This playlist is 67% vinyl friendly. Poor.

A Denon DP-3000 Direct Drive Servo Turntable Analog Record Player JP… which I’d fully expect to be also skirting over the carpet and hoovering.

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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 156

Too easy to go with Ian Curtis, so this time it’s Shawn’s story.

00.00

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

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00.41

NEW ORDER – Truth (John Peel session: 16.2.81) – The Peel Sessions, 12″ EP – Strange Fruit – 1986

Unless you were close to Manchester, UK hardly anybody had had the chance to see one of the band’s few low key gigs up to the broadcast of this session, so this was the first time most of us heard what the remaining members of Joy Division were then sounding like.

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04.51

WYE OAK – Fortune – Every Day Like The Last: Collected Singles 2019-2023, LP – Merge Peak – 2023

A bit of a ‘shoe gaze’ feel to the back end of this but Jenn Wasner’s classy vocal maybe places the song in ‘Altrockville’. 🙂

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08.34

OFRA HAZA – Im Nin’alu (Played In Full – Extended Mix) – 12″ – WEA – 1988

Israeli singer, Haza had been making ‘western-style pop’ for years before these beats and her world music vocals made the UK Top 20.

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14.56

THE DMITRI POKROVSKY ENSEMBLE – Oak Forest – The Wild Field, LP – Real World – 1991

I can only have heard this on John Peel’s show but I bought the album pronto. Along with Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares reaching my ears a few years earlier they were just a sample of what the human voice can get up to, when you go searching.

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17.38

ELYSE MYERS – Running Up That Hill 2 – Stream only – 2026

‘I challenged myself to recreate Running Up That Hill using only my voice… and 12 layers later, here we are‘ – Elyse, 2026

Nailed it, girl!

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19.43

ATTICA BLUES – Medieval – Self-titled, 2LP – Mo Wax – 1997

Slow beats, trip… … … … hop… and most importantly for me, Roba El-Essawy’s vocal.

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24.10

BIFFER BONKER – Closest To God – Biffer Bonker Is Unabashed, download only – ? – 2026

Ain’t it the truth, though maybe not a soundtrack for a Richard Dawkins lecture on the subject.

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27.37

ATOMIC ROOSTER – The Rock – 7″ b-side – B&C – 1971

Prog rockers getting funky and not the only example on this show and elsewhere of playing the b-sides nearly as much as the A’s back when maybe the pocket money stretched to buying one 7″ single a week.

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31.12

SPUDDHA – The Twiddle – Re-welcoming, EP – Download only – ? – 2026

‘I made this track over 20 years ago in Fruity Loops / FL Studio, building and resampling my own break and adding plugin synths. At the time I was influenced by Warp and Rephlex Records, mainstream dance music and UK garage. It’s now part of an EP collecting music I made during that period but never released because I always felt it wasn’t quite finished.

Since my autism diagnosis I’ve been looking back at myself and my music with a bit more acceptance. Conversations with Dec (who first encouraged me to think seriously about releasing any of it) helped me realise that perhaps it isn’t entirely up to me to decide whether a track is finished‘. – Spud/Spuddha, 2026

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36.08

THE RUTAN – Peace (Original Mix) * – Not In Our Name, EP – ? – 2026?

‘Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the absence of violence, conflict, or anxiety, encompassing both the cessation of war and the presence of social justice and stability‘. – The Rutan

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42.14

DSK – What Would We Do (Hurley’s Extended Remix) * (41 Rooms edit) – 12″ – Boys Own – 1991

Whoops! Label misprint! I had a thing for a few Boys Own singles around these times.

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45.41

? – ? – ? – 2026?

Indie jazz soul… if you like but yep, as of right now I’ve no idea who or what this is, apart from guessing – as the lyrics mention (the recent?) solar eclipse – it’s new. The truth will out at some point.

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50.02

GOTTS STREET PARK (feat PIP MILLETT) – Flowers – Somewhere Between, LP – Play It Again Sam – 2026

Less of the ‘indie’ but another ‘soul jazz’ feel… or is it less of the jazz and more of an indie soul feel from the Leeds-based trio. Love Pip Millett’s understated vocals and the lift in the second half. 🙂

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53.24

OLIVE JONES – End Of Time – For Mary, LP – Nettwerk – 2026

From Leeds above, down to London and re the style, do see the above. A smart choice last year to lead the album.

