Tom: I was thinking about Domburg.

Me: Yes? What were you thinking about?

Tom: I was thinking about when we saw Kraak en Smaak.

Me: Well, we actually saw them in Middelburg, in the Abdijplein. But it isn’t far from Domburg.

Tom: Yes, that’s right. [pause] Abdijplein is a funny word. It’s double Dutch! Abdijplein! Heeheehee! (pronounced perfectly: ab-dye-pline)

This morning, as Tom demolished the last spoonful of his second breakfast…

me: do you want some music on?

Tom: [muffled through egg] yeff pleef

me: try this. It starts quietly and gets louder.

Tom: [hands over ears] will it hurt when it gets loud?

me: no, just listen.

At this point, Tom runs off and fetches his guitar (a toy) and starts plucking the strings (not his normal random strumming) whilst nodding his head and looking at his feet.

There’s hope yet. I think it may be time to move him onto The Fall.

I’m thinking about pulling the plug on Radio Grayblog. Judging by the records, it is getting less than 50 hours per month of listening time. That’s an average of one person a day for little more than an hour and a half. Or three people a day for only half an hour each. Or 30 people logging in and listening to one song before they switch off in disgust.

With the USD/GBP exchange rate shifting about, it now costs me around £125 per year to run it and times are hard. I can probably think of better ways to spend that money (on a dozen new CDs, for example).

Also, half the reason I set up Radio Grayblog was so that I could listen to my music whilst in the office. That was back in the days when office and home were nearly ten miles apart. Now, office and home are not much more than ten feet apart. Turn the stereo up loud enough and I can sing along. Alternatively, I can just take a CD or three out to the office (no evil MP3s here!).

So, give me some good reasons why I shouldn’t pull the plug.

Bearders, RIP.

Good to hear on TMS that the players in today’s test are wearing black armbands as a mark of respect.

I’m probably years behind all you cool kids that read this blog (yes, both of you) – I’ve just ordered a cable to connect my laptop to the hi-fi so that I can listen to music (particularly radio streams) without either the tinniness of the built-in speakers or the inconvenience of headphones.

One of the problems I’ve found with listening to music on my laptop is that I want to know what I’m listening to. Both WinAmp (which is suffering terrible bloat these days) and iTunes (which always was bloated) display what you are listening to – but in teeny tiny text that can only be read by wandering from wherever you happen to be (in my case, by the filing cabinet with headphones on, doing the filing on a loooong cable) over to the laptop and then squinting at the screen (and, quite possibly, fetching the player out of the system tray).

What I’d really like is a plugin for iTunes or WinAmp (or, perhaps, another player if it offers this function and doesn’t suffer from bloat) that displays the artist and title information (perhaps also song duration/time played) in fullscreen lovelybigtext™ that can be read from across the room. This is going to be particularly useful for dinner/party/dinner party occasions when I don’t want to keep leaping up from my chair/the hob to answer the “that’s good music – what is it?” question.

Any suggestions?

Sitting on board the Maersk Delft, waiting to depart Dover docks, passengers stare as the huge MSC Armonia glides into dock, flash bulbs glinting as passengers get the obligatory shot of the not-so-white Cliffs of Dover. As the ferry finally moves off from the quay, only a few minutes late, some wag plays Ride of the Valkyries on the entertainment system. Hmm, slightly fanciful thinking, I feel.

Today is Sussex Day. Hurrah! I expect you all to be singing.

Humph, RIP.

British nuclear weapons were enabled and disabled by a bike lock key. How very British – just as it should be.

Three Gorges Dam causes geological deformation. No surprise really – the weight of water is bound to have this effect.

Graybo updates Amazon wishlist. Christmas is coming, geese need fattening. Or just send cash:

Alan Coren, RIP.

DJ Format on YouTube (via b3ta)

Humph notices that we’ve come to the end of the show.

Hurrah! Go here.

Should record companies still charge the same price for an album even when it only lasts 33 minutes? Island Records, I’m looking at you and your Amy Winehouse CD.

It looks like Monkey Radio has ceased to be. This is a great shame, as it is through listening to Monkey Radio that I got into all sorts of music, including Visit Venus amongst others.

James Brown, RIP.

Like good music? Like good cheap music? Om Records have a sale on at the moment with all CDs, including two- and three-disc sets for just US$10 each. I shall be making purchases, though I’m not sure what with. Or, if you want to be my friend, email me and I’ll tell you what I’d like as a Christmas gift.

