alkedahm - tewodros tadesse
driving, swinging, distorted af groove from the funkier end of 80s ethio. got that scratched up cassette tape quality to the recording which i loooove.
posh - the pill
what’s in the water on the isle of wight that’s leading to all these cunty women-led punk bands?
watusa - cozmos
a san diego band dropping afro-latin reworks of jazz classics, here sun ra’s watusa. the b-side is a charles mingus number. this is, of course, an extremely risky proposition, but they pull it off with absolutely heaps of sauce. can’t help but shake your head from side to side and make That Face.
walky - mitchum yacoub
another san diego based group putting out interesting twists on classics. yacoub is a egyptian-american drummer and percussionist who has toured with seun kuti. this is a b-side to his band’s cumbia cover of fela kuti’s water no get enemy. horns a plenty, californian afrobeat. nice groove.
birthday baby!
i turned 33.
gustakh dil tere liye - sonu nigam + sunidhi chauhan
another shazammed-during-dinner bop; this time in 5tara where me and kay went for bday celebrations. lives up to the hype!!
just kissed my baby - the meters
hot tip from joey at my bday bash to listen to the meters, accidentally impressing record shop owners all over town
bass for my birthday - the troggs
does what it says on the tin
no broke boys - disco lines x tinashe
the closest to a love island edm sound of the summer i’ve got this year. it’s got the recession pop feel of something you would have danced to at the hive in 2010. really sounds like she’s saying ‘no fap’ but the lyrics suggest otherwise.
goodie goodie - dj kaos
this is a kinda squelchy dancefloor funk version of pink floyd’s money. it might be because, contextually, it shuffled on while i was trying to blast out a speedy 5k along the ring road around kelham, but it hooked me! pure filth!!!
tramlines
in november, long time listener, not so often mentioned-er rosa campbell texted me and planted the seed that she might come down from edinburgh, and we might go and see pulp, at tramlines. i took this idea and went off to the races, securing tickets while trying not to lose signal on the train somewhere around mexborough.
in the intervening months, i had also been invited by the lovely guys at grooveline to dj as part of their takeover at the vip hospitality area on the saturday. so — truly a big weekend! associated tunes:
allbarone - baxter dury + jgrrey
we first saw baxter dury, who i previously saw and loved at the leadmill (rip). i don’t think that his brand of sleazy yelling and incessant jerky horse stance squats translates when it’s a beautiful, 24º degree friday afternoon. my brother in christ take off your jacket! but my ears were alert to hear this new track live, and the idea that it’s about all bar one is still making me laugh.
spike island - pulp
pulp were delightful. i’m a light pulp guy: my teen boyfriend and i bought different class at clive’s record shop (rip) and i listened to it a lot; i enjoyed their 1995 glastonbury set on bbc sounds a few years ago. but man. jarvis still sounds excellent, and puts on an engaging show. perfect mix of singalong classic hits and stuff from the new album, with a couple of deep cuts for the real heads. and the new album is also great, as well as being catchy enough that by the second chorus, you’re singing along even though you’ve never heard it before. we were stood with three generations of the same family—some 10 year old kids, a nan probably around 60 and the middle gen around our age—who were all loving it. such a nice atmos :’)
no tunes for the playlist but: we also saw franz ferdinand, who i had not seen since the low energy flop that was their trnsmt 2018 performance. we weren’t really planning to stay but around 90 mins before they were due on i caught a buzz and was like ‘maybe we should stay! maybe they’ll be good!! maybe i’ll have a white claw!!!’. it brings me great pleasure to report on the ‘are franz ferdinand good right now?’ barometer that THEY ARE! a happy pivot from the last barometer check in (january 2025: “mid”). so funny as well to see what songs the teens know. take me out? of course. matinee? i don’t think so. no you girls? yes?! very surprising. i had such a good time i watched their 2004 brixton academy performance the next morning, lol. franz 4eva.
also seen: grooveline of course!; spiritualised; jake bugg; a bit of apricot ballroom x endless city at factory floor on the way home after refuelling with loaded fries. that’s how you know you’ve been at a festival.
a linga sound mix:
&
if you’re looking for something else nice to listen to, i would recommend listening back mucho maas’s recent show on love will save the day fm, discovery point for the amazing what i feel by freedom force.
link to donate to the sameer project, to assist in distributing aid on the ground in gaza.