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I thought I knew everything by The Rolling Stones but I’d never heard this song from Their Satanic Majesties Request ’til this morning, when it was chosen on the radio by Thurston Moore.

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Five or six years ago I spent a few magical days at Air Studios witnessing Peter Gregson’s recording of Bach’s canonical Cello Suites for Deutsche Grammophon.

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DJ Emma & Rockit – Bliss

8th December 2023 · 2020s, 2023, Dance, Music

Here’s something weird and appropriately trippy from Wiltshire producer DJ Emma, celebrating the invention of LSD – or, to be specific, the world’s first acid trip.

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Isabella Lovestory is a trailblazing new reggaeton star from Honduras, via Canada, and this is her self-styled “bad bitch anthem” called Fuetazo.

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Sister Nancy – Bam Bam

7th December 2023 · 1980s, 1982, Music, Reggae

Let’s travel back to Jamaica in 1983 for Sister Nancy’s irrepressible dancehall reggae anthem Bam Bam, bringing a ray of sunshine to a cold winter’s day.

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November 2023 Playlist

4th December 2023 · 2020s, 2023, Music, Playlists

Here’s an autumn playlist to warm the cockles of the ear: from obscure ’70s rock to pioneering ’80s funk, first wave hip-hop and New Wave country, free jazz and doom folk, dub, blues and even some prog – plus  tributes to those we lost in November, Shane MacGowan and Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker.

When I think of funk, this is the sound I hear in my head. The fat bass (is that the “phat” bass?), the hissing hi-hats, the waka-waka guitar licks, the muffled exhortations of the vocalist… put it all together and that’s The Fatback Band.

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Last night I went to see the Fun Lovin’ Criminals… at least I thought I had. They had their name spelled out in huge letters across the stages But their main man, Huey, was no longer in the band.

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I’ve just discovered that my 12-inch copy of Cristina’s scandalous take on an old classic is a collector’s item. Apparently her new lyrics for a tune about the mundanity of life, and the need to “break out the booze and have a ball – if that’s all there is”, so offended the songwriters, Leiber and Stoller, that they successfully sued to get it withdrawn – at least for a time.

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Harp – I Am The Seed

1st December 2023 · 2020s, 2023, Music

With a jazz background, a love of 1970s soft rock and a voice like Thom Yorke, former Midlake front man Tim Smith has always been hard to pigeonhole. A decade after quitting the band, the famously perfectionist Smith releases his first album as Harp – a new project with his wife, Kathi Zung.

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