Test Transmission Archive Reel 52

 

Its been quite a while since my last Test Transmission. You might notice that a lot of my previous Test Transmission mixes are no longer here. Have had to Archive them as I am only on the freebee mixcloud. This time round for your springtime audio delight we have
Spike Milligan - The Q5 Piano Tune
Diane and the Javlins - Who's the Girl
Arther Browns Kingdom Come - Time Captives
Yello - The Evening's Young
Quimper - Happy Borders
Yuri Morozov - Machine Dancing
Kid Moxie - No Island
ATV -  The Radio Story
Focus Group - The Elektrik Karousell
Gaslight Troubadours Ft fey Pink - Psychedelic Freakshow (Featuring Fey Pink)
BMH - Sea Pipes & Shanties
The Unthanks - The Scarecrow Knows
Sonic Youth - Providence
Frogman - Out in the fields yesterday
Bebe and Louis Barron - Main_Titles Overture
Sam Spence - Wie ein blitz
de-Sylva & Paddy Kingsland - Gollum
Terry Riley & John Cale - Church of Anthrax
Play School - Play on
Don't seem to have the time these days to do as many of these as I would like. So until the next one its a big old goodbye from me. All be good now.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 51 presents Kev Oyston/Soulless Party. A Chidhood

 

Welcome to Archive Reel 51, and this time round our guest mix is by the wonderful Kev Oyston of The Soulless Party. Mr Oyston's mix starts at about 24 mins in. Up to then you will just have to put up with me. So what have we both got for you this time??? We have Funkadelic, Andrew Oldham Orchestra, Kayla Painter, Vernon Elliott, Viv Albertine, Wilfred Pickles, Ken Barrie, Bryan Daly, Bernard Cribbins, Duncan Lamont, Johnny Morris, Denise Gagne and so much much more. Its been great fun doing all of these mixes but really not sure when the next Test Transmission will be? So until then keep safe and look after yourselves. And now after months of planning and tech probs (from my end) I am happy to present Test Transmission Archive Reel 51, Kev Oyston/Soulless Party. A Chidhood. Why not listen and follow along.

Oddness and Tinkerings from My Very Distant Past

A very very long time ago (Spring 1979 I think) my friend Craig Wilson who was very much into The Residents put it to me that we should do a cassette only release.

We would call ourselves The Marilyn Monroes. The music was to be very heavily influenced by The Residents Red Crayola Swell Maps and Vibing up the Senile Man era ATV. Craig would be Billy Artaud and I would be Pete Shoes. Now you might notice in the Fanzine interview we are now Pete Shoes, Landing Craft and Byrd??? There was never a 3rd person and as you can see the names got changed, if I remember rightly the changing of names was a brief but ongoing thing. The music for the cassette was to be recorded in my bedroom over the course of 2 evenings but in fact we did it over one evening, and like The Residents no one would ever know who The Marilyn Monroes really were. Of course as time went by we did tell people it was us. Strangely when we did the interview with the Fanzine it said we were practising in Petes Garage???? Never had a Garage it was my bedroom, perhaps we thought garage sounded better than bedroom...or maybe not. The Toy organ I used was a 1960s Sunrise Sunreed. With 25 coloured keys.

I lost my copy of the cassette many years ago. But a chance meeting one evening with Brian (who I had not seen for decades) from legendary bods Renaldo and The Loaf  proved to be very fruitful. Brian informed me that our release had inspired Renaldo and the Loaf to do a cassette release themselves. Brian also revealed that he still had a copy and would burn it to disc for me. So after many many years I finally got to see our mad old Cassette creation again.  I last saw Craig in 2007/08 (I think) He turned up round my house with some mutual friends. We chatted about old and daft times. Sadly Craig Passed away in 2018. Some more thoughts and words on all this here with Bob Fischer.

A Sunrise Sunreed organ. Mine disappeared many years ago.
Image taken from here

 

 

Here we are at Test Transmission 49 and this is the 1st Test Transmission featuring a Guest Mix. This time round it is from Mr Simon Heartfield. I have known Simon for decades. I have had the pleasure of working with him musically on many projects (Psylons, Seatman Separator and all sorts of other collaborations) always great company, a gentleman a scholer and probably is an acrobat. The 1st 21 minutes are my musical ramblings, from then on its Mr Heartfield. Until next time.....tata.
Tracklist
The Sound of Science - Everything’s made of Atoms
Billy Currie - Theremin
Large Plants - La Isla Bonita
PJ Harvey - The Crowded Cell
ToiToiToi - Never A Dull Moment
The Inigo Kilborn Group - A Tune For Lucy
Mike Sammes SIngers - Telephone Song
Mr Heartfield Guest Mix
PIKSEL - Walk In
THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION - Are You Hung Up?
SPACEMEN 3 - Just to See You Smile
BRIAN ENO - Late Evening to Jersey
FIELD LINES CARTOGRAPHER - Inside a Star
MOGWAI - Autorock (Live)
CLPPNG - Dream
HARA ALONSO - The Centre of the Sun is Empty
VANGELIS - Albedo 0.39
ROMEO RUCHA - Your Brain
THESE NEW PURITANS - Organ Eternal (Live)
HILDUR GUONADOTTIR - 12 Hours Before
LONELADY - Cries and Whispers
65 DAYS OF STATIC - d|| tl | | |
PERE UBU - Non-Alignment Pact
ASHER LEVITAS - Vapours
KARL O CONNOR & ANN MARGARET HOGAN - Temporary Thing

