41Rooms

This playlist is 65% vinyl friendly. Very poor.

Scorchio!

‘1960/1970 Vintage Stereo Design Record Player, in bright orange, the emblematic colour of the 1960 and an example of Mod Ultra Space Age Pop Art Raymond Loewy? France French Designer Museum-worthy‘ says the Etsy seller, adding ‘It has a few cracks, one of the speakers has a small tear in the cloth and may need an overhaul, a full check up to see how and if it works and if it is complete… WE HAVE NEVER TRIED TO USE IT AND I DO NOT KNOW IF IT WORKS OR PLAYS.‘ Thank flip it’s down to
€4600, from €7100.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

And a bit of a croak in my voice here and there. A temporary glitch, hopefully.

Lyric of Playlist 146

Trickery involved but it has to be The Bots!

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Ruined In A Day (Reading Festival, 1993) – In Concert – 577, CD – BBC Transcription – 1993

I and my four-year-old, Alice were there, on what was a triumphant return, with the wonderful ‘Ruined’ in amongst new numbers from the band’s then recently released Republic album nobody would have previously heard in a live setting. BBC Transcription Services recordings – produced to service radio stations and usually for a very limited time frame for broadcast – had moved from vinyl to CD but with runs still only in their low hundreds New Order completists would be struggling to own a copy of this one… and I don’t.

04.42

MERIC LONG – A Small Act Of Defiance – Kablooey, LP – Polyvinyl Record Company – 2025 Book-ending a bunch of releases through the years as a member of The Dodos, Kablooey is seemingly Long’s first solo release under his own name since 2006.

07.43

BIOCHEMICAL DREAD – False Kings Of The Earth – 12″ – Pulsolid – 2004

Besides Richard H. Kirk’s work with Cabaret Voltaire this 12″ demonstrates there have been gaps in my knowledge of his lengthy discography elsewhere. RIP, Richard.

13.21

DARKSIDE – One Last Nothing – Download only – Matador – 2025

Including a past member of the 41 Rooms playlist parish, Nicolas Jaar, a US trio currently NOT releasing a 12″, though their Bandcamp visual hints otherwise.

18.32

AGENTS WITH FALSE MEMORIES – Agents With False Memories (extract), CD only – Ash International / Soleilmoon Recordings – 1996

Extract, indeed as Richard H. Kirk promptly returns to show 146 with this four minute snippet from a 53 minute track.

22.34

HUMANIZER – Shinobi – ? – ? – 2000s?

Ignoring the slight Liam Gallagher drawl and with zero connection to any Death Metal band of the same name, this might have been Manchester sourced… and maybe with a Peter Hook connection. That’s what I’m vaguely remembering… from over a decade ago. Dunno… A ‘demo’ version, minus vocals, might also get an outing here at some point.

27.08

DIFFERENT GEAR – A Little Bit Paranoid (Extended Mix) * – 12″ – City Rockers – 2002

Courtesy of a ‘Phil Dirtbox’, the vocal is the winner here.

32.59

MERZ – Sorrow In The Sky (Nightingale Vs The Crow) – 7″ b-side – Lotus Records – 2002

The stuff that people sing about… and here with gusto and passion, to boot!

36.55

LUSCIOUS JACKSON – Why Do I Lie? (Sessions at 54th, 11.97) – Stream only – 1997

Vocalist, Jill Cunniff’s tale of lying sounding best live!

40.13

THE POPPY FAMILY – I Was Wondering – 7″ – London – 1971

A bit of a strange arrangement, this one. Albeit with a key change in there – verses with no choruses! Weird and wonderful… and maybe a bit brave in the pop world of the early ’70s, where the only PF track I remember hearing as a young teen was Which Way Are You Going Billy? That won’t be getting a 41 Rooms spin.

42.43

SOPHIE JAMIESON – Camera – I Still Want To Share, LP – Bella Union – 2025

Being over in Brighton recently it seemed appropriate I buy her clear vinyl album from the Bella Union shop and re Camera? It’s the subtle build in Sophie’s vocal and she’ll be here again at some point.

46.59

MARTYN BATES – The Rhyme Of Miracles – Arriving Fire, CD only – Ambivalent Scale – 2014

Martyn instils presence in a tune like few others for me.

50.28

JOSE FELICIANO – First Of May – 7″ b-side – RCA – 1969

‘Feliciano seems to be on a heavy Bee Gees kick… after ‘Marley Purt Drive,’ he now does ‘First Of May’ and ‘Gotta Get A Message To You.’ And with his highly stylised projection, Jose manages to make them sound totally removed from anything the Gibb brothers originated’. – Disc (edited review of the album, 10 to 23), 15.11.69.

As far as I know the Bee Gees tune was only ever released on a 7″ (my ‘format of choice’) for Jose in Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines and Spain and never as an A-side and arranger, Al Capps most probably winced if he ever got to see the NZ pressing below.

Strangely, Jose’s very rarely performed the song live. I’ve only noted it three times, including two at London’s Jazz Cafe, in 1996 and again in 1998 and at the former it surfaced nearly under duress. With the audience (maybe unsurprisingly) constantly shouting out for past JF favourites Jose countered, ‘You know there’s a lot of songs you people ask me for that unfortunately… and I’m not being rude, a lot of artists are rude, they do it on purpose, but some of the songs that you ask me to sing, do you know that I haven’t sung them in years and I’ve forgotten the words and rather than make an ass out of myself that’s why I don’t sing them, OK? So, don’t take it personal… I don’t sing those songs anymore. But I’ll tell you what though there’s some that you ask for that I do remember, like this one. I hope that this one will satisfy you.’ That rare sighting was even more surprising considering Jose had taken the rare move of including his own recording of the song when guesting on Brian Matthew’s My Top Twelve for BBC Radio 1 back in June 1974.

54.11

JAPAN – Alien – Quiet Life, LP – Ariola Hansa – 1980

Bedford: Heronscroft, Putnoe, 1980 and Winkles, 1981… with a few Japan gigs thrown in at the time.

58.47

JOHN CALE – Chinese Envoy (M:FANS) – M: FANS, 2 LP – Double Six – 2016

‘Approached as a reinterpretation of Cale’s 1982 improvisational album, Music for a New Society… M:FANS is something of a funhouse mirror reflection of that work, using the basic song-structures of the original album as a starting point and using time, experience and the technological advances of the ensuing years to bring a new focus to the tunes. Some selections are comfortably familiar, while others have a significantly different footprint‘. – KCRW

01.02.32

ICEHOUSE – No Promises (Dance Mix) * – 12″ – Chrysalis – 1990

Fully five years after the track had seemingly done its thing it got an extended outing in Spain.

01.07.58

DAVID BOWIE – This Is Not America (BBC concert) – Bowie At The Beeb, 2CD – EMI – 2000

Part of Bowie’s special set for a small invited audience at the BBC’s Radio Theatre, in London, June 2000.

01.11.29

JOHNNY KEATING – Theme from Z-Cars (Johnny Todd) – 7″ – Piccadilly – 1962

Did I realise the grittier scripts involved here than had been delivered by Jack Warner’s strolling forerunner, Dixon Of Dock Green? Nah, I was five when Z-Cars kicked off but the theme (based on the traditional folk song, Johnny Todd) still brings a fuzzy feel. And Wikipedia will give you the full story on why Everton FC players come out to the tune at home games.

01.13.22

MARC COHN – ‘Walking in Memphis (Mahna Mahna)’ – Stream only – 1990’s?

Cohn definitely wouldn’t have seen this coming, as the self proclaiming Mahna Mahna and the Snowths duo upstage him in a short but cheeky mashup (of sorts) I happened on via Youtube a couple of decades ago. I’ll openly admit I was a Muppets fan when they first aired on UK TV back in the mid ’70s and with Statler & Waldorf the stars for me I remember walking my girlfriend of the time, Jill home from work and then running up the hill to my house to record the show. Pre the age of video recorders, at one point there was a stack of ten to twenty AGFA(!!) cassette tapes of the shows in my bedroom. Getting back to Cohn, the fact he’s ‘racing’ a bit here actually adds to the cheeriness and I salute whoever was involved.

01.14.44

BERNARD CRIBBINS – The Hole In The Ground – 7″ – Parlophone – 1962

And like the Z-Cars theme I was five when this was released and I’d have definitely been singing this one in the years close after – and weirdly, although it’s the second tune from ’62 on this show, it’s not the last.

01.16.27

THE BOTS – Fuzzy Math – George W. Bush Greatest Hits, v/artists, CDr only – Spin The World – 2004

I heard this cut and paste work of art somewhere around its ‘release’ and as of 2004…

‘… utilizing the revolutionary Presidential Truth Filter(PTF). The PTF operates like this: All presidential statements are recorded, and made into a huge database. The database is searchable by speech, phrase, keyword, emotional intensity, etc. In parallel, an analysis is made of the historical circumstances of the particular presidency. The question must be asked, what is this man (all men so far…) really all about? What is a defining characteristic of this presidency? The final question which must be addressed by the PTF is, how can we use the assets in the database to concatenate the truth, and make the President speak it? The first attempt was Bushwack, in 1992. This turned into a huge hit before the Presidential election in 1992, though BMI denied that it was ever on the air at all. Through October of that year, stations such as San Francisco’s Live105 were playing it almost hourly. In 1997 Rock The House was a popular download at an early digital music download startup, muzic.com. In 2003 Bushwack2 was released at about the start of the Iraq war. The mood of the song is quite grim, as the truth of those times was interpreted by the PTF. In 2004, the PTF was reprogrammed to emphasize economics and general silliness, and Fuzzy Math was born. We think it’s the best one yet. Judge the results for yourself’. – thebots.net

01.19.26

DREXCIYA – Black Sea – The Journey Home, 12″ EP – Warp – 1995

First heard on either of Colin Faver’s or Colin Dale’s techno shows on KISS FM. Sounds more likely it was the former.

01.24.58

E-DANCER – Heavenly * – 12″ – KMS – 1997

The Inner City (‘Big Fun’) man, Kevin Saunderson with his techno head on.

01.28.51

CHARLES WEBSTER – Your Life * – 12″ – Peacefrog – 2000

Pitched up a bit (‘+3%’ says my file iD) this is a class slice of soulful techno/house.

01.33.11

CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON – Selfish – Download only – Stone Woman Music – 2025

This r&b musician has been around for a decade or so but I wouldn’t have guessed, judging by this slight departure to a ’90s UK garage feel (first half anyway). It suits her.

01.36.48

BENCH – Felice – Bliss, 2LP – Cylinder Recordings – 2000

The fifth appearance on 41 Rooms to date for this pretty much forgotten duo.

01.39.36

BLUE STATES – Your Girl – 12″ EP – Memphis Industries – 1999

First heard on a compilation CD a mate of mine, Sid put together, of fave tracks forwarded by mates of his. Not their own tracks, you understand.

01.43.45

THE MIRACLES – I’ll Try Something New – 7″ – Tamla – 1962

Hellfire! Those breakdown strings mid way are a bit of a jolt! Easy, Smokey! Writer, Robinson’s own version is actually the third to make it to 41 Rooms and his vocal arrangement sounds more like a remake than either Kiki Dee’s ‘straighter’ take or even the Supremes and Temptations stab at the song, when chronologically they both followed this Miracles single.

01.46.14

SMITH & MUDD – Blue River – 2LP – Claremont 56 – 2007

Electronic… downtempo… shuffling… drifting… or maybe flowing.

01.48.38

MERZ – A.M. (Good Morning) * – Single-sided, white label 12″ only – 1995

The second artist to return this show, multi instrumentalist and songwriter, Conrad Merz and his at times very idiosyncratic vocal (‘Many Weathers Apart’, for instance) seem to have trodden their own path through the years.

01.53.45

CRAIG ARMSTRONG (feat ELIZABETH FRASER) – This Love (& The Life That I Have) * – 41 Rooms Soft Mash Up only – Early 2000s

I grabbed the extra voice – Virginia McKenna as Second World War spy Violette Szabo, reading the code poem The Life That I Have at the end of the film Carve Her Name With Pride – fully thirty plus years ago and I had a stab at floating it over This Love a long time ago but recently had another go. Aided by Jazz The Glass, we pitched her down slightly and then I took out a chunk of the poem in the second half. Not that it’s going to happen but I reckon it would need the song itself re-arranged/edited to work perfectly but methinks the idea is still a cool one.

Show 147 hopefully surfaces Jan 4.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 146 – Original upload 7.12.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 73% vinyl friendly. Not bad.

Anonymous ‘radiogram’, 1960s… and even at its size, the sort of set up that most families of the time had when music was really just a household component. Ours followed on from a legless Dansette-type turntable and was initially used primarily for the radio, with Dad wiring it through to the kitchen where one or two very discreetly hidden grills under a cupboard relayed Worldwide Family Favourites to the family Sunday lunch.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 145

‘You could be laughing sixty three percent more of the time… ‘ When Grant’s in the house he’s a likely contender here.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Hey Now What You Doing – Waiting For The Sirens’ Call, 2LP – London – 2005

On what is arguably the band’s weakest album, a gunslinger strum of a song that’s easy to skank around to on the dancefloor and if I ignore the ‘rock drawl’ that Barney sometimes gravitated to in later years (and touches on here) I’d suggest it’s one of his finest vocal performance, with some beaut guitar to boot.

05.40

PRESENCE – Better Days (Presence Vocal Mix) – 12″ – Pagan – 1997

One of producer Charles Webster’s many monikers, here with some class house music peeping out of a genre that’s been littered with sterility through the decades since its inception. He’ll be back here.

09.37

DISCLOSURE (feat JESSIE WARE) – Confess To Me – Settle, 2LP – PMR/Island/Method – 2013

Saw this pairing delivering this on Later With Jools.

13.37

SERMONS BY THE DEVIL – Synesthesia – Exorcismo Electronico, LP – Library Of The Occult – 2025

A ‘Sermons By The Devil’ search online is likely to lead to no good I tell ya, and the album’s imagery etc doesn’t grab me either but this is some cheery funky electronica.

