Jack Saunders - BBC R1 - Future Sounds [PLUS] 2023 - Grandad Mixes - Moreno J Mix Vol 01 - Moreno J Remixes (The Re-edited) & Pierre J - 1984 In The Mix

I mentioned on the 'Punks Dead' post that BBC ~ R1 Future Sounds has really good music and terrific presenters. All of the BBC music presenters DJ's  and producers including Radio 3 are top notch, but Jack Saunders is the first one to ever make me feel a little older than usual. He's got an extraordinary energy about him on air and it was so much I sort of crumpled a bit and felt I couldn't keep up for the first time in my life.

Later on, as I got to know his work I learned that he's a versatile and encyclopedic music man and one of the most passionate music lovers I've listened to (along with Arielle Free and DJ LaLa). He's technical and has a great range of music and singing vocabulary. When the talents with him in the studio, it's self evident he takes the time to get to know music people, and and asks the best questions. Fresh, sidewinders, genuine curiosity-driven probing and great empathy with a range of guests.

I'm used to him now so he's not always full-on but strap yaself in if he is because it's an unusual ride. Jacks been put in charge of BBC R1 'Future Sounds' and I hope my tweets before I was kicked off X Holdings Corporations' platform proselytising his talents, landed in the right place. He's wearing a black and yellow suit that is the spit of an old Paul Smith suit I was given. Well done Jack. Looking forward to more of your fresh energy and your gift for empathy.

Let's do the second set first. It's Pierre J 1984 in the mix and like Moreno J, it starts with Frankie Goes To Hollywood (FGTH). Both sets are among my most listened 'Grandad Mixes' this year although now I've discovered the Essential Mix - BICEP - 2017 set which is off the charts fresh nearly six or seven years later (to my ears) as I only just discovered it via Pete Tong's Essential Mix back catalogue. Pierre replied to my comments a couple of times talking about his music app and I assumed he was a great amateur DJ find of mine. I have no idea why but I thought he was like me reliving his 80s 90s noughties dance music days, but no. Turns out he's a professional, highly regarded and one of the top European DJ's on one of the industry talent lists. Check out his last name and Q Symbolism on most of his cover artwork. Small world makes a lot of sense when combining AI with the ULTRA information. You're going to be seeing a LOT more about 17 from now on. 

The top music set is Moreno J who is an ongoing enigma in my life, but that set which starts off with FGTH as well, is spot-on if you're about my age of 55. The video must be watched to fully appreciate the times, fashion and music on the floor during the 80s 'and' onwards. I have no idea how he secures some of the dancing footage, but as with the Lipps Inc. - Funkytown (Moreno J Remix) post he (it might be a she or a team) they're using hallucination levels of AI dance choreography on some of his mixes, from at least two years ago. I've kept my opinions to myself about AI since I road tested all the platforms, but I have got a lot to say, share and write about this subject and some is brilliant, and some is mind bending, some is dark and some is terrifying, so it's for the future oriented not those holding on to the past. The fun part is sometimes a synch is just serendipity but if you are familiar with the colour initiation process I was led through online, just watch the Lipps Inc mix by Moreno J and then go check out these two posts because it's very hard to explain why obsessions of mine are contiguous with obsessions of other people, or more likely we're seeing what many others can't, even though millions can. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole of colour initiation there's this follow up post as my ongoing education continues.

Sarah Story - Another (Hypercolour)

I do bookmark a lot of music I listen to when I'm writing, and it's Sarah Story of BBC1D Future Dance who keeps me company on BBC Sounds most often, as well as Charlie Hedges who seems to parachute in when I'm in need of a kick me up or is that a pick me up? Also Charlie Tee (champion of D&B)  and of course the legend Pete Tong. There's a few more shout outs to go, but that will do for the time being. Wait, I must mention Arielle Free. Very important.

Here's Sarah's recently released quintessential house track . It starts as it ends with an invitational 4/4 beat to mix in as well as mix out the previous and next tracks. It's very sociable to put it mildly, and well-up for a party I feel. I hear more than a hint of banging tubular bells (and glockenspiel) action in the middle and that's a huge compliment. Sarah often plays music that hits me up, and when I track it down, it can sometimes be only a few days old as well as only a handful of plays.

