This playlist is 65% vinyl friendly. Very poor.

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Scorchio!

‘1960/1970 Vintage Stereo Design Record Player, in bright orange, the emblematic colour of the 1960 and an example of Mod Ultra Space Age Pop Art Raymond Loewy? France French Designer Museum-worthy‘ says the Etsy seller, adding ‘It has a few cracks, one of the speakers has a small tear in the cloth and may need an overhaul, a full check up to see how and if it works and if it is complete… WE HAVE NEVER TRIED TO USE IT AND I DO NOT KNOW IF IT WORKS OR PLAYS.‘ Thank flip it’s down to
€4600, from €7100. 🙂

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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. 🙂

And a bit of a croak in my voice here and there. A temporary glitch, hopefully.

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Lyric of Playlist 146

Trickery involved but it has to be The Bots!

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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 – Ruined In A Day (Reading Festival, 1993) – In Concert – 577, CD – BBC Transcription – 1993

I and my four-year-old, Alice were there, on what was a triumphant return, with the wonderful ‘Ruined’ in amongst new numbers from the band’s then recently released Republic album nobody would have previously heard in a live setting. BBC Transcription Services recordings – produced to service radio stations and usually for a very limited time frame for broadcast – had moved from vinyl to CD but with runs still only in their low hundreds New Order completists would be struggling to own a copy of this one… and I don’t.

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04.42

MERIC LONG – A Small Act Of Defiance – Kablooey, LP – Polyvinyl Record Company – 2025 Book-ending a bunch of releases through the years as a member of The Dodos, Kablooey is seemingly Long’s first solo release under his own name since 2006.

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07.43

BIOCHEMICAL DREAD – False Kings Of The Earth – 12″ – Pulsolid – 2004

Besides his work with Cabaret Voltaire this 12″ demonstrates there are gaps in my knowledge of Richard H. Kirk’s lengthy discography elsewhere. A copy of ‘False Kings… ‘ however is currently heading my way. 🙂 RIP, Richard.

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13.21

DARKSIDE – One Last Nothing – Download only – Matador – 2025

Including a past member of the 41 Rooms playlist parish, Nicolas Jaar, a US trio currently NOT releasing a 12″, though their Bandcamp visual hints otherwise. 🙂

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18.32

AGENTS WITH FALSE MEMORIES – Agents With False Memories (extract), CD only – Ash International / Soleilmoon Recordings – 1996

Extract, indeed as Richard H. Kirk promptly returns to show 146 with this four minute snippet from a 53 minute track.

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22.34

HUMANIZER – Shinobi – ? – ? – 2000s?

Ignoring the slight Liam Gallagher drawl and with zero connection to any Death Metal band of the same name, this might have been Manchester sourced… and maybe with a Peter Hook connection. That’s what I’m vaguely remembering… from over a decade ago. Dunno… A ‘demo’ version, minus vocals, might also get an outing here at some point.

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27.08

DIFFERENT GEAR – A Little Bit Paranoid (Extended Mix) * – 12″ – City Rockers – 2002

Courtesy of a ‘Phil Dirtbox’, the vocal is the winner here.

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32.59

MERZ – Sorrow In The Sky (Nightingale Vs The Crow) – 7″ b-side – Lotus Records – 2002

The stuff that people sing about… and here with gusto and passion, to boot!

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36.55

LUSCIOUS JACKSON – Why Do I Lie? (Sessions at 54th, 11.97) – Stream only – 1997

Vocalist, Jill Cunniff’s tale of lying sounding best live! 🙂

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40.13

THE POPPY FAMILY – I Was Wondering – 7″ – London – 1971

A bit of a strange arrangement, this one. Albeit with a key change in there – verses with no choruses! Weird and wonderful… and maybe a bit brave in the pop world of the early ’70s, where the only PF track I remember hearing as a young teen was Which Way Are You Going Billy? That won’t be getting a 41 Rooms spin.

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42.43

SOPHIE JAMIESON – Camera – I Still Want To Share, LP – Bella Union – 2025

Being over in Brighton recently it seemed appropriate I buy her clear vinyl album from the Bella Union shop and re Camera? It’s the subtle build in Sophie’s vocal 🙂 and she’ll be here again at some point.