20.42

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Yashar (John Robie Mix) – 12″ – Factory – 1983

This would have been here a good few years earlier if it hadn’t slipped through the initial 2016 ’41 Rooms Potentials’ folder. Richard and Mal pretty much namechecked Robie’s mighty work here as having single-handedly opened them up to the possibilities of ‘branching out’ and it’s a tune and mix that’s as synonymous as any with Wednesday nights in Winkles, Bedford back in the day. Even Pete Care’s video was ever present with the times.

The US acetate below is likely to be the Robie mix and the owner (not me) will know.

27.58

BLAWAN – NOS – SickElixir, LP – XL Recordings – 2025

Given the music he’s been knocking out since 2010 a move to Berlin for northern producer, Jamie Roberts isn’t such a surprise.

31.01

THE HUMAN LEAGUE – Being Boiled (Album version) – Travelogue, LP – Virgin – 1980

Faster and definitely ‘funkier’ than the already playlisted original but it’s a toss up…

34.51

DEEP PURPLE – Emmaretta – 7″ – Parlophone – 1969

I had the stock/shop copy of this back in my mid ’70s ‘rock, pop and soul’ years when I saw DP at Wembley Empire Pool and though classic rock rarely gets a look in on 41 Rooms this sounded more than fine. I’d maybe even have a belated stab at buying the demo/promo copy (below, and reminiscent of Motown demos of the time ) if it hadn’t gravitated to a £150 and well beyond price tag.

37.29

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – White Rabbit (Ursula 1000 remix) – Stream only – 2000-2010?

This mix turned up on some radio show… and has since disappeared. File Alex Gimeno’s efforts here under Psychedelia Plus.

41.30

RADWIMPS (feat TOAKA) – Suzume – ‘Suzume’ Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2LP – All The Anime Music – 2023

The sonics you can bump into on the net…

45.24

LANA SOY – Mind Games – Stream only – 2021’ish

‘‘Pure’, ‘softest’ and ‘soulful’ are usually the words thrown to describe Svetlana’s voice. Originally from Moscow and Londoner since 17, Svetlana’s music has been inspired by Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, Evanescence, Des’ree, Brandy and Sade‘. – Soundcloud

On a recent whistle stop trip back to Bedford I caught Lana at an open mic night and the best grouping of her songs is possibly her Apple Music presence. However, this version of Mind Games is one of two that are elsewhere, certainly including Soundcloud.

48.28

AIR (feat BETH HIRSCH) – You Make It Easy – Moon Safari, LP – Virgin – 1998

Any excuse to feature the voice of Beth Hirsch… and here it’s the avenue that most of the world got to first here her through.

52.06

JOHN GRANT – GMF – Pale Gree Ghosts, 2LP – Bella Union – 2013

With Grant’s usual wit and Sinead O’Connor (RIP) guesting, a few TV appearances of this song also included the latter on BVs, and certainly on Irish TV also Sinead’s daughter, Roísín’ where the phrase ‘The G(reatest) M(other) F(ucker)’ is still not one you’ll hear clear as day too often.

57.16

JAKE NAJOR and FRIENDS – Midnight In A Perfect World (live) – Stream only – 2021

‘American drummer, active as musician for numerous bands and band projects… ‘ says Discogs and here Najor faithfully recreates – in a video’d 99% live setting – to within a hair’s breath of DJ Shadow’s already 41 Rooms playlisted original.

01.01.54

DONOVAN – Hurdy Gurdy Man – 7″ – Pye – 1968

Another of the songs that when heard at the time, stood out over the Radio One airwaves, amongst its diet of pop music. Donovan himself even seems to be at odds with others involved in the session as to who added the electric guitar. Check the song’s Wikipedia entry for all the fun. I do know from research in a slightly different area (musicians playing live in the UK, but in the same time period) that sessioners were known to sometimes get paid in cash, with the deal and details being kept off the books for whoever it suited.

01.04.58

KIDDA – We, Do, Da Dirty Soundbwoy – Fresh Mess, DJ mix CDr – Catskills – 2005

The only place to find this barely 2 mins bouncy hip hoppity skit.

01.07.09

D’ANGELO – Unshaken – Red Dead Redemption II, video games soundtrack, 2LP – Lakeshore Records/Rockstar Games – 2019

“Produced by Daniel Lanois, co-writer of the track along with D’Angelo (RIP) and Rocco DeLuca, and on transparent red, should vinyl soundtracks be your thing.

01.10.59

MARK S. WILLIAMSON – Encounter On The Moor – Folklore, Facts And Fables 5: The Eve Stone, CD only – Forged River Recordings – 2025

‘For the fifth instalment in folklore, facts and fables series, we finally get a fable. We return to Todmorden and the story of Rob o’Harry’ot’Deans and his encounter with the fairy people up on the moors above the town… ‘ – Bandcamp

It quickly gets on a sonic plain and just stays there but I’m not qualified to work out whether multi-instrumentalist Williamson’s one string biscuit tin violin made it to the proceedings.

01.17.38

BREAKBEAT ERA – Breakbeat Era – 12″ – XL Recordings – 1998

And from one of my fave 21st century sounding albums (d&b is just that way). even though it was made a shade earlier.

01.21.51

??? – ??? – ??? – 1997?

Taped off a d&b show on London’s KISS FM radio of the time, I had this down as Comin’ Down by Kapricorn… but in amongst the swamp of anonymous and/or barely iD’d white label/promo/acetate/DAT tape etc tunes DJs on these sort of shows were buried in, this one was maybe confused with the aforementioned on a playlist, and it’s not anything Shazam can identify either. If you know… then let me know!

01.26.38

MATRIX – The Message 96 – New Identity Recordings – 12″ – 1996

One Jamie Quinn with some sparkling d&b!

01.30.05

LONDON ELEKTRICITY – Fast Soul Music – Billion Dollar Gravy, 3×12″ – Hospital Records – 2003

Given the title I’d have expected LE’s near-resident vocalist, Liane Carroll to have featured more here than with the occasional scat.

01.35.45

PARANOID LONDON (feat JENNIFER TOUCH) – Fields Of Fire – Arseholes, Liars, And Electronic Pioneers, 2LP – Paranoid London Records – 2024

The shuffling ‘hi-hats’ drive the stark beats like a real driving thing. If this had come out in 1981 I’d have made a home for this on the turntables for a good few week at Winkles.

01.43.01

MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO – Radio Babylon – 12″ – Play It Again Sam – 1990

Any year but 1990 certainly and I may have heard it at the time.

01.49.21

MERZ – Many Weathers Apart (Album version) – Merz, LP – Epic – 1999

A remix of MWA featured here a few years ago and it’s not the last time you’ll hear Conrad Merz’s idiosyncratic vocals here.

01.54.00

JOHN MARTYN – I’d Rather Be The Devil (Scrimshire Edit) – Download only – 2016

Adam Scrimshire adding beats and things to the already beat’y.

Show 145 hopefully surfaces Dec 7.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 145 – Original upload 2.11.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 68% vinyl friendly. Poor, and the first show to hit that exact mark… though with a likely future vinyl release it should inch up at some point.

‘A German (Dieter Rams) design classic… that caused uproar in the ’60s as one of the first light-weight record players to eschew the heavy wooden cabinet design, the Braun Audio 1 was the company’s first fully transistorised combined hi-fi system. At just 67cm wide, it’s remarkably petite… ‘ – The Vinyl Factory, 2017

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 144

‘I realized u were my demise… ‘ OK, so there’s little competition.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Crystal (Unpasteurized version by Ivan X) – Stream only – 2025

‘Crystal is a super song, but, to me, a lot of the “heys” and “oohs” are distracting, and conceal the excellent music underneath. I also don’t love the intro, or the repetitions of “keep it coming.” So I made this version that cuts out all of those, leaving a spare vocal and great music. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t. Here it is!‘ – Ivan X

The barely 400 yoootoob views at the time I clocked this mix suggests this Naked/Unpasteurized mix is from recent times rather than from when the band offered out Barney’s vocal for anyone to build a (re)mix around. If so, it’s maybe in the light of AI making track/stem separation, errr… ‘easier’, and whether you like your remixes to pay purist homage or go the ‘out there’ route that house music remixers have so often championed (both can have their winners)… this is gold star.

06.38

CLOCK DVA – Consent – White Souls In Black Suits, LP – Italian Records – 1982

First released on vinyl in Italy in 1982 but now…

‘Available for first time in over 35 years, Clock DVA’s White Souls in Black Suits – originally released in 1980 as a limited-run cassette on Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records – now returns newly remastered and reissued via The Grey Area of Mute and expanded with four bonus tracks from the same era‘. – Mute, October, 2025

It would have jelled better if the drumming had been higher in the mix.

11.08

HULA – Walk On Stalks Of Shattered Glass – 12″ – Red Rhino – 1985

Only released as a 12″ but someone online recently grabbed a 7″ test pressing for all of about £3.50!

15.38

THE SISTERS OF MERCY – Adrenochrome – 7″ b-side – CNT Productions/Merciful Release – 1982

Bought new but I don’t remember ever having the pic sleeve to this Body Electric single. If I did have it I lost it early on and very possibly during its many outings at our Winkles club nights when both sides rightly got played a lot. The photo below might suggest otherwise but the state my copy has been in since the mid ’80s is not good and a long way off the €300 or so it might have attracted if I’d vaulted the bugger away the day I bought it. Of course no one did that sort of thing back then, even if they do now.

18.33

STRETCHER – Mocktober – Unreleased – 2002’ish?

He’s known as Spud to me… and he’s given me as much info as when his other 2002’ish demo, Mousehold cropped up on 41 Rooms, back in 2021… which is diddly squat :)… so here’s a photo of a pink fairy armadillo!

23.31

HOT LIZARD – 165 Drop (Love From San Francisco Mix) – 12″ – Pacific Records – 1996

‘Probably the strongest release yet on the label, 165 Drop is a superbly crafted atmospheric piece of deep house, though just to place it in this category doesn’t do it justice. The simple swishing hats provide a rhythmic background to a procession of interesting, arpeggiated synth lines that blend beautifully, all the time gradually building into quite a pacy groove. Love From San Francisco’s mix is slower, gentler and effective in a more easy listening manner but there are more mixes to follow on this track in the coming months so this package may get stronger still‘. **** Tim Jeffery, Record Mirror (Music Week), 1.3.97

Hey! Less of the ‘Easy Listening’!

31.35

SOUND OF MUSIC – Feel The Music (Part One) – 12″ – Emotive Records – 1992

‘Feel the music’ indeed. There’s nothing profound in the lyrics but the beats and sounds of a handful of Emotive 12″s from around this period lifted the spirits. ‘Need the release‘? Both physically and mentally, at this time I did… and the £4 I paid for the 12″ in ’92 is about as much as a decent copy will cost now.

38.09

SILICONE SOUL – Right On! (Original Instrumental Version) (Pitched down!) – 12″ – VC Recordings/Soma – 2001

Given the sampled narration included, to this day this ‘instrumental’ take sounds a shade too chirpy cheery for me… so to give it some extra ‘presence’ I pitched it down on the show.

43.09

ISAAC HAYES – Theme From ‘Shaft’ – 7″ – Stax – 1971

Given its reason for being (a soundtrack) I’ve spun the full version rather than the subtly edited 7″ take. Arguably the most recognisable Blaxploitation sound(track)?

47.34

PART TIME HEROES – All This Time – Realise, 12″ EP – Mums The Word – 2006

I remember these guys doing some great radio shows, possibly stepping in for I’m not sure who – Gilles P, Ross Allen? It’s a blur. As of right now, a UK-sourced VG+ vinyl copy of the Realise EP (with this the second 41 Rooms playlisted track) on Discogs… at £1!

51.56

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF – Stardust – Download only – 2025

‘Reverb’ setting to ‘huge empty church’ or the likes in the recording process – or it was actually recorded in a huge empty church, and an ‘interesting’ use of a family photo for the sleeve below. There’s something in the water in Sweden.

58.29

HARMON BETHEA – Anonymous * – 7″ b-side – Creole – 1976

I spent a few years with only half of this track grabbed from somewhere online… and the wrong title! That never helps.

01.02.42

TOM BROCK – I Love You More And More – I Love You More And More, LP – 20th Century Records – 1974

‘Lurv thang’ mid ’70s soul and from the only album Brock made… and one with two 21st century re-releases. Not that its version of ‘I Love… ‘ really goes anywhere different beyond the 2mins 46 edit used for the US 7″ but seeing as a 1975 Brazilian 7″ pressing was mastered at 33rpm (they often cut singles that way over there back then and it would have giving them ‘space’ for more music) I’d be interested to know whether they went with the full length version. Nice touch, if they did… but I bet they didn’t.

01.06.32

MARVIN GAYE – That’s The Way Love Is – 7″ – Tamla (Motown) – 1969

Marv Top 10’ing in the US with a punchier, moodier version than the Isley Brothers’ uptempo take from two years earlier.

01.10.01

STEELY DAN – Do It Again – 7″ – ABC Records – 1972

I playlisted the full version that lead off the band’s debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill but I should have edited out the keyboard doodling… so using a 41 Rooms ‘trick’ I did the next best thing. With show 144’s time again I would go for the 7″ version, as it was the one that did it for me back in the day… as No. ‘977’ on the 7″ shelves of this then teenager’s bedroom, the log of the time still tells me.

01.15.16

(THE) PENTANGLE – Travellin’ Song – 7″ – Big T / Joc – 1968

Unless you lived in a folk music strong household, anyone nearing teenage years in the UK in the late ’60s most probably first heard Jacqui McShee’s signature vocals on the band’s Light Flight guesting as the theme to the BBC comedy drama, Take Three Girls but Travellin’ Song pre-dated that as their debut 7″.

01.18.08

THE B-52’s – Roam – 7″ – WEA International – 1989

Don’t ya just smile when you hear their vocals? Oh, and the apostrophe. It would hang on in their name for a few years more.

