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  1. “What’s so special about NTS Radio? Let’s start with 56 Minutes of Sex. It’s not what think. This Sex is an ambient, minimal jazz track by the Australian trio the Necks. It was recorded in one brilliant, hypnotic, improvised take across 56 minutes and six seconds in 1988. And on a magical Friday morning during lockdown, February 5, 2021, a host on NTS, Ruf Dug — real name Simon Hindle — just played it, pretty much without warning, in its entirety. No advertisements, no jingles, no interruptions, no talk. “There’s no playlist. We’re not bound by the rules here. If anyone is really averse to doing this, you’ve got 30 seconds,” he told the NTS listeners chat room. “Right then, here we go . . .”
    And that’s the beauty of NTS. That’s why it’s the greatest radio station there has ever been, and that there ever could be. Sorry, there is no journalistic impartiality coming up here. This isn’t a rant. It’s a rave.
    NTS is the single greatest contribution to music that could be made without picking up an instrument. It is available on two channels, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Type in NTS on your computer, your laptop, your handheld device and you will find it. And be prepared to be amazed.
    Each day a roster of roughly 600 residents curate hours of music played without commercial breaks, without weather or news or “here’s Jim with the sport”, even a jingle beyond those that bookmark the shows. And what sort of music is it? It’s music. All music. It has the best country and western show, the most eclectic jazz programming, it has grime, it has techno, it has rap, folk, death metal, psychedelia, retro Japanese pop. If it spies a gap it seeks to cover it. And every show can be streamed online. If you want to listen to Sno, from South Africa via Manchester, play mainly African or African-influenced music, then before next month’s show there are 51 hours of her doing just that to stream at the click of a button.
    Why would you let Daniel Ek’s Spotify AI corral you into the narrowest corridors of your musical taste, when you can find someone who shares your love and can curate two hours of music that is often entirely new?”

  3. I shall have a listen.Ta.
    Tidal are trialling a “live” stream which lets Tidal subscribers allow access to other Tidal users to listen in on whatever they are streaming. It’s only in beta at the moment but it offers the opportunity to spew musical filth into the ears of pop kids on a vast worldwide canvas. I haven’t signed up yet but it’s mighty tempting.

  4. NTS Radio sounds excellent.

    Any radio station that plays the Necks gets my vote. Hypnotic, mesmerising, orgasmic: they are consistently wonderful.

    Best seen live. They are on tour in Europe this autumn. Get yourself a ticket!

    09/11/2023 PL Gdansk Jazz Jantar Festival
    11/11/2023 NL Utrecht Le Guess Who
    12/11/2023 SE Stockholm Fasching
    13/11/2023 NO Stavanger Folken
    16/11/2023 SI Ljubljana Kino Siska
    18/11/2023 UK Bristol Strange Brew
    19/11/2023 UK London Kings Place SOLD OUT
    20/11/2023 UK London Kings Place
    21/11/2023 UK Falmouth The Cornish Bank
    23/11/2023 PL Katowice TBA
    25/11/2023 TR Istanbul Nova Muzak No: 36 at Borusan Music House
    26/11/2023 FR Paris Le Petit Bain
    28/11/2023 FR Poitiers Jazz-A-Poitiers
    29/11/2023 FR Tourcoing Le Grand Mix
    01/12/2023 IT Milano SpazioTeatro 89
    03/12/2023 NO Høvikodden Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
    04/12/2023 CZ Prague Palac Akropolis
    06/12/2023 BE Gent MIRY Concertzaal
    07/12/2023 HR Zagreb Vintage Industrial
    08/12/2023 RO Bucharest Control
    09/12/2023 GR Athens Athens Conservatory

    A few idiosyncratic venues!

    Where in Norway is Høvikodden???

        • Hi, P! How are you doing?

          I’ve been meaning to email you for ages, was reminded about it when George and Sue called to see you, and reminded again when Forks asked in one of our phone calls whether there was any news of you.