Test Transmission Archive Reel 48

After quite a long break, here is Archive Reel 48. Spring is here so I have a right old foot tapping collection to keep you going through the season. For your audio enjoyment we have Cate le Bon, Can, British Stereo Collective, Basil Kirchen, France Gall, Stavely Makepiece, Vince Guaraldi, Third Ear Band, Vic Mars, Billy Nomates, Unthanks, Pneumatic Tubes, Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals and loads more. Do I know when there will be another Archive Reel.....have not got a clue???? might be a few changes to all this soon. So until then TATA

Test Transmission Archive Reel 43

 

Its Feb so time for the 1st Test Transmission Archive Reel of 2021. This time round we have music from Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Sandra Kerr & John Faulkner, The Beutify Junkyards, Field Lines Cartographer, Wolfen, Brian Prothero, Wings, The Damned, Twelve Hour Foundation, Simon Heartfield, A Certain Ratio, The Precisions and Something from The Why Don't You. Loads of other Oddities and such lurking about in there as well. So sit back put your feet up (or maybe not...you just might want to have a dance) Until next time. Keep safe and please look after yourself.

test Transmission Archive Reel 40

Having had a bit more time available than I originally thought, here is Test Transmission Archive Reel 40. All sorts of nonsense and jollyness on this one. Something cheery to get your feet tapping and body jumping around. This time we have The Goodies, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, Hawkwind, CCS, Kenny Everet & Mike Vickers, Rah Band, Loose Capacitor, Bernard Cribbins, Renaldo and the Loaf, Monty Python, John Kongos, Cult Figures, Perrey and Kingsley and loads more + all sorts of oddness inbetween. Now its time for me to go back to working on the next Album. So until then...

Test Transmission Archive Reel 36

Spring is here, and so is another mix (not really Spring related) This time round for your listening delight we have: Sexton Ming, DJ Shadow, Concretism, Wire, David Essex, Dukes of the Stratosphear, Family, The Twelve Hour Foundation, Talk Talk, Ashtoreth and Grey Malkin, Andy Partridge, Yuri Morozov and so much more lurking in the wobbly old mix.
Got to spend the next few months getting the new album ready for early 2020,
So until the next one...TATA

Just a Bad Dream

In the summer of 2018 I was contacted by Cherry Red Records who were putting together a 60 track compilation of 1980s Garage/Postpunk/Trash. They were very keen to include a Psylons track from the Bite Back Records Cassette release Psylons is Golden.
It had been many many years since I had given my old band Psylons much thought. Occasionally things would turn up on YouTube and other places on line, but that was about it. In 2016 Gideon Coe played a Psylons Peel Session track (Gideon Coe has also consistently played Keith Seatman tracks. Thank you Mr Coe) and in 2014 a Psylons track was played on a John Peel 75th anniversary special.
I have over the years (on and off, def more on than off now) stayed in touch with the rest of the band. So after a catch up and band meeting (not had one of them for decades) we agreed to let Cherry Red use the requested track Waiting Nation. Jack Packer (Psylons Guitar) re-mastered the track as we only had a cassette copy of it and Warren Grech (Psylons Bass) did the write up for the CD booklet. Unfortunatly Carl Edwards (Drums) was very ill and could not meet up with us. So we agreed that we would email, text all relevent info to Carl to keep him in the loop and part of the whole project. Carl would regulery reply to my emails outlining what was going on and giving us the thumbs up to go ahead with it.  Just A Bad Dream is a massive and impressive collection. Naturally Billy Childish features heavily on this collection (Thee Mighty Ceasars, The Milkshakes, The Headcoats) but there are also so many others: Naz Nomad, The Playn Jayn, The Wolfhounds, Biff Bang Pow, Jesus and The Mary Chain, The Prisoners, Prime Movers, Sexton Ming and loads and loads more. The music site Louder than War said this about the collection
A must-have compilation for all lovers of that stripped back primitive sound.On this new compilation, Cherry Red have taken a snapshot of the bands that maintained the garage-trash sound throughout the 80s in the UK.

Sadly by the time this collection was released our dear friend and Drummer Carl Edwards had passed away. I am 100% certain that he would have loved the finished product.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 35

Here is the 1st Test Transmission Archive Reel of 2019 (hopefully not the last) To get things going this time round we have music from Boards of Canada, Paddy Kingsland, Aquarian Age, Cate le Bon, Pye Corner Audio, Sun Ra, Seatman and Powell (Featuring Belbury Poly) Sproatly Smith, Soundhog, Talk Talk, Andy Quin and loads more.