01.22.35

JAY B. SELLS (feat JOSHUA HAYES) – Pulling Strings (unreleased demo) – 1998’ish

I got given this demo by ‘Jay B. Sells’ maybe sometime soon after I left working at the Westminster Uni’s Commercial Music department but when on a return visit to see folks. Give this song and arrangement to some young soul(s) with pop stardom in their sites and a 2020s production mindset and I reckon this is a nailed on’ hands in the air’ winner. Indeed, after Rod Thomas gravitated to becoming Bright Light Bright Light (and maybe somewhere in between his first two BLBL albums) I did wing this track to him but he’s very much an ‘own song’ man… or maybe he just thought I was mad.

01.26.05

JAZZ THE GLASS – Main Squeeze – Output2023, EP – Bandcamp, download only – 2023

The motif pulling it back wins out but the drive is there. Cinematic and classy!

01.30.52

COMMON FACTOR (+ JOHN REDMOND) – World Is Mine – 12″ – Planet E – 2000

Every few years I seemed to latch on to a track on Carl Craig’s label and here Redmond’s on a mission. Building from half way through, it feels like madcap gospel on speed.

01.36.35

LAYO & BUSHWACKA! – Deep South – 12″ – End Recordings – 1999

Rumbling sounds and some borrowed, rambling ‘Satan’s waiting for you all‘ snippets, making for a good groove and from back in the day when, in this case, a £4 purchase fairly quickly turned into an £18.50 sale. Music & Video Exchange’s many shops in Notting Hill, London were (certainly in the ’90s), a regular destination for mover and shaker DJs and journalists offloading their unwanted promo vinyl and the chain’s dance and beats shop/department just overflowed, so it wasn’t hard to pick up gems… and every little helped to buy some more vinyl.

01.42.39

DEMOCUSTICO – Grito (Seiji Remix) – 12″ – Far Out – 2006

Brazilian at birth but musically they’re happy to move around a bit, even before Seijo’s remix takes this particular tune further afield. They’ve been here before and will be again.

01.47.49

EMILY’S CHAIR – Just Before I Go (unreleased) – 1998’ish

Just the one single under this moniker and this was in the mix of tracks they were producing at the time. Their only subsequent release – as One Mile Per Hour – was a 2012 self-tilted album which included a couple of tracks I recognised from the above period.

01.51.28

KUTIMAN (feat PRINCESS SHAW)- Give It Up * – Stream only – 2014

‘I would like to thank all the musicians that are in this project and to all of you out there for sharing your knowledge and talent on the internet‘. – Kutiman, Youtube

And search out the video below, as much for the info on Ophir Kutiel’s collaborators (unknowing at the time?) and the subsequent work involved in pulling this track together, and also elsewhere for the knock on effect his work has. 41 Rooms salutes the man.

01.55.42

ALABAMA SHAKES – Another Life – Download only – 2025

In the age old ritual of lead-person-goes-solo-and-then-years-later-the-band-reconvene, judging by the live video of Another Life (filmed at Colorado’s Red Rocks) this time around main gal, Brittany Howard will be no less the focal point. Old skool soulful rock songwriting.

Show 144 hopefully surfaces Nov 2.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 144 – Original upload 5.10.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 79% vinyl friendly. Not bad.

The Vertere SG-1/Xtrax! Named by designer and founder, Tourag Moghaddam like a very expensive thing… and at nearly £45,000 in 2023 it was.

With its ‘strategically placed LEDs embedded in the sumptuous acrylic plinth‘, when What Hi-Fi reached their 50th birthday earlier this year the turntable made it into their ‘20 very best turntables of What Hi-Fi?’s lifetime‘ and described it as ‘a true musical chameleon, one that changes character with the recording being played. Such a talent is rare in hi-fi, and should be cherished.‘

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 143

Could have gone with Devo’s ‘Afraid nobody around here, understands my potato. I think I’m the only spud boy looking for a real tomato‘ but I guess you needed to have been there.

Instead, I’m going with ‘Diamond in the back, sunroof top, diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh‘, a line anyone of a certain would likely know.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Heart and Soul (Reading Festival, 1998) – 3 16, DVD – Warner Music Vision – 2001

Aside Ceremony and a version of Love Will Tear Us Apart in Birmingham back in 1983, if you weren’t at the Manchester Apollo gig a month before this Reading Festival appearance, to that point you’d have been waiting nearly two decades for New Order to perform any Joy Division songs and this evening – after yet another five year gap in performing live – they ran through Isolation, Atmosphere, Heart And Soul, Ceremony and Love Will Tears Us Apart.

My daughter, Alice now at her second New Order gig, aged nine and a tall kid for her age back then, went jostling down the front once again, remembering ‘rolls and rolls of toilet paper being thrown through the crowd’. At the Rivermead party afterwards, being in the same room as Neil Tennant, Pete Shelley and Keith Allen meant zip to her when there were kids to be running around with and she spent most of the time playing video games with a boy and girl, both slightly older than herself. A very young Lily and Alfie Allen? We’ll likely never know. She did, though, remember me introducing her to Rob Gretton… which, of course, was far more important an event.

04.11

MEDIUM MEDIUM – Freeze – 7″ b-side – Apt Music – 1979

More ‘indie/new wave’ than the previously playlisted a-side, Them Or Me which rode the funk slant they’re best remembered for from their initial short incarnation.

07.07

LONELADY – Intuition (home studio version) – Stream only – 2022

A wonderful abrasive live version of an early Warp Records single and track from her debut album, Nerve Up. Seek out unique Lonelady content from Julie at Patreon.

10.21

THE SOUL OF 81 WINKLES – Look My Way (Radio Edit) – 10″ – So… Sparkle! – 1998

Where to start? From my time working within the Uni of Westminster’s Commercial Music Dept out in Harrow, London and a label project involving the students. I chose the tune, a cover of Mira Pa Ca by ’70s US Latin rockers, Chango and with one of the course’s heads, Alan Fisch/Fisher (ex Cabaret Voltaire) producing, we handpicked some of the best students. All pre internet, I remember sourcing Spanish and Portuguese peeps at the Uni to try and decipher the lyrics of the original (only partly successful, I think) and I even wrote an extra verse myself. I remember Alan F clocking the recording covering 174 tracks(!) and we ran with the adrenalin/enthusiasm that can overtake bands when playing live gigs – in that the finished track moved tempo and basically sped up… a lot(!) something that was later pointed out with great enthusiasm and admiration by DJ, Andy/Mr Scruff.

For the uninitiated, the band ‘name’ was a sort of nod to the Bedford alternative club started in early 1981 at a club called Winkles, whereby although predominantly the alternative/indie/new wave of the time we did move around genres and should this ‘Look My Way’ project have carried on to other releases we may have moved across a genre or two. Indeed, my initial idea for a follow up (if one had come) was to cover One Fine Day, a single by ’70s Canadian rockers, Lighthouse… and we’d have pulled it off, too.

Originally a 500 run, hand numbered, orange vinyl promo 10″ the reaction to Look My Way was brill. Fuelled massively by Patrick Forge on his Kiss FM radio show, a whole host of other buzz builder etc DJs (see below, including Pete Tong’s Radio One Essential Selection show) followed suit. Thanks to the facilities at the Uni we produced a video (it’s on Youtube), got a couple of A&R along to the filming and ended up performing the track live just the once, a 12 minute version at Patrick Forge’s 333/Off Centre club night’s first anniversary shindig. Oh, and a 12″ pressing followed as an official release.

So, least we forget: Kirsten, Sahara, Adam, Vid, Buster, Dan, Phil, Ed, Calum, Shanks, Wills, John, Ivan, Alan, Colm (RIP) and no doubt others… and from 2020, my Facebook page for a slightly different take and more photos.

Kirsten and Alan

Pass to the recording of the video.

14.00

JOSE FELICIANO – Day Tripper (live) – 7″ b-side – RCA – 1969

Besides coupling with Windmills Of Your Mind on the above mentioned Turkish single – the only known official release of Jose’s Day Tripper on a 7″ – it did feature on a US promo 4-track 7″ that was used to promote the 1969 live at the London Palladium double album, Alive Alive-O, the best known source for Jose’s cover but though a massive Beatles fan he rarely played the song live beyond the release of the album.

In a Rolling Stone interview with Jonathon Colt in Nov ’68 John Lennon was asked if there were any other versions of his songs that he liked and he replied: ‘Jose Feliciano does great things to ‘Help’ and ‘Day Tripper‘. As this was a year before Jose’s London Palladium performance and I’m reasonably sure Jose hadn’t performed Day Tripper on UK or US TV I can only assume Lennon had either caught Jose playing live at one of his low key club nights on his debut UK visit in May ’67 (The Scotch Of St James, a likely contender as it was a Beatles haunt and Macca certainly saw Jose there) or a far bigger concert when Jose began blowing up large in the US in the second half of ’68.

17.46

JOSE FELICIANO – Day Tripper (GOT-TA-SCATTA’s DT Ripper) – Unreleased – 2009’ish

Unreleased for obvious reasons, although when I played a slightly earlier version of our ‘take’ to Jose years ago he loved it and said we ought to release it. And as it happens, I’ll be winging this version to Jose tomorrow, as it marks his 80th birthday!

One half of GOT-TA-SCATTA (Dave, far right), with Jose (second left), here with Cliff Peacock and my daughter, Alice during the recording of Jose’s inclusion on The Flamingos’ Icarus Descending 1998 single.

21.04

ECHO and THE BUNNYMEN – Stars Are Stars – Crocodiles, LP – Korova – 1980

Hell, they were a class act.

23.45

D.A.F. – Kebaubtraume – 7″ – Mute – 1980

Easy to see why they passed through on Daniel Miller’s label.

27.14

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Landslide – Red Mecca, LP – Rough Trade – 1981

The one minute plus video of CV2025 (Mal, Chris Watson, Eric Random and Benge) rehearsing Landslide in preparation for their upcoming UK dates will have driven even greater interest in their return, one though that, as Mal freely admits, wouldn’t have happened had Richard Kirk not passed away in 2021. At that point Richard was the only member of Cabaret Voltaire and refrained from playing any old material in live performances… and maybe as important, Richard and Mal sadly weren’t exactly on speaking terms. With Richard’s passing and the void it left, coupled with a fiftieth anniversary looming since the first CV gig, it’s maybe understandable that Mal and Chris, as the other two original members, might want to celebrate… and I and whole bunch of others will be doing just that with them. RIP, Richard.

29.15

DEVO – Smart Patrol/Mr DNA – Duty Now For The Future, LP – Virgin – 1979

Were they not men? They are Devo!

34.47

RINGDOWN – Crazy – Lady On The Bike, LP – Nonesuch – 2025

Willie Nelson’s song taken in a Patsy Cline-type of way.

36.57

SPOKANKI – Ceann Dubh Dilis (My Sweet, Dark-Haired Love) – Stream only? – 2019’ish

‘Ever heard traditional Irish music like this? Composed by Michael McGlynn and performed by Spokanki — a magical a cappella group of 8 sisters blending haunting harmonies with heart. Turn the volume up and tag someone who needs to hear this! ’ – Irish Daily

‘… a “multi-genre musical, theatrical a cappella group” (their words, and honestly? accurate).
Their sound is so unique, haunting and warm at the same time — I have sooo many questions According to legend (aka their website), they’re 8 sisters from the mystical land of SpokanLand, traveling the world to share the music of all peoples and becoming friends with the entire human world…‘ – dailychoirs

Out of Russia a “multi-genre musical theatrical a cappella group” According to their website, they are eight* sisters from the mystical (and fictional) town of SpokanLand.

37.55

COCTEAU TWINS – Dear Heart – BBC Sessions, 2CD – Bella Union – 1999

This track has become so ingrained in my psyche through the years that I was convinced there was a studio version… which there isn’t. Maybe hearing this version (from the second of three sessions the band did for Peel) and from numerous live tapes from ’83-’84 – including my own promotion at Bedford Boys Club in November ’84 – I’d daftly appropriated it having been on vinyl.

Above: Robin and Liz’s responses to the questionnaire when I interviewed them at their then Muswell Hill flat. I gave the same to other bands I interviewed for my one-off 1984 fanzine, Rorschach Testing… and very coincidentally, there’s a track Robin and Liz mention here that will crop up later. They also similarly embellished my copy of the Head Over Heels album in the same fashion but somewhere along the years that beauty mysteriously disappeared.

41.23

TONY CHRISTIE – Nobody In The World – 7″ – Acid Jazz – 2010

A long way from either Amarillo or Avenues and Alleyways but in regularly releasing albums ever since his his ’70s chart era it’s been Eddie Piller’s ‘mod’ sensibilities at Acid Jazz that’s gotten the most out of the man.

44.21

THE ELGINS – Put Yourself In My Place – 7″ b-side – V.I.P. – 1965

But so good it then gravitated to parent label, Tamla Motown and a UK A-side four years later.

46.41

THE PARTING GIFTS – (Walkin’ Thru The) Sleepy City – split 7″ – Norton Records – 2010

In between main girl, Lindsay Hames’ other projects, The Parting Gifts produced one album and this split 7″ where they possibly sounded more authentic to the song’s mid ’60s era than its writers, the Rolling Stones did with the tune, and should the latter have released the song as a US 7″ at the time (which they didn’t), The PGs mimicking the label design it would have had was a nice extra touch. The Mighty Avengers did give the song a shot back in the day but it didn’t chart and it was left hidden until the Stones resurrected it for their mid ’70s compilation, Metamorphosis.

48.29

PAGES – Heartaches & Pain – 7″ – Sunstruck – 1979

Their only ever release and to my ears, sounding older than its 1979 vintage. Potentially a $1500 asking price if you find an original… and I won’t.

50.37

REUBEN BELL with THE CASANOVAS – It’s Not That Easy – 7″ – Murco – 1967

I’d have put money on this being a female vocalist, but it would be better spent put towards buying an original copy of the 7″. It’s in the hundreds.

52.58

PAUL WELLER – Cold Moments – 22 Dreams, 2LP – Island – 2008

About as trusted an artist as there can be when it comes to a new release, I’m reasonably sure there isn’t a Weller solo album I couldn’t find a track to want to spin on 41 Rooms.

