Podcasts Revisited

Nearly a year ago, May 2006 to be precise, I made my first ever Just Like Music blog entry and it was about podcasts. Eleven months have passed, things have come and gone, I’m still listening to podcasts, but are you?

I’ve always maintained that the functionality of podcasts has a lot to do with when you may get the opportunity to listen to them. Fortunately for me (or perhaps unfortunately?!) I have to spend nearly two hours a day on trains, so I spend a lot of that time listening to new albums and… podcasts. These bad-boys have really exploded now. A year ago it was bedroom DJs, the select label, and some radio stations pumping them out - but now every record label, radio show, artist, DJ, club night, and blogger has one! So, now we are spolit for choice, but with this gift comes a great burden, which ones to download?! I can help there.

Firstly, to all of those people still ignorant to podcasts: check yo’ self, before one wrecks thine self! If you think podcasts cost money, they very rarely do, from personal experience only Ricky Gervais’s podcast costs any money. If you think downloading podcasts is complicated, please understand that the very existence of podcasts is to counter the effort of individually checking sites periodically and manually downloading files. If you use iTunes it is as simple as clicking a button or pasting a URL just the once, after which iTunes will check daily (without any user prompt) if there are new episodes of the ‘casts you are subscribed to available - if there is, it will grab them for you. Minimal effort, minimal fuss.

On to some podcasts you should check out. I have a list of feed URLs in the sidebar of this blog, although I do need to update that, but below I shall give the actual webpage URL and details on some podcasts I have discovered since last years blog entry (which you should def visit for details on those classics).

>>justlikepodcast - Yup, this is the podcast for this blog. Weekly (or there abouts) I upload a new one containing a selection of tracks that have been catching my ear for the past week. Usually a blend of hip-hop, electronica, funk, jazz, anything really, but be sure to let me know what you think!

The FADER Magazine - This is quite a unique one, if you subscribe through iTunes, not only do you get the 40 min long audio podcast that accompanies this mag, but you can download the PDF of the latest issue. So as you listen to the sounds fresh from the streets… you can also read about them too!

Funkydown Podcast - One of my favs at the moment. Dr Rubberfunk hits us fortnightly with an hour of solid funk gold. Unlike my podcast, he actually speaks, which is cool. The doc has regular features too, like the big band brawl and an album of the week, a good listen indeed.

Diesler Podcast - Less frequently, but equally as enjoyable, Tru Thoughts’ Diesler releases a monthly podcast of funk and latin sounds in a leftfield style. This one has it all, guests, chit-chat, remixes, live mixes, rare sounds, fresh sounds, you name it!

Tru Thoughts - The Brighton label now have their own podcast and it is a great way to hear just what is going on with those guys. The first one was presented by label head Robert Luis and he explained where the label has come from and where it’s going, all the while sharing the rich sounds from then and now. A must have to keep in the know.

RiotControl NYC - I featured Sonny Noir, presenter of this podcast, in a blog entry a while back. This one comes out monthly, but is well worth the wait! With Burt Fox on the turntables, anything could happen, but it will always be good. From hip-hop to soul to electronica and back again, anything goes and it sounds good.

Plug Research - These dudes release little mixes here and there to promote their new releases, so good to be subscribed just to hear what the new stuff sounds like. Plug Research ARE the sound of L.A., home to Flying Lotus, The Lifeforce Trio and Old Podrida to name a few.

Gilles Peterson Worldwide - This fella needs no introduction, but he releases a podcast sometimes monthly… sometimes fortnightly. Recent episodes have included the guests; Nostalgia 77, Skream, 4hero, and Pete from BBE. Genuinely interesting conversations and genuinely educational in a very relaxed manner! A valuable podcast for sure.

Fat City Recordings - Manchester based store and label Fat City have their own podcast too. Usually an hour long and containing fantastic mixes, somewhat in a similar vein to Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel podcast. These guys have been the music lovers alternative to straight up dance in the Manchester area and beyond for years.

Eardrums Shall Fail - The amazing Linda shares with us what she is digging whenever she can be arsed. Can contain anything from RJD2, Georgia Ann Mudlrow, to obscure Japanese pop or indie rock. They’ll always be something that will catch your ear. A good opportunity to grab things that might ordinarily not show up on your aural radar.

dublab - A collective of dudes that couldn’t give a shit how weird things can get, but if you enjoy it, then that’s even better. Not everything they kick out hits the spot with me, but quite often it does! Regularly features Daedelus, Frosty, Carlos Nino, Egon, and plenty more talented folk. Nowhere better for genuine alternative music.

Do make sure you check out my original podcast blog entry too, cos that contains the links for podcasts such as; Stones Throw, Solid Steel, IndieFeed Hip Hop and KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune. Similarly, if you know of any decent podcasts that I haven’t mentioned, I’d love to hear about them. Also don’t be afraid to ask questions, I want you to be able to make use of these things too, so if you still haven’t got a clue how to get started with podcasts, give me a shout.