Two great voices have been lost to us in the last few days.

Philippe Noiret, RIP. IMDB profile.

Nick Clarke, RIP.

Did you see the documentary on Channel 4 last night about the Young at Heart Chorus? It isn’t often that Hels and I sit to watch television together, but this was an outstanding documentary about an amazing project with a splendid bunch of people that had us riveted, alternately laughing and crying. There is a planned DVD release. The part with Fred Knittle, given two years to live just over two years previously, carrying his oxygen supply on stage as he sang Coldplay’s Fix You as a solo performance after his duet partner, Joe Benoit, had died just a few days before will bring a lump to your throat.

The most impresive character is Bob Cilman, the director. Coaxing, encouraging and, at times, herding this group of wilful octagenarians into performing a stage set that has travelled the world is a great feat of determination – the fact that the performers derive more from it than the audience is not lost on the viewer.

Note to self: listen to this programme again.

I’m back. I’m really busy, but I’m back.

When time permits, a post on:

• Leiden
• Arrow Jazz FM
• Kraak en Smaak
• Miffy
• Utrecht
• a David Lynch moment
• Maastricht
• Pruevenemint
• the Atomium
• Antwerpen-Zuid, and
• why EuroTunnel is doomed

Things on Radio 4 that you may have missed:

• Crossing Continents: Thembi’s AIDS diary. Incredibly moving, particularly the part when Thembi tells her father that she has AIDS.
• Forging the Union. Alan Little’s excellent history of the European Union which shows how, by dragging her heels and hanging back, Britain has always found herself disadvantaged in the EU.
• Linda Smith – A Modern Radio Star. I miss hearing Linda Smith as much as I miss John Peel.

Radio 4 is, I think, producing some of the best programming I have ever heard right now. Whatever would we do without Radio 4?

UPDATE: I forgot to include:

• Unseen China. I don’t normally enjoy Peter White’s radio style (I remember when he was on South Today, 15-odd years ago), but this series is excellent.

Is it me, or do The Young Knives sound similar to mid/late ’90s Croatian rockers Stella Maris? Or am I just being too obscure?

I’ve just seen a lovely bumblebee in the garden. I like these fuzzy-bottomed creatures, but I’ve never seen one quite like this one – a slightly tapered bum (abdomen, I think) with three distinct amber-coloured stripes around the tip. The problem I have is that I’d like to know what type of bumblebee it is and whether I’ve spotted something rare or unusual. It’s this sort of thing that shows the limitations of the internet. If I had a book of insects, I could open the page of bees and compare all the different sorts until I spotted an illustration that best represented the creature I saw. However, the net relies on me making a search using the name of the creature I am seeking (looking for "bumblebees" is too vague). Wikipedia only offers a detailed description of the most common species.

Any suggestions? I’ve had a similar problem when I’ve spotted an unusual butterfly or moth. Birds are another group of creatures where I go straight to the bookshelf first.

There is a lot that I should be writing about here at the moment, but time pressures prohibit me from doing so. I’m travelling to the Netherlands this week, so if you’re lucky you might get some airport blogging.

In the meantime, here is a current playlist (aside from several CDs that are getting a lot of rotation time):

• Lupe Fiasco – Kick Push
• Amerie – One Thing
• Hird – Love Again
• People Under The Stairs – The Dig
• The White Stripes – Blue Orchid
• Ladytron – Soft Power
• Go! Team – Ladyflash
• OMD – Sealand
• Curve – Coast is Clear
• Bass-O-Matic – Fascinating Rhythm (12" version)
• Editors – Munich
• Jazzanova – Bohemian Sunset
• Ladytron – Fighting in Built-Up Areas
• Neotropic – Under Violent Objects
• Siouxsie and the Banshees – Dear Prudence
• Zombies – Time of the Season
• Amon Tobin – The Lighthouse

Willfully eclectic?

Quick post:

• thanks to Charlie and The Peet for my excellent Neotropic CD.
• thanks also to the Uborka Two for Winter Chill 2.
• thanks to family for gifts of cash, clothing and olive oil – all appreciated.
• thanks to Hels for Gnarls Barkley, clothing and cake.
• spent Friday at Wakehurst Place – thoroughly enjoyable another opportunity to put the buggy through its paces (it passed with flying colours).
• Friday evening involved a fantastic meal out – if anyone needs a recommendation for a fabulous meal in East Sussex, drop me a line.
• Saturday was spent gardening, painting and erecting trellis for the most part.
• Sunday was spent at Pashley Manor Gardens for the Plant Fair – not one of the best that I’ve had there, but I think some lessons were learned that will lead to changes before August.

