Panic Radio Site

I have launched a new site that is focused on the radio show that I do weekly on WCR FM in Warminster Wiltshire on a Wednesday evening. The show is called Panic radio and below is a link to the site and also a link to the Mixcloud account that carries some of the shows. The one below is the third anniversary cover version special.

Panic Radio
Mixcloud 

Prince Panic Radio Tribute

My Radio show tribute to Prince. Two hours of Prince originals, b-sides, remixes and cover versions. I hope you enjoy it.

Track listing for the show

• Lets Go Crazy
• Anotherloverholenyohead
• Guitar
• She's Always In My Hair
• Mavis Staples - Time Waits For No One
• Purple Dub - Take Me With You
• Chaka Kahn - I Feel For You
• Star Fish and Coffee
• Sign O The Times
• Colonized Mind
• Balltimore
• Raspberry Beret
• Kiss 12" Mix
• You Got The Look
• The Time - Jerk It Out
• Gett Off (club mix)
• Controversy
• Musicology
• The Family - High Fashion
• Seven (acoustic version)
• Supercute
• When Doves Cry
• The Cross
• A Case of You (Joni Mitchell cover)
• Sometimes in Snows In April

Panic Radio is live on Warminster Community Radio on Wednesday evening 9pm to 11pm. If you have music you would like me to consider then please email (tony.h at wcrfm.org.uk).

The WCR Website is here - http://www.wcrfm.org.uk/

Albums of Year 2016

Top 20 LPS 2016 Panic Radio - Highway Five




1. Ed Scissor and Lamplighter – Tell Them It’s Winter
2. Kate Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos
3. Towel – Wipe Me Dry
4. Serpentwithfeet – Blisters
5. Giaka – Security
6. Daughter – Not Too Disappear
7. Yussef Kamaal - Black Focus
8. Moor Mother – Fetish Bones
9. Ash Koosha – I AKA I
10. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
11. Lucy Dacus – No Burden
12. Higher Authorities - Neptune
13. Karl Blau – Introducing Karl Blau
14. Beans on Toast – A Spanner in The Works
15. Richmond Fontaine – You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To
16. Jah9 – 9
17. Olga Bell – Tempo
18. Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial
19. David Bowie- Black Star
20. Cavern of Anti-Matter - Void Beats / Invocation Trex

Top 20 LPs 2015 - Panic Radio List

1.       Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free

The new king of alt.country? Former Drive By Trucker releases a LP that is full of great songs that much like the Courtney Barnett record spins the mundane into pure song writing gold. An emotional record that wears its hard won smarts front and centre. A joy to listen to.

2.       King Midas Sound/Fennesz – Edition 1

Dread and Jah, bass heavy KMS working with Austrian electronic artist Fennesz is a musical marriage made in some sort of smoke filled heaven. Like Massive Attack drowning in claustrophobic reverb and dub. Eerie, grainy, creeping and infectious.

3.       Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think Sometimes I Just Sit

Debut LP proper from Courtney Barnett after a series of great EPs. The ability to turn snapshots of the mundane (buying a house, the daily commute, driving) into a series of little musical epiphanies is amazing.

4.       Roots Manuva – Bleeds

The return of Roots Manuva. UK hip-hip/grime with the advantage of hard won experience, doubt, fear, religious rebirth not the usual subjects for grime. Dark, bruised and wonderful.

5.       Jam City –Dream A Garden

A cross pollination of club music signifiers and mid 80s dream pop indie.  Like a dubbed out Cocteau Twins. A rain streaked faded Polaroid of effected guitars, beats, floating vocals and a deep rooted sense of ennui.

6.       Darkstar – Foam Island

A huge shift for Darkstar from retro synth pop of their early releases to austerity electronica. The sound of social contract collapsing via interviews and electronic soundscapes. Calypso beats, dub, soft focus electronica. Protest music of a different hue.

7.       Torres –Sprinter

New York born living in Nashville her second LP with shades of early PJ Harvey (it’s produced by Rob Ellis). Despair, rage, loss. Brutally honest and hook heavy. From a whisper to a scream.

8.       Holly Herndon – Platform

Dense modern laptop electronica. The sound of modern technology, dance floor moves, digital sludge, post modernism and a haunting vocals. The sound of the Future?

9.       JLin – Black Ballet

A do love a bit of Footwork but most of that comes in single sized chunks. Jlin takes those frantic machine rhythms of footwork and she bends them into new shapes. Dam funky.

10.   Jenny Hval - Apocalypse Girl

Feminism, melody, electronics, noise, American cultural imperialism, gender politics. That makes it sound really dry but its rude, explicit, funny, quite “pop” and very catchy.