Useful links:

• iTunes
• Eardrums Shall Fail
• Tru Thoughts

6 Questions: with… Sonny Noir

Today I bring you the first edition of a new feature, 6 Questions. This feature has been in the making for a long time, but now it is finally here. 6 Questions is six set, and vague, questions that I fire off towards artists, DJs, promoters, whoever, so that they can explain in their own words exactly why I dig them. 99% of the time it is my word that you take as gospel on recommendations through this site, but this time the info comes straight from the horses mouth. Six questions, always the same six questions, but answered in any way the questioned feels like answering.

So without any further hesitation, I bring you the first edition with Sonny Noir of Brooklyn’s RiotControl podcast…

1. Who are you? My name is Sonny Noir.

2. What do you do? I do whatever is necessary to enjoy the short time I have on this planet. For the sake of this interview, I host a radio (podcast) show called RiotControl out of Brooklyn, New York with my partner Burt Fox.

3. Why do you do it? We’re interested in “timeless” mixes. A lot of DJ’s and mix shows who play what we play are constructed like “This is our reggae show, this is our old school rap episode” etc… Our concept is more towards the old Afrika Baambaata style of hip-hop djing in that we find links between records from all over. A lot of the stuff we play, we wouldn’t even recommend you buy the album they came from because it’s not always that listenable. But on that record there might be 1 song or half a song that we recognize as dope and something that connects with a piece of another record. Once all these are mapped out, connected, scratched, beat juggled or whatever, you get a RiotControl episode. Ideally, some sort of sense of continuity and vibe exists as you listen while the music skips across time periods and genres.

4. So what’s new? We are about to release our fourth episode and continue working on the fifth. We decided to only release episodes every 4 – 6 weeks. Kind of like a monthly subscription to a magazine. We want each episode to be well thought out and anticipated by the listeners. When we release a new show, we want the listeners to get excited because they know we’ve been putting our heads together, hitting the record shops and making sure it something we’re proud to present from start to finish.

5. Who are you listening to at the moment? Our show focuses on mostly funk/soul, hip hop with brains, Jamaican and electronic that’s not for Miami and Las Vegas (side note, I do love those cities but if you’ve been you know). Overall, we want to connect all music from these genres dating from the 1960’s to the present. I love rock music but we don’t include it in the show. Rock wise I’m currently into The Cold War Kids, M. Ward, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Raconteurs and The Shins. Lupe Fiasco is doing it for me in hip hop and Atmosphere continue to make me want to violently turn over tables with food on them. Because of the show we’re buying more vinyl than ever, so obscure funk and soul has been my primary interest. There are some great labels devoted to re releasing old vinyl that’s out of print and/or assembling compilations of hard to find music. Some of these I’m into are Ubiquity, Soul Jazz and Luv N’ Haight. Then there’s labels like Daptone and Truth & Soul who have taken this spirit to the modern day by releasing modern funk and soul records that neither cling to the past nor attempt to overly modernize the genre. I’m also into Dub Step, a relatively newer brand of electronic music mostly coming out of London. Excellent stuff but very new and we’ll see where it goes.

6. What’s your most valuable nugget of wisdom? I’m just a music nerd with internet access. You don’t want wisdom from me. All I’ll say is enjoy your life, at the end of the day that’s all you can do. Oh, and listen to Gavin, this dude knows what he’s talking about. Stay tuned to RiotControl! We’ve got some great ideas coming your way soon. Thanks for giving us a few minutes of your time. It’s much appreciated. PEACE.

My thanks go out to Sonny Noir for taking the time to answer 6 Questions. You HAVE TO check out the RiotControl podcast, it is fantastic. You can check RiotControl out on the web… www.riotcontrolnyc.com and also add them to your friends on MySpace - plus the feed URL to the podcast is in the sidebar of this blog. I’ve listened to the first three podcasts and they just had me entranced. Burt Fox is a demon on the wheels of steel, and the selection of tunes is incredible - it isn’t often I’m left thinking “whoah, what is this track?”, but it happens quite a bit when I’m listening to RiotControl!

I’m hoping this will become a regular feature, and that you will find it informative and perhaps even a little educational! So until the next 6 Questions, get that RiotControl stuff listened to! Also, volume 7 of the Just Like Music podcast is now available for download.

Useful links:

• RiotControl website
• RiotControl MySpace page
• Ubiquity website
• Soul Jazz website
• Luv N’ Haight website
• Daptone website
• Truth & Soul website

End of Year Musings

It is nearly time to bid 2006 a fond farewell. 2006 has marked my second full year in Australia, and somehow I’ve still maintained my English accent! I do believe that writing this blog has made me even more attentive towards a subject I was already so passionate about, but either way it does seem that 2006 has been a fantastic year for music. I’ll be writing my “best of 2006″ style blog post very shortly, so look out for that.