It will be my birthday on Friday. It says so when you click here, so it must be true.

Ivor Cutler, RIP.

Linda Smith, RIP. Terribly sad – my favourite female comedian.

Wilson Pickett, RIP.

I’ve been invited to be interviewed on Radio Kent on Saturday morning (Radio Kent being rather imprecisely named as it covers a not inconsiderable part of Sussex). The Pat Marsh show is doing a feature on blogs and blogging between 11.15 and 11.45 and wanted me to chat on that subject, but I’ve declined the invitation as I’m keeping my diary clear in case I have to take H to the hospital at a moment’s notice (the baby being due to arrive any day now). But it might be worth listening to – I hope they don’t focus too much on the geeky and egotistical aspects of blogging and talk a little about their value for information and community (two factors which have always been and probably always will be sadly lacking from this site!).

And we all remember the issue of Computer Active for 3 May 2001 that featured this site, don’t we?

Last night, as a special treat for our wedding anniversary, we headed up to the Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells to see the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who played with support from Langhorne Slim.

Slim played some folksy bluegrass songs, mostly about lost love and failed relationships, with sprinklings of humour and wry observation and even a smattering of audience participation. Pretty good, although he failed to really get the Tunbridge Wells audience going. Mind you, it has to be said that it usually takes quite something to get the Tunbridge Wells audience going – free canapés and a glass of bubbly generally do the trick, both of which were lacking for this gig.

After the interval, the main attraction took the stage. Hels said afterwards that if you didn’t have your surreal head on, you weren’t going to get this outfit – and Tunbridge Wells doesn’t do surreal very well. I think about 10 people in the audience really got the hang of what was being achieved before them.

The Trachtenburgs are a three piece outfit, consisting of Jason on keyboards, guitar and lead vocals, his wife Tina Piña on slide projector and daughter Rachel (aged a somewhat precocious 11 years) on drums and backing vocals. Yes, you read that correctly – not slide guitar, but slide projector. The premise here is that the Trachtenburgs collect 35mm transparency collections from thrift stores, pawn shops, car boot fairs and so on. They then reinterpret them to music, on stage, whilst wearing the worst 1970s fashions (not overstated parody fashions, mind you, but those subtly bad items from that era).

The songs, of course, are just as awful as the photographs that they are played to. Crossing just about every genre under the sun, from prog rock to gospel, songs such as Look At Me and the five-part McDonald’s rock opera (incorporating the totemic What Will The Corporation Do?) amusingly take the mickey out of the innocents portrayed in the slides – though none could exactly be described as sing-along. But the awfulness is part of the act, coupled with the polished amateurness of the performers (complete with Rachel’s persistent gum chewing and Jason’s asides about how something always goes wrong with their shows) and an amusing mid-set Q&A session.

The set was rather let down by lacklustre sound quality in the Trinity, meaning that some of Jason’s lyrics were indistinct – rather important when the lyrics relate so closely to the content of the slides on show. The crazy distortion that resulted from projecting onto a full height screen from a projector sat on the floor actually added to the surreality of the performance, although I’m not sure if that was intentional.
If you get the chance, go and see them whilst they are on tour. But try to pick a venue where the audience might appreciate it.

I’ve listened to the first three and a half hours of the special Peel night on Radio 1. Lammo has just played My Bloody Valentine. I can sleep now (and probably listen to the rest tomorrow on BBC Listen Again).

In a rare event, last seen back in May (I think), I treated myself to two CDs today. One, obtained second-hand for the princely sum of £2.99, is Land of the Lost by Greyboy – definitely suitable for dinner parties in polite company (assuming said company has good taste, of course) or, as we did this evening, for listening to whilst flopping on the sofa. The second, obtained from my favourite record store in Brighton (Edge World Records, for those in the know), is Seasonally Affective, a retrospective by Piano Magic – they wonderfully describe their music as "romantic and square", which is a fair description of tracks like The Sharpest Knife In The Drawer but doesn’t really cover the bleeps and bloops of For Engineers AA. Recommended.

I *so* need to get back into listening to music properly.

From Our Own Correspondent at 50 – featuring a selection of the best articles from the last fifty years.