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46.59

MARTYN BATES – The Rhyme Of Miracles – Arriving Fire, CD only – Ambivalent Scale – 2014

Martyn instils presence in a tune like few others for me.

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50.28

JOSE FELICIANO – First Of May – 7″ b-side – RCA – 1969

‘Feliciano seems to be on a heavy Bee Gees kick… after ‘Marley Purt Drive,’ he now does ‘First Of May’ and ‘Gotta Get A Message To You.’ And with his highly stylised projection, Jose manages to make them sound totally removed from anything the Gibb brothers originated’. – Disc (edited review of the album, 10 to 23), 15.11.69.

As far as I know the Bee Gees tune was only ever released on a 7″ (my ‘format of choice’) for Jose in Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines and Spain and never as an A-side and arranger, Al Capps most probably winced if he ever got to see the NZ pressing below.

Strangely, Jose’s very rarely performed the song live. I’ve only noted it three times, including two at London’s Jazz Cafe, in 1996 and again in 1998 and at the former it surfaced nearly under duress. With the audience (maybe unsurprisingly) constantly shouting out for past JF favourites Jose countered, ‘You know there’s a lot of songs you people ask me for that unfortunately… and I’m not being rude, a lot of artists are rude, they do it on purpose, but some of the songs that you ask me to sing, do you know that I haven’t sung them in years and I’ve forgotten the words and rather than make an ass out of myself that’s why I don’t sing them, OK? So, don’t take it personal… I don’t sing those songs anymore. But I’ll tell you what though there’s some that you ask for that I do remember, like this one. I hope that this one will satisfy you.’ That rare sighting was even more surprising considering Jose had taken the rare move of including his own recording of the song when guesting on Brian Matthew’s My Top Twelve for BBC Radio 1 back in June 1974. 🙂

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54.11

JAPAN – Alien – Quiet Life, LP – Ariola Hansa – 1980

Bedford: Heronscroft, Putnoe, 1980 and Winkles, 1981… with a few Japan gigs thrown in at the time. 🙂

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58.47

JOHN CALE – Chinese Envoy (M:FANS) – M: FANS, 2 LP – Double Six – 2016

‘Approached as a reinterpretation of Cale’s 1982 improvisational album, Music for a New Society… M:FANS is something of a funhouse mirror reflection of that work, using the basic song-structures of the original album as a starting point and using time, experience and the technological advances of the ensuing years to bring a new focus to the tunes. Some selections are comfortably familiar, while others have a significantly different footprint‘. – KCRW

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01.02.32

ICEHOUSE – No Promises (Dance Mix) * – 12″ – Chrysalis – 1990

Fully five years after the track had seemingly done its thing it got an extended outing in Spain.

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01.07.58

DAVID BOWIE – This Is Not America (BBC concert) – Bowie At The Beeb, 2CD – EMI – 2000

Part of Bowie’s special set for a small invited audience at the BBC’s Radio Theatre, in London, June 2000.

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01.11.29

JOHNNY KEATING – Theme from Z-Cars (Johnny Todd) – 7″ – Piccadilly – 1962

Did I realise the grittier scripts involved here than had been delivered by Jack Warner’s strolling forerunner, Dixon Of Dock Green? Nah, I was five when Z-Cars kicked off but the theme (based on the traditional folk song, Johnny Todd) still brings a fuzzy feel. 🙂 And Wikipedia will give you the full story on why Everton FC players come out to the tune at home games.

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01.13.22

MARC COHN – ‘Walking in Memphis (Mahna Mahna)’ – Stream only – 1990’s?

Cohn definitely wouldn’t have seen this coming, as the self proclaiming Mahna Mahna and the Snowths duo upstage him in a short but cheeky mashup (of sorts) I happened on via Youtube a couple of decades ago. I’ll openly admit I was a Muppets fan when they first aired on UK TV back in the mid ’70s and with Statler & Waldorf the stars for me I remember walking my girlfriend of the time, Jill home from work and then running up the hill to my house to record the show. Pre the age of video recorders, at one point there was a stack of ten to twenty AGFA(!!) cassette tapes of the shows in my bedroom. 🙂 Getting back to Cohn, the fact he’s ‘racing’ a bit here actually adds to the cheeriness and I salute whoever was involved.

