Category: Melodic Randomiser

Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day thirteen.

13 – Unlucky for some, but lucky for you, because you’ve come to the right place at the right time for another edition of the Isolation Radio show!

Yes, once more I’m coming to you live, in every timezone on the planet at the exact same time, and at every time on the planet at the exact same time, all at once, all at the exact time you read this.

And now.

And now.

And now, too.

Isn’t technology wonderful?

Anyway, the Melodic Randomiser is burbling gently away at my side, cooling fans working hard in the afternoon sunshine, so let’s see what pops out of its aural interface first…

Well what do you know, it’s one of the many Twin Peaks related tracks in my collection, the dreamy “Audrey’s Dance” by Angelo Badalamenti, from the Twin Peaks Season One Original Soundtrack album

You might not be able to get to the beach to enjoy the beautiful weather at the moment, but you can close your eyes and listen to the sunny sound of Beth Orton blowing away the grey skies with “How far” from her 1996 Trailer Park album.

And if that doesn’t float your musical boat, how about some Anglo/Spanish indie dance folktronica, with the always joyful and upbeat Crystal Fighters and a song from 2010’s wonderful Star of Love album, here’s “At Home”.

Go on, tell me that didn’t put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. But on the off chance that you’re still not satisfied, we’ll do it all again tomorrow, so don’t touch that dial.

In the meantime be good to each other and be grateful for what you have, because remember; When it comes to life, you can’t have everything. I mean, where would you put it?

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day twelve.

Another thankfully hot and sunny day in the Melodic Randomiser garden studios, from whence a triple track treat of tremendously tempting tempos and rambunctiously writhing rhythms is coming to you, courtesy of the Isolation Radio show.

Getting the ball rolling is an apt tune (from an album with a…possibly inspirational title) by veteran, perma-angry punk rockers, Green Day.

So do a spot of channel hopping and come back here after you tune in to “Troubled Times”, from 2016’s Revolution Radio.

Welcome back. You’re just in time to inch cautiously along a totally different branch of the American musical family tree, with a slow bluesy number from Texan beard enthusiasts, ZZ Top. We’re going all the way back to 1973 and their Tres Hombres album for “Have You Heard?”

After which we have to slide down a rope and swing perilously across to the opposite side of the tree altogether, for the syncopated, jazzy drum and bass electronica of Photek and the laid-back “Pyramid”, from his 2012 release, KU:PALM.

A nice selection to break the monotony of quarantine, I hope you’ll agree.

And if you don’t, well never fear, I’ll be back again tomorrow to enthuse about more auditory objects of desire and maybe you’ll find something to tickle your fancy there instead.

Whatever your musical tastes, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing; stay safe, be sensible, be kind to each other and, as the leather-faced, grumpy granddaddy of country rock wisely once said, “Keep on rocking in the free world”

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day eleven.

Today the Melodic Randomiser spewed out a track from 1974 called 1984, one from 1984 about leaving home and one from 2012 (rather spoiling the pattern) about coming home.

The first cut is the deepest, so they say, and that might just be the case on today’s Isolation Radio show…

…given that the first cut is David Bowie‘s dystopian reimagining of George Orwell‘s “1984”, from the fantastic Diamond Dogs album.

Then we have the reliably bonkers Art of Noise and a track which samples The Andrews Sisters‘ WWII classic, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, this is “The Army Now”.*

And we finish up today with a song from the original soundtrack album of one of the best TV dramas about music I think I’ve seen, Treme.

This sprawling series by The Wire creator, David Simon, follows life in the titular area of New Orleans which was so badly devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It brilliantly chronicles the neglect felt by inhabitants and how they felt let down by the Bush administration, mirrored by the deep love of jazz and it’s long traditions in the community. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it for your quarantine watch list.

So to play us out, here’s Steve Zahn‘s character, DJ DAVIS and the Brassy Knoll, with “The Road Home”

That concludes today’s festivities, but rest assured I shall return tomorrow for more electronic entertainment from the ether.

Peace

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{*If you wish to hear my very own megamix tribute to The Art of Noise, combined with a bit of New Order, you can listen or download from HERE for free}

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day ten.

Ten days in and still going strong on the Isolation Radio show, brought to you by the unforeseeable audio delights of the Melodic Randomiser, beginning with a band named after a breed that’s currently getting rarer by the day…

… Men at Work; probably best known for their (legally contentious) worldwide 1982 hit, “Down Under”, although my music player has shuffled up another track from the same, still excellent Business as Usual album; “Underground”

Aussie new wave pop is followed closely by UK dance/rap, in the guise of Example, or Elliot John Gleave to his mum, with a song from The Evolution of Man, here’s “Snakeskin”

Then it’s back in the time machine, heading back to 1979 and the Life in a Day album by Simple Minds, from which we have this blast from the past, “Destiny”

That should give you at least one reason to groove around your living room, if not a whole trifecta of tunes to which you can trip the light fantastic and dance away those isolation blues.

See you tomorrow for more deliciously diverse diversions from reality. Until then, stay safe my hoopy froods and remember; Don’t Panic, you’ll be fine if you always know where your towel is.

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day nine.

Hi there, how’s everyone doing out there in seclusion land? Another day, another unplanned selection from the Melodic Randomiser is coming your way on the Friday drive-time (not that anyone’s driving anywhere) Isolation Radio show.

Our first electronically selected delicacy is a song from the other end of the career of a band whose later work I’ve already featured, Sparks. This, from their 1974 breakthrough album, Kimono my House and is a track called “Falling in Love With Myself Again”

Fast forward to 2015 and an extremely short and sweet little ditty from the album Strangers to Ourselves by Portland’s Modest Mouse, here is “God is an Indian and You’re an Asshole”

And finally, a complete change of pace, with some thudding electro from Simian Mobile Disco and a track called “Wooden”, from the album Attack Decay Sustain Release.

