This playlist is 87% vinyl friendly. Impressive.

Via The New York Times at the beginning of 2024, this Fluance RT85N turntable was voted the best under $600, so in this day and age that’s spinning economy-style. Modern… in a non flashy kind of way… apart from turntable’s finish, of course.

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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 131…

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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 – Senses (Cargo Demo) – Movement, Definitive Edition Boxset – Warner Music – 2019

One of the eight or so tracks, from January ’81 sessions in Rochdale’s Cargo Studios that made up their live set of the time, was included in a John Peel session the same month and would be the basis of this album’s initial release at the end of the same year. I always thought the way Senses builds to the outro definitely suited the song’s place more often than not towards the end of a gig’s set.

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05.12

INERTIA – The Screen – 7″ – Inertial Records – 1980

The work of one Douglas Benford and in what the electronic heads of today might call the ‘minimalist’ bag – ‘stark’, even.

When I bought Douglas’ second release, the 7″ EP, Dancebeat Attitude (heard on John Peel’s show, with the DJ quite possibly giving out Duncan’s address to send off for it), here’s the note I got back. It refers to this first release, but I’m 50/50 on whether I then sent off for that one, too. I don’t have it now and unless I’d actually heard the track at the time, I might not have taken the plunge.

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08.16

THE HUMAN LEAGUE – The Black Hit Of Space – Travelogue, LP – Virgin – 1980

‘Minimalist’… ‘dark wave’… and no doubt a few other tags might be pinned to this these days but none of them used by anyone of the time. It was just ‘electronic’ to us.

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12.18

PYE CORNER AUDIO – Circuit Rot – 7″ – Polytechnic Youth – 2022

This might have been in with the occasional series of great double sided 7″ singles often spotlighted in earlier 41 Rooms shows… if it had been released. 🙂

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14.42

NYAM NYAM – Fate/Hate * – 12″ – Factory Benelux – 1984

Produced by Peter Hook and driven faster than the anthemic sounding album version, I would have had a stab at including the latter’s vocal outro. Maybe they did give it a go. Whatever, this version’s made it on to a couple of modern day compilations, including New Order’s 2017 double album for Factory Benelux, Be Music.

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19.18

PAUL HAIG – Heaven Sent – 7″ – Les Disques Du Crépuscule – 1983

How did this slip through the Winkles early ’80s 1hr specials of some of the earliest 41 Rooms shows? A nailed on fave with us, it rightly or wrongly conjures up a dancefloor vision of ‘more girls than boys’ and a wonderful mix of Haig’s backing singers (check out – not right now! – Heaven Sent on the TV prog Switch) and the Human League’s female members.

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24.01

HEAVEN 17 – Pavement and Penthouse – 12″ – Virgin – 1981

Some social comment lyrics with these lads back then and from what I’ve seen on the net, seemingly well able to sound the part performing it forty plus years on.

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27.46

QWALIA – Majolica – Abbreviations, LP – Albert’s Favourites – 2024

41 Rooms’ fave Adam Scrimshire’s label…

‘Qwalia is the experimental, improvisational home for a quartet of some of London’s most prolific and inspiring musicians. Led by drummer Yusuf Ahmed (Joy Crookes, Unknown to Known) and featuring Ben Reed on bass (Frank Ocean, David Byrne, Richard Russell’s Everything Is Recorded), Tal Janes on Guitar (Jordan Rakei, Cherise, Waaju) and Joseph Costi on keys and synths (Cat Stevens, Tom Herbert, Heidi Vogel), the band’s music is an instinctive aural expression of how things seemed in the moment of creation‘. (Edit) – Bandcamp

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31.20

FLORIDA MAN – Twilight Filter – Florida Man EP – Download only – 2021

A 41 Rooms regular might recognise something in the tone of Florida Man’s vocalist (and guitarist), Quinnisa. Daughter of Big Blood’s mainstay couple Caleb Mulkerin and Colleen Kinsella, she’s increasingly involved in the latter’s work.

33.53

BENCH – Anxious – Bliss, 2LP – Cylinder Recordings – 2000

Bench didn’t survive to gain the acknowledgement of a wider public but Kris Jenkins and Rachel Thomas seem to have continually cropped up as a producer and session singer, respectively ever since.

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35.56

NAILAH HUNTER – Bleed – Lovegaze, LP – Fat Possum Records – 2024

Limited to 300 copies for the ‘sweetart’ vinyl 1st edition and 100 for the ultra clear 2nd edition.