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01.14.44

BERNARD CRIBBINS – The Hole In The Ground – 7″ – Parlophone – 1962

And like the Z-Cars theme I was five when this was released and I’d have definitely been singing this one in the years close after – and weirdly, although it’s the second tune from ’62 on this show, it’s not the last.

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01.16.27

THE BOTS – Fuzzy Math – George W. Bush Greatest Hits, v/artists, CDr only – Spin The World – 2004

I heard this cut and paste work of art somewhere around its ‘release’ and as of 2004…

‘… utilizing the revolutionary Presidential Truth Filter(PTF). The PTF operates like this: All presidential statements are recorded, and made into a huge database. The database is searchable by speech, phrase, keyword, emotional intensity, etc. In parallel, an analysis is made of the historical circumstances of the particular presidency. The question must be asked, what is this man (all men so far…) really all about? What is a defining characteristic of this presidency? The final question which must be addressed by the PTF is, how can we use the assets in the database to concatenate the truth, and make the President speak it? The first attempt was Bushwack, in 1992. This turned into a huge hit before the Presidential election in 1992, though BMI denied that it was ever on the air at all. Through October of that year, stations such as San Francisco’s Live105 were playing it almost hourly. In 1997 Rock The House was a popular download at an early digital music download startup, muzic.com. In 2003 Bushwack2 was released at about the start of the Iraq war. The mood of the song is quite grim, as the truth of those times was interpreted by the PTF. In 2004, the PTF was reprogrammed to emphasize economics and general silliness, and Fuzzy Math was born. We think it’s the best one yet. Judge the results for yourself’. – thebots.net

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01.19.26

DREXCIYA – Black Sea – The Journey Home, 12″ EP – Warp – 1995

First heard on either of Colin Faver’s or Colin Dale’s techno shows on KISS FM. Sounds more likely it was the former.

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01.24.58

E-DANCER – Heavenly * – 12″ – KMS – 1997

The Inner City (‘Big Fun’) man, Kevin Saunderson with his techno head on.

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01.28.51

CHARLES WEBSTER – Your Life * – 12″ – Peacefrog – 2000

Pitched up a bit (‘+3%’ says my file iD) this is a class slice of soulful techno/house.

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01.33.11

CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON – Selfish – Download only – Stone Woman Music – 2025

This r&b musician has been around for a decade or so but I wouldn’t have guessed, judging by this slight departure to a ’90s UK garage feel (first half anyway). It suits her.

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01.36.48

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

The fifth appearance on 41 Rooms to date for this pretty much forgotten duo.

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01.39.36

BLUE STATES – Your Girl – 12″ EP – Memphis Industries – 1999

First heard on a compilation CD a mate of mine, Sid put together, of fave tracks forwarded by mates of his. Not their own tracks, you understand. 🙂

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01.43.45

THE MIRACLES – I’ll Try Something New – 7″ – Tamla – 1962

Hellfire! Those breakdown strings mid way are a bit of a jolt! Easy, Smokey! Writer, Robinson’s own version is actually the third to make it to 41 Rooms and his vocal arrangement sounds more like a remake than either Kiki Dee’s ‘straighter’ take or even the Supremes and Temptations stab at the song, when chronologically they both followed this Miracles single.

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01.46.14

SMITH & MUDD – Blue River – 2LP – Claremont 56 – 2007

Electronic… downtempo… shuffling… drifting… or maybe flowing.

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01.48.38

MERZ – A.M. (Good Morning) * – Single-sided, white label 12″ only – 1995

The second artist to return this show, multi instrumentalist and songwriter, Conrad Merz and his at times very idiosyncratic vocal (‘Many Weathers Apart’, for instance) seem to have trodden their own path through the years.

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01.53.45

CRAIG ARMSTRONG (feat ELIZABETH FRASER) – This Love (& The Life That I Have) * – 41 Rooms Soft Mash Up only – Early 2000s

I grabbed the extra voice – Virginia McKenna as Second World War spy Violette Szabo, reading the code poem The Life That I Have at the end of the film Carve Her Name With Pride – fully thirty plus years ago and I had a stab at floating it over This Love a long time ago but recently had another go. Aided by Jazz The Glass, we pitched her down slightly and then I took out a chunk of the poem in the second half. Not that it’s going to happen but I reckon it would need the song itself re-arranged/edited to work perfectly but methinks the idea is still a cool one.

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Show 147 hopefully surfaces Jan 4.

Dec x