Back again in the next 24 hours to provide some more eclecticism for your weekend listening pleasure.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do and if you do, do it indoors.

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day eight.

Week two of the Isolation Radio show finds us firing up the Melodic Randomiser just in time for it to spit out a track from quirky pop veterans, Sparks‘ 2017 album, Hippopotamus.

Never a band who bowed to fashion or musical trends, the Mael brothers have continued to write arch, slightly camp, knowingly clever songs for half a century and show no signs of stopping yet. This is a fine example of their recent oeuvre, singing the praises of “Scandinavian Design”

Speaking of clever lyricists, the next shuffled artiste on the apocalypse jukebox is no exception.
Kate Tempest has crammed a lot into her 34 years on the planet; she’s an award winning spoken word performer, poet, musician, novelist and playwright and here’s something from her Mercury Prize nominated Let Them Eat Chaos album from 2016, “Lionmouth Door Knocker”

Closing today’s show is an artist you may not have heard of before, but may still have heard music by, because IAMX is the multimedia brainchild of ex-Sneaker Pimps founder, Chris Corner. This track from the 2016 Everything is Burning album is remixed by Gary Numan and is called “Happiness”

I hope you found something to tickle the audio receptors in amongst that lot, I’ll be back for another batch to accompany your Friday.

Until then, keep on keeping indoors and try to be nice to one another, we’re all we’ve got.

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day seven.

Looks like we’re all still here, so let’s fire up the Melodic Randomiser and see what today’s Isolation Radio show has to offer.

First up, an enormously talented musician, singer, actor and filmmaker, of Armenian descent, from Devon; (via America) Cosmo Jarvis, or Harrison Cosmo Krikoryan Jarvis to give him his full name, and a song from 2012’s Think Bigger album, “Train Downtown”.

Second on our seventh playlist is a track from the eponymous debut by androgynous indie rock stalwarts, Placebo, here is the characteristically angtsy “Come Home”.

And for number three, by complete coincidence, my makeshift jukebox has provided us with some more amusing musical narrative from Cosmo Jarvis, this time from the interestingly titled Humasyouhitch/Sonofabitch. So sit back and enjoy the romantic tale of Cosmo and Melanie, with “Mel’s Song”

I hope this small collection of spontaneous vibes goes some way to cheer your day, and I’ll see you again when I’m next back this way.

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day six.

Welcome back to the Isolation Radio show, after those important messages from our sponsors, War, Pestilence, Famine and Death; broadcasting live on the Melodic Randomiser network from a secret quarantine unit in the sunny but eerily silent South West of England.

Time to bring you three more batches of boredom-busting beats, via the unpredictable shuffle function of my Poweramp music player.
Let’s spin the wheel and get this world party started.

Round and round and round she goes, where she stops nobody knows, until…

…it comes to rest on “The Feeling” by Ellie Jackson, aka the driving force of La Roux, from their second album, Trouble in Paradise.

After which, things get a little noisier, with this clattering, riffing, runaway train of a song by the (now sadly semi-late and therefore defunct) Japanese duo, Boom Boom Satellites, here’s “Pill”

And to with continue the theme of abrasive electronica for our final tune today, here is one of the godfathers of the UK synth music scene, John Foxx, teaming up with Louis Gordon on the Impossible album to bring you “Dislocation”

I’ll be back tomorrow with another dose of antidote for apathy, reinvigorating your enthusiasm for life via the medium of music, but now I have four hungry horses to feed…

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day five.

Hello again, I hope the beginning of a new week in this surreal new existence finds you all healthy and relatively unaffected by the craziness of our collective situation.

But just in case the cabin fever is starting to bite and you’re in the mood for musical respite, the Melodic Randomiser is here to distract you from reality for a few harmonious moments. So sit back and take in today’s triumphant triumvirate of top tunage, courtesy of the Isolation radio show.

A good honest slab of rock ‘n’ roll to start you off with, from George Thorogood and the Destroyers‘ Anthology album, here’s a live recording of “Who Do You Love?”

Difficult to think of a way to get further away from that, stylistically speaking, other than by playing the next randomly selected song; everyone’s favourite pasty-faced, robotic electro-goth, Gary Numan and 1980’s “We Are Glass”, from a remastered edition of his third consecutive UK number one album, Telekon.

And for the last in today’s grab bag of audio excellence, we go even further back in time, to a 1974 record from a band led by Wakefield’s finest guitarist, Bill Nelson. His gratifyingly eclectic career is one I have followed with growing interest, ever since first hearing this band as a teenager; the continuously reinventing prog/glam/new wave experiment that was Be-bop Deluxe.

So lay back, close your eyes and experience the grandiose theatrical sweep of “Darkness (L’Immoraliste)”

That’s it for today, more tomorrow. Until then, look after yourselves and each other and keep the faith, we’ll get through this.

Peace

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Melodic Randomiser: Isolation Radio, day four.

Ok, I think you’ve got the idea now, so without further ado here are the next three offerings from the Melodic Randomiser to soundtrack your secluded Sunday.

Firstly, Cage the Elephant, with “Black Widow” from their Melophobia album…

…after which we are treated to the sample-pilfering delights of The Avalanches and the lead single from Wildflower, the joyously upbeat “Frankie Sinatra”.

And we round the fourth foray into the playback pick ‘n’ mix which is the Isolation radio show, with the late, great Tom Petty.

Here’s a song from an album which is high up on my list of all time favourites, Full Moon Fever, “A Mind With a Heart of its Own”.

Keep on keeping on and I’ll return tomorrow with more random choices from the next jukebox shuffle session.

Peace

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