‘Lovegaze is one of the most wholeheartedly beautiful records I’ve heard in quite some time‘. – Bandcamp

‘Uniquely intoxicating‘. – Uncut

‘She’s a harpist!’ – 41 Rooms

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39.29

LE FUNK MOB – Ravers Suck Our Sound And Get Fuck – Tribulations Extra Sensorielles 2×12″ EP – Mo Wax 1994

‘MC Solaar’s producers and guests on Jimmy Jay’s ‘Le Cool Sessions’ album do their thang over four sides of tripped-out jazzy funk vinyl.  Awe-inspiring stuff it is too, with everything from deep phat hip hop on ‘La Doctoresse’ to the ambient jazz doodling of ‘Ravers… ‘ Highly innovative and highly intoxicating, this is an EP that begs to be heard. Funk, acid jazz, hip hop, triply fusion – whatever your bag, it’s all here‘. – Brad Beatnik, Record Mirror (Music Week), 19.3.94 

The term ‘Trip Hop’ can get a bit of a roasting these days but James Lavelle’s Mo Wax put out some mighty sounds and beats – especially in the above era.

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42.13

ERIC and THE VIKINGS – Get Off The Streets Y’All – 7″ b-side – Soulhawk – 1970

To be honest, a single that’s most probably regaled/revered for the sweet soul A-side, Vibrations but I was only after this madcap romp on the flip. Sounding like a one-off studio jam that just happened to be caught with the tapes running, John Manship subsequently noted it as ‘very in-demand Detroit Northern Soul‘, to which one fan commented ‘Straight up all intro badassery‘… errr… quite. It certainly sounds like it might appeal crossing over to the mod and ’60s r&b end of things. A bunch of near mint expensive promos on sale from different UK sellers on Discogs hints at a box laying under someone’s bed for fifty years, but with three different labels? That’s a bit ‘weird’. My copy will be picked up and on here after my next UK visit.

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47.37

LED ZEPPELIN – Trampled Underfoot – 7″ promo only – Swansong – 1975

FUNK ROCK FUNK! Back in my mid-late teens rock years these lads ruled – albeit with a few others very close behind – and not without the influence of best mate, Dave Lewis (‘Dobber’ to me and others), now with many LZ books to his name, regarded as a world expert on the subject. This promo only release was only available to UK retailers and dependent on the number of copies of the band’s album, Physical Graffiti they ordered in… so being a record retailer, Dobber went the full tilt… and I and a bunch of mates were the lucky recipients.

It’s maybe the ‘excesses’ of ’70s rock that 41 Rooms shies away from but Trampled Underfoot is storming and succinct and was most notably experienced by Dob, myself and some other mates from the first row of a 19,000 sold out London earls Court in 1975. And yep, those were the front seats at Earls Court. We actually had B Row tickets but for some reason no one was sat in Row A.

And a nod to Dob’s much renowned Zep Tight But Loose fan/magazine – my first six editions.

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51.40

DOVES – Space Face (Glastonbury 2003) – Streaming only

With the vinyl version of this 1991 rave fave (as Sub Sub) already spun on 41 Rooms, here years on in a live band setting, it’s the same three lads line-up sounding back to their ‘dance’ era.

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56.12

CHRIS JOSS AND HIS ORCHESTRA – Bombay By Bus – Present: Bombay By Bus, 12″ EP – Pulp Flavor – 1999

Maybe heard via Russ Allen on KISS FM? He seemed a likely contender. Gets a bit big beat’y and aciiiiiid’y mid way through but though I’ve never been to Bombay the track’s start does the job of seeming to capture what I reckon the city might sound like… if that makes any sense.

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01.01.38

GATTO FRITTO – Invisible College * – 12″, single-sided – Dissident – 2007

The full version is 11 minutes long but 41 Rooms chopped and edited to a 4mins 30 highlights version. Still jaunty, though.

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01.04.41

KIT SEBASTIAN – Metropolis – New Internationale, LP – ? – 2024

Upcoming on their third album due about now, Metropolis sounds like a backdrop to Audrey Hepburn careering around bendy roads on a Swiss Alps summer’s day, and such is the technology and software now around, duo Kit Martin and and Merve Erdem will have found it far easier these days creating the wibbly wobbly and fuzzy authentic ’60s feel to this track’s video than in previous times.

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01.08.09

THE DAUGHTERS OF EVE – Hey Lover – 7″ – USA Records – 1966

Even though it includes my pet hate – a talking bit! – the initial (and best, methinks) release of the five or so singles from the all girl Chicago band, but unless I get really lucky I won’t be owning a copy of this anytime soon… or at all – with the last sighting of a sale being for $450 in Jan ‘2023. The fab vocals are sooooo ’60s, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Rachel Sweet had covered it on her late’70s debut album Fool Around.

