This is not just a great tune but a cleverly constructed composition – created by combining two tracks recorded 37 years apart.

(more…)

Here’s my latest playlist for the month of April and as ever it’s eclectic; one of the most diverse yet. We’ve got postpunk guitar legends (Keith Levene, John McKay), banging dance choons (ATB, Altern-8, Baby D), vintage soul (Three Degrees, James Carr), old-skool hip-hop (Luniz) and nu-skool reggae (Protoje), ambient (JakoJako) and country (Kaylee Rose) and tributes to those who left us in April (Max Romeo, David Thomas, Mike Berry, Wizz Jones…. Pope Francis).

The Blow Monkeys’ hit single Digging Your Scene symbolised the Eighties with their lavishly produced single, topical lyric, and stylish video. (more…)

Like some ultra-sweet confection that rots your teeth, this novelty chart topper from 1999 is just so addictive you can’t help but love it. The appeal is a combination of three things: its infectious trance beat, that twangy Hawaiian guitar figure, and the breathy bedroom vocal.

(more…)

You may not have heard of him, and neither had I, but Wizz Jones was a pioneering figure in British folk: a man described by Bert Jansch as “the most underrated guitarist ever.”

(more…)

Kaylee Rose is a Nashville-based artist who taps into tradition with this song about a cheating partner, set to a simple backing. It’s the archetypal “three chords and the truth” – the phrase Harlan Howard used in the 1950s to sum up country music’s appeal.

(more…)

The sun has come out at last and this tune takes me back to the dancefloors of Ibiza where I wangled my way on work freebies a few times in the early ’90s.

(more…)

The Numbers Band (or, if you prefer, 15-60-75) formed in Ohio in 1969 and are still going strong with original frontman Robert Kidney.

(more…)

All-female punk band L7 made an X-rated impression on TV audiences with their first and last appearance on UK television in 1992.

(more…)

Melts are a band from Dublin that sound like the missing link between Joy Division and The Horrors, blending big post-punk guitars with psychedelic flourishes of organ and the detached vocals of Eoin Kenny.

(more…)