This playlist is 86% vinyl friendly. Impressive. 

A Columbia GP-3B Portable Record Player, out of Japan. Teal! Relatively available second hand at £150-£200 but not as old as they appear, coming from the ’90s… and very weedy sounding, judging by a play through on Youtube. Possibly aimed at cratedigging DJs, I saw a few with these in tow in the same time period and one digger – in a Notting Hill Music & Video Exchange store – happened to be Japanese. Clear and lime green versions, at least, were also available.

Someone elsewhere online is currently offering a red GP-3 model for… $250. Form an orderly queue?

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Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here. 🙂

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Lyric of Playlist 128…

Joni maybe pipped by the one liner, Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent? 🙂

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00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

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00.41

NEW ORDER – Hurt (live, instrumental) – Movement, Definitive Edition boxset – Warner Music – 2019

From the band’s seven track performance at London’s Riverside Studios for BBC2’s live arts programme, Riverside on Jan 4, 1982 and a night I just couldn’t get time off work to be along to. The programme’s credits rolled with New Order only into second track, Chosen Time (Death Rattle) and I’d only know of the remaining five tracks when Jon Wozencroft sent me a tape a few months later, him having grabbed tickets for the show at Rough Trade the day before – and it would take another forty years before I got to know the remaining tracks beyond the show’s transmission end had been recorded and the footage had survived.

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04.29

INNER CITY – Hallelujah (Leftfield On High Vocal) – 12″ – 10 Records – 1992

From a period of some dark years for me but where dance and beats and in particular, London’s KISS FM radio and house music managed to raise the spirits – here with no one’s god invoked.

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11.56

HOPE + HARROW – Crowbar – Crowbar EP, Lathe Cut 8″ – Do It Thissen Records – 2021

50 copies only, with lyric sheet. Long sold out via Bandcamp – ‘Four tracks of experimental electronica from ex-Sheffield & Croydon fellers (Pete Hope and David Harrow) now located in New Zealand and Los Angele respectively!‘

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15.11

GRACE JONES – Cry Now, Laugh Later (Album version) – 12″ b-side – Island – 1983

Her three disco albums never quite made a mark so all power to Chris Blackwell and Island for persevering long enough to find success via Sly and Robbie’s intervention and Compass Point Studios in 1980, with Warm Leatherette. Cry Now, Laugh Later’s snappy beats would come from Living The Life, two albums further on in 1982 album when she was really on a roll.

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20.11

GIULIO CERCATO – Good Intentions – Download only – 2024

‘I make music for your stories‘, says Giulio.

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22.08

KUTIMAN – Vanishing Point (41 Rooms Extra Intro Edit) * – Open, LP – Siyal Music – 2022

Black, clear and ‘Blue Curacao‘ coloured vinyl versions pressed.

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25.30

PM DAWN – Paper Doll (Club Mix) – 12″ – Gee Street – 1991

Roughly around its release, this reminds me of sitting in the sunshine in London, Ladbroke Grove’s small park area by Portobello Rd market.

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30.58

WEEKEND PLAYERS – Subway – Pursuit Of Happiness, CD only – Multiply Records – 2002

Or a cassette… via Indonesia. ‘Weekend Players was an electronic music duo from England. The musicians were vocalist Rachel Foster, who has provided vocals and songwriting on Bent’s Ariels album, and producer Andy Cato, one half of Groove Armada.The duo hit number one on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2003 with “I’ll Be There”. Tracks from their debut album, Pursuit of Happiness, have been featured in numerous episodes of the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami.Their biggest UK hits were “21st Century” and “Into the Sun”.‘ – ArtistInfo

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34.57

SCRIMSHIRE (feat STAC) – Pep Talks – Download only – 2024

‘Pep Talks is an epic, electronic ballad that has been in the making for over 12 years. Scrimshire writing with frequent collaborator Dave Koor originally created the sounds and basis of this song back around the time of his 3rd album Bight in 2012. But the song coincided with a temporary break from the Scrimshire project and the original demo stayed quietly on a hard drive for years.

‘In 2017 as he began the production of 4th album listeners, Adam decided to resurrect the song and invited another long-time collaborator, Stac to write the vocals for the piece. But as Listeners evolved, the song struggled to find its place on the album. Time and again, it resurfaced, for Believers Vol. 1, then as a completely reproduced piece for an unreleased album in 2024.

‘But now it sees light of day as a part of a forthcoming Forgotten Songs EP, Scrimshire’s occasional compilation series of songs that slipped through the gaps.

‘Cosmic, spacious, with stuttering beats reminding us of his earlier more electronic influenced productions, Pep Talks is a jewel of a track that we’re so glad is finally out in the world‘. – Bandcamp

A forgotten jewel, indeed. Artist, producer, DJ, record label boss Adam Scrimshire and Stac shining.

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39.12

MELIKE ŞAHIN & KUTIMAN – Ellerin Hani? – Download only – 2023

And Kutiman’s back! This time with Turkish singer, Melike Şahin, it’s sounding soothing, though I don’t know if the lyrics are relaying as much.

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42.15

JONI MITCHELL – Shadows and Light – The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, LP – Asylum – 1975

Checking out the goddess’ albums in the ’70s was a regular move for me.