There's an intimacy about enjoying music that is the opposite of famous (for now) and appreciating the person who shares it. I've learned a lot from Sarah and I'm looking forward to writing up some of the insights I've picked up from her and the rest of BBC1D team which is pretty much home for me these days and nights.

Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen is credited with writing the first plainchant music that excels in the acoustic environment of a purposefully designed church or cathedral. You may not know her but it's unlikely you haven't heard the liturgical style of music that invites a talented singer to check out the acoustics of old religious architecture on their first visit, such as this young lady who is hearing her voice for the first time, just like you and I were with her.

I was introduced to Hildegard by Lord Bragg conversing with Miri Rubin, William Flynn and Almut Suerbaum. I will drill down into the difference between scholars and academics later as they're all largely bought and sold as indeed am I and you - I will say that the official account for Hildegard has potholes. How would a fifteen year old, bricked in to a prison cell at a convent where the acoustics match that of Julian Assange's prison cell in Belmash, invent a genre and practise, experiment and enjoy her work that Cathedrals are designed for (among other qualities)?

Furthermore why would a 15 year old girl who devotes her life to God through abstention and isolation step out one day and ostensibly run the monastry as it were, before moving on to set up her own vision in Rupertsberg which most certainly is not Bingen.

Or let's put it another way. If a fanatical devotion to God through a life of mental flagellation and service changes such that one day the bricks are torn down as there's no door to exit, just a slot for passing food in and waste out. Why isn't that explained by anyone? Why would the elevator pitch for the story, the hook as it were, be left out?

I'll tell you why. It's because her story isn't one leveraged by just the forces of love, patience and protection, but one that demonstrates amply an early life hijacked by compression, suffering, prayer and abstinence.

Where is the good?

Might it be true?

Is beauty indistinguishable from the eye of the beholder?

Cloistered away from prying eyes and whatever it takes to emancipate a 15 year old anchorite from their anchoress dungeon.

History is written by the prevailing forces In Our Time. This is a fact seemingly everyone knows when pressed for an answer, but only a handful will provide examples of.

Lord Bragg nails it when he asks where did she get the books from?

Melvyn doesn't just fight British womens corner he defends women full stop. He's your champion.

Prove me wrong.

Some churches have Cathedral like audio quality built into the internal architecture. In fact, many churches are designed with acoustics in mind to enhance the sound of choirs and plainchant. The acoustics of historical churches have been extensively studied. Orthodox churches in the old world typically have reverberation times around 1.5 seconds for a small village church, 2.5 seconds for a larger urban or monastic church, ranging up to 6 seconds for a cathedral-sized church². 

Acoustical Considerations in Orthodox Church Design. https://orthodoxartsjournal.org/acoustical-considerations-in-orthodox-church-design/

Reverberation and church acoustics | Musitechnic. https://www.musitechnic.com/en/reverberation-and-church-acoustics/

Acoustics for Community Halls and Places of Worship | SRS. https://www.soundreduction.co.uk/advice/soundproofing-your-property-type/acoustics-for-community-halls-and-places-of-worship/

Church Acoustics For Liturgical Participation - Resonics. https://resonics.co.uk/church-acoustics

Church Acoustics: Four Must-Know Basic Concepts. https://www.churchproduction.com/education/church-acoustics-four-must-know-basic-concepts/

Church Acoustics: 5 Biggest Challenges and How to Fix Them
https://www.greatchurchsound.com/blog/church-acoustics-5-biggest-challenges-and-how-to-fix-them.

I Feel Love

Tony Hadley had a chance to work with Giorgio Moroder - Here he is guesting on Radio 1. He's a legend. A proper one.

I'll be sharing a few variations of below from time to time.

The video producer does something exceptional. Most pop vids have a theme, very few (FOALS - Exit) are uniquely thematic in a way that keeps surprising till the very 'the' end. It covers a lot of histo-cultural ground with arguably the most relaxing disco number not just then, still now.