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56.54

MARVIN GAYE – I Want You – 7″ – Tamla – 1976

It’s Marv! Nuff said… but it’s from his ‘lurv thang’ album of the same title, so forget any thoughts of social and/or political commentary, even though the intro might have you thinking you were about to hear something off his What’s Going On album.

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01.01.02

MARDEN HILL – Sugarplums * – 12″ – Afro Art – 1996

Spun on 41 Rooms a long way back but I’ve always loved the feel so much I stretched the outro here. So, that’s its guest pass via the 41 Rooms ‘played once only’ world. 🙂

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01.06.08

ARCHER PREWITT – We Go Alone – Wilderness, CD only – Thrill Jockey – 2004

Taken from the last album he seemingly made before then possibly devoting his energies to his other love/forte, working as a cartoonist.

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01.09.57

SMALL FACES – (The) Autumn Stone – The Autumn Stone, 2LP – Immediate – 1969

One of my ‘big love’ bands in the ’70s and Steve Marriott here in a reflective mood with what had been intended as a single but the studio session involved turned out to be the band’s last and the single was shelved.

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01.13.51

SHAWN PHILIPS – Hey Miss Lonely – 7″ b-side – A&M – 1972

Ramping up slightly through its three and half minutes, it’s a ‘builder’ and having bought the single at the time for the a-side, Anello us kids always gave the b-sides a good listen, to get the best out of our 50p (or so). This promo copy came later.

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01.17.21

PHIL CORDELL – Red Lady – 7″ b-side – Warner Brothers – 1969

Maybe the ultra English sounding vocal has helped give this 7″ some kudos through the decades and make it a bit of a rarity worth searching out. Not a throwaway purchase, should you find a copy.

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01.19.45

THE FALL – U.S. 80’s – 90’s – Bend Sinister, LP – Beggars Banquet – 1986

Mark E Smith offset against a chugger of a tune. His U.S. 10’s and 20’s would have been interesting…

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01.24.00

MILES DAVIS – On The Corner (Take 4) – The Complete On The Corner Sessions, 6CD only – Columbia – 2007

And maybe Miles finally gets in at 41 Rooms because he’s involved in a sound here that might have more easily come from some ’80s industrial/avant funk outfit.

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01.29.10

CHAKK – Mother Tongues (Peel session, ’84) – Stream only – 1984

And speaking of… kinda. A radically different version of the same titled track that appeared on the band’s 1982 Clocks and Babies cassette.

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01.36.06

BREAKBEAT ERA – Rancid – 2×12″ – XL Recordings – 1999

Yet another track making it to 41 Rooms from the band’s self-titled and only album. To these ears one of the great albums. Made in the 20th century but built and sounding for the 21st.

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01.41.16

THE STRANGLERS – Straighten Out – 7″ – United Artists – 1977

Diary entry for Sept 27, ’77 notes me and mate Gary F went to Dunstable just to buy tickets for the Stranglers then upcoming Oct 2 gig at the Queensway Hall. Online was a long way off but thanks to an uploader three years ago I can relive the whole gig’s audio (including Straighten Out) on Uuuuutuuuube.

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01.43.58

JOY DIVISION – Transmission (Les Bains Douches, Paris – 18.12.79) – Eternal (Live), 14CD only – Warners – 2026

A gig well known to bootleg cassette and vinyl collectors of the early ’80s, before getting an official release via Tony Wilson’s input, on the NMC label twenty years later, where I contributed a scan of my copy of the original poster for inclusion.

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01.47.16

A CERTAIN RATIO – Winter Hill – To Each…, LP – Factory – 1981

To date, the eighth longest track to feature on 41Rooms, though maybe one of only a few that have been included in their entirety. It’s an epic ‘industrial carnival’ slug of beats and feedback, with Simon Topping’s vocal ghosting in on the home stretch.

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Show 157 arrives Nov 1.

Dec x