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46.30

BENCH – Bliss – Bliss 2×7″ EP – Cylinder Recordings – 2000

Sounding like it would have faired better a few years earlier when the ‘trip hop’ slow beats thing was… a thing.

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51.26

RAHUL DEV BURMAN – The Burning Train – The Burning Train, LP – His Master’s Voice – 1979

Out of India’s forever rampant film machine and a title track, sounding a bit Blaxploitation… a bit Streets of San Francisco… and a little Spaghetti Western… with a drunk bloke gatecrashing at the end. Although 1979, the album’s labels look like they came from some 1950’s classical release. And to see the whole film, go here! In between the Batman-like fight sound effects, unless you speak Hindi, the occasional phrase spoken in English (for no good reason) is pretty much pointless, so you might as well watch it all at double speed. That gets it down to just over the hour. A bomb… and a burning train…

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54.52

JAMES BROWN – Living In America (R’n’B Extended Mix) – 12″ – Scotti Bros. Records – 1986

Phat slappin’ beats and the king of funk still on it in the mid ’80s.

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01.01.04

ATHLETES OF GOD x MSW (feat LADY BLACKBIRD) – Fontella – 7″ – Foundation Music – 2023

With the b-side of this Record Store Day having made show 127, the a-side turns up quicker than maybe I planned. An orange vinyl ‘Limited Edition’ hand clapper!

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01.05.11

GWEN GUTHRIE – Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent – 7″ – Polydor – 1986

Written and produced by the lady herself, with the sort of title that just begs a listen.

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01.08.25

NAKED ROOMMATE – Repeat – Do The Duvet, LP – Trouble In Mind – 2020

Their one and only album to date has more than held its own on 41 Rooms.

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01.11.50

LOU REED – Vicious – 7″ – RCA – 1972

Being 14 or 15 at the time I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t have known of Lou Reed until this and its predecessor UK 7″, Walk On The Wild Side turned up on poptastic Radio 1. Roughly the year I’d have started buying the NME, etc to start ‘educating’ myself.

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01.14.40

MINK DEVILLE – Spanish Stroll – 7″ – Capitol – 1977

Maybe we were still in the era of fascination with 12″ singles coz I actually bought the ‘Limited Edition’ 12″ of this. A waste of time though, as it was the 3mins plus single version stretched across all the grooves. Thinking about it now, I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly heard another Deville track since. 🙂

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01.18.00

FELT – A Wave Crashed On Rocks – Forever Breathes The Lonely Word, LP – Creation – 1986

I did my best to bury Lawrence and Co’s deceptive and disconcerting intro to ‘A Wave… ‘ in the show’s mix. 🙂

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01.20.32

CLANNAD – In A Lifetime – 7″ – RCA – 1986

With Bono guesting on vocals, whatever the visual/cinematic theme – and the Irish do love to wander around countryside looking very thoughtful – there was definitely a better video to be made than what surfaced for this. Blurred vision? And then some. Even with some Irish mist (mizzle/drizzle) maybe on show, it makes me think I need an eye test.

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01.23.14

EMANATIVE – When On Earth (Marc Rapson Remix) – Spacebeats EP, 12″ – Futuristica Music – 2008

Sometimes it’s the little things. The treatment on vocalist, Liz Elensky’s chorus entry (and it works even better on the faster, original version that saw out an earlier 41 Rooms show), a tune that Sergio Mendes would have been proud of.

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01.27.26

SMITH & MIGHTY (feat ALICE PERERA) – I Don’t Know (Mix 2) – DJ-Kicks EP, 12″ – !K7 Records – 1998

Bristolian slow beats merchants (no, not those ones) taking a huuuuuuge leaf out of Cool Breeze’s Can’t Deal With This from three years earlier I reckon, and if the latter hadn’t already made it to 41 Rooms they’d have been side by side here. 🙂

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01.30.48

SOUL II SOUL – I Care (Soul II Soul) (Album version) – Volume V Believe, LP – Virgin – 1995

For whatever reason, Jazzy B’s crew swerved a Vol IV but six years on from the highs of Back To Life they still had the vibe with I Care. Interestingly, though Caron Wheeler fronts some of the songs on Vol 5 this is however fronted by Charlotte.

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01.35.24

ELEKTRONS – Hurry On Down – Red Light, Don’t Stop, 2LP – Wall Of Sound – 2007

Along with some anarchy in the album title, there was a sort of playfulness in its tunes.

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01.39.28

ATTICA BLUES – What Do You Want? (Album version) – Test. Don’t Test, 2LP – Columbia – 2000

The fact that a major label like Columbia took a punt on signing the band from their time on Mo Wax tells you something but in the way that these things sometimes play out, the respect that Charlie Williams, Tony Nwachukwu and Roba El-Essawy had earned from their time on James Lavelles’ label didn’t quite translate to the level of sales they deserved.

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01.43.31

FELIX DA HOUSECAT – Nu-World (Housecat Destruction Mix) – Nu-World 12″ – Guerilla – 1993

Likely heard via Sarah HB’s house show on London’s KISS FM (or maybe Steve Jackson’s). ‘Progressive house’ was in the house a lot back then and the Guerilla label provided a few gems.

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01.52.46

BJÖRK – Human Behaviour (Bassheads Edit) – 12″ – One Little Indian – 1993

The Icelandic One in amongst some thumping beats.

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July 7, 2024 for show 129. 🤞

Dec x