57.39

GOT-TA-SCATTA – Safe Train – Unreleased – 2012’ish

An idea that first learned to walk a few years earlier and if you know your Sergio Mendes vocalists, one that might have given us problems if we’d had wanted to release it officially. I think the starting point for the track was at one time far moodier but then Dave and I got into a brighter take. His partner, Holly guested an early ‘counter’ vocal… that we then slowed to a crawl and another fave sample source of ours cropped up for the outro. Also, looking at the myriad of versions we had, one was co-titled ‘Cowdenbeath’ for a reason neither of us can remember… but I’ll guarantee we were both laughing to ourselves when it happened.

The GOT-TA-SCATTA lads windswept on a mid ’80s ferry. You’re welcome.

01.02.09

JOHN FOXX – Touch and Go – Metamatic, LP – Virgin / Metal Beat – 1980

A track that I played a lot at our early ’80s club nights so it should have been somewhere in the 1hr Winkles specials that cropped up in many early 41 Rooms shows.

UPDATE: At the end of the week following this show going live I was in London and caught a John Foxx Q&A / signing session at London’s Rough Trade East, hosted by Cabaret Voltaire’s Mal and having had a ‘long time no see’ kind of bear hug with Mal in the pub beforehand I and a mate – afterwards and to guarantee a sit down – chose a different pub a good few minutes away… to find John Foxx in there! A quick word with the man involved me recounting that I ran a club night in Bedford back in the early ’80s and hearing tracks from Metamatic anytime since has always instantaeously brought back the ‘feel’ of the club.

The good folks at Rough Trade East were let down on grey vinyl copies of Metamatic turning up on the above night but they subsequently got a signed copy sent to me in Ireland.

01.07.44

FACTORY FLOOR – Tell Me – 12″ – Phantasy Sound – 2025

A cracking sound that would have been sooooo on my Winkles turntables in the early ’80s, if it had been released then. Of course the electronic nerds will tell me that some of the sounds weren’t around then but ya get me drift.

01.11.45

UNDERGROUND HOP – Make It Without You (Rawmix) * – 12″ – Bass Boy – 1992

Coincidentally, the second track on this show to run the lyric ‘I can’t make it without You’ and here it’s a hefty 41 Rooms re edit on some minimalist beats I would have been blasting loud in late night headphones back when the likes of Kiss FM’s Sarah HB or Steve Jackson was spinning the track over the airwaves. Sampling a line from the Robert Owens-led Jus’ Friends, Massive B label 12″, As One (out the same year and he’s not credited on either) I’d have followed here with the latter if I hadn’t thought I’d already playlisted it. I hadn’t… so, another time.

01.14.07

STEVIE R & CERPINTXT – Red Lemon (Ed Davenport Edition) – Madilo 12″ – Chapter 24 – 2018

Building and dropping in all the right places. Storming.

01.21.24

TRAXMAN – See Things My Way – Teklife Vol. 3: The Architek, download only – 2013

Although I knew of the Traxman name I hadn’t heard any of his stuff until recently but I recognised the Carpenters straight off here on what is a vocal sample as brutal as the track’s breaks and arrangements are crude and simple… but it works!

For my own divilment , and not a million miles away from what’s going on here, an idea I had back in 2010 involved totally mangling a Joe Cocker tune and if I or we (GOT-TA-SCATTA) ever fine tune it you might hear ‘Cockered Up’ on 41 Rooms.

01.24.02

TRAXMAN – I Need Some Money – Da Mind Of Traxman, 2LP – Planet Mu – 2012

I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an old Traxman DJ mix somewhere where he’s mixing in and out of this and the above See Things My Way tune.

01.27.02

ACTION & TENSION & SPACE – Skåredalen Funhouse – Skåredalen Funhouse, LP – Kapitän Platte – 2018

A Norwegian trio starting as ‘low-fi post-rock, moving to free rock jams‘ it says somewhere. ‘Water’ – the wet stuff – is what springs to my mind here for me. No idea why.

01.30.04

JOHN FOXX & LOUIS GORDON – Smoke – Crash And Burn, LP – Metamatic – 2003

The fourth returnee this show, Foxx moves from the earlier Touch and Go to Crash And Burn… sort of. Smoke has real ‘character’.

01.36.01

WILLIAM DEVAUGHN – Be Thankful For What You Got * – Be Thankful For What You Got, LP – Chelsea Records – 1974

I’d be stunned if this wasn’t on the jukebox in Bedford’s Pilgrims Inn in my earliest pub drinking days and/or being spun in the Laird of the Anglers Inn across the road on Saturday lunchtimes.

01.41.01

SOUL II SOUL – Keep On Movin’ – Club Classics Vol. One, LP – 10 Records – 1989

On the album but not the same as the 12″ Club Mix. If I had a Top Ten list of gigs I wish I’d caught in my old home town, Bedford this crew would be right up there. Caron Wheeler and Jazzie B on the stage of the Corn Exchange…

01.46.41

MARVIN GAYE – Where Are We Going? (Alternate Mix) – split 7″ – Motown – 2016

Jazzie B! See Marv here. He was happy keeping the ‘g’ in. Originally recorded for Gaye’s shelved 1972 album You’re The Man the track subsequently through the years saw the light through various compilations and deluxe editions (e.g. 2001’s Let’s Get It On Deluxe Edition but being a singles fan I’m giving the nod to this 7″ even though it’s unlikely I’ll ever own a copy.

01.50.18

TODD RUNDGREN – Fidelity – Nearly Human, LP – Warner Brothers – 1989

Todd gets soulful and although a lot of differing traffic in between, maybe not a huge leap from his late ’60s Nazz and Hello It’s Me days.

01.54.25

DONNA SUMMER – State Of Independence – 12″ – Warner Brothers – 1982

From the ’12” for the price of a 7″ single’ pushing-for-the-charts days and I most probably paid best mate, Dob/Dave Lewis the £1.35 the cover states, as he was managing the Bedford WH Smiths’ record department at the time.

Yet another track that I remember blasting loud and on repeat whilst walking my dog, Flanagan around a pitch black Bedford Park after DJ’ing at Winkles back in the day. Maybe not the smartest move at 2am but I was most probably slightly drunk. Re Donna, she sounds way more passionate about the lyrics than the writers Yes’ Jon Anderson and Vangelis managed. They sound like they just provided a guide vocal to sell the song on. And I’ll refer here again to Bob Conti, someone I know from his three decades playing live with Jose Feliciano. He was also Donna’s percussionist and co-writer of very long standing and you’ll find a fab Daieda Magazine article/interview with Bob on his website, where he spoke beautifully of his time with the lady.

Show 144 hopefully surfaces Oct 5.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 143 – Original upload 7.9.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 76% vinyl friendly. Not bad.

RCA Victor, 1950s. ‘No frills’ would be an understatement. Did the job though, no doubt.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 142

‘Trigger happy policing. Panic is spreading. God knows where we’re heading… ‘ Marv, via The Flams.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Paradise – Brotherhood, LP – Factory – 1986

The album’s lead track. Played live late ’80s through the ’90s and though I would get the very slightest wiff of c&w with the occasional ‘mid period’ New Order song it’s unlikely Barney’s ‘Jolene’ is the same as Dolly Parton’s.

04.16

ASHNYMPH – Saltspreader – Download only – 2025

A glorious, chugging, fuzzy racket from South London that band member, Jonny sees as ‘service station dance music.’ It’s also a rare example of a(nother) vocal rising from the bottom of a big barrel… that sounds OK!

07.43

CHAKK – No. 3 SOUND (Peel session) – stream only – 1984

‘Industrial funk’ back then and just as much so now. At the time of recording for their one and only John Peel session this track sounded like a sketch of an idea with vocalist, Jake Harries slightly ad-libbing/winging it. So new maybe, it had no title… other than it was the third track recorded for the session. Tough, whatever and hello to anyone else who saw them at London’s Portobello Rd Electric Cinema or supporting The Smiths at Warwick Uni, both in early ’84 I think.

11.04

ZAINICHI FUNK – Bakudan Kowai – 爆弾こわい, CD only – P-Vine Records – 2011

Bonkers Japanese homage to James Brown, with the vocalist throwing in the slightest of Godfather of Funk moves in the video. They do it their own way over there and on the evidence of this alone it’s hard to know whether it’s a deep love of funk, a total spoof or somewhere in between.

15.04

NEW STREET ADVENTURE – Hangin’ On / Hangin’ Up – 7″ – Unmasked Recordings – 2012

Having had a stint as a solo artist Nick Corbin is currently back in 2025 action within his full band moniker. Here though it’s their mod-tastic debut single from back in the day. Sharp, especially with the flip side making it to the mega 7″ Heaven show 100.

17.41

THE STYLE COUNCIL – Money-Go-Round (Part One) – 7″ – Polydor – 1983

Paul Weller’s soul collective knocked out a cracking version of this live on UK TV back in the day (possibly not The Tube?) and though this is a slight cheat on the ‘play only once on 41 Rooms’ rule I set myself (the 12″ was spun about a hundred shows ago) it’s a set of lyrics as on point today as it was those forty plus years ago.

21.19

BOBBY BYRD – I Know You Got Soul (Original Full Album Version) – 12″ – S12 – 2001

If I’m honest, I wasn’t aware of Byrd’s original – either this album version or the original three minutes only 1971, King label 7″ – until after buying Eric B. & Rakim’s slightly slower 1988 cover but it still feels like I heard it a few years before the full version got released on this 12″.

25.46

TROUBLE FUNK – Trouble Funk Express – 12″ – D.E.T.T. Records – 1982

The Washington D.C. Go-Go train chugging along the tracks slightly slower than its Dusseldorf-based inspiration. Suggesting (as it appears to do) that it’s actually a Trouble Funk written track is something Kraftwerk may have had something to say about.

31.54

GURU (feat D. C. LEE) – No Time To Play – 12″ – Cooltempo – 1993

‘Another jem from the ‘Jazzamatazz’ set, this crispy two-stepper boasting a C.J. MacKintosh remix of a chirpy rap tune featuring infectious backgrounds from D C Lee and jazzy guitar licks from Ronnie Jordan. Elsewhere in the proceedings string stabs, a warm bass line and live drum feel add to the joyous nature of the track, DC Lee’s chorus backgrounds definitely being the particularly effective riff that lodges in your grey matter‘. – Ralph Tee, Record Mirror (Music Week), 16.10.93

‘CJ MacKintosh remixed jauntily jiggling 100bpm groove with Guru muttering through D.C. Lee’s mantra-like refrain and Ronny Jordan’s jazz guitar… ‘ – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 6.11.93 

Yep, featuring in no small measure, D. C. Lee and with a big nod to the sounds bubbling underneath, yet another rap that passes me by as my ears wait to pick up on the chorus.

36.36

SOUL II SOUL – Just Right (Video version) – Stream only? – 1992

Not the first version of the song to grace 41 Rooms and it might not be the last, so props to all involved, most notably guest vocalist here, Rick Clarke and his melodies, and I’m wondering if it was nailed on that Jazzie B’s rap had to stay in, no matter who was remixing.

40.14

DONOR LENS – Inside Outside – As Warm As Summer, cassette only – My Pet Flamingo – 2025

Amazing how the kids have taken to a decades old format. The album is also available digitally but as of right now the now sold out cassette version is the only hard copy format out there. Re their ‘Vaporwave’-tagged sound? See their entry on the last show.

43.12

SCALER (feat AKIKO HARUNA) – Salt – Endlessly, LP – Black Acre – 2025

Upcoming in September and we’re in slow beats terrain that you may not be surprised to hear, emanates from Bristol, UK.

‘Scaler (Alex Hill, Isaac Jones, James Rushforth and Nick Berthoud, alongside visual artist Jason Baker) are the electrifying Bristol-based band hailed as the city’s “next national breakthrough” thanks to their pulverising live show and meticulous, mind-warping sound. Now they’re back with ‘Endlessly’, a sublime and stylistically expansive new album. 10 potent tracks written and recorded more collaboratively than ever before, as SCALER explore what it means to make music with no ceiling… ‘. – Spindizzy Records

46.32

LEON VYNEHALL (feat POISON ANNA) – Mirror’s Edge – Download only – 2025

Dub… step…

50.28

SANDOZ – Inner Rhythms – Intensely Radioactive, 2LP – Touch – 1994

The late Richard H. Kirk sounding cinematic.

59.34

JOI CARDWELL – What It Feels Like (Quentin Harris Club Mix) * – 12″ – BPM King Street Sounds – 2006

Not an R&B-style track then taken on a remix journey but co-written with and produced by Quentin Harris.

01.05.40

TASHAN – Love Is Forever (Shadow Zone Vocal Dub) – 12″ – Columbia – 1993

‘Now here on import with mixes to suit every persuasion. The three A-side soul-cum-swing versions are certainly reflections of the bum and easily the highlight here, sophistication and subtle urban flavours lending to its potential at an adult rather than street level. The three B-side mixes house it up‘. – Ralph Tee, Record Mirror (Music Week), 4.12.93

‘Soulfully moaning guy’s superb wriggly cantering 123.8bpm David Shaw, lush jiggly swaying 109.8bpm Radio, chunkier rolling 110.2bpm Joe ‘The Butcher’ Mixes‘. – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 4.12.93

I say ‘weirdly tagged’ on the show coz this ‘Vocal Dub’ sounds like a full vocal to me. Back listening to this at the time on KISS FM (London style) it was the clattering snares that caught my ear first.

01.09.51

BULLION – Long Promised – Young Heartache, 12″ EP – One-Handed Music – 2009

Depending on how you’re wired, this juttery approach may not be to everyone’s liking.

01.12.31

EYELESS IN GAZA – John Of Patmos – Photographs As Memories, LP – Cherry Red – 1981

Martyn Bates sounding as like some distant folk style got hijacked by punk with bare bones electronica to hand.

01.16.41

NORRIS MAN – Home And Away * – 7″ – Vertex Productions – 2005

I can’t stand the intro to this, so it got binned for the show. Apologies to Norris Man but after that it sounds great.

01.20.06

MORGAN HERITAGE – Crying Out – 7″ – Firehouse Crew – 1998

Checking out Discogs, you never had long to wait for the next Morgan Heritage single, as there are 230 listed on there – on nearly as many different labels!