11.   Sherwood and Pinch – Late Night Endless

Old School dub master meets new school electronica. A beast of a record full of BASS, reverb and big dry echoes. Much more than the sum of its talented parts.

12.   Grasscut – Everyone Was A Bird

More organic less electronic than the first two LPs but still a delight. Fan submitted spoken word piece, nature based lyrical themes and soaring strings.

13.   Public Service Broadcasting – The Race for Space

Working with the British Film Institute PSB splice film and news clips with post rock and electronic backing. Funkier than it sounds on paper.

14.   Lonelady – Hinterland

This is like a lost factory record release. Shades of ACR, Section 25, and early New Order. Fragile guitar melodies, industrial murk, Brit funk but a modern twist in the production.

15.   Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love

Fantastic return after 10 years away. Snaps, snarls, the guitars bite yet it is joyful at the same time. Knocks the New Order and Prodigy come backs out of ring with a series of beautiful jabs.

16.   The Unthanks – Mount The Air

Folk detour that was started when I picked up a copy of the first Unthanks LP second hand. A lovely mixture of dark folk themes and solid gold harmonies and melodies.

17.   The Band of Holy Joy – The Land of Holy Joy

One of my favourite bands of the late 1980s this is their 19^th LP! Johnny Brown is a lyricist with a sharp eye for detail. Bittersweet stories of those living on the fringes of society set to a romantic spring laden ramshackle indie racket.

18.   Floating Points – Elaenia

Late period Talk Talk refracted through an electronic and post rock prism without the god fearing lyrics. Might be higher up the list if I had longer to listen to it.

19.   Romare – Projections

Smoky vocal samples, African drums, garage, house, jump cuts. A lovely collage of various dance forms into a fun, funky and clever record.

20.   Bill Ryder Jones – West Kirby County Primary

Former member of the Coral and Artic Monkeys tour guitarist BRJ’s solo LP is a bleak and beauty collection mainly recorded at home. Strong songs with clever little lyric touches, a fragile voice and a sense of loss. One to get lost in.

New Order - Drop the Guitar Live in Chile 2014

New Order have previewed their first new track since 2005's Waiting for the Siren's Call. Played live in Chile as part of Lollapalooza Chile on the 30th March 2014. The song is the first new material since Peter Hook left the band. Although Hooky is no longer a member the song has the familiar bass rumble, a spidery guitar part that is very mid period (circa 1985) New Order and a Barney vocal that is prime New Order. It sounds more like New Order than the recent Bad Luienent stuff although the only difference live is Stephen Morris. Sound like a return to form to my ears.



More information here:

Fact Magazine - http://www.factmag.com/2014/03/31/new-order-unveil-first-new-song-in-nine-years-listen-here/

Slicing Up Eyeballs - http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2014/03/31/new-order-new-song-drop-the-guitar-santiago-video/

Consequence of Sound - http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/03/watch-new-order-debuts-drop-the-guitar-their-first-new-song-in-nine-years/

The Redemption of Martin Hannett - Book and DVD Release

The genius of Martin Hannett (Joy Division, New Order, U2 and Happy Mondays producer) is too be celebrated with a new book and DVD film both released in April.

Hannett's story,he died of a heart attack in back in 1991 aged only 42, has gone mainly unrecorded despite the wealth of material produced on Factory Records.

Cerysmatic Factory who have seen the DVD outline it below:

featuring contributions from Tony Wilson Vini Reilly, Bruce Mitchell, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner, Tosh Ryan, Steve Hopkins (Invisible Girls), Mark Radcliffe, Dave Formula, Reni and Andy Couzens (Stone Roses) plus many othera.

This is no flash expensive BBC documentary, it's a gritty warts 'n' all tale of experimentation, laid bare with the minimum of trickery and a host of wide-eyed observers...."

http://news.cerysmaticfactory.info/2014/03/martin-hannett-he-wasnt-just-the-fifth-member-of-joy-division-dvd-documentary-review.html

You can order directly from here:

http://www.ozitmorpheusrecords.com/

This is great interview between Tony Wilson & Martin Hannett. .



The song being "produced" is Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls - The Visitor have a listen below. Listen to the snare drum!

There is also a sample from the video in the first two tracks from The Durutti Column's A Paean To Wilson.

Wildest Woes - Sam Radcliff

This great little EP popped into my inbox a few weeks ago and I have been returning to for repeat listens. It was recorded in a bedroom in Berlin by Sam Radcliff and has shades of few cool things in its grainy mix.

The opening track reminds of James Blake and the club sounds of East India Youth. The title track Wildest Woes ripples like a lo-fi The XX and crackles like a male fronted Young Marble Giants. The whole EP is worth a listen and a few of your £'s to download. Hopefully someone will pick up the EP and give it a big promo push as it deserves to be heard by a bigger audience. One to listen out for in the future.

