via Imaginary Stations) using The University of Twente’s online SDR here. Propagation wasn’t brilliant but we got a signal, unlike the sound of static on our shortwave receiver at home. Hopefully tomorrow’s conditions will be better and the later timing of the transmission helps. Here’s what was heard.

Imaginary Stations bring you music you don’t usually hear on the shortwaves every week and has an archive that is well worth looking through here. Expect the unexpected as they say and a whole lot more! Never mind the genre, it’s all about great music on the shortwave bands with some added remixing thanks to the ionosphere and those groundwaves.

Tune in here tomorrow at 1300 UTC (2pm UK) and 2000 UTC (9pm UK) for some chilled out sounds from Jesse Yuen and One Deck Pete. A big shout to all the Imaginary Stations crew: Fred and NanSea, Justin Patrick Moore and Marc from Belgium. Here’s to more eclectic programming on shortwave!

More Downbeat on Shortwave this weekend!

Posted on by
3

This weekend Imaginary Stations bring you the fourth episode in the Downbeat on Shortwave series with Jesse Yuen (from Perth, Australia) and One Deck Pete (from Catford Village, Londres).

Jesse and Pete bring you two 15-minute downtempo mixes each over the hour-long show. Expect some ambient, dub, reggae and downtempo tunes for a chilled-out weekend.

The show is broadcast on Saturday 13th June at 1100 hrs UTC (12 noon in the UK) on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 14th June at 1300 hrs UTC (2pm in the UK) on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC (9pm in the UK) on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz. Thanks to the great Shortwave Gold for beaming those radio waves skywards.

Don’t worry if you haven’t a shortwave radio you can tune in via an online Software Defined Radio here (pre-tuned into 6160 kHz). Just plug in at the right time(s) and experience that shortwave mono sound with all the fading and cross channel interference live.

Here’s the older shows for your listening pleasure!

Programme 1

Programme 2

Programme 3

And now from the north of the Capital…

Posted on by
Reply

Great to hear from Debby H in north London this morning, she sent us pictures of her phormium tenax before she goes away for a while and here’s the how the flowers are developing.
She also sent us pictures of her Peonies (below), as she said “Not so many flowers this year but still pretty!” They look great Debby, hope all’s good with you and ta for the pictures.

The wonders of modern radio

Posted on by
Reply

It was the first time in a bit that have we listened live to The Rhythm Doctor‘s excellent Waiting Room (every Monday morning from 9-11am UK time) out of Tallinn, Estonia.

There’s some wonderful chilledness at the start (17 mins in) that stopped us our tracks when we were filling up our watering can to give the garden a bit of a quick water. We potted up some seedlings just as it got to the dubbed-out section (55 mins in) and by the end of the show when he plays some shackleton stuff, we had enough of the heat outside!

RD played the wonderful Two Lone Swordsmen track Neuflex as mixed by Dry & Heavy which is a classic. Great to hear this again, crazy stuff.

Do yourself a favour this Bank Holiday Monday and chill out in the waiting room for a couple of hours. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, today’s show is now up online, so you have no excuse.

Dub for a cloudy Saturday morning

Posted on by
Reply

A nice bit of dub from Madmax Hifi (ft Sir Jama and Couleur d’Opium) out of Peypin D’Aigues, France. As it says on their Bandcamp, “the track moves away from war, greed, and the chase for money, reminding us that true wealth lives in love, peace, freedom, and the heart.” Too right mate! Wishing a good weekend to all the dub gardeners out there! (Above: crazy shapes by the pond this morning)

We’ve got those Car Boot blues

Posted on by
Reply

We recently attended a car boot at a South London car park at 6.45 am early doors, after gaining special “VIP Early Bird Dealer only access”, which basically meant handing six quid cash to a bloke on the gate while he chatted with a school boy on a pushbike.

One of the sellers was a vendor who looked like something out of Only Fools and Horses, battered Crombie, pork pie hat, two dinner plate sized badges and trousers hitched up a little too much showing some shin. He was pitched up next to an angry Millwall looking bloke selling large packs of bin bags and knock off perfume.

On the Crombie guy’s stall sat a Hohner Melodica. “Thirty quid,” he chirped. “Sixties original mate. It’s a beauty but the case is a bit bxggxred” Charming!

A “serious” muso type (so we thought) stepped up. He handled the instrument like he knew it inside out. “Mind if I play it?” he asked. “No bother, son,” came the reply from Del Boy.

We hesitated, bracing ourselves for some Augustus Pablo-style dub business. He took a breath, pursed his lips, looked around as if he was playing to a large crowd and proceeded to give a very bad short rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Even the Millwall guy selling the bin bags put his eyes up to heaven. It certainly weren’t Pablo…

Good luck to all for some great weather tomorrow for a spot of Sunday gardening!

A delayed report from Bristol

Posted on by
Reply

We also had a recent report from Kit, G5KIT in Bristol which we’ve just got around to posting up now. He’s cleared out the cleavers from his herb corner above (which is well up our street!) and as he told us “surprisingly, the parsley is thriving underneath. The anti-cat sticks seem to still be doing their thing, too.” “I’ll probably pop some basil, mint and thyme in there around the parsley, just so there’s something vigorous to fight the weeds off.”

That’s a great idea and we do know mint can be a bit vigorous at times, but we’ve got a couple of mint plants in the garden that are still in their original pots (buried into the soil) that helps to keep them from spreading too much.

Cheers Kit, do keep letting us know how things are doing!