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (Moreno J Deeper Love Remix)

Lots of still images of Donna Summer in her prime. She was more than an attractive person; she had moments of stunning beauty. I noticed her strong but graceful posture and unmissably broad shoulders years and years ago, but I never mentioned it to anyone until now.

Donna Summer at some point in time or maybe over a period of time too, transcended physicality (improv), and her voice must surely be prima facie evidence of the word unforgettable? 

If Donna Summer asked me to cover for a broken NY date, I would have bitten off my chewed fingernails in a heartbeat and dropped everything; any time in the past, now, without hesitation, and of course if she accepted my invitation, that would apply to any theoretical time in the infinite future.

WOW, I just had my ass kicked by an unplanned Punk version of I Feel Love and it works terrifically while taking Donna & Giorgio in a direction that, as William Shepherd wrote for Wings in 1985 - "I didn't think, I never dreamed, that I would be around to see it all come true**

Try it. You don't have to love it as I do, but at least have an informed opinion. Venus Hum of Blue Man Group, is the kind of woman I''d like to meet, without knowing anything. Guys too but a woman so unique it is pleasurable to identify through their  energy though sometimes the absence of it can be just as instructive, but words are powerful (Spells), and it's hard to conceal this kind of life carved through rock. The male group are fixed but she's often around as I understand it. I took one look at their audience and saw immediately they're a bit spesh.

Three months ago the algo served up Donna Summer, live in Italy (I suspect) during the year of Lilibet Diana's Silver Jubilee (1977). I was too busy to update it here and thought I'd bookmarked it, but after Venus Hum's inspiration, I tracked it down.

I'm not a musician

I wish I was, though three times in my life I've been blessed to be with musicians, and each time because of the marijuana I've inhaled, the ability to join in with rudimentary instruments and conducting has overtaken me, and I've inexplicably had a moments of clarity, and the blessing of inexplicable comprehension exploding sweetly, but it's the ability to join in and understand where everyone else is at rhythmically and musiscally that never fades in memory including dementia.

The happiest occasion was in Chok-D Bar and restaurant I lived next door, and Alek the owner started unknown to me his circle of friends impromptu act, so I joined in and we were on fire, before we all came to an intuitive end. A nearby table started applauding us and all the patrons then joined in clapping, while my friends were looking at me wide eyed for participating in the ensemble and adding a Jazz drumming percussion to our improv band that I'd previously never knowingly worked for.

Three times a Titan has breathed 'Apollo' in my life.

• The Egg Cultural Centre in Beijing. 
• Chok-D Beach Sports Bar- จอมเทียน
• Blues Bar - สุขุมวิท 24, กรุงเทพฯ (Bangkok)

When I listened to Donna Summer sing this latest live rendition. I don't think more than a handful can today smash out the singing with a faithfulness to the studio recording. Tina Turner, Carol King, Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon (Martha's Vineyard a decade on from Donna in 1987) but the vocoder as killed all that, so again, listen first and make up your own mind.

GEN X

It's been ages since I heard a decent remix of I feel love but this latest one is a firework exploding in a small room to kick of the celebrations. I got it off Patrick Topping via Danny Howard of BBC Radio 1D.

I Leaned Back On My Radio

Even with the Medium and Long wave crackle pop and hiss, it's the warmest sound since the Mac Valve amplifiers went down in the fire at our gaff, next door to the Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok.

I lived there on the banks of the Chao Phraya river when the twin towers came down. LaterI learned the Mossad guys were downstairs with the Landlord who was having a dinner party.......... I interrupted, to alert a friend.

The images are from the online sales platform I bought it from, but the radio looks stunning after refurbishing so I'm thinking of tinkering with it.

Monobina - Unity 101.FM - Gold

I'm pretty sure you've never heard an Indian song as good, or a Bollywood production that exceeds this video.

"Gold is a historical sports drama inspired by India’s first Olympic gold medal. The film traces the “golden era” of Indian hockey through the journey of Tap Dance, a young assistant manager in 1936, who dreams of playing for an independent nation."