Mo Mowlam, RIP. I can’t see the PM not turning up for this funeral. But he never fails to amaze me, so anything is possible.
Madeleine Peyroux "disappears" – probably to go and hide for a few months after the quite dire performance she gave for Top of the Pops the other day. She’s got a voice, for sure, but she doesn’t seem to have stage confidence judging by that showing.

Today’s episode of All In The Mind on Radio 4 with the ubiquitous Prof. Raj Persaud became intensely amusing to me as a I channel-surfed the car radio, mainly because there was an intensely earnest discussion about gifted children taking place in which one of the contributors was a Professor John Geake (or Geek, if you will). I don’t know about gifted child, but I’m pretty sure that he had seventeen varieties of poo beaten out of him when he was at school with a name like that.

I want one of these.
You can buy one here if you live in the UK.
I heard about it here.
I think I may need better speakers. And a better car. But hey, I can dream.

I’m so utterly out-of-touch with music these days. Back in the distant past of bachelorhood, I’d spend at least a couple of evenings each week listening to obscure music on Peel, the web or odd CDs I’d picked up for a couple of quid in those boxes that the record stores in North Laine stand on the pavement outside their shopfronts.
These days, with a wife, two kittens and an all-consuming small business, time like that is a luxury.
But, occasionally, an opportunity presents itself. Today, that opportunity has been doing my accounts, which has meant a long period spent at the laptop with headphones on to try and shut out the outside world (and also to help preserve my sanity when I realise exactly how many receipts I have from the Post Office).
But where to start? There is so much good music on the web, as well as an awful lot of dross. I’ve got a few editions of GHC sitting on the hard drive that I haven’t got round to yet, but somehow I wasn’t quite ready for a full two hour session with Lars. So, I cast my mind back to some of the stuff I’d heard on Peel and thought about looking a few of the bands and artists up. I’m not sure why they crept into my head, but my thoughts wandered to The Bays. Go there now. Register (it’s free). Download. Listen. Enjoy.
And check out their "profile" section to get some background on The Bays and their whole ethos. And read "Taylor’s Tales" – somebody give the man a book deal, ok?

I managed to curtail my usually unbridled cynicism and watch/listen to a fair bit of the London Live8 gig last night whilst getting ready to go to/going to/having dinner at friends. It wasn’t bad for the most part (Jonathan Ross making a few barbed comments about the Eden Project gig along the lines of "wow! it looks like the real fun is going on there!") apart from some slightly nauseating luvvies getting it on with their egos (whilst it’s jolly good of these people to give their time and energy to do it, one can’t help but think that they will be making a hefty mint in royalties from increased record sales and lovely publicity).
But best of all was seeing The Who and the reformed Floyd showing the kids how it should be done. I get the feeling that we’ll never see the likes of that again.

Graybo (and Mrs Graybo) in purchase of Number 1 Album shocker! (and agree that it is really rather good).
Next thing you know, we might even buy a Top Ten Single (which we also think is rather good – the album looks pretty good too if you like RnB).

Forgot to mention on Thursday that it was Lord Percy’s birthday. The poor chap was 21 again.

In other news: Soul Deep has to be the best series that has been on TV in years – absolutely fantastic and compulsory viewing. The track listing on the CD compilation that goes with the series looks a little lacklustre, so I’m hoping that the Beeb will release the whole thing on DVD.

How handy.

Global House Connection will be broadcasting again this week (today), for the first time since 6 March, at a new time of 4pm Pacific (midnight UK) and Lars has publicly promised me that they will (at least try to) be weekly. They are also working on podcasts for subscribers. Announcement here.

This looks highly illegal, but it’s pretty impressive nonetheless.

For reasons known only to the little gremlins that inhabit my skull, I’ve had Airport by The Motors on my brain all morning. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Pitchfork interviews Autechre. Time to get my Autechre CDs out. (Thanks Bob).

Knockout Greg – playing Blues on the Farm this year.

Ages ago (I mean, like, years dude), I linked to this NSFW music video and thought it was really, um, kicking. It still is, but hasn’t it dated badly? I mean, who moves files around on 3.5in disks any more?
(Incidentally, in case you were wondering why I was thinking about this today, it’s because H and I had a conversation about the word "copacetic" the other day, and this choon features that word).

It’s a long time since I last linked to it, but if you are interested in music you should absolutely bookmark DJ Martian’s Page, which has more music links than you could shake a very large musical stick at, and will be celebrating its fifth birthday just a couple of weeks before this site.

