Another month, another playlist. This one opens with an Eighties classic and takes us on a journey back to the Sixties with some garage rock nuggets, via deep funk, deep soul, deep blues, and forward through time via electro, hip-hop, a dash of punk and reggae, through to the present day. 

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).

Here’s my latest playlist – a spring-flavoured selection from March, ranging from The Damned to Miles Davis, Roy Ayers to Fontaines DC. It starts with a bang, to mark the death of Brian James, before settling into a smooth soul groove, dipping into the Nineties now and then for what we once called ‘indie’ music, making a detour into the Seventies, and ending up back in the Fifties and Sixties with some fiery blues and cool jazz.

My latest playlist is one of my most eclectic yet. It begins with one of the all-time pop classics (Ronettes) and ends with an aptly valedictory elegy for one of those we lost in February (Bill Fay).

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The Saints, who formed in Australia in 1973, were arguably the first punk band of all – but they always claimed not to be punks. Whatever they were, they were fantastic.

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Here’s my January playlist, kicking off and ending with something familiar, including some old blues-rock (Thin Lizzy, Jethro Tull), some old soul (Sam & Dave, Irma Thomas), some new stuff (Mogwai, Jim Jones) and some strange Irish folk (John Francis Flynn) that you’ve probably never heard. Plus some Iggy, some Neil Young, some Bowie and a banging tune by Leftfield… something for everyone there, I hope.

My December playlist, as you might expect, features a handful of Christmas tunes towards the end. But it’s also got some eclectic choices for a cold winter month, kicking off with a much-needed winter warmer of Electricity. There’s a prominent African flavour to blast away the chills, and some vintage jazz and funk.

As the days grow shorter and darker, why not fill two hours of them with my latest playlist? From the warm embrace of The Cure to the date-adjacent celebration of The National, there’s soul and disco, reggae and ska, country and jazz, with a bit of an early-Eighties flavour running through it.

October is the mellowest month, said no one in particular. But in a way it is: autumn settling in, the days getting shorter, the leaves beginning to turn, coats and scarves and hats coming out of closets. And here’s a suitably mellow playlist to soundtrack the darkening of the days. (more…)

Autumn is upon us, and here is your September soundtrack: lots of old stuff, a bit of new stuff; New Wave and old soul, rock and pop and a four-song tribute to the songwriting genius of the late great Kris Kristofferson.