Saw Flat Eric in a camper van window on the way to The Swan last night. Oddly enough, it wasn't the first time I saw him that day. I also came across him on the cover of a Mr Oizo album in the sale section of the new Tangled Parrot in Swansea.
I didn't pick that album up, though; instead, I purchased from said sale section:
XL Recordings - The Second Chapter (Hardcore European Dance Music) [£7]
Kode9 & The Spaceape - Memories of the Future [£5]
Joker - The Vision [£2.50]
So, to make up for that, here's the classic Mr Oizo banger, Flat Beat...
How'd you like that heatwave last week? WE USED TO CALL IT A SUMMAAAH!!
Grim. It was grim. But it ended beautifully. I drove to Falmouth, Cornwall late on the Thursday, directly towards the lightning that broke the wave, heading down for a funeral. I was hurtling over Bodmin Moor with horizontal bolts in the sky, on full SD card shuffle, and this came on...
Trust me, it was 'king Lynchian mate, with the ambient drama of SOPHIE's Infatuation (The Trenches) and all that electricity, darkness, and death. It was something, brother.
Original image: Caldwbr, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
As mentioned in the last section of the No Tags 2 book, on a piece about music, separation, and incarceration. V. surprised to learn only now about National Prison Radio in that piece. It launched in 2009, a few years earlier, and I'd have been all over it at uni. Shows how much things drop away, I suppose.
Another one from Flo Dill's breakfast show on NTS, I think this was on Ultimate DJ as a joke song or something, but I dig it. Oldball crunchy new wave from late 80s Belgium.
Ashamed to say I think the algo chucked this one up on Instagram for me. But it got me. More scratchy electronic new wave, this time from early-80s Australia.
Finger on the pulse as ever, here's a great little video that was featured in a buzzy blog about Corduroy Psychedelia and Boards of Canada in March, which I picked up on after it was mentioned last month on No Tags 68.
Geometry of Circles is a cool AF animation made for Sesame Street in 1979 with a bespoke Philip Glass soundtrack. We used to have it so good.
I left Do You Radio on as it went into the repeats for a change the other day. Had my head in Markdown, trying to fix a table that shouldn't be a table. A tale as old as time.
Tape 05 is the first music from Boards of Canada in 13 years. So, if everyone could hold off bombing each other to oblivion until the album drops, that would be fab.
PS hi how are you? Sorry for the lack of posting, a mix of sickness, holidays and general existential dread means I've not felt like posting. But hey, couldn't miss this news.
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.
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...
John Martyn - Please Fall in Love with Me [1981]
Van Morrison - Dweller on the Threshold [1982]
Il Quadro di Troisi - Non Ricordi [2020]
Joshua Idehen - Mum Does The Washing [2024]
LCD Soundsystem - Home (Tom Sharkett Edit) [2025]
Capone - Music Love Song [1979]
Robyn - Dopamine [2025]
SOPHIE - Is It Cold in the Water? [2018]
SOPHIE - Immaterial [2018]
Snooper - Pom Pom [2025]
Earl Sweatshirt - 2010 [2021]
Clipse - P.O.V. feat. Tyler, The Creator [2025] (this is also my music video of the year)
A Llantwit Major-based music blog for things post-punk, electronic and a little bit left of centre, with second-hand cultural musings, third-rate sociological stabbings and very rarely the odd mp3.
I also write the odd album review for Buzz Magazine and used to present Amser Electroneg on Bro Radio.
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