I reviewed Daphni's new album Butterfly for Buzz magazine the other day; it even made it into the print edition on page 28. (I did give it four stars, maybe the full review online reads more like a three?).
Hang is my pick from the album, and it also appears on Daphni's recent Essential Mix, which is up for the next month or so on BBC Sounds.
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Hi, how are you?
One day, I'll get around to buying Green. Yoshimura's 1986 album was mentioned in one of the later chapters in Everything We Do is Music: How 20th-Century Classical Music Shaped Pop by Elizabeth Alker, which I finished off the other day. Good read like.
Is this a bit too Pete Tong Ibiza Classics? It's right on the line.
I rarely adore a remix as much as I do the original, but here we are. Georgous orchestral start before it starts jacking, incredible stuff.
Another one from Acker's book - the chapter focussed on Pauline Oliveros - from the DJ now known as The Blessed Madonna.
No nonsense, heads down techno from Glasgow from 2001.
As flagged on the No Tags pod's best of 2025 episode (and a subsequent Dan Hancox post) there is something interesting going on here, definitely hearing Clams Casino in there on the production.
Look, I'm just as suprised as you are, but this really gets under the skin.
I could watch those Baltimore line dancing videos for hours. The comments section is also a joy.
2008 was a long long long time ago.
Original image: Rosa Bonheur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
I've been enjoying Four Kings on Channel 4, a "documentary series exploring the careers of great Black British boxers Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn, featuring interviews with the men themselves."
Figured it would be good to roll out again that video of Benn entering the ring to We Are I.E. by Lennie De Ice, but it's got a copyright strike.
So, as identified by UK Rave Comments as the fight at which it happened, here's the full highlights of Benn's fight with Danny Perez from 1995, with the breakbeat hardcore banger kicking in at around 3 minutes. What a time.
Finger on the pulse, Sammo, here are the top 12 tracks I heard in 2025. Not stuff that came out in 2025, but stuff that I heard for the first time in 2025.
In no particular order...
Brava & Teki Latex on Rinse France - 30 October 2025.
Special shout-out to the Jam City XLR8R mix from 2011 that I found on an old pen drive too.
The Futureheads at SWX, Bristol - February 2025.
Maybe the Polygon Window re-issue? Or the Metronomy greatest hits? Yeah, I didn't really listen to or buy many new albums over 2025.
Actually, I did get OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES, definitely listened to that more than anything else in 2025, so SOPHIE gets it.
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This'll be the last 9 in 1 in 2025, I reckon. Better pack it with cutting-edge tracks and not a load of sad bangers from the 1980s... who am I kidding!
John Martyn is one of those artists that I've heard lots of interesting things about, no more so than this recounting of a festival dedicated to his music in The Fence. Yet I've never got around to listening to some.
Well, readers, that changed recently, with this beautiful, dreamy song from 1981.
Give it a minute, and it'll swallow you.
Similar era and feel, but very different tone now. This is a homage to David Gower, the stylish left-handed batsman who was in his pomp in 1984 when this came out, and not that delightful peninsula to the west of Swansea.
Ah, yes, the track that I always think is PSB or New Order and never 'Electronic'. Dipped into the 90s with this one, don't worry, normal service will resume shortly.
From an album called 'Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat' from 1982, it's like if Black Devil Disco Club hailed from Pune rather than Paris. Heady chug from before chug was a thing.
Still not leaving the 80s. I swear I've posted this before, I've got a 'Womack + Womack' tag, but it's empty?? Also, 116m views on YouTube for Teardrops; you simply can't argue with numbers like that.
Fine, we'll go to the 21st century. 2003 is the best I can do. Somehow never posted about Kelis before, that's mad.
I've got Everything We Do is Music: How 20th-Century Classical Music Shaped Pop by Elizabeth Alker out of Llantwit Major Library ATM, and the chapter on Moog talks about this funk banger, so here it is, just like that.
It is what it is, and it was what it was.
And look at that, we're in the 2020s. Be good to finish on something from this year, right?
Oh shit, waddup! Top video this. Is this Unc Rap? TBH, I only really know Grindin' by Clipse, but this measured flow sounds so much better than your mumblers... and *poof* we all become Uncs.
Original image: Musée Saint-Raymond, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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