january 2026

edgy no wave goodness from a new york 1980s band who were fronted by a TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRL. fierce. i mean, kinda tricky for her to have been plucked from childhood into post punk headliner status by her parents’ friends, and then for the interest to have dried up by the time she finished school. but what a time to be alive / what a life to have lived. fascinating interview here.

if you like that try: watching trees - eleven pond

this was a mid-2020 covid era song (‘what are we all looking forward to after this is all over’, sort of thing) in japan, put together by seppuku pistols, a punk group who incorporate traditional instrumentation into their high energy songs. i’m so enamoured with it! why?? the taiko? the bamboo flute perhaps?? my current infatuation with flautistry continues apace.

notably, it is a cover of 日本列島やり直し音頭 by hiroyuki nishikata, an enka song, which is a form of bluesy ballad music from the 20th century that echoes and idealises traditional japanese music/culture. see video:

gorrrrrrrgeous juicy delicious soulful rnb from liv.e and karriem riggins. i can’t wait for the album to come out at the end of february.

if you like that try: i’m your muse - rochelle jordan

the first song i heard this year that i thought ‘god-fuckin-damn’ was the beatles’ blackbird. the first time i ever remember hearing blackbird was strummed roughly by a guy from orkney on an acoustic guitar at predrinks in halls in my first month at university. i thought it was utterly shite (sorry will) and so i just studiously ignored it for, like, the rest of my life. but now it has announced itself to me, like the noisy blackbird i picked up one night over christmas on merlin bird id, and i care for it tenderly.

such a nice languid little dubby vibe here with the chugging repetitions of bass, butttt then also brings in a big zamrock-y guitar solo. a tasty little snack.

always fun when i get to do a cheeky shazam in the back of an uber; this one a treat on a tuesday night around midnight. yes i AM in more ubers than anyone you know. a) you try having a city-wide polycule! b) i still spend less than if i had a car. had to get home and check the radio 2 website to see who was spinning ripple: shout out dj spoony coming in with the solid gold groovers. it sure is funky!!!

i love this so so so much. it’s off matt baldwin’s album penetrations, all of which are unusual little riffs on iggy and the stooges’ penetration. this particular incarnation features malcolm middleton of arab strap drolly waxing poetic over some really sparse synth-y sounds and percussive shakes. and, of course, one of my many sonic kryptonites is this very dour scottish spoken word musical experience.

this didn’t quite make the december playlist cut. i liked it, but i needed to let it sit! i feel such a goddamn need these days to try and have new digs on hand always because increasingly i get asked, or get handed the aux. but sometimes music, especially 8+ min pieces of music, needs time to dissipate. to be pondered and absorbed. sometimes not! sometimes you hear an 8+ min piece and you think wow, that was absolutely incredible, and i will never listen to it again. but sometimes you need to give it time to breathe. which i did with a plea and when i came to it fresh in january, i knew it was a fuckin full bodied riot. crack it open. come back to it next month if you need. it’ll only get better.

+ millionaires against hunger - red hot chili peppers because i have loved them since i was about 9 years old. i didn’t know that they recorded this whole freaky styley era with george clinton of parliament/funkadelic until very recently. a very unfairly maligned band !!

watched a couple minute clip of flea in this rick beato interview (haven’t watched the whole thing yet but i think i might) where he talks about worrying that jazz musicians would never take him seriously. it’s so raw. we all feel it! would recommend (this link should take you right to it):

incredibly beautiful piece of music. i read that it all came together quite quickly - the yussef dayes experience were going to do this live performance at mount fuji, and they wanted to get a local musician involved, and folk singer / shamisen player minami kizuki was the one. i hadn’t seen the video until writing this newsletter, but it added to the listening experience for sure. and added, i’m sure, more fuel to the raging fire driving white people to visit japan.

this is such a pumper! summer hit! i want a slushie.

your regular january edition of sound service station:

a footprints jazz club special i did in the afternoon before the festival ft. wonderful guests kacper pieta & nonna fab, and a great deal of local jazz talent. had loads of fun doing this show and djing the festival was a smash <3: