Keep Talking Just For Fun

 

Look At Me Trallez

SEIKO 5 4227 00B0 Automatic

It's not entirely off-piste even though the 6119-5000s are my focus. I've tried to get one for a while now and the first malfunctioned so a return was necessary. Anyway, this popped up and I wasn't sure what I was getting till it arrived. OMG what a quintessential addition to the collection. I couldn't be more made up.

 

**The UK Music Scene in the Early 80s – Backdrop to the Seiko 5 4227-00B0 Era**

The Seiko 5 4227-00B0 rolled out around 1980-84, right in the thick of one of the most fractured, vibrant, and commercially explosive periods in British music. Post-punk had splintered, synths were taking over, and the charts were a battleground between glossy pop, new romantic escapism, and residual aggression from the late 70s.

On the commercial side it was the dawn of the Second British Invasion. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, and Wham! dominated with polished videos, big hair, and shoulder pads. New Romanticism and the Blitz club scene fed a visual, fashion-driven pop that looked like it belonged on the cover of *The Face* or *i-D*. Meanwhile, the charts were full of electronic sounds — synth-pop from Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in Dark Age, Human League. 

Underground it was harder and weirder. Post-punk and goth were peaking with Joy Division's shadow still looming (New Order emerging), Bauhaus, Siouxsie, The Cure. Industrial and experimental scenes in Sheffield and Manchester pushed noise and machines. On the dance floor, the early stirrings of acid house and electro were brewing in clubs, while Two-Tone (The Specials, Madness, The Beat) brought ska revival energy and social commentary into the mainstream a couple of years earlier. 

It was also the start of the MTV era and the cassette generation. Music was more disposable and more accessible. The same economic and cultural forces that made reliable, affordable Japanese automatics like the 4227 appealing — mass production, everyday functionality, unpretentious design — mirrored the music industry's shift toward catchy, repeatable pop hits pumped out for a generation raised on cheap consumer goods. 

A 4227 on the wrist in 1981-83 would have sat perfectly on a bloke heading to see a gig at the Marquee or Hammersmith Odeon, or dancing in a provincial club to "Tainted Love" or "Girls on Film." Mechanical reliability in an increasingly electronic world. 

The watch and the era share or not? That brief mechanical/analogue charm before everything went fully digital?

Toman - Booty Smoothie (Extended Mix) [SOLID GROOVES RECORDS]

 

Come On, Let's Get It Anish Kumar

 

Unique Moment CamelPhat & Volkoder

Peacocks & Guinea Pigs - Aarmstrong

 

James Threfall played this on BBC R1D earlier, and I can barely believe that a very niche rural Thai music genre that I never told anyone I love was broadcast on the BBC British netwaves. I should write about how we, or rather should I say, they,  dance to this.

Dr Feels Good - Original Sin

 

Noir & Haze - Around [Solomun Vox Mix]

 

 

 15 years old and I've only just discovered it (I think). Lovely track.

 

One Question Cloonee & Groove Theory

DRIP Orchid

BBC R3 - Hannah Peel - Night Tracks - 10PM

Holy Viennese Pastries. I've only just discovered Hannah Peel's Night Tracks on BBC Radio 3. I post a lot of new Dance Music here from religious listening to a roster of BBC R1D DJs but that's because I love dancing or rather some of the best times of my life were years on end dancing in nightclubs. However, I've been restless of late. I like to listen to BBC Radio 3 when I'm reading but by some trick of the universe, I've only just discovered Hannah's broadcast at 10pm which is often a blend of classical and electronica of which she's also an artist herself.

Radio 3 is a both a thousand years old and bang up to date. I'm going to amend my BBC Women in Electronica post right now that was triggered by Olive's - You're not alone track, which is fitting, and I now have all the archive sessions (going back to September 2019) to listen to which will probably keep me going till the end of my days catching up.

I do slag off the BBC, but that's their news division propaganda. There's absolutely world class content produced by the still venerable institution if a person is selective and it's completely free, although I'd have no issue at all bunging them a donation now and again by Paypal to keep the good ship going.

Search Night Tracks on BBC Sounds.

JUMP! Luke Dean & Ozzie Guven

Kinda New (Tiefschwarz Dub) Spektrum

Let Me Tell You - Vintage Culture & Greggio

Fantasy Ivory

Burn Tonight Carl Cox, Alan Fitzpatrick & Alex Culross

Buffidisco (Krystal Klear Remix) Storken & Farfetched

Jepe - Vocoder

Tell The DJ Bákayan