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Get re-connected with some 90s memories here …
This very fertile music decade was the last of the millennium, and was filled with fear but also hope. Guest DiscoMonster summons memories with a tremendous time-travelling selection, partying like it’s 1999, and inspired by last week’s theme
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Assimilation complete: Kraftwerk
You put in the data and ideas, but what came out? Choosing from many highly non-artificial acts of the intelligence and imagination, guest Loud Atlas used his sharp human instincts create excellent playlists and see what an AI chatbot thought of them.
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Rare, and always on the move: Halley and Billie
From celestial to historical, the fictional to the emotional, while rarities are exactly as described, there’s a huge variety, and many songs about them. Picking from last week’s huge range of nominations, guest Marco den Ouden makes heavenly choices
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Tomorrow’s World - 1970s science TV programme from the past about the future
It’s linked to today and yesterday, but the anticipation or idea of tomorrow is the focus, and in this theme, not just word that appears somewhere in lyrics, but plays a central or prominent role or within it, expresses in many ways
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Planet pop: the Roland Jupiter 8
The classic keyboards, the hair, and drum sounds, experimenting and changing over two vibrant decades. From a huge wave of nominations, guest pop picker MussoliniHeadkick brings a special edition of the Top of the Pops chart. Ready for the countdown?
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Synth you’ve been gone …
Following a previous topic that went up to 1983, this week we explore the arc of this music’s sonic history through a new era of MIDI and digital, from the Fairlight CMI to the Roland TR-808 and beyond, and in lyrical pop songs more than instrumentals
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Airing the sound: MOMA’s Music Gallery
It’s a private view where all are invited. Led by our expert guest curator EnglishOutlaw, chosen from a range of musical hanging fruit, welcome to the grand tour reopening of an entirely unique grand expo - a canticular spectacular
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The open road … all the way the vanishing point …
It’s the inspiration for so many album covers, not to mention songs, and also an idea of infinity we never quite reach. From literal or metaphorical and lyrical, this week we reach for that imagined line where land, or sea, meets sky
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Deep breaths: Sweet Honey in the Rock
Inhale! Exhale! Sexy to smoky, exercise to sighs, plus bigger breaths from nature, this week’s playlists, compiled by breath-of-fresh-air guest Hoshino Sakura from a hurricane of nominations, will make you gasp with pleasure
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The look of 2020
Writing from a viral hotbed of Covid-19 lockdown - New York - guest playlister magicman recounts isolation, social chaos, cohesion, anger and laughter with his infectious collection of superb songs nominated by a global Song Bar audience
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Few pianists are a patch on New Orleans’ James Booker
And the piano played on … During these testing times, inspired by the deft choices of readers and fast fingers of players, guest ParaMhor picks two note perfect playlists and adds some memorial extras for the dearly departed
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Dave Greenfield of The Stranglers in 1980
What makes a great riff or solo, and how does the keyboard player fit in a band? From purveyors of excess to cool minimalism, rock or prog to soul, electronica, postpunk, pop, jazz or classical, synth to clavinet, let’s follow those fingers
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Cabinet meeting? Alice, Hatter, Dormouse, but who is that guy with the floppy ears? Read to find out more …
The table is set for tea, except not all is quite as it seems … guest playlister EnglishOutlaw explores the topsy-turvy, inside out and upside through a fictional Lewis Carroll universe, in lyrics and music, inspired by last week’s topic
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Stop me if you’ve heard that one before …
Is there an echo in here? Those with sharp ears will enjoy some remarkable and fun comparisons as this week’s playlister Olive Butler perfectly picks out some of the soundalikes from a double topic over the festive period
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The men from CIA? Fugs-style.
Who are they? Where are they? And what are they doing? Are the answers in songs nominated? It’s time to burrow deep with our mystery guest playlister Deep Throat-Singer to see how the plot plays out …
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Machines unmasked: Hideki Matsutake from the Yellow Magic Orchestra
Hums, beats, squelches and clicks, banks of sound and theremins, Delia Derbyshire to Bowie, Eno to the Yellow Magic Orchestra, this week’s guest magicman turns it all on with two brilliant playlists from a host of superb nominations
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Krafty
Early 20th-century experimentalists to MIDI, industrial, dance, new wave, French musique concrete, Japanese chiptune to German elektronische, let’s explore old-school noise and value those valves worldwide
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Lamb. Obviously.
Innocence lost or regained, from childhood to animals, in fact or fantasy, lyrics or style, this week we enter less cynical world, one of wide-eyed wonderment and promise, all in the form of songs and more
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Faust in their Wümme studio in 1971
Kraftwerk to Neu! Bowie to The Fall! Leaping into last week's surprise topic, guest writer Flatfrog takes a voyage of discovery to playlist prime originals and others hugely influenced by this German genre
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Cosmic machines ... Kraftwerk
Experimental electronica, or meditative riff and beat repetition? This week from man to machine, Can to Krafwerk, Neu! to Faust, let's celebrate the work and influence of 60s and 70s Germany music revolution
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