01.24.00

COURTNEY BUCHANAN – Heaven – 12″ – Conscious – 1994

Actually this was first out on MCA but then shifted to the above short lived label where gems shone in their few releases.

01.27.49

THE FLAMINGOS – Inner City Blues (Extended Blue) – 12″ b-side – Robs Records – 1994

Maybe not for the soul purists and I can’t remember how we (Cliff, Dave and to a lesser extent myself) decided on having a stab at Marvin Gaye’s catalogue. All of us were fans… and that maybe included Rob(s Records) Gretton, too and it’s another set of lyrics that stands the test of time.

01.32.48

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO – Agolo – 12″ – Mango – 1994

By total coincidence, the third tune in a row from 1994 but in no way accounts for why this follows The Flamingos so well.

01.37.05

DONOVAN – There Is A Mountain – 7″ – Pye – 1967

A Buddhist saying turned into a cheery poptastic tune and one of a lot of ’60s 7″ singles I as a teenager was belatedly catching up on five to ten years after their release. These days, Donovan sort of lives up the road from me (well, twenty miles of rural Ireland) and the chances are that from home he can actually see a mountain! Mount Leinster, in fact.

01.39.35

GNAG OF FOUR – Damaged Goods – 7″ – Fast Product – 1978

From Donovan to Damaged Goods… a link not often made over the ether. One for Damaged Goods label boss and mate, Ian Ballard (yes, the label was named after Gof4 and the song).

01.43.00

NASMAK – Nothing But The Lyrics – 4our Clicks, LP – Plurex- 1982

I distinctly remember that any Nasmak track I played in our early ’80s Winkles (Bedford) club nights sounded particularly strong ‘sound system’… though I didn’t play this one… as I didn’t have the album.

01.45.50

JOY DIVISION – Transmission – The Peel Sessions, 12″ EP – Strange Fruit – 1986

A shade slower than the Strawberry Studios version but the blending of two greats as the band rolled in here for the first of their two 1979 sessions for Peel. Eventually released with a bunch of other artists’ visits to the Beeb’s Maida Vale studios in Strange Fruit’s first year, this release actually followed the New Order one in the sequencing.

01.49.52

NUYORICAN SOUL – I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun – Nuyorican Soul, 2LP – Talkin’ Loud / Giant Step – 1997

Written in 1971 by Rotary Connection’s Charles Stepney and Richard Rudolph, and featuring Minnie Riperton (the latter’s then husband) but more than confidently taken on here by Jocelyn Brown and Nuyorican Soul’s helmsmen, Louie Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez. Epic in both camps.

01.54.46

MUCHO MACHO (feat JON LUCIEN) – Easy Living (41 Rooms Radio Edit Extend) * – Nuyorican Soul, 6×12″ box set – Talkin’ Loud / Giant Step – 1986

My ‘Extend’? Somewhere between the only-available-on-CD Radio Mix and the 12″ Full Length Version take… which dawdles a bit too much. Whichever, as minimal as they are, it’s Lucien’s silky tones that are the key within this slinking groove.

Show 143 should be here Sept 7.

Dec x

The post Post Punk Plus Podcast Playlist 142 – Original upload 3.8.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 52% vinyl friendly. Worst ever! Apologies to all vinyl enthusiasts.

The Miniot Wheel is as minimalist a stab at the record turntable as can be. ‘A modified Audio-Technica cartridge plays the record from underneath, with the spindle in the centre used to turn it on and off, skip tracks and adjust the volume if you have a pair of headphones plugged in‘. In action whilst laying flat or standing upright the original €650 model (above) has been superceded by subsequent Wheel 2, 3 and Black Wheel editions, the latter costing €4000.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Temporary Glitch! ENCORE!

A slightly different problem to the last problem means that my vocal input still isn’t quite what it should/could be. Here’s hoping, next time I’ve got it sorted.

Lyric of Playlist 141

In Pete J, maybe the delicate sounding souls have it.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Ruined In A Day (MK Extended Remix) – Stream only – ????

Nothing to do with the more famous ‘MK’ remixer, Marc Kinchen but someone chancing his arm on Youtube with some sympathetic (to New Order’s music) unofficial reworking. It helps that for me it’s a top class mid period (sort of) NO track to start with.

06.44

DERADOORIAN – Digital Gravestone – Ready For Heaven, LP – Fire – 2025

Multi instrumentalist out of California here with the lead track from her fourth album.

11.10

CLOCK DVA – Piano Pain – Thirst, LP – Fetish – 1981

At the time this album came out I wasn’t aware just how much material they’d released to that point and with the help of better production Adi Newton’s vocals maybe took until Thirst to sound as ‘threatening’ as they did.

13.51

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Diffusion – Gasoline In Your Eye, VHS video – Virgin – 1985

Quite possibly a track never played live. Not at any of the seventeen or so gigs I saw them at, anyway.

21.35

CHAKK – Sedative Ends (Peel session: 7.10.84) – Unreleased – 1984

For a couple of years around their tour de force, one and only session for Peely they were majestic.

25.31

THE BLOOD BROTHERS – Transfusion – 12″ – Big World Records – 1990

The alter ego of the London downtempo, beats duo, Pressure Drop and seems like it could have sat next to their PD Back2Back 12″ release in the same year without a name change. I have three copies of this 12″, which will have been down to two of them languishing in the mid ’90s in a 10p section of Notting Hill’s Vinyl & Record store emporium… and me wanting to save them from the landfill they could easily have ended up in.

30.37

INCOGNITO – Castles In The Air (Vikter Duplaix Afrotech Remix) – Life Stranger Than Fiction, 2×12″ – Talkin’ Loud – 2001

A thumping remix that way outweighs the original for me.

35.59

THE GREENHORNES (feat HOLLY GOLIGHTLY) – Season’s End (Max Josef Edit) – Tonic Edits Vol. 2, 12″ – Toytonics – 2014

Featuring Holly Golightly, The Greenhornes’ There Is An End, from their 2001 Dual Mono album, on Telstar, then remixed and namechecked on Soundcloud as ‘Holly Golightly – There’s An End (Max Josef Edit), from a Tonic Edits Vol 2 vinyl EP’… where on, it’s actually titled Season’s End. Phew!

39.25

CALIBRE (feat CIMONE) – Time To Breathe – Feeling Normal, 4 x 12″ LP – Signature – 2012

D&b heaven. Subtle and classy.

44.21

TRICKY (feat MARTINA TOPLEY-BIRD) – Black Steel (Sessions at West 54th, 1997) – 1997

From the first season of a multi genre TV show, this live performance lets loose the ‘unease’ of the song better than the album take.

47.52

2PAC (feat DR. DRE & ROGER TRAUTMAN) – California Love – 12″ – Death Row – 1995

As it might have suited me better, there’s a cool instrumental take to be had but it’s none of the two official ones out and about. An idea… I’m thinkin’.

52.29

BIG BLOOD – When I Was Young – Operate Spaceship Earth Properly, LP – Feeding Tube Records – 2018

They can be relentless in a tune the way I maybe wouldn’t take to with most others. Colleen Kinsella’s vocals are a big part of that.

59.03

EMILIO PIANO (feat LUCIE) – Maison – Download only – 2025

Early teen’er (I’m guessing) with seemingly her first song… and search out a couple of live ‘shopping mall/airport/train station-just passing by’ versions that aren’t maybe as ‘chance situation’ as they appear. Either way, a beaut of a collaboration.

Video: Director/Camera/Editor: Marcel Stefanowski

01.01.52

THE MEMORY BAND with GRANTBY – The Ballad Of Imber Down – Further Navigations 10″ EP – Static Caravan – 2014

Sounding like incidental music to a ’70s-’80s James Herriot-sourced TV drama, it’s Folk… of the rural kind… what with ‘The Ballad of… ‘, Imber’s lost village Salisbury Plain setting… and rabbits on the menu… sorry, big in the ‘lyrics’, and in salute of the 10″, it was 500 copies via Record Store Day 2014.

01.07.26

THE SUNDAYS – Through The Dark – Cry, cassette single, extra track – Parlophone – 1997

Maybe a 41 Rooms first? A track only available on a cassette version, this of the band’s 1997 UK single, Cry and Japanese CD versions of the Static & Silence album the same year.

01.11.41

MANU DELAGO (feat PETE JOSEF) – A Step – Metromonk, CD only – Tru Thoughts – 2017

Josef appearing at 41 Rooms on others peeps’ tracks as much as on his own.

01.16.15

JON LUCIEN – Creole Lady – By Request, CD only – Shanachie – 1999

Better than the 1975 version original, I reckon.

01.19.58

JETHRO TULL – Living In The Past – 7″ – Island – 1969

Classic folk rock… not ‘arf.

01.23.03

MODERN NATURE – Pharaoh – The Heat Warps, LP – Bella Union – 2025

‘A track influenced by Andrew Weatherall who, before he passed away in 2020, played Modern Nature on his NTS radio show and inspired them with his motto “Fail we may, sail we must”.

Commenting on the track, Jack Cooper says: “It’s a song about the men we’re conditioned to respect and follow and it’s a song about the people who inspire us to think differently. It’s as much about Pharaoh Sanders as it is about the kings and politicians we’re meant to believe in. ‘Pharaoh’ makes the case for finding a personal philosophy and trying to live a life that might inspire others or at the very least not hurt them.” ‘ – wildfiremusic.net

01.27.48

DANA GAVANSKI – The Wind (Blew You Away) – Spring Demos, Cassette only – Fox Food Records – 2017

‘Alternative, Experimental, folk‘ says Bandcamp, for songs that got a cassette release in the UK and Japan in 2017 and 2018, respectively before a UK CD issue the next year. The Wind? It’s wonderful.

01.32.35

DONOR LENS – Open Your Eyes – As Warm As Summer, cassette only – My Pet Flamingo – 2025

Slow beats doing it! The duo of Thom (Love in Dust, Wichita LimeWire) and Jay (Kid Neon, Timeshare 94) making ‘both sample-free and sampled music across a variety of vaporwave and vw-adjacent styles‘.

‘Vaporwave is an electronic music microgenre and aesthetic that emerged in the early 2010s, characterized by its nostalgic and surreal atmosphere, often drawing from 1980s and 1990s corporate muzak, smooth jazz, and early internet culture. It frequently utilizes slowed-down samples, chopped and screwed techniques, and a visual style that incorporates glitch art, retrofuturism, and corporate imagery‘. – AI Overview

Vaporwave… ‘slowed down samples‘. In the vocal department it’s been a favourite trick in the Got-Ta-Scatta camp for as long, and there are two complete tracks (both singles) by noted artists (one in the ’80s, the other a bit later) that have been in the 41 Rooms possibles bag for the whole nine years waiting for me to be brave enough to spin at the wrong speed… coz they sound absolutely fine. Also, any John PeeI fan will know that he occasionally played a record at the wrong speed (he definitely did with Click Click) and it must have sounded ‘right’ to him for a certain amount of time. I think even I might have consciously done the same once or twice at Winkles back in the day. It might have involved lots of alcohol but Portion Control springs to mind. Could be wrong there.

01.36.04

ACOLYTE – The Blue Dark – Download only – 2025

‘An Edinburgh four piece comprising of lead-vocalist and poet Iona Lee alongside Lost Map regular Gloria Black (of Maranta) on synth and vocals, producer/multi-instrumentalist Ruairidh Morrison, and percussionist Daniel Hill. A cinematic dreamscape formed of shimmering synths and ominously unfolding rhythms – The Blue Dark is the perfect introduction to Acolyte’s singular sound‘. – Lost Map’ Facebook page

The Isle of Eigg ref I mention on the show is for the Lost Map label. Their PostMap Club releases involve ‘printed postcards from the Lost Map collective, that come with download codes, containing exclusive tracks‘ – The Blue Dark being PostMap Club 217 

01.40.06

RIVAL CONSOLES – Theme – MindsEye, 12″ EP – Erased Tapes Records – 2025

A feel of a plodding, stuttering and strained walk… encased in the most minimalist (visually) record sleeve ever to be seen on 41 Rooms.

01.44.38

MASSEY & SUPERNATURE – Walk…Now Walk – Download only – 2025

On to a more purposeful, striding and strutting Mancunian walk, maybe.

01.51.45

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Crackdown (12″ version) – 12″ – Virgin/Some Bizarre – 1983

A band encore within the same 41 Rooms show is a rarity but as I’ve only just realised it’s the first sighting of any version of Crackdown sighting on 41 Rooms (I can only apologise), it had to happen.

Show 142 should be here Aug 3.

Dec x

The post Episode 141 – Original upload 6.7.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 66% vinyl friendly. Very poor.

‘Reimagining the classic portable turntable and designed for DJs, vinyl enthusiasts, and creative performers in 2025, the Korg Handytraxx combines portability with cutting-edge features, including unique Korg digital effects, a built-in audio looper, and with a high-quality fader included‘, says the promo blurb. Another dealer added, ‘Optimised for scratching and portablism performances.’ £350 or thereabouts and if you’re questioning the word ‘portablism’ bit, it’s ‘the practice of DJing with easily transportable gear‘.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Temporary Glitch!!!

A late on problem with the mic means I’m not sounding quite the way I should on this show. Normal service will be resumed next show, hopefully.

Lyric of Playlist 140

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip. In… yer… face!!!

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Ecstasy – Power, Corruption and Lies, LP – Factory – 1983

Certainly never performed live in my time of hectic NO gigging but maybe a track that would have suited as a backdrop to some cheery ‘transition’ or incidental section of a film, etc.

04.50

JOHN FOXX with LOUIS GORDON – Walk This Away – Impossible, CD only – Metamatic – 2008

Reminds me of… nope, can’t think. Kraftwerk?

10.08

CAN – Vitamin C – 7″ – United Artists – 1972

Not the format these German electronic heads are maybe most remembered (and revered?) for … but Vitamin C is from a whole bunch of Can singles that, with the wind blowing in their direction, suggested they’d have happily ‘infiltrated’ a pop chart or two, given the airplay/chance.

