I planned to play an hour of music live on YouTube tonight. Instead I recorded twenty minutes of music not-live on a GoPro and uploaded it to YouTube later. I didn't sing, but I did try to play the trumpet! Listen to Horn Drift if you please.

Tone Ranger – Confluence Tone Ranger (Alex Simon) is an artist from Santa Fe, NM who’s current with a new album, Confluence. My sister lived for years in Taos, and this record does really crystalize many of my experiences out there. As Simon’s pseudonym reflects, it’s absolutely still the Wild West. And it’s not just the landscape; it’s impressively thin in terms of population density, and the stark divide between wealth and poverty reminds me of old Westerns where everyone in town is suffering…

Music From Memory’s latest archival release rescues a short-lived collaboration between Rudy Tambala, of A.R.Kane, and Alison Shaw, of Cranes. Assuming the alias, Inrain, the pair, in 1991, produced a solitary 3-track 7 for Rough Trade. The songs were created in Tambala’s H.Ark! Studios, in Stratford, situated in London’s then un-gentrified, less than salubrious, East End.* Tambala, at the time, was also working with the pioneering UK post-rockers Bark Psychosis and Papa Sprain, and Inrain’s…

# ADHD Me: must work on // finish off the new track. Brain: oooh, let's make glitchy drum sounds with the Syncussion.

--

(Poster image crop from original by "Malta Girl" used under CC 2.0 license) This week's track is "The Tree". I don't have a lot of time for writing, unfortunately, so no short story this week, but I wanted to explain how I got to the piece I ended up doing (and the "story" of it). The prompt was "Trees," but I heard the 'Enchanted Garden' sample loop in Logic —- this is the arpeggiated bit you hear underneath the whole thing —- and my mind went to an image that's popular in Japanese pop culture…

Band shirt Friday

Listening to Forevernevermore by Moodymann and my funk, motown, groove playlist. Good morning, good afternoon (good evening, and goodnight). I'm writing from my bed, but contrary to previous entries, I haven't just woken up. I had an exam earlier today which wrested me out of my sanctuary. Got it done, had a little breakfast, made some coffee, and now I'm back to ground zero. It's 1:10pm, and it's a cloudy day. I'm watching the trees just barely start to bud outside my window. I'll only have…

Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: April 2026The time! Where does it go??? Who knows. But what I do know is that it’s the third Sunday in April — and that means there’s a brand-new edition of Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard hitting the dublab airwaves tonight at 4pm PST. I’m playing a semi-theme-less mix of favorites old and new, and Chad is hitting you with some tasty dream pop and art rock. Tune in, tune in wherever you are! It’s good for you.

[1962]One of these tunes you can't believe was hidden away on a b-side to an inferior track on the A side. What a blast. The entire production is an exercise in attempting restraint of the unhinged, incredibly unique unique. Dion was such a great rock'n'roll singer and then there's that creepy sax that then becomes the mental sax and what going on with the deranged blokes doing the backing vocals. Cult classic baby!

Just have such strong nostalgia for this song. Still slaps. Close second from MC Chris. Curious, this record isn’t streaming anywhere, and he just makes the album available as downloadable MP3’s in a Google Drive.

It’s a fairly quiet week for my latest chart, as The Neighbourhood remain on top with their charming “Hula Girl” and there are no new entries (though 16 “new” songs entered my chart over the previous five weeks). MISSIO move into second place with their exhilarating “I Remember When”, Twenty One Pilots‘ “Drag Path” jumps four spots to #6 and “The Old Law” by Father John Misty moves up a spot to enter the top 10 at #10. The song is the highest-charting for him, as well as his first to appear on…

After picking up an original 1977 pressing of The Strangler's debut album Rattus Norvegicus from my local record shop, it got me thinking why I always try and seek out the original rather than a reissue. Whilst it's true that reissues can sometimes be a better pressing, I think it comes down to having the object that first appeared at that moment in time, and how — like the idea of a stub in Gibson's The Peripheral — culture then splintered onto a different path because of this punctuated…

For most people, regular cheapie consumer grade headphones are more than adequate. I used them for years. But I also make and mix music, and the quality of headphones influences the technical quality of the mix. Therefore, I'm familiar with boutique and high-end professional grade cans (over the ear headphones to most people). I've been happily using Beyerdynamic DT 250 cans for more than a decade. Long-used in studio settings, Beyerdynamics are solid and dependable. My 250s have a mostly flat…

There are 34 Michael Jackson hits featured in this medley of his hits by the King's Return a capella group of singers. So, the chances are that your favorite Michael Jackson songs are in here somewhere! It starts off gently with Human Nature, and transitions from there into so many different Michael Jackson hits that you might have difficulty keeping up with them all as they speed by. The transitions are pretty amazing – and I would not like to imagine how long it must have taken to first of…

