Radio Flea

The first dig of the new season took place where it all began: El Flea, the second-hand market in the Raval area of Barcelona. Mark Dix and Arnau Sabaté recorded a show of vinyl located exclusively in the market, including orchestral tracks, jazz fusion, blue-eyed soul and balearic breakbeat. The photos this month come from Clara Anton. 

Arnau Sabaté is a booker at Primavera Sound, vinyl enthusiast and founding member of Radio Flea. For the last episode of the season, the reduced team met at his flat to choose tunes in between the many records, tapes and collection of music memorabilia. 

Arnau and Mark take the Radio Flea roadshow out to Ultra-Local Records in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona. They picked out a selection of dusty vinyl including mind-bending music from Laurie Anderson, Jean-Michelle Jarre and Santana. As always, the watchful lens of Vera caught the DJs in action.

Radio Flea is free at last and this month Arnau, Mark, Mateis and Vera pay a trip to one of Barcelona's newest music merchants: the homely Barcelona City Records in the Gothic Quarter, managed by Oriol Aparicio, resident DJ at the Marula Club. The dusty discs dug up derive from jazz fusion to far out funk, vintage childrens' tunes to the smokiest student soundtracks, trademark Latin rhythms to sensational soul.

Radio Flea is recorded in three segments by its resident selectors this month, with a distinctly positive mood as the end of confinement is within sight. Arnau Sabaté opens with a mix of Catalan folk, Flea Mark follows with a mixed bag of lazy grooves from the world over and Mateis e. Aqir finishes the show with weird jazz and cosmic jams.

The friends from Radio Flea have taped some of their newest acquisitions at home for this episode, which includes dusty vinyl by Psychic TV, Fun Boy Three and Boban Petrovic.

The team take a trip to the appointment-only store Salvadiscos, nestled in the Poble Sec neighbourhood in Barcelona. 

Arnau Sabaté, Mateis e. aqir and Flea Mark dig through the wooden crates to find the weirdest wax which is recorded for the mix which includes tracks by Sade, the Alan Parsons Project and Kenny G.

Vera Kharlamova is present as ever to document the occasion, check Radio Flea on Instagram and Facebook to check out the making of Radio Flea at Salvadiscos.

This episode of Radio Flea was recorded in the plush surroundings of the Libertine Bar at Casa Bonay, one of the few venues in Barcelona which allow for relaxed appreciation of older jams through vintage design Klipschorn speakers.Radio Flea selectors Diagonal Mark and Maties e. aqir traded tracks throughout the evening, whilst house photographer Vera Kharlamova captured the atmosphere of the evening, and you can check out images on the Radio Flea Instagram.https://www.instagram.com/radioflea/

For this month's episode of Radio Flea, a third part of the team – Mateis e. aqir – takes a trip to his native Moscow. Together with this close friend and local digger Abe Steward, he visits a local legendary spot, The Dig record store. This iconic shop is located in Bauman's Garden, surrounded by virtually untouched Moscow architecture. The guys were warmly hosted by the owners of the institution, Ivan and Petr. The name of the shop speaks for itself. Here you can find any type of music one could imagine, but for this show Mateis and Abe compiled a selection with focus on second-hand eastern block cosmic and jazz jams, plus orchestral music from the times of the Soviet Union.

Radio Flea returns for the 2020 with special live recording from Curtis: Barcelona's audiophile bar and record shop in the Eixample neighbourhood.Selectors in charge of the set were Radio Flea regular Flea Mark and special guest Aurélien Arbet, co-founder of Études Studio and host of the Wave Form show on LYL Radio.https://www.instagram.com/aurelien_arbet