13.09

DERADOORIAN – No No Yes Yes – Ready For Heaven, LP – Fire – 2025

Out of Los Angeles, it sounds like multi-instrumentalist, Angel Deradoorian has travelled a few journeys and ‘spaces’ in the fifteen years or so she’s been releasing music.

17.43

U2 – Salomé (Zooromancer Remix) – 12″, promo only – Island – 1992

Supposedly released to promote the single, Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (though said track is nowhere here to be seen or heard) I remember this deep and eerie 1000 copies only promo 12″ being a major WTF! moment across the dance radio shows I was listening to at the time, and what with U2 being worldwide rock gods and (Pete) Heller & (Terry) Farley serious go to’s for a house/dance remix, I suspect the fee the latter got, paid the bills for a month or ten.

25.27

THE ITCH – The Influencer / Co-Conspirator – Download only – Oh You Records / Fiction Records – 2025

Sounding like a revved, electro funkin’ Human League, duo Simon Tyrie and Georgia Hardy with a ‘twofer’ easily heard/mixed maybe as a single track!

32.21

DAN LE SAC Vs SCROOBIUS PIP – Thou Shalt Always Kill – 7″ – Lex Records – 2007

Even though they’d said all they needed to with 1min 50 of the track still to run this wonderful rant was blaring everywhere at the time, such was the aural impact of its UK culture-centric rap diatribe and though a healthy 7″ run of 1000, it’s still hugely collectable, and should you feel the need for a locked groove, side A has one.

37.21

AVALON EMERSON – On It Goes * – Download only – Another Dove – 2025

More solo girls out of the US, with Avalon having skirted San Francisco, Berlin and New York. Snappy and punchy samples cut here in a style reminiscent of a certain period of Akufen.

42.36

MYLES KAYNE – Visions of Love (Scat’s The Way To Do It Mix) – 12″ – Tomahawk – 1993

As with far too much house through the years, nothing sensational here but the summery scatting and the soaring vocals grabbing the ears back then lifted the spirits!

47.06

JOSE FELICIANO – The Sad Gypsy – Souled, LP – RCA – 1968

Written by Carole King’s oft writing partner, Gerry Goffin, along with Barry Mann, who with his wife, Cynthia Weil wrote the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling. Recorded on the same day as Jose’s cover of Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love (initially mooted as a follow up to Light My Fire… and then never released), The Sad Gypsy appears never to have been covered by anyone else. Never even on a 7″ b-side but on the Souled album that jiggles with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On as my all time fave ‘long player’, I’ve adored this song since I was a kid and fifty five years down the line because it’s Jose it’ll always be ‘right up there.’

Souled 1pg ad — Billboard, Nov 30, ’68.

50.44

HELICON – Château H (D.ross Remix) – Download only – 2025

Warning! Do NOT approach the original of Château H expecting some semblance of recognition. You will be disappointed.

55.56

JALEN NGONDA – Just As Long As We’re Together – Download only – 2025

Back with his ’60s soaked soul and likely previewing a second album for Daptone Records.

58.45

BERES HAMMOND – Do This World A Favour (Album Version) * – 7″ b-side – 17 North Parade – 2010

Maybe best known as a Lovers Rock/roots reggae artist, this tune was originally to be found on his 1979 album, Just A Man but we’ll go with the new lease of life it got via a 7″ in 2010, cut at 33rpm to give the album version some breathing space. For the show I edited out some of the doodling keys bridge but to make the 7″ cut cooler I’d have taken the lot out… and called it an ‘Album Version Edit’. No problem for the soul fraternity, though. As rare as hens’ teeth it’s likely to be over £100 as and when a copy next turns up.

01.03.54

MELBA MOORE – Do You Really Want My Love (Club Version) * – 12″ – Capitol – 1990

Funky, spacey and moody sounds.

01.09.31

THOMAS LEER – Saving Grace – 12″ – Emotional Rescue – 2019

In reality, the melodies and arrangement of his lush 1982 debut single, All About You, minus the/any vocals.

01.14.40

BLAINE L. REININGER – Playin’ Your Game – 12″ – Les Disques Du Crépescule – 1983

Not unlike Thomas Leer in the lush vocals department.

01.18.46

RINGDOWN – Run (part) * – Lady On The Bike, LP – Nonesuch – 2025

‘Ringdown’s music is like calling your first love on a rotary telephone, percussively tearing out the hammers from a 1924 vintage upright, and flinging each of them into space while you wait for every heartache you’ve ever felt to quietly return‘. – Bandcamp

I could easily die of old age before I decipher the above but Portland, Oregon duo, Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee are concocting some interesting music, and though I truncated Run very heavily here they’ll be back later.

01.20.10

THOSE DANCING DAYS – Home Sweet Home – In Our Space Hero Suits, LP – Wichita – 2008

As frantic as they always seemed to be, and a very slightly different (in the vocals dept?) version to the one on the flip of the Run Run 7″.

01.22.49

PENETRATION – V.I.P. – 7″ b-side – Virgin – 1978

Pauline Murray’s vocals!

01.25.21

SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES – Love In A Void – 7″ b-side – Polydor – 1979

The high priestess of punk? Maybe.

01.27.51

THE COURETTES – Here I Come – The Soul Of… The Fabulous Courettes, LP – Damaged Goods – 2024

White, clear or orange and ‘getcha, getcha, getcha, someday…‘ as opposed to Blondie’s ‘getcha, getcha, getcha, one way or another…‘ I saw them recently at a maybe sold out Set Theatre in Kilkenny (Ireland to those further afield) and they rocked.

And for a Bedford connection. Damaged Goods boss, Ian and his label charges outside The Bear during the second of their three (I think) gigs to date at Esquires. The pub has sort of been Outsiders Central for a whole bunch of alternatives through the decades and was certainly a home from home for me in the late ’70s through all the ’80s.

Photo credit: Alison Wonderland

01.30.24

THE YARDBIRDS – Heart Full Of Soul – 7″ – Columbia – 1965

For me, not many better than this lot from the ’60s. Looking back from nearly sixty years, with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page in their ranks at various points, their singles feel just a shade too… ‘cerebral’ and ‘arty’? to have worried the charts but five did make the Top 40 and this one went to No. 2!

01.32.48

? – ‘Little Miss Nancy’ – one-sided 8″ US acetate – Unreleased – Late 1960s

I’ve no idea who this is… and if I bid on what was an auction item I sadly didn’t win it. AI Overview reckons ‘Little Miss Nancy can refer to a few things: a vintage doll, a character from a children’s television show, or a slag term for an effeminate person. It could also be a specific title for a Nancy Ann doll from the Storybook collection, like Little Miss Sweet Miss #110.’ Whatever, its late ’60s feel hints it could/should have soundtracked some psychedelic visuals/imagery.

01.36.10

YEASAYER – Final Path (unknown version) – ? – 2008-2010?

I say ‘unknown’ but more the fact I can’t place it. It’s certainly not the version that backed the band’s second single, Wait For The Summer and updating on/repeating from the band’s only other 41 Rooms playlisting to date, I still can’t find a Yeasayer gig at the (Heavenly) Social in London in any gigography but via a mate of a mate who was personally overseeing their first ever UK visit, that’s definitely where I saw them. Indeed, as an introduction to the media, it might well have been their first UK gig. Recollections… singer, Chris Keating climbing on and around something on stage and looking slightly confused afterwards when I referenced (to him) that their sound reminded me of a band he’d never heard of… and one I still can’t remember.

01.39.27

THE BEATLES – Eleanor Rigby (Loo & Placido Mash Up) – Stream only – 2014 approx

It’s the Wild West out there even if you’re The Beatles. Not the smoothest of links ups but the idea works… and the news clip I threw in over the top was for real. Only in America…

01.42.40

ASHLEY THOMAS – Serenity * – A Tale Of Two Cities, CD only – Wah Wah 45s – 2008

Blue-eyed soul Pt 1, with a jaunty folk slant… sort of.

01.47.35

CLIVE GRIFFIN – Head Above Water (Full Length Version) * – 12″ – Mercury – 1988

‘Extremely classy huskily tremulous attractive 107-0bpm swaying blue eyed soul jogger in Michael McDonald/Hall & Oates/George Benson-ish style, a bit amorphous as a song maybe but strong on atmosphere… ‘ – James Hamilton, Jocks, 6.89

Blue-eyed soul Pt 2, this with an r&b slant… sort of… and there’s no mistaking the late ’80s major label sheen (visually and aurally) and hopes of the crossover that never came Clive’s way.

The following though is worth repeating from Clive’s debut on 41 Rooms just a few shows back… As a child and obviously long before three major label albums and a subsequent move then into session work, back in his very young days Clive provided the vocal for the Cadbury Fudge TV ad jingle, ‘A finger of fudge is just enough‘!

01.53.08

JONI MITCHELL – Sweet Bird – The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, LP – Asylum – 1975

Has strumming ever underpinned such wonderfulness? ‘No’ is very possibly the correct answer.

01.56.54

RINGDOWN – Thirst * – Lady On The Bike, LP – Nonesuch – 2025

Back, as I promised earlier, with some ambling and stark moodiness. First class!

Show 141 will be here July 6.

Dec x

The post Episode 140 – Original Upload 1.6.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 81% vinyl friendly. Not bad.

‘Winner of Best Domestic Design at the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023, this Brian Eno turntable has a stunning LED light feature that changes according to your music. Created in collaboration with the Paul Stolper gallery, the psychedelic turntable sold out back in 2021 but hasn’t become any less popular since. You might not be able to buy it, but there’s no shame in staring‘. £ price not disclosed. – muddystilettos.co.uk

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 139

‘Be Kind To My Mistakes‘ – Maybe more worthy as a usable turn of phrase, seeing as it only turns up once in the song.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Hurt (Inst.) (Peppermint Lounge, New York: 22.11.81) – Movement, Definitive Edition boxset – Warner Music – 2019

Still being titled Cramp at this stage, but reminiscent of the dark new electronic tracks the band were road testing whilst still in development (here, with lyrics yet to surface), along with sometimes simultaneously also grappling with the equipment. It all gave the band’s gigs an edge and an air of the unknown but they’d have wanted for less stress.

06.22

KATE BUSH – Be Kind To My Mistakes – 7″ b-side – EMI – 1989

In actuality, a track that was ‘released’ – on a split (with Brian Eno) German, promo only 7″ – two years earlier than on her The Sensual World album but was also available in the less-cluttered-by-other-tracks setting of another 7″… albeit as the b-side of the fully released This Woman’s World A-side. The version on the show though is actually the lead track from the soundtrack of the 1987 film, Castaway. With the old skool * record company ideal of singles being looked on to promote albums, here it might have been a battle between the artist going for the more stylish and sophisticated album track as the A-side… when the A&R and promotional team must have surely wanted Be Kind… to lead the way.

So old skool, there was even a picture disc 7″

10.07

TALK TALK – My Foolish Friend – 7″ – EMI – 1983

As might have been confirmed by Mark Hollis’ later releases before his untimely passing, maybe his band’s earlier ‘synth pop’ era was a shade too cerebral for the kids, and this wasn’t one of the few TT singles that did make the UK top 20.

13.24

JOHN FOXX with LOUIS GORDON – Hiroshima Mon Amour – Glimmer: Best Of John Foxx, 2CD only – Music Club Deluxe – 2008

A faithful recreation. I reckon this Best Of should have been titled Glimmer / Just For A Moment. IYKYK.

18.09

CRASH COURSE IN SCIENCE – Cardboard Lamb (Original Club Mix) – Signals From Pier Thirteen, 12″ EP – Press Records – 1981

With a quirkiness that seems to have leant towards the US new wave/no wave scene of the time, this EP has found a way to regularly get re-released through the decades since… but up until a month ago I’d never heard of them.

20.36

EYELESS IN GAZA – China Blue Vision – 7″ b-side – Ambivalent Scale – 1980

41 Rooms royalty, with the homepage 7″ back out for an airing! Stark punk folk!

23.24

NASMAK – Toy-Line * – Split 7″ flexi-disc – Vinyl – 1983

Ah, the dreaded flexi disc, this time via Dutch magazine, Vinyl‘s own label. Bit of a Nick Cave thing going on with these 41 Rooms regulars?

27.25

JOY ORBISON – Hyph Mngo * – 12″ – Hotflush Recordings – 2009

Was JO’s Peter O’Grady a fan of Joy Division or Roy Orbison, or both, or neither? Dub step? D&B? Who cares! It’s a jittery earworm here.

31.07

THE FLAMINGOS (feat JOSE FELICIANO) – Icarus Descending – CD single only – So… Sparkle! – 1999

I’m biased but this is a lost epic… and it could easily have been in show 1.

I may have known the seven time (at this point) Grammy award winning, Jose for twenty years plus at this juncture in time but it maybe still took some balls to ask him to guest with guitar on the recording… and it took a bit of co-ordinating to actually get it done. Firstly, no winging files via the internet back then, so Jose needed to be in the country, and I think that came about in between a run of dates he was doing at London’s Jazz Cafe and elsewhere around the rest of the UK.

Having given him the track beforehand, I do remember realising in the car with him heading from central London to the Uni of Westminster’s Commercial Music dept, out in Harrow (where I was working at the time) that he hadn’t actually gotten around to listening to the track! A moments panic before I thought ‘He’ll be just fine’.

Also, with Cliff’s lead vocal already done, when we got Jose in to the studio we mic’d him up just for guitar. Maybe I at least should have know better. As soon as the track started rolling it only took maybe a couple of takes for Jose to get in the groove and lay down more than enough guitar… along with some simple but just right backing vocals!… the latter caught slightly in the distance… through only the guitar mic. Doh! If only I’d been thinking. Another thing, we were a hairsbreadth from making the Radio 2 playlist.

Blues & Soul, Tony Rounce 11.1.99 review…

‘Flamingos’ Icarus Descending is only their fourth single in 12 years. They obviously like to get things right if this remarkable release is anything to go by. Unreservedly recommended, it features Jose Feliciano and sounds like George Michael fronting Joy Division‘. – Paul Connolly, Metro, The Times on Saturday, 5-11.12.’98

Below: Flamingos’ Cliff Peacock and Dave Summersgill, with Jose and my daughter, Alice: Uni of Westminster, Harrow, June ’98.