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01.11.43

HALEY HENYDERICKX – Seed Of A Seed – Download only – 2024

Seemingly her first release in six years, with the sound and the title and unsurprisingly, a promo shot hinting at foliage. ‘Green folk’ maybe. 🙂 Even back at her debut album, 2015’s I Need To Start A Garden, she was sowing the…

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01.15.24

JONI MITCHELL – See You Sometime – For The Roses, LP – Asylum – 1972

It’s Joni bloody Mitchell! Nuff said. Incidentally, there’s an old GOT-TA-SCATA demo (Strange Day) lurking in the vaults that sort of takes a similar lyrical journey.

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01.19.31

LEE ABRAHAMS – song47 – Unreleased demo – ????

‘All I can say is that I have recorded hundreds of tunes simply as ideas to use for future projects maybe, but which I have never returned to. All demo ideas I guess. This was one such one, that got simply named as song47, because… it was. I came across it in a bunch of files on my pc and decided to add some visuals and post it up as it was on FB, warts and all. I’m glad you like it enough to spin it. thanks again‘. – Lee, August, 2024

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01.25.07

SOUL FAMILY SENSATION – Other Stuff – New Wave, LP – One Little Indian – 1991

A bouncy and cheery instrumental from the perfect-pop-that-was-Perfect-Life crew.

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01.28.30

‘THE JUMPSTART MAN’ – ‘Because’ * – ????????

Under the above info, Discogs has zero and Shazam doesn’t recognise it either, but then again I could have got the details down wrong in the first place. The track was initially taped (maybe three decades ago?) very likely from a KISS FM (London) show, with me then searching out the 12″ from London’s many dance shops being the usual next move. The vinyl though never surfaced. If I could dig out the cassette I could at least nail down the year. If you know… let me know. 🙂 Anyway, instead of the usual tumbleweed in these occasional situations on 41 Rooms, here’s a pink fairy armadillo.

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01.33.51

SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR – 13 Little Dolls – Wanderlust, LP – EBGB’s – 2014

On the ‘indie pop’ side of things she’s royalty of sorts and was also well suited to Spiller’s massive dance hit, Groovejet. Me? I’m more a fan of her vocal than I am of her songs but 13 Little Dolls is an urgent racket of a tune.

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01.37.22

GNAG OF FOUR – Natural’s Not In It – The Peel Sessions Album, LP – Strange Fruit – 1990

I bet the number of bands who felt their John Peel sessions didn’t quite live up to their recorded work is a very small number indeed. Those engineers knew how to work under the pressure of just a few available hours. So, from Feb ’79 and the Gof4’s first session for Peel, this packs a punch.

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01.44.02

DAME AREA – Si No Es Hoy Cuando Es – Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area, LP – Mannequin Records – 2024

The duo of Silvia Kostance and Viktor L. Crux, with Cabaret Voltaire’s Nag Nag Nag and No Escape somewhere in their thinking, I reckon. 🙂

‘Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area (All the truth about Dame Area) will be released in two different editions on Mannequin Records and Humo Internacional on the 13th of September‘. – Bandcamp

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01.49.27

HEROES OF ANOTHER LIFE FORCE – I Don’t Need You (Vocal Club Mix) * – 12″ – Slip ‘n’ Slide – 1993

It’s easy to hear how the vocal sample works so well.

‘This is the wobbling, wobbling, stomping progressive number that’s got them all excited, specially when they hear the “I don’t need you anymore” vocal sample. Take it from me, it works. I played it to the cat and the poor puss shot out of the window. Two more acidy instrumentals on the flipside‘. – Dom Phillips *** 1/2, Mixmag Update 4.8.93 

‘A strong truancy housey groove that builds and builds with throbbing baselines before bursting in with the sampled vocal. A kind of Britis-meets-Wild Pitch production that will have dancefloors leaping around in a frenzy‘. – Tim Jeffery, Record Mirror (Music Week), 21.8.93

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01.53.25

NAKED ROOMMATE – Bus – Pass The Loofah, LP – Trouble In Mind Records – 2024

For vinyl heads, the album is arriving in 1) Limited “Disco Ball” white splatter on metallic silver and 2) black vinyl versions and both are housed in full-color jackets and include full-color inserts.

Bus… Pass The Loofah… Do The Duvet. There’s a playfulness with this crew. Good to see.

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01.58.23

LALI PUNA – Harrison Reverse – Micronomic, 12″ EP – Morr Music – 2004

It really is as short as it sounds here but it’s a cool 41 Rooms’ show ender.

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Oct 6 for show 132. 🤞

Dec x