…and play that funky music til you die.
There’s a Bloggers’ Disco going on, and whilst I could have nominated any one of a thousand tracks for the playlist that none of you would have heard of, I decided to go for Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry.
It’s for charity, you know. And Mike is paying, which is nice.

You know, I’m always completely ditracted by things like this.

Tommy Vance, RIP.

So, Jordan didn’t win the Eurovision vote. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that, in this BBC photo, she has three arms and really unnaturally wide hips?

Are they short of cash? And what’s the betting that they won’t play anything from Garlands? And Will Heggie won’t be playing, so it’s not like 1982 all over again, I’m afraid.
(via Vaughan).

New Amon Tobin. I need more pennies, as there are about a gazillion CDs that I need to buy at the moment.

You already know that I have an amazon.co.uk wishlist here.
You can now view an RSS feed of my amazon.co.uk wishlist here.
You can get one yourself by going here.
I got the idea from here.

The CD has arrived. Truly awful. But worth it. I think.

• Grauniad
• BBC
• Malaysia Star

Seagulls Ska makes the Top Twenty, outselling Parallax View favourites Interpol.
Shame we couldn’t hold on for a draw against Spurs yesterday, but we certainly gave them a run for their money.

I’ve got a backlog of ten hours of listening of recent editions of Global House Connection, largely due to not keeping pace over Christmas, but also as a result of the return to weekly programming there now that Constantin is broadcasting from Hamburg. Anyway, judging by the playlists, I need to get on with listening, and so should you.

I reckon I’m not the only person with a weblog who got all misty eyed during the Peel tribute on Radio 1 this evening. And not too cloying – well done Aunty.
And what’s really good is that we’ve now got a few hours of Peel-inspired music choices on R1 (hopefully without too much chatter) – perhaps the last time we’ll get to hear anything quite like it on national radio.

50 best covers of all time according to the Telegraph.
Wot no…?

• The Sundays’ version of The Stones’ "Wild Horses"
• William Shatner doing Pulp’s "Common People"
• Melt Banana doing "Surfin’ USA"

Glad they put Siouxsie Sioux doing "Dear Prudence" in the list – one of the best covers ever, IMHO.
Link via lots of people, but firstly Gordon.

BBC announces team of correspondents to replace Letter From America. I hope they won’t try and replace From Our Own Correspondent with this too.

• Fred Dibnah, RIP.
• Howard Keel, RIP.
• Rob Da Bank to take over John Peel’s slot. In a way, it is good that the Beeb haven’t tried to put in a Peel "replacement". There is nobody that would be up to that task, even the likes of Lammo. And having occasionally listened to The Blue Room, I think this choice should make for some good evening listening.

A few current and recent news stories:

• At the wrong speed – John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, RIP. Peely once played a request for me on his Radio 1 show. Others have paid sufficient tribute to the greatest champion of original new music in the UK – I merely suggest that you put Teenage Kicks on your stereo on repeat for a few hours. He’ll be sorely missed.
• Money woes failed Beagle 2 – "The DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] should have been on the pitch getting involved, rather than cheering from the touchline and coming on as a second half substitute when things went wrong."
• Lord Hanson, RIP – "A company from here doing rather well over there."
• EU leaders sign constitutional treaty at last.
• Kilroy-Silk withdraws from UKIP whip in EU Parliament. Plank.
• US Presidential election today – if you have a vote, use it.
• China’s next manned probe will orbit for five days. Ground Control to Major Yuan Hung-Lo?
• Titan geologically "alive".

Radio locator for finding streaming broadcasts. FM is dead? via Gordon. I really must set up that music and radio page that I keep threatening to create. In the meantime, don’t forget radio grayblog, which needs updating but is still pretty damn funky.

It has to be said that, since Lars has been doing GHC from Santa Barbara, the shows have been excellent. The last one, broadcast on September 12th, was particularly good – go over to the site and download it.

What a long day. I’m pooped, and still working now (remember that I’m an hour ahead of the UK, so it’s heading towards 8pm now). Thank goodness for Arrow Jazz which has provided top quality relief, free from ads and with only occasional news-based interruptions. Pity there is no web stream.

Barry White first thing in the morning? My fiancée is very strange.

No, I don’t know what that title means either.

Anyway, highlight of the day so far was receiving the Uborka Mix CD, a truly yayworthy event if ever there was one.
Lowlight of the week was reducing the flat price again. If it doesn’t sell by the end of the month, then young Dave will probably get a phone call (yes, I know I’ve said that before, but we kept hoping).
And this is bloody difficult.