I caught it on the local ethnic and South Asian radio station Unity101.FM

Janet Beat - Pioneering Knob Twiddler

BBC Radio 3 is smashing it out of the park at the moment. They've opened up a lot more to music experimentation and not only is it the good stuff but their presenters are so articulate and able to pronounce difficult international names with an ease and fluency I've not heard elsewhere. That's attention to detail. 5pm onwards if you're in need of the kind of music that washes off the 2022 pressure building up dangerously around us as a global medical biometric security complex. More on that later when I post about my recent stay in Southampton General Hospital.

I was listening a couple of nights ago, and the presenter announced that I'd been listening to Janet Beat, one of the early electronic music pioneers. Huh, I thought. I know most of the pioneering names but not this one.

Turns out as the top comment below the video {Eliane Radrigue} on Youtube says:

Interesting to notice how a lot (if not most?) of the pioneers of ambient and electronic music from the 60s across to the early 80s were women..Eliane Radrigue, Laurie Spiegel, Pauline Oliveros, Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, Charlotte Bebe Barron etc...

Well I certainly didn't know that before so there's plenty of rich searches to explore her female contemporaries. It's also worth noting that one of the earliest synthesiser pioneers Wendy formerly Walter Carlos was also an early pioneer of sexual characteristics reassignment surgery.

Craig David & MNEK - Who You Are

I haven't paid much attention to Craig David till recently. He's a Southampton Lad so I do get to hear him on voicefm.co.uk where local talent obviously gets a bit more airplay and that's how I found out this wonderful song was his using Google Assistant to identify the track.

Not only is it a blinder, but it handles homosexuality or gender dysphoria with the kind of restraint that is classy, not obnoxiously shoved down our throats.

Craig comes across to me as a nice guy and when I think about the excessive hammering he got via Bo Selecta it felt overdone and agenda-driven to me. I wonder if he upset someone powerful? That's the usual media agenda when they slag someone off day in and day out like Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump.

Craigs voice in this track is as close to angelic I can think of. What a talent.

Not so sure about that MBE though. I'd rather have leprosy than an award of Empire and Royalty.

Another few years or even months and everyone will know.

It's The BBG (Big Bald Gammon), Not The BBC

Richie Allen is a terrific radio journalist. 

I don't always agree with him (who gives a fuck what the dumbed down media say, I research what I want to know), but last night after a few days of long hours, I finally got to bed about 3am and even at 4am I was cracked up in bed. 

When Richie wants to be funny, he can turn it on like a tap. It's just that usually he's quite serious and incisive.

Not this show though.

The sketch where two Chinese takeaways get talking to each other is off-the-charts funny, and there are few pleasures better than being too amused to sleep, irrespective of how tired we might be.

Is This The Voice Of Consumerism?

These Things Happen

I heard about this from my official UK ticker tape on twitter who keeps me up to date on things I no longer follow but should know enough about to be polite, such as the recent cricket win.

This clip is even way better than I imagined it from the twitterstream. It lurches from vulgarity to pious correction then ill suppressed laughter with an hilarity that is hard to appreciate for those that may not have ever included the slightly august BBC Today show over breakfast with politics. Awesomeness on a cunt.

Twitterfall

It's a bit good isn't it?

You can read (or listen) all about the Moral Maze program on Radio 4 over here. It was a good way to discover another real time application that surpassed the quality of the content being observed. Quite a few laughs and apparently a few of you were keeping an eye on the #moralmaze hashtag taking my Twitter follower account over 1200 although no doubt I'll say something and lose a few of those. It's all good.

Speechification

If you haven't been checking out Speechification yet, then you should. The soundclip that goes with their post about Tony Blair's official portrait is every reason why the site is shaping up as one of the most engaging podcast resources on the net. There's even a player embedded so you can listen up pronto. The chilling point about the painting above, according to the artist, is that it depends on the viewers politics how the poppy is perceived. As I said. Everything is contextual. I'm betting Lauren is going to love this one too.