          Sorry – some days I can’t even get round to procrastinating 🤷🏻‍♂️

            • It’s a bit complex., @pencilsqueezer. There’s a clot involved in my stroke, but the pesky tumour remnants have grown again, and a scan taken while I was in hospital showed it was pressing on a vein. I subsequently had a disappointing phone consultation with one of the neurosurgery team at Addenbrooke’s at the end of July, some five weeks after being released into the wild. There had been talk of them fitting a stent to help with blood flow, but the consultant has deemed the affected site “too angry” to consider doing anything for a year at least.

              I had to relearn how to walk while in hospital, and with the help of my rollator*, which stops my new found dodgy sense of balance from pitching me into the road, have extended my range to two walks totalling nearly 3 hours in a day (my personal best). However the sensation in and more importantly control of my left arm – and even more so my left leg – has actually got worse. The leg in particular feels REALLY FUCKING WEIRD – as though the force of gravity affecting it has grown gradually stronger – and it’s tingly into the bargain.

              Had an MRI scan in Norwich yesterday, which will be followed in a month by a consultation, at which I suspect I’ll be offered further radiotherapy, which I’ll reluctantly have to accept, as it may prevent further deterioration.

              In other news, I learned in the course of an eye test a few weeks ago, that in addition to the seizure (which followed hot on the heels of my stroke) preventing me from driving until the second week in May next year, I have a right side peripheral visual field deficit, which bars me from driving altogether, unless it can be rectified, which I suspect depends on what has caused it.

              I’m currently being well looked after by my stepmother in the Waveney valley, but she can’t be expected to do so indefinitely, so the plan is that sometime in October, I’ll move to the bungalow farther south in Suffolk that my late Mum left me, and where my twin disasters occurred while I was there sorting the place out. Able-bodied Nigel was quite looking forward to moving back to the area where he grew up. Disabled Nigel is frankly pretty scared at the prospect, uncertain as to how he’ll cope.

              * https://imgur.com/tBPwayQ

              (Not me in the photo, obvs…)

              • Fuc*itty fu*kitty flip my friend. I knew you had been in the wars but not to this extent. My heart goes out to you. It certainly puts my troublesome hip hassles into perspective. I know this is in all likelihood completely redundant but if there is anything I can do that may lighten your days please let me know and if I can oblige I most certainly will do so. 🙏
                P.S. Say hi to forks for me next time you get an opportunity. Diolch.

                • It is a bit shit, Peter, but could’ve been a lot worse. There were fellow patients on the stroke ward who, as a result of their lesion being on the other side of the brain, had lost the power of speech. I can’t imagine how dreadful that would be.

                  Learning to walk again – initially using parallel bars, and then a Zimmer frame – was scary and exhausting, but I managed it. And the nursing, physio, and OT staff I interacted with in hospital were uniformly great, as were almost all of the doctors.

                  Once the hospital dropped its mask mandate I contracted Covid, but – swings and roundabouts – my pre Xmas radiotherapy meant I was entitled to be fast tracked to receive antivirals. Despite my having two emails from the NHS supporting my case, I had to argue with a registrar half my age to get them: “The Trust has its own policy ” she tried to tell me, but my problem with authority figures stood me in good stead – I stood my ground and she finally agreed to ask the hospital micro biologist. The next day I received a course of Paxlovid, and I suffered no worse than a croaky voice and a bit of a phlegmy cough. (And the bonus that accompanied my infection was getting me a room to myself, thus removing from my shoulders the weight of the self imposed responsibility to alert staff to the fact that one or other of my three confused and frail fellow bay members – I was amusingly on an elderly care ward* by this time – was trying to get out of bed and risked falling.)

                  *I don’t even qualify for my state pension until December…

              • Christ, Nige. If it is any cosolation, my mum’s just splashed out on a carbon-fibre rollator, which is incredibly light and strong, and is now whizzing about.

                P.S. I take back all my petty moaning over on the takeover.

  8. A Martin Samuel article: I read it in a pub where, very generously, the Sunday newspapers are offered. I don’t agree with everything he writes, but he’s a terrific journalist – it’s good to see him doing more than just sport.

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