I reckon that last week’s Global House Connection show (dated 25 July 04) is one of the best that there has been, ever. Fact.

Art of Fighting. They’re like the Red House Painters, only Australian.

I’ve written a new piece over at Uborka. I can’t believe that they still let me do that.

GHC is back after a five month hiatus. Woo, yay and, indeed, hoopla.

33 years ago today, Jim Morrison was found dead in his hotel. If he was alive today, he would be sixty years of age.
What do you think he would have been like as a sixty year old? And was his fame magnified purely because he died young?

West Dean was very successful yesterday – if the weather holds, then today should be every bit as good. If you didn’t make it yesterday, (hi Sacha!) then come along today if you can.
In other matters: Black Eyed Peas – Let’s Get It Started. Surely I can’t be the only person who for ages has thought that they were singing "Let’s get retarded in here"

Happiness is getting a belated birthday present of two albums that absolutely nobody else would want to listen to. Yay! Thank you, brother.
See my Amazon wishlist here.

For those few people that have been subjected to my copy of Stairway to the Stars, you’ll (mostly) be dismayed to learn that I’ve added The Caretaker’s third album (I must track down his second) to my Amazon wishlist.
I think I once described The Caretaker’s music as being an experience similar to standing about a hundred yards down the road from a 1930s dance hall. In the rain. Not that I’ve ever done that, mind you.
Totally unique.

Horrors! I’ve just realised that, since I redesigned this site, there hasn’t been a link to my Amazon wishlist – and my birthday is but 13 days away!

How handy! How confusing! Guaranteed to leave you with no idea what type of music it is that you are listening to, but written in such a way that you’ll have a good laugh finding out.
On IDM (a.k.a. Intelligent Dance Music):

Excuse me whilst I go and turn up my Amon Tobin album.

The funniest aspect of today’s news that Brian has left WestLife was listening to Denis Murray’s brilliant "Kerry was crying, so I gave her my hanky. And it was clean!" comments on tonight’s PM.

Though Letter From America is now, sadly, gone from the airwaves, that other gem of British broadcasting remains. From Our Own Correspondent allows BBC journalists the chance to inform and entertain on subjects that we either do not normally hear about or, more usually, on a more human level than general news reporting allows.
Justin Webb, perhaps with an eye to the Letter From America seat, gave this insightful and amusing piece at the weekend, which I commend to you.

Definitely the end of an era, and certainly something that broadcasting will never see the likes of again.

I’ve just listened to Starlings. Mad. Mad, I tell you.

Following a tip-off from Charlie, I’ve been listening to FIP FM. It’s French, you know. And mostly quite good.

Yay, yay and thrice yay! Absolute Power returns for a new series, with or without censorship, and is big enough to take mightily satisfying swipes at both HMG and the Beeb. And it’s bloody funny too.
Listen to tonight’s episode here whilst you can.
Interestingly, at the beginning of the recording, you can hear the last few seconds of the 6 o’clock News, with Andrew Marr making the following statement about the Government and the persistent problems with the 45 minute thing:

Let’s hope that there aren’t as many that are witless as they think.

Last of the Sun. Thora Hird’s last performance – a gently amusing monologue, introduced by its author, Alan Bennett. Catch it while you can, as the Beeb tend to only keep these things online for a few days. And be warned – there’ll not be a dry eye.

I forgot to say thank you to my Secret Santa for Amber by Autechre – it’s brilliant, the best Autechre album I’ve heard yet. I may have to add the others to my wishlist.
Related: Warp Records.

I listened to Start The Week on Radio 4 yesterday, and very interesting it was too. If you are quick, you can listen to it at the STW page, although I think it is only there until the weekend.

Mine is officially the funkiest office in the intellectual property industry this morning, as I’m working to the sounds of two new music purchases that arrived from America this morning: Kaskade: San Francisco Sessions: v4 is still to be unwrapped, but right now King Kooba: Indian Summer is playing, and jolly brilliant it is too.
Top marks should also be awarded to Shop Solid for getting my CDs to me faster than a very fast thing.

I’ve just listened to the archived Global House Connection programme for 23 November, which is excellent. If you don’t already listen to GHC each week, then you are missing out.
If you don’t have a fast enough connection, don’t forget that radio grayblog is still broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I’ll see if I can spend some time over the Christmas holiday uploading some new tunes – it’s a long time since the playlist was changed, but I still think it is good. And it only needs a 28k connection.