So if you fancy a listen, bimble over to mixcloud. I am going to be busy working on the new album and a track for A Year in the Country. So until we all meet again feet up, heads down and until the spring goodbye.

Nothing Like a Good Old Compilation

Don't we all love a good compilation album????? I know I do. But the trouble with compilations is that there always seemed to be filler tracks. You know the ones I am on about………the tracks that are out of place on the album, the tracks by bands that you have never heard of, or that are conveniently signed to the record label that released the compilation in the first place. When a young teen in the late 70s early 80s I had a number of compilations, some good, some pretty poor.

I have decided to introduce to you (some of you will not need any introduction to these I am sure) five of the Punk/Post Punk/New Wave comps that graced my Fidelity UA10

1st up is the mighty 20 of Another Kind. As comps go this was not that bad. It had The Skids, The Cure, The Adverts, Stranglers. The Jam, Heartbreakers, Patrick Fitzgerald and Otway and Barrett. A lot of Polydor artists on here, but then it was a Polydor release.
Not bad for parties at all. Sadly my copy did disappear at a party and was never seen again. I did not lose any sleep over this loss.

Next up has to be New Wave. This again is not a bad collection, which does feature a lot of American Punk/New Wave. Released on Vertigo records and featuring the likes of The Damned, New York Dolls, Runaways, Richard Hell, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Patti Smith and even The Boomtown Rats. You could be fooled into thinking this is a full to the brim compilation, sadly its not. There are a few odd fillers on this like The Skyhooks?????(Australian Theatrical Rock) and Little Bob Story???????? and for good measure The Flamin Groovies (not bad but def filler) I do still have a copy of this one. In Julian Cope's book Head-on Mr Cope points out that his one time manager Cally helped to put this one together.
"Cally infiltrated Vertigo as a temporary 'punk' consultant and set about suggesting a bunch of terrible groups who had nothing to do with punk. The lowest that he sunk was to include a bunch of Australian painted art-funk no-marks called The Skyhooks. Then he had grown a moustache especially for the LP sleeve and had a mate gob into the camera lens for the ultra Sun/Mirror clichéd Rentapunk"

(From Julian Cope Head-on)

 
Punk Collection (RCA Records) was another quite decent album which contained some interesting tracks (Heartbreakers - Born to Lose, Iggy Pop - Funtime even the 1st Police single Fall Out. Yet again we find Flamin Groovies Shake Some Action and Somebody called Richard Moore??? with a track Called Roll it Up????????? Patti Smith's Piss Factory gets licensed again and appears on this one.

Time for the Ronco 1980 Birthday/Xmas present from your parents or Grand parents…..its the as seen on TV…….20 New Wave Hits Album Street Level. To be honest by the time this cash in album came along I would have thought most people would have had all of these tracks on single or other compilation albums, or given up on it completly. Some odd and interesting tracks on here: Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant, Stranglers Peaches, Magazine Sweetheart Contract, Skids Circus Games, Ian Dury Reasons to be Cheerful, John Foxx Underpass, Gary Numan We are Glass, Plasmatics Butcher Baby and loads more which I can't be bothered to list. The throw away chucked in out of place track has to be  A Walk in the Park by The Nick Straker Band. Have no idea of the logic or thought process that managed to get this on there.
As Compilations go the best from these late 70s albums has to be
Cherry Red's mighty Business Unusual The Other Record Collection.
Side One of this album is pretty much straight forward Punk/New Wave, but Its Side Two of this album that makes it so damn good. The Tights - China's Eternal, Thomas Leer - Private Plane, Robert Rental ACC, Throbbing Gristle - United and Caberet Voltaire - Mussolini Headkick. I do still have this album and play it quite a lot. I remember turning up at a party with this and a copy of The Human Leagues Dignity of Labour.....It was decided by certain factions at the party that I really should not play side two of this album or The Human League. I did not agree, but was out voted.

Archive Reel 32 (1st one this year)

After a bit of a break have finally got round to another mix (the 1st this year) all sorts of oddities for your listening pleasure. We have music from Johnny Cash, Daniel Johnston, Wall of Voodoo, Dorothy Ashby, Nancy & Lee, Kimya Dawson, Woody Guthrie, Suzanne Ciani, The Cramps, Lee Renaldo, Bruce Haack and loads more.
So until the next time...........Hope you enjoy. Another mix will be with you later in the year.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 4

At long last Archive Reel 4 is ready. This time round we have music from Andew Loog Oldham, Renaldo and the Loaf, Ken Woodman and his Piccadilly Brass, Moondog, Simon Heartfield, Pye Corner Audio and much much more.

Friday at 10pm. The Garden of Earthly Delights

Test Transmission Archive Reel 2 will be aired on The Garden of Earthly Delights

this Friday at 10pm.

Keith Seatman's August 2010 session for the Garden of Earthly Delights can now 

be heard here.