Below: Jose in the studio, guesting on Icarus Descending and engineer, Mark Cash doing exactly what was asked of him, mic’ing Jose up for guitar… only.

34.45

GLEN CAMPBELL – Lonely, My Lonely Friend – 7″ b-side – Capitol – 1969

The abundance of 7″ single b-sides that get spun on 41 Rooms must come from the days (in my case, the very early ’70s) when buying a 7″ was an ‘event’ and getting your money’s worth meant also giving the flip side some serious attention. In amongst all the pop, glam and soul, I was more than happy to also do that with Glen back then.

36.59

PETE JOSEF – Utopia – Download only – 2023

Only two of his own albums to date in over twelve years of activity but Josef is a regular folk soul vocal gun for hire, having started to make his mark via Germany’s Sonar Kollektiv label. He’ll definitely be back here.

41.20

DIONNE WARWICK – Walk On By – 7″ – Pye – 1964

A classic… and the sort of songwriting and production we may never hear again? I suspect this world’s equivalent of Dionne and Burt are surrounded by too much crap to tread this way.

44.04

SHAPE NAVIGATOR (feat EVON BRENNAN) – Flow (Like A River) (Mellow Delta Mix) – 12″ – Almo Sounds – 1995

Co-written by one Evon Brennan (though she’s only credited for her guest vocals on the CD formats of the single) but seeing as she for the most part changed careers, I’ll confidently claim 41 Rooms is the only show of any kind to spin two of her tunes. See show 115 for the other, plus her back story.

48.49

EMMA-JEAN THACKRAY – Maybe Nowhere – Weirdo, LP – ??? – 2025

Rather strangely the track first off the grid in promoting Weirdo, as it’s not only a bit ‘rockier’ than her previous leftfield soul, jazz and beats etc leanings, it’s also the only ‘rockier’ track on the album… which is all more down the (usual) road of her previous etc etc etc.

53.34

SOAP&SKIN – Me And The Devil – 7″ b-side – Play It Again Sam – 2013

Not unlike Nico in the vocals, Austrian, Anja Franziska Plaschg with a sought after 7″.

56.34

YHWH NAILGUN – Animal Death Already Breathing – 45 Pounds, LP – AD93 – 2025

Their debut album’s second sighting at 41 Rooms… and there’s nothing quite like ’em around.

59.06

GANZHEIT – Klasse – self released promo only cassette – 1984

At the time of this podcast’s upload I had no idea who had recorded this and it transpired I also got the title wrong. ‘Early Portion Control or the likes?’ was my best guess but on looking (Dec ’25) to dig out a certain tape I’ve just realised the above track was not Fate Twisted & Turned (as mentioned on the show) but was courtesy of ex-Bedford band, Ganzheit and a Summer Of ’84 cassette tape of demos they gave me – somewhere later said year – either as I was then running the ‘alternative’ club night at Winkles or, following on from our Rorschach label, various artists compilation cassette, Discreet Campaigns, when they were on course to be included on a second slightly ‘tougher sounding’ compilation, though that never came to pass.

01.04.10

CLICK CLICK – 15 Minutes – Rorschach Testing, LP – Play It Again Sam – 1988

And they would have deserved their 15 Minutes…

01.09.49

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Searchin’ – Groovy, Laidback and Nasty, LP – Parlophone – 1990

Marshall Jefferson… Ten City… Stirling Void vocalist, Paris Brightledge. House was in this industrial Sheffield house!

Diary hints that I hired a car and was in Sheffield visiting ex-Cabs drummer, Alan Fisch and wife, Linda on June 4, ’90 – the same day the Cabs were playing their home town, and that would all but confirm we went to the gig… only for the fact that I travelled up with girlfriend, Dan and our just 1yr old daughter, Alice. Maybe all the girls stayed in and us lads went on the town! I think the backstage pass for the next night at the Hacienda in Manchester (albeit a photo copy here) was ex-girlfriend of both me and Alan, Vivien’s.

01.15.20

TEN CITY – Whatever Makes You Happy (New York City Mix) * – 12″ – Atlantic – 1990

And speaking of Ten City. Summer’s coming… Summer’s coming? Although I should have edited it a bit more, the sort of tune that feels right on a sunny beach.

01.22.48

BLAZE – If You Should Need A Friend (Friendship Mix) – 12″ – Debut – 1987

Originally on the US label, Quark and arguably their biggest hit. Skippety and bouncy.

01.28.50

THE B-52’s – Channel Z (Rock Mix) – 12″ – Warner Brothers – 1987

Another apostrophe alert! Channel Zeeeeee sounding better than Channel Zed could ever have done.

01.34.40

TALKING HEADS – Girlfriend Is Better (live) – 12″ Stop Making Sense, 2LP – EMI – 1999  

From the genius Stop Making Sense film soundtrack gigs and album from 1984 but to get this longer version on vinyl you have to hunt around the re-issued/revamped/Special New Edition etc releases that followed from ’99 onwards.

01.39.42

OH WELL – Oh Well – 7″ – Parlophone / 8ighty 8ighty Records – 1989

Yep! Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac fans look/listen away now! German (tongue in cheek?) chancers here with the first of a bunch of ‘classics’ they covered. To be fair, it’s a funky ‘kitch’ groove that might well have sounded better as an instrumental… and I just know I’d never want to see any TV performance they might have blagged.

01.42.54

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS – Pump It Up – 7″ – Radar – 1978

Thumping pop. I had an Elvis ‘moment’ with some of his singles in ’77 and ’78 but never owned an album. Also, another Declan, to be sure, to be sure.

01.46.03

ELECTRONIC – Tighten Up – Self-titled, LP – Factory – 1989

Pure coincidence but from Pump It Up… to Tighten Up… and with that crowd ‘jump up’ chorus lift, it should have been a single.

01.50.22

ADELE – Hometown Glory (High Contrast Mix)/ BROOKES BROTHERS – Tear You Down/CHASE & STATUS (feat TAKURA) – Streetlife – Live radio mix – 2008’ish

D&B heaven!!! Jeeeeez, after all these years I still just love this! And it might still have or have had Chase & Status’ Hurt You in there somewhere at some point. A slightly ropey sounding but still blistering mix – by someone unknown – from a UK national radio show and along the way it was bounced a format or two down (including the compression of mini disc!)… and then I think, even slightly edited by me. For all that it’s still glorious!

Show 140 will be here June 1.

Dec x

The post Episode 139 – Original Upload 4.5.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 82% vinyl friendly. Impressive.

The Gearbox MKII Transparent Turntable, made in Europe by Pro-ject to North London’s Gearbox Records’ specifications and retailing around £549. Plays at both 33 rpm and 45 rpm and in being equipped with Bluetooth it can also play through desktop speakers.

Just a thought… the transparent body showcasing the internals gives the impression of a drone looking down by a helipad onto a cityscape.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 138

It’s that man, Ian C again…

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Angel Dust (Pier 84, New York, 1987) – Brotherhood, Defintive Edition boxset – Warner Music – 2024

A track that slightly passed me by back in the day but our heroes are sounding particularly on it here.

03.51

THE SANDALS – Feet (Dust Brothers Vocal Mix) – 12″ – Open Toe Records – 1994

The Dust Brothers were the Chemical Brothers, in waiting – the name change needed due to an act with a similar name, if I remember rightly… and years before you could do a quick Google or Discogs search to see if anyone else has already used your chosen moniker. I took to a lot of these ’90s, tougher ‘progressive house’ dance tunes at the time.

10.42

ARNOLD JARVIS – The Way U (Ricky Montanari Vocal Club Mix) – Promo only split 12″ – Freetown Inc – 1998

Moody and edgy stuff, a mix that didn’t surface at the time of the tune’s initial release and one that myself and Dave S (as Got-Ta-Scatta) quietly errr… ‘borrrowed’ from one time.

16.13

DIALECT – Sitting in the Sun (Derrick Carter’s Winter Crazy Dub Reprise) – 2×12″ promo only – Distance – 1998

Snappy garage mix from one of the genre’s classier exponents. Not the US mid ’60s ‘garage’… obviously.

19.48

SERGIO MENDES & BRASIL ’66 – Ye-Me-Le – 7″ b-side – A&M – 1970

Albeit a few decades after its release, I think I may have happened on this tune being performed on a US TV show and although it’s been well serviced on SM&B Greatest Hits releases through the years since, it quietly sat on the above UK 7″ where a stock copy is way harder to find than the promo. One of the lead female duo, Lani Hall was later to marry one half of A&M, Herb Alpert… and very coincidentally she’ll be back here later.

21.52

JETHRO TULL – Alive And Well And Living In – 7″ b-side – Chrysalis – 1970

More 7″ b-sides and it’s easy to see how Ian Anderson’s vocal and storytelling fitted snugly into a ‘folk’ setting, though the band’s rock side throws in a strident passage or two.

24.33

JONI MITCHELL – The Hissing Of Summer Lawns * – The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, LP – Asylum – 1975

Maybe somewhere around the very late ’70s and certainly a couple of decades (at least) before the internet slowly helped to spread the anecdote that this song’s lyric was storytelling the life(style) of my boyhood hero, Jose Feliciano I got told the same from someone that knew Jose very well and a few years later I asked him myself and he confirmed as much. I’ve never seen Joni admit it’s the case, though.

27.23

MIA DOI TODD – What If We Do? – Manzanita, LP – Plug Research – 2005

A track that’s made it to 41 Rooms before – though in a different take – and Mia’s been making albums constantly ever since.

30.53

ROBIN GUTHRIE – Prayer – Download only – ?? – 2025

‘Prayer’, another little something that’s been uselessly gathering dust for a few years. It became orphaned when the scene that I wrote it for was cut (from a soundtrack back in 2018). Now it’s found a new purpose, that of cheering people up in these uncertain times. Every little helps, right? The photo, taken on my kitchen window here in Bretagne‘. – Robin, via Bandcamp / Discogs

A game of two halves from the ex-Cocteau Twin’er and I notice from a recent interview that anyone hoping on a CT reunion shouldn’t be holding their breath. He won’t see this but Mr G, I hope life is treating you well.

33.03

ECHO and THE BUNNYMEN – Read It In Books (Original 7″ version) – 7″ b-side – Zoo Records – 1979

The enthusiasm of yooof as the Bunnymen launched their recording career… and a track that bounced between Ian Mac and his ex-Crucial Three colleague, Julian Cope and his subsequent crew, The Teardrop Explodes.

35.57

JOY DIVISION – She’s Lost Control (Peel session) – The Peel Sessions 12″ EP – Strange Fruit – 1986

Recorded Jan 31, 1979 at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studio 4 for John Peel’s radio show and broadcast on Feb 14. A to be iconic track in an iconic setting.

40.02

THE SOUND – I Can’t Escape Myself – Jeopardy, LP – Korova – 1980

The Jeopardy album has been well serviced here.

43.43

THE KINKS – Till The End Of The Day – 7″ Pye – 1965

Even within the best of British ’60s pop/beat bands, The Kinks are maybe held in higher regard with a lot more listeners than with me but this was a highlight when I was backtracking and collecting from the ’70s. I even had the Pye white label demo 7″ back then.

45.53

THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP – Somebody Help Me – 7″ – Fontana – 1966

Half a dozen or so singles in at this point and vocalist, Steve Winwood was still only 18!

47.45

THE YARDBIRDS – Shapes Of Things – 7″ – Columbia – 1966

The Jeff Beck era and a track that suited vocalist, Keith Relf’s style more than most, I’d say. He was never a rocker of a vocalist.

50.07

SMALL FACES – Lazy Sunday – 7″ – Immediate – 1968

Possibly at the top of the list of my ’60s bands and with an absolute fave of mine… and I certainly wouldn’t mind owning the acetate below… but I don’t.

UK 2-sided 7″ acetate…

53.12

LANI HALL – Ocean Song – Sun Down Lady, LP – A&M – 1972

The lady returneth… and all is calm.

56.32

LUCY ROSE – Pale Blue Eyes – Download Only – Communion Records – 2025

Slow pop beats for now.

59.29

MASSIVE ATTACK (feat TRACEY THORN) – Protection (The Eno Mix) – 12″ – Wild Bunch Records – 1995

Nothing radical done to the input of either the band or Ms Thorn. A classic sound, whichever which way.

01.05.03

FOOTSHOOTER (feat ALLYSHA JOY) – Folding – Download only – ?? – 2025

Soulful, electronic d&b-style.

01.10.18

DOCTOR BIONIC – Put The Work In – The Island of Doctor Bionic, LP – Chiefdom Records – 2025

Bouncy instrumental head nodder.

01.13.01

NEW STREET ADVENTURE – Why Should We Do Anything? – Stubborn Sons, LP – Acid Jazz – 2017

With the band now into their second era, here it’s mainman, Nick Corbin’s social commentary consciousness during their first.

01.16.17

PASKAL & URBAN ABSOLUTES (feat. PETE JOSEF) – Bits Of Me – Lux, 2LP – Sonor Kollektiv – 2013

European beats with class guest vocalist.

01.19.28

JACANA PEOPLE (Feat TEMM) – Fall Again – Download only – ?? – 2025

Buckinghamshire, UK calling. ‘Caught halfway between city noise and rural British landscapes, producer-duo Jacana People meld bittersweet electronica with sprawling organic textures‘. – Bandcamp

And by including the voice of Temm, here on this track, more than the sum of its parts, I’d say.