Four weeks at number one from 25th April 1987Prior to the release of “Sheila Take A Bow”, it might have felt as if The Smiths were treading the backwards path, understanding their initial appeal and returning to their original ideas. Craig Gannon was out of the group, and previous single “Shoplifters of the World Unite” was (instrumentally speaking) chock-full of Smiths tropes, all bowed together into a fresh new song. And for “Sheila”, Sandie Shaw was invited back into the studio to do vocals.…

A bit late on this. Things are a bit busy in these parts at the moment. Here’s a round up of what I got up to during February and March. Disquiet Junto Over the course of March I found myself getting back into the swing of participating in Disquiet Junto assignments on a consistent basis. It’s been really nice to reacquaint with the assignments and the community after what has been a bit of a break over the summer. As has always been the case, participating in the Junto also provides some…

Daily writing promptJot down the first thing that comes to your mind.View all responses I’ve got an earworm this morning and it’s been unbudged. It’s the song ‘Neeye unakku endrum’ from the 1962 Tamil film Bale Pandiya. The film is highly okay, at best, notwithstanding many of the social norms of that time no longer being acceptable (to me at least), but this song in particular is quite good. Of course the music video isn’t, with both Sivaji Ganesan (as usual) and M.R. Radha trying too hard.…

Back in the 1980s, I was (among other things) a writer and singer of satirical folk songs. Going to the National Folk Festival in Canberra at Easter, I caught up with old friends and was reminded that I had produced a book of my songs. Returning home, I dug out a copy, and decided to scan it. You can download the result here (big file) A lot of the songs were topical and are now very dated. But the theme of the title song is one that, sadly, never gets old (true also of the Irish original) Here…

If you're in an appropriate timezone, Nine Inch Noize are on stage RIGHT NOW.

As part of his ongoing Late Bush project, Belgian composer Pierre Dozin recently released this dazzling piece as the second single from his upcoming album Hoarses. The album is based on the idea that baroque music no longer exists—at least not as actual sound—because the experience of hearing it is pure historical relic. Any performance of the music is only a reconstruction, an attempt to envision the music’s form based on historical documentation alone, since all that’s left with us is its…

Boots On The Ground is a collaboration between Massive Attack and Tom Waits. Announced on April 16th, this is Massive Attack’s first release since the 2024’s Medicines San Frontieres fund-raising single Ceasefire, and Waits’ first new recording since 2011’s Bad For Me. The 76-year old Waits raising himself out of what appeared to be retirement. Illustrating, without a doubt, how strongly he feels about the song’s subject matter. A clanking music concrete collage, the track echoes the anger of…

It was today in 1938 that Action Comics no. 1 (June 1938) hit newsstands. Of course, it marked the debut of Superman. While Superman was not the first superhero, he proved to be a phenomenon and as a result cemented the superhero genre. Not long after Superman's debut, there would be many more superheroes to follow. Some, like Batman and Captain Marvel are still significant today. As might be expected, Superman would inspire several songs. Here are a few of them.Here is "Superman" by Dale…

Happy Sunday, hope you’re having a good one. I thought we’d start with something lighter this morning with a list I’ve been thinking about for a while, and one of critical importance (cough). Top five Bergerac. Clara and I have been borrowing the DVDs from our local libraries, and may currently be obsessed. George Fenton’s funky reggae and French accordion tune is perfection. Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was science fiction, but optimistic! Screw cyberpunk, inject this right into my ears.…

This is an RSS-only post. Two records I wanted, two that found me. One of them is a children's orchestral album. No regrets. View Post

I initially misheard the lines as "I'm a hot retard!" "Marquis de Sade!"Like an iD fashion spread turned to music Only in the UK could such flimsy nonsense prosper and become Successful PopBut Haysi Fantayzee had two fun hit singles - this one and "John Wayne Is Big Leggy" (is that a penile innuendo?)And there's something about the brazen McLaren-copyism that is likeable. Fake-folk. Nostalgy de boo. Hip-to-be-square-dancing. The lisping feebleness of Kate Garner's voice is sort of endearingThey…

I want to continue to build systems so that I always have multiple options to make an enormous amount of music. Then select the top 15 to 20% for release, because I know I’m at least skilled enough to be good 1/5 of the time. So If I can make the time to sit down with one of these systems daily, I will then have a huge catalogue of music, which is the ultimate goal. I say all this because figuring out what you want is important. There are so many reasons to make music, but for me, I really…