Kirk's back, fresh from 'The Other Crate Record Fair' the day before. This week we had 2 birthdays, Don Was & Gene Page both on the 13th, so played a few from them. Also this week marking 50 years since the 'Car Wash Soundtrack' was released & 40 years for 'Cameo's - Word Up!' LP. Plus 2 years since we lost Frankie Beverly from Maze. Some old stuff & new stuff. 

This week it was the guy with the strange name's turn up to bat. We ran some fresh 2026 heat from corto.alto, Batuk & Spoek Mathambo, Sløy Gange, Nebraska & Dubi Drat, Akusmi, Dudù Kouate, Alex Nut/Steve Spacek and Inter-City repping the new stuff, before folding in classics from Ethiopian jazz, 80s and 90s hip-hop, the ever-present Brazilian rare groove, smatterings of dub and cumbia, and generous helpings of our comfort food: 70s deep soul, jazz, disco and boogie.

RIP to soul giant Latimore, hip-hop OG Keith Keith, and jazz guitarist Gene Bertoncini. And happy celestial birthday to the one and only Sylvester.

Commander Campbell Ngata helms this interstellar funk mission to round out your August Swap Meet flight schedule, bringing only the tippity-topshelf business with well-loved American boogie and soul - a lot of obscure, small-label club and radio tracks interspersed with gospel-funk. We're never too far away from jazz, with  Ramsey Lewis, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Hutcherson, Errol Garner holding the torch, plus a few detours into reggae, Caribbean dance, Ghanaian highlife, and Ethiopian jazz-funk. Blast-off commences when you press that button: Five... four... three.. ignition sequence starts...

This week we're joined by the don Kọ́lá Ògúndípẹ́ for some Drunk Elephant Soundclash thru the music of Malawi, Nigeria, USA, and many other points on the map. 

This week we're joined by the don Kọ́lá Ògúndípẹ́ for some Drunk Elephant Soundclash thru the music of Malawi, Nigeria, USA, and many other points on the map. 

Sorry for pod tardiness - here is last sunday's show with a bunch of new and classic bits 4u.

J&K bring their record nerdiness to the new bFM studio on Karanghape Road. Al Jarreau's Glow turned 50 on the day of broadcast, so "Have You Seen the Child" opened the show, paired straight after with JJ Farley's "God Will Understand It". A Tribe Called Quest's Beats, Rhymes and Life hit 30 a few days prior, marked here with the tribe's first Dilla production "Get a Hold". Fela's death anniversary fell on the same day, honoured through Sub_ModU's rework of "Expensive Shit" rather than the version everyone knows, and Fat Larry got three cuts in a row for his birthday, which is as good a reason as any to play a run of Fat Larry's Band.

Around those anchor points the set moves through Brazilian boogie, British soul-jazz and rare groove without losing the plot, Sandra De Sa and Bossa Nostra sitting comfortably next to Young Disciples and Drizabone. New material from Homeboy Sandman and Jack Splash's "Resonance Frequency".

The Swap Meet returns with Campbell Ngata working a long, loose thread from classic '70s soul and boogie into deep African funk, then out the other side into contemporary broken beat. It opens somewhere familiar and warm before drifting quickly into rarer territory, private-press soul and Congolese and West African cuts sitting easily next to essential classics. The newer productions slot into that same lineage rather than standing apart from it, which feels like the whole point of the exercise: nothing here is trying to announce itself as old or new, just as good.

This week it's farewell Rodney Franklin, the Berkeley-born jazz pianist and composer who died July 8, 2026. From his 1978 debut In the Center through the funk-fusion grooves of Windy City, Skydance, Vibrations, and The Eagle & The Condor, Franklin's touch on the keys helped define that warm, soulful strain of contemporary jazz that bridged the gap between the concert hall and the dance floor. His track "The Groove" birthed its own dance "the Freeze" in the UK, and his catalog is studded with nuggets - we spin several Rodney Records to send him off right.

Aside from that we've got a set of current faves spanning soul, boogie, and rare groove - Chi-town legend Curtis Mayfield, Prince's pre-fame with 94 East, Doc Powell and The Isley Brothers keeping the quiet storm alive, and dancefloor goods from Class Action, Wuf Ticket, and Colonel Abrams. Add in some deep jazz-funk from Billy Cobham, Alphonse Mouzon, a highlife from with Dizzy K and Kyeremateng Atwedee, and closing out with Charles Bradley and Average White Band.

Eric B & Rakim's "Eric B Is President" just turned 40 in June, so we kicked off with that hip hop talisman,  Sadat X "Wild Cowboys" and De La Soul's "Stakes Is High" both hit 30 this week.

Elsewhere in the mix rare groove and boogie (Dayton, Keni Burke, George Benson, LaVerne Washington, Jeanette Renee), Ashford & Simpson, Kosuke Ichihara & 3L, a Santana flip courtesy of Fang Yu & the Travellers, Fleetwood Mac (!) tucked in. Kongas and Gilberto Gil pulled it toward Afro and Brazilian rhythm for a bit before drifting back.

New material from Sløy Gange from Norway, Audrey Powne, Yanuka, Sparklemami, ELIZA! Closed it out slow with Borrowed CS Ururangi for Matariki!