01.25.59

LUSCIOUS JACKSON – Naked Eye – Jukebox (promo?) only 7″ – Capitol – 1996

‘This US import is the first track from the girls’ new album and features perhaps the catchiest chorus this year. The original is bass-heavy pop with a breakbeat feel and this is accompanied by another five mixes ranging from beat heavy crunchers to tripped out instrumentals. Definitely worth catching. **** ‘ – Brad Beatnik, Record Mirror (Music Week). 2.11.96 

01.26.38

ETERNAL – Sweet Funky Thing (DHL Mix) – Sweet Funky Thing – The House Promo 12″ – EMI / 1st Avenue – 1994

‘ ‘Juicy Fruit’ type wailing groin grinder in 98bpm Album, New York City Radio, 97bpm K&T Atlanta, K&T Southern and trickily unsteady 99(intro)-98.3bpm WBLF New York Radio Remixes, with (separately promoed) a gospelish strong romping 0-122.9bpm Una Clio Remix or just chorus prodded cantering 124bpm West End Master, monotonous throbbing Puff The Blunted Dragon, better bassily burbling 123.6bpm DHL Mixes‘. – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 29.10.94

I’m not even sure the Eternal girls are anything to do with the voices on here but it’s an urgent groove.

01.31.04

STREET CHOIR – Rock Steady – 12″ – Street Choir – 2003

Most probably masked as it’s a less than legal release, but let’s hail the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, for it’s her Rock Steady that’s holding court here.

01.35.55

RALFI PAGAN – Make It With You – 7″ – Fania / Wand – 1971

A David Gates and Bread tune, sounding vocally more ‘soulful’ than the very fine original?

1.39.29

SPRINGFIELD – Different Sky – Unreleased – Late 1990s

Unreleased indeed, and from a Leeds-based duo. Only to hand to me right now is a short note and fully hand written lyrics to what looks like five newer tracks that followed Different Sky. In a short ‘A&R’ role I had at the time, I certainly remember talking to the male half of Springfield on the phone and I remember he mentioned the live audience applause on this track was actually lifted from a well known recording :)… but whose is now lost in time. I think the demo CD or tape with Differently and at least one other track is possibly around here somewhere but for now it’s the return of the tumbleweed!

Differently? A class track that I reckon, in the hands of a well established female singer/songwriter of the time (or maybe even now?), would have more than stood up for itself.

1.43.30

JAH WOBBLE and JULIE CAMPBELL – Phantasms Rise – Psychic Life, CD only – Cherry Red – 2011

Another highlight from the album as I hint on the show, the feel of Julie’s approach slightly reminds me of Italian sometimes duo, Costume.

1.54.00

WORKFORCE – Cut To Pleasure (Peel session) – Unreleased – 1986

Recorded Jan 5, 1986 and broadcast eight days later, I and Mick Lowe (Rorschach Testing) were in the throws of releasing the band’s second single, Back In The Good Books 12″ and getting some European dates together and even though this is the only John Peel session I ever attended I can’t remember next to nothing about it (extremely poor on my part), with my diary adding ‘London. Peel’s Workforce session. Viv and the lads (gave me) lift home.’

Drummer, Alan Fish had the foresight to acquire a reel of the session from the BBC, so here’s the cassette tape I copied the unedited session tracks to.

Early ’86 promo and tour poster

1.51.39

DAVID SYLVIAN – Pulling Punches – Brilliant Trees, LP – Virgin – 1984

In a purer form (for 41 Rooms purposes, anyway) the track was also on a UK 12″ – the same ‘extended’ version as used on this, his first solo album after the Japan years.

1.56.41

MRCY – Man – Volume 2, LP – Dead Oceans – 2025

How many peeps will kick this track off thinking something’s up with their player? UK duo, Barney Lister and Kojo Degraft-Johnson with Latin’y soul jazz vibes and the most uplifting tune on this show, downloadable now but also on a coloured vinyl release coming in May.

Show 139 will be here May 4.

Dec x

The post Episode 138 – Original Upload 6.4.25 appeared first on 41Rooms.

This playlist is 93% vinyl friendly. Near perfect.

New in 2025, the Korg Handytraxx is a funky looking lad. A portable belt drive motor turntable ‘aimed at both DJs and vinyl enthusiasts’ that can run either via AC power or AA batteries and features a 2.5w built-in speaker. From £359 through to £1099, depending on the model/spec.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 137

Maybe it’s Martyn and maybe it’s Stevie.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Bizarre Love Triangle ’94 – ‘the best of’ NewOrder, 2LP – London – 1994

Or maybe ‘Bizarre Love Triangle-94’. This title stuff gets tricky when you’re reworking songs… and as for the album title? My proof reading department of a very long time ago would have thrown a wobbler. don’t get me started. The song? A huge fave with the band’s following as a whole but another from their mid to late ’80s back catalogue/period that, if I’m honest, makes me smile more now than it did back then.

‘Very cheerful sounding dance/pop muzak remixed by Shep Pettibone. It even has a sort of ‘set it off’ rhythm beat (quite popular in discos last year) and a great instrumental version for mixing. This will be played to death in clubs especially the more eurobeaty ones – and just when you thought they’d never get their act together again‘. – Mark Moore, The Catalogue #43, Nov/Dec ’86. 

04.18

THE CURE – All I Ever Am – Songs Of A Lost World, LP – Fiction/Polydor – 2024

Robert Smith in reflective voice as the ongoing years give us all more to be reflective about.

09.31

DEPARTMENT M – Bad Formulae – Deep Control, LP – Hide & Seek Records – 2016

From their only full album release and the last musical sighting of mainstay, Owen Brinley.

13.36

SAVANT – Using Words – The Neo-Realist (At Risk), LP – Palace Of Lights – 1983

Their Stationary Dance 12″ is right up there with my absolute fave sounds from the whole post punk etc etc period, but I missed this back in the day and the vinyl (and original) format version of the album does not now come cheap.

20.36

JAZZ THE GLASS – GracE – Output 2025, Download only (Bandstand) – 2025

Mate and ex one half of The Flamingos (This Heat, Reason For Living, Original Colour, Icarus Descending) with IMHO one of his best to date.

23.48

MARTYN BATES – Sad Song Of Almost – The Return Of The Quiet, LP – Cherry Red – 1987

Folk… soulful… beautiful.

27.11

LIKE MINDED SOUL(S) (feat CARA) – Seventythree – Cookin’ EP 10, 2×12″ EP – Cookin’ Records – 2002

The name depends on where you look and years after the above release the track cropped up as ‘Seventy Three’ by Methodblack, another pseudonym of the same guy, Irish DJ/producer, Rob Swain. Whatever, it took me over two decades to work out anything about the track – as it was as anonymous grab off the radio. The interweb! Shazam! Innit all brilliant? As that Paul Whitehouse character might nearly have said.

32.01

STEVIE WONDER – My Cherie Amour – 7″ – (Tamla) Motown – 1967/68

Late teens… Putnoe, Bedford… sunshine… oh, and very likely a girl in mind.

34.53

JAPAN – Canton – Tin Drum, LP – Virgin – 1981

If you go looking we can safely narrow down the Canton being evoked here… and it’s none of the twenty five plus(!!!) Cantons in the US, alone.

39.46

BEATMASTER – Lipservice – 12″ – Tommy Boy – 1984

Near comical/cartoon vocals, but with Keith LeBlanc producing, his tumbling drum programming – borrowing heavily from his not so comical vocals, Malcolm X ‘No Sell Out’ production the year before – hints heavily at the Tackhead sound then to come.

44.29

TWO SISTERS – B-Boys Beware (Club Mix) * – 12″ – Sugarscoop – 1983

Very much me riding a wave of enthusiasm for electro in these years.

49.38

WARP 9 – No Man Is An Island (12″ Remix) * – 12″ – 4th & Broadway – 1983

‘Norman is an island‘… as the joke used to go in these parts. Also, see above.

54.44

ERIC B. & RAKIM – I Know You Got Soul – 12″ – Cooltempo – 1987

Funky! Bobby Byrd’s 1971 original in no small measures but maybe noted as much for the ‘Pump Up The Volume!’ line which, courtesy of M.A.R.R.S and elsewhere went onto have a life of its own.

59.22

GOAT + MC YALLAH – Nimerudi – 7″ – Rocket Recordings – 2024

With much menace in that rumbling bass and attitude in the vocal… ‘400 copies available with Rocket Recordings 25th anniversary book ‘Out of the Void – The Art of Rocket Recordings: 1998 – 2024‘… and should you be able to get your hands on a copy (and I haven’t, yet) it’s A side @ 45rpm and B side @ 33rpm for the ‘turntabilists’.

01.02.53

KASSIE KRUT – Reckless – 12″ – Firetalk? – 2025

Kassie Krut’s debut, a self-titled, self-produced EP on a limited run of 300 vinyl, shipping sometime in 2025, but could be gone… by… now. A lot of music these days – importantly spread across a few genres – seems to be weighted with vocals/melodies written by Millenials… but targeting (subconsciously?) an audience a good few years younger.

01.06.24

FREEFORM ARKESTRA – Freeform Theme (Raw Deal remix) – Freeform EP, 10″ – Straight Ahead – 2000

Fat, fuzzy and brutal jazzy d&b-like… and heard via a Patrick Forge or Gilles Peterson KISS FM radio show of the time. There were real musicians involved in this, me thinks.

01.10.47

FACTORY FLOOR – Between You – 12″ – Phantasy Sound – 2025

First music since 2018? This recent, 300 copies only vinyl release sold out immediately. ‘Original and Extended Mix feature… presented in a riso printed sleeve, each of which are hand numbered by the band‘. Bandcamp

01.15.00

10,000 MANIACS – Planned Obsolescence – Human Conflict Number Five, 12″ EP – Press – 1984

Released originally in the US in 1982 and a track containing a sound so irritating there MUST have been a debate over whether it stayed in the mix. So irritating but I’m guessing someone involved thought ‘We need to weird this up a bit… ‘ and the ‘cranky wheeze’ – accentuated in a bridge – was it! A fab slice of leftfield pop but it takes nothing less than Natalie Merchant’s enchanting voice to trump the pain.

01.19.16

THE WAKE – Of The Matter – 7″ – Factory – 1985

New Order’s then live sound man, Ozzy in the producer’s seat here, a relationship partly built through the Scottish band often supporting their heavyweight label mates.

The Wake (Carolyn, Stephen, Mac and Caesar), outside Winkles, Bedford after their gig, Sept 7, ’83

Photo credit/copyright – Dec Hickey

01.22.03

FIAT LUX – The Moment – Ark Of Embers, LP – Splid Recordings – 2019

I remember seeing the band perform this live on TV at the time but Ark Of Embers was their ‘lost’ (unreleased) 1985 album. It also doubled up with all their earlier and better known material for a 2CD, Cherry Red label release, also in 2019.

01.25.03

GENERAL LEE – Pleasure – 7″ – Lost Weekend – 1979

And speaking of ‘Lost’. On the Lost Weekend label, not some northern soul obscurity but a disco-influenced 7″ that someone with both cash and conviction paid £2000 for! The groove reminds me a bit of Candido’s Jingo, which funnily enough came out the same year. Who came first, I wonder.

01.29.04

PATHLESS – Goddess – Glücklich III (A Collection Of Brazilian Flavours From The Past And The Present), v/artists 2LP – Compost – 1999

Like the Freeform Arkestra track above, definitely heard via either a Patrick Forge or Gilles Peterson KISS FM radio show (I’d guess more it was with Patrick) and combined with the Straight No Chaser mag being a must read at the same time(s), you got your info where you could.

01.33.19

THOMAS LEER – Letter From America – 4 Movements, 2×12″ EP – Edigsa – 1982

The above release mentioned on the show but back a year earlier included on a Cherry Red label four track 12″ that (pictured below) I had/have. ‘Electronic jazz’ I’m thinking these days re ‘Letter… ‘, I possibly went for spinning the EP’s track ‘Don’t in our club, rather than this.

01.37.12

YHWH NAILGUN – Castrato Raw (Fullback) – 45 Pounds, LP – AD 93 – 2025

But out later this month, costing just £22 this track is the band in a lighter vein! Oh, and a shout out for their 2022 cassette-only EP, No Midwife And I Wingflap… for the title alone.

YHWH, short for Yahweh, a word I hear a lot these days, as I’m very regularly bumped into by the Facebook reels of one Dan McClellan. I have no time for religion (other than the takes of the late Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry and the likes) but McClellan knows his shit like few others and is a fascinating listen when it comes to addressing others on that there Bible thing. He gets pointed to videos of the ‘less well informed’, shall we say to say. And his ‘OK, let’s see it’ is usually just the precursor to another demolition job. YHWH Nailgun? I’m not sure where they stand on all this… if at all… and I won’t be looking to find out, either.

01.39.15

THE BOX – No Time For Talk – The Box, 12″ EP – Go! Discs – 1983

As in yer face as anything coming out of Sheffield’s late ’70s/early ’80s ‘industrial’, new wave, alternative scene, due in no small part to Pete Hope’s angsty vocals.

Pete (with shades) in a more chilled out state, at Cabaret Voltaire’s Bedford Boys’ Club soundcheck, Aug ’84.

Photo credit unknown. I’d have said it was mine… only for the fact I’m in the photo.

01.41.57

SHRIEKBACK – A Kind Of Fascination – Tench, 12″ mini LP – Y Records – 1982

Sounding to these ears now like it could have been funky but quirky New York no wave.

01.46.18

WARSAW/J.D. (JOY DIVISION) – Novelty – Warsaw, LP (+ 7″) – RZM Productions – 1980

Unless you had close connections with the band at the time, this bootleg of May ’78 studio recordings (made, as I’d only learn a few years later, for RCA) was a bit of bolt out of the blue to me when I got hold of a copy – in nearer ’82 than ’80, I reckon – and such was the speed with which these young lads were writing, only three of the tracks made it to Joy Division’s debut album proper, Unknown Pleasures, recorded just eleven months later, with Transmission appearing as a 7″, and needless to say, the recordings have been bootlegged ad infinitum since.

01.49.54

SLAB! – Mars On Ice (John Peel session: 12.8.86) – Unreleased – 1986

More driving sounds as the band perform their first single during one of my fave Peel sessions. From long after their exit here’s an insight into the rarely spotted Slabbers as (ex) band members enter the conversation further down.

1.54.00

PIGBROS – Not A Lot (Long Version) – Just Call Me God, 12″ – Cake Records – 1987

At the time, I think I caught the first of their two mid ’80s John Peel sessions… and not much else but this tune, from the last of their handful of releases, clatters along with some purpose.

Show 138 is a comin’ April 6.

Dec x

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