Oblong Desk: The Podcast

Everybody needs them... John and Noax celebrate a year of the Desk with a trip Down Under to muse over the astonishing hit factory that is Ramsay Street Erinsborough.

Every charting Neighbour's career reviewed, including the best-forgotten Gayle and Gillian, the "I've got all the letters in my surname" Natalie Bassingthwaighte, golden couple Kylie and Jason and, of course, Stefan Dennis.

From PWL formulaic pop, through dance, to indie and country, enjoy three decades of loveable soap stars having improbable success in the company of your favourite music review podcast.

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A Christmas album filled with, er, absolutely nothing festive...  Which is, as it turns out, not a bad thing at all.

Join John and Noax for a joyous trip back to the end of 1995, when Blur took on Oasis, Louise left Eternal, and, bewilderingly, Simply Red made a good song.

It's all here on our track by track review of Now 32, along with some stonking dance choons, huge-name artists churning out waffle, a cumulative offences Warnock Award, and one of the best songs ever made in the history of recorded noise.

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John and Noax embark on a musical mopping-up exercise, bringing you a mix and match Desk of Delights of Now and Hits in a head-on battle that somehow failed to capture the public imagination in the same way as Blur v Oasis or Robbie v GaryBarlow.

Stand by for a heady mix of club classics and chart smashes from the likes of Take That, Kylie, Grace and The Chemical Brothers.  Plus we discover first-hand how difficult it can be to assemble your first compilation album, and John reveals how he cheated at GCSE Music.

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Summer 95 - and a high quality release from Ashley Abram and co.  Noax and John take you on a very enjoyable trip through 40 chart-busting tunes with only one or two duff efforts.

Find out which popstar travels by Easyjet, who Noax is friends with on Twitter, and our differing views on the year's UK Eurovision candidates, some of which turn up for review.

Regular Warnockage, Look What You Could Have Won and the most divisive song we've ever reviewed.

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Time to get out the glowsticks and dust off your clubbing cardigan (you have one, right?) as Noax and John guide you through Spring 95's best dance tracks.

The usual Occasional Table mix of memorable dance anthems, forgotten classics and non-hits, plus important advice on how to ensure legendary music status, pronunciation fun and the best version of the Test Match Special theme that you'll ever hear.

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It's 1995 and time for some pop classics, as Noax and John take an aural gander at Now 30.

Stand by for some genuine timeless classics, iconic anthems and the inevitable misguided attempts at country/reggae crossovers that were never a good idea and remain so to this day.

Track by track reviews of artists as diverse as Eric Clapton to Deuce via Portishead, plus a controversial Warnock and our impressions repertoire continues to expand as we both have a go at Bruno Brookes and Kelly Llorena.

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So what were Terry Star and the Hits gang up to in 1994?  John and Noax look at Telstar's haphazardly-titled compilation releases, with the usual mix of thumping dance, heavyweight pop, retro rock (including all three in one track) and the odd mysterious flop.

Double Warnocks because it's Hits - and they're really bad this time.  Plus Paul Coia gets a mention, which none of us, including Paul Coia, were expecting.

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...and the Best Of Now Dance '94.

You can't accuse Oblong Desk of a lack of thoroughness.  Our final '94 offering from the Now! stable; John and Noax piece together Mr Abram's variously titled Now Dance discs, with foot-tapping, booty-shaking offerings from the likes of Motiv 8, Level 42 and Opus III, plus some artists not using the Letters/Numbers nomenclature.

Track-by-track reviews, and our views on crisps, Brush Strokes and how wafty something needs to be before it's ambient.

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A festive frolic through the end of 1994, as Noax and John review Mr Abram's haphazard Christmas offering.

All the Desk favourites are here - including the most highly-contested Warnock ever, a difference of opinion on a highly popular rock group, plus find out what things are hotter than Reel 2 Real.

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Welcome to 1994 - where a certain song was at number one forever, and consequently Now 28 treats us to a whole stack of number twos.

John and Noax take you back through some questionable German reggae, the brief period of country/rave crossover, and one of the finest ballads ever recorded.  Plus find out who's got the Warnock, who should be on here but isn't, and who does the best impression of Reel 2 Reel.

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