I can't get the player from Bandcamp to imbed so I will come back to it later if I have time.

Widest Woes EP - Sam Radcliff

Actress - Welcome to the Headspace

There is a wonderful interview in the March edition of Wire Magazine with Actress (aka - Darren Cummingham ). It covers a fair amount of ground looking at his background in Wolverhampton, his promise as a football player that got cut short by injury and his move to London. Cunningham comes across as rather otherworldly, living in a kind of altered urban reality. He has interesting things to say on the nature of reality, space, music, how music can heal and attempting to get the sounds in his head out in musical form.

Under the Actress moniker he has released 4 LPs, Hazyville (2008), Splazsh (2010), RIP(2012) and his latest release Ghettoville (2014) on Ninja Tunes. Imagine the fractured musical sound of Burial refracted through a hazy mesh of broken speakers, weed smoke, field recordings and relentless rain. It sounds like the film Se7en looks, a noirish combination of grimey undercurrents and forward motion.

There is a small glimpse into the music making process for Actress and the analogue equipment, field recordings and overloading of circuits that are crucial to the weird, warped sound world that features on the Actress releases.

Below is an Actress track Grey Over Blue from his Ninja Tune 12"  that outlines the kind of dislocated sonic ground that his LPs traverse. I would recommend buying the LPs and losing yourself in the blurred South London via Wolverhampton head space of Darren Cunningham.



Quietus Interview - http://thequietus.com/articles/14423-actress-interview-ghettoville
Electronic Beats Interview -http://www.electronicbeats.net/en/features/interviews/an-interview-with-actress/

Belgian Fog - Loveless Way

Belgian Fog is the musical alias of Robert Dale from Washington State and he works at KEXP in Seattle and has produced a sparkling gem of a track. The songs is propelled along a strident bright programmed rhythm box, a cute melody line and a great vocal that sweeps from a mellow croon to a soaring falsetto. There are shades of New Order in he guitar coda towards the end and it also reminds me of the more synth driven work of Stephin Merritt's work on those early Magentic Fields releases. That's not to say that the track sounds overtly retro it doesn't, the production, the beats the whole feel is fresh. It strikes me as hybrid of The Weeknd's warped R&B and the confessional  indie of Bon Iver or Bright Eyes with some added Hot Chip.  It has already worked its way to my head and hopefully there will more music in the near future.

https://soundcloud.com/belgianfog

Postcode – Zebratronic (Small Bear Records) Review

One of the main joys of the internet for me is the ability to stumble across new music and then get directly to the source via few clicks of a mouse. I love Soundcloud and Bandcamp for allowing you to listen to tracks and purchase directly (or almost directly) from the band of artist.

My latest discovery (via an email) are Postcode. Postcode are based in the Isle Man, not a renowned hot bed of musical activity. I have a friend who grew up there in the 1980s and at the time it all seems to have been all heavy metal, motorbikes and the odd gig by Dumpys Rusty Nuts. It’s came as a pleasant surprise that Postcode are not metal and they don’t mention motorbikes! Zebratronic is the third LP from the band.

On Zebratronic the band (Mike Daugherty music and Marie Reynolds words and vocals) blend fizzing synth lines, brittle drums, warm distortion and plaintive vocals into a heady and beguiling mix.  It reminds me of dark pop hues of Garbage, the stark melodic intent of Client or the bruised electronic goth of Curve.

The opening track “Back by Dawn” starts with a brooding Joy Division bassline and a crisp rattling machine drum loop before Marie Reynolds vocals become the perfect foil for the music, uncoiling slowly before the blizzard of guitars kick in around 2:20.  Dodge City is an amphetamine rush of overloaded guitars and drowning vocals, Pound is built around a punch drunk drum pattern, snappy bass & guitar hook and razor blade guitars. The epic Resurrection clocks in at 7:18 and shifts through the sonic gears from its jangling guitar intro, via a sprightly snare roll hook to blasts of guitar sludge and distorted vocals and an ebbing slow burning ambient bridge before the sonic onslaught returns. Autumn is a real gem, a twinkling music box melody bouncing on top of circling chord sequence, swirling sweet caramel multi-tracked vocals and a sly infection rhythm box. Imagine early New Order fronted by Romy Madley Croft and you get the idea. It would make a great single.There is an extra track on the CD a great cover version but I will let you discover the pleasures of that yourself.

The CD is released via Small Bear Records label and you can order it directly via their Bandcamp website. Mine came with a free copy of a Small Bear compilation, free badge and a post it note from the band.  The CDs are very well packaged with great quality artwork and finishing. My daughter loved the cover of the Zebratronic CD. At a £5.00 it really is a steal.  All this great music for less than the price of a decent cup of coffee and a muffin.