Episode 73 - 4AD (historic roster)

4AD created a look and a style in the 80s and have been championing some wonderful alternative bands ever since. Here’s a selection. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

Episode 72 - 50 Years of Brian Eno

At the epicentre of musical relevance for most of the last half century, Brian Eno’s linkedin profile might read: genre inventor / solo projects / producer / collaborator / cool kid. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

Brian Eno has been inventing, making, producing and collaborating on half a century of boundary-expanding music. Let's celebrate him.

Episode 71 - Deadpan

How to sum up that distinctive detached, dark, disaffected strand of music? Deadpan. (And the pod starts with Dry Cleaning - there’s another D.) For a full tracklist, please divert here.

A brisk walk through a dark, deadpan, detached setlist. A lot more fun than it sounds. To add one more D, starts with Dry Cleaning.

Episode 70 - The Long Influence of New Order's First Year

1981 was the year New Order began. Though they felt directionless, pre-Blue Monday their music was arguably richer in experiment and imagination. Influential too, as you’ll see. For a full tracklist please divert here.

In their first year (1980-81), before they'd identified their trademark sound, New Order still managed to influence vast numbers of bands with their musical experimentation. This is an episode about that.

Episode 69 - Ireland (in honour of St Patrick's Day)

Pour yourself a pint of Guinness and enjoy the best of Irish music from the last 50 years. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

A tour through the byways of Irish alternative music over the last half century. From Stiff Little Fingers to Girl Band via Ash and Whipping Boy; The Pogues to Newdad via Stump - and all points in between.

Episode 68 - Wales (celebrating St David's Day)

Diwrnod hapus St David’s! And to celebrate the Welsh contribution to contemporary music, listen in to some classic alt Welsh tracks on our St David’s Day special. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

From John Cale to the Manics, Anhrefn via the Darling Buds, Colossal Youth through Gorky's to Derrero and Steveless, a celebration of Welsh music.

Episode 67 - "This is the Real Indie" - The Millennial NY Scene

You simply can’t get more authentically indie than the group of bands that coalesced in New York/Long Island around the turn of the century. The Strokes? No - way cooler. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

If you're looking for the real indie, here's the NY/Long Island scene that flourished at the turn of the century. Real authentic, real indie, real cool.

Episode 66 - Remembering The Fall 3 years on

3 years already! It’s never too soon with the musical retrospectives when it comes to The Fall. So here it is. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

Three years ago this week we lost Mark E Smith. Here's a tribute to the music of the man and the music of his group, The Fall.

Episode 65 - Proto-punk

The garage band garageland sounds that flourished round the world between the mid 60s and the mid 70s. Punk before it was punk. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

Punk before punk - how punk is that. AKA garage rock or, as this episode's title has it, proto-punk.

Episode 64 - Women to Watch 2021

The start of a new year and a chance to listen in to which women we should be watching in the months ahead. For a full tracklist, please divert here.

A chance to hear some of the new female artists destined to make waves on the 2021 alternative music scene.