I doubt this is fresh news to anyone, but The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, sadly passed away at the age of 73 on Christmas day. James was admitted to hospital on Christmas Eve after his dentist noticed that all was not well. It turned out that he had pneumonia. The official cause of death, according to his agent, was heart failure. It’s strange cos literally just last week I was thinking to myself how amazing it was that we still had one of our musical pioneers living with us, and then just like that, we lose him. It certainly is a tragic loss. James Brown was a natural born performer and he gave it his all right up until the end - he will be dearly missed.

Coldcut and Steinski - Lesson Two (James Brown Mix)
>> download track (YSI)
>> Coldcut website
This download link will expire on 5th January.

On a different note, I’ve uploaded Volume 5 of the Just Like Music podcast. I’ve had fantastic feedback for it so far, but a few people have been asking for track listings. There isn’t really enough room in the relevant field to put all that info with the actual podcast, so I’ll just give you the tracklisting here…

1. Ammoncontact - With Voices
2. Spank Rock - Sweet Talk
3. Dr Who Dat? - B-Boy Portrait In Spain
4. Amon Tobin - Big Furry Head
5. Aim - Aberdeen
6. Camille - Baby Carni Bird
7. Easy Star All-Stars - No Surprises
8. Alice Russell - Hurry On Now (Boub Remix)
9. Sigur Ros - Staralfur

I get quite a lot of space with my podcast host, and as such all five volumes are still available. Want to know what all the fuss is aboot? This is the feed URL once more… http://www.switchpod.com/users/justlikemusic/feed.xml - there should be somewhere an option within your media player to subscribe to a feed, this is where you would paste the above link. I know in iTunes you just click ‘Advanced’ at the top of the screen, then select ‘Subscribe to Podcast…’ - so should be something similar for other types of software.

Useful links:

• James Brown website
• Download - Coldcut and Steinski - Lesson Two (James Brown Mix)
• Coldcut website

>>just like podcast

Hello friends. The other week I created a podcast and shared the link with bout half a dozen pals. Seems some enjoyed it, so I’ve made another one. I don’t see any reason why the whole world shouldn’t hear it, so along with volume 1, you can download volume 2 at this RSS feed URL: http://www.switchpod.com/users/justlikemusic/feed.xml - just subscribe using that address and you will be good to go.

A few words on the podcast; the podcasts are a showcase of what I have been listening to lately and they are like the mp3s I put up on this blog, as far as they are for trial purposes. If you like what you hear… great… now go buy some stuff. Similarly, if a PR/label person or artist isn’t happy with me using their stuff on the podcasts, bear in mind these things; the tracks are at 96kbps and are blended in at the end/beginning - hence they aren’t exactly clean and crisp copies, and therefore not suitable as top grade pirate material! I hope that you see things from my perspective - that is the perspective that sees these podcasts as a way to help people discover your music, and not as a way for people to get your stuff for free. Either way, we’re all different, and if you want something removed, just say the word.

Volume 1 includes tracks by; The Broken Keys, JoolsMF, Daedelus, Adventure Time, TM Juke, Dr Rubberfunk, Count Bass D, Oh No, Bonobo. Volume 2 includes tracks by; DJ Krush, Darondo, Ghostface, Amy Winehouse, Gotye, Murs, 9th Wonder, Pure Essence, The Isley Brothers, Musetta, The Q4.

No doubt these podcasts will be as sporadic as my blog entries have become, but it would be great to get some feedback on them. I hope you enjoy what you hear, and maybe even discover some great artists you’ve never heard of before - we shall see! For now I’ll leave you with a new(ish) Ghostface Killah mp3 with MF DOOM…

Ghostface Killah - Charlie Brown
>> download track (YSI)
>> Ghostface MySpace page
This download link will expire on 15th December.

Useful links:

• Podcast feed URL: http://www.switchpod.com/users/justlikemusic/feed.xml
• Download - Ghostface Killah - Charlie Brown
• Ghostface Killah MySpace page

First post/Podcasts

So, this is the first post of this new blog. If anyone is reading this, thank you, if nobody is reading this… well, I'm as good as talking to myself. Anyway… I figured a good first post would be to talk about what I have discovered to be quite a misconceived internet phenomenon… PODCASTS!

I think they are great. There I said it. Personally I listen to them 90% whilst on my laptop, and perhaps 10% of the time on CD whilst driving. If you've done your homework you'll know that these podcasts were originally devised as a way to listen to radio shows at your own leisure on an iPod.

However, times have changed and so many different things are badged as podcasts these days and there are plenty of methods of listening to them. In hindsight I think the name given to this service has been, in an ignorant sense, a hindrance. It was only after really getting into listening to them and mentioning it to my friends that I realised where the misconception occurs. It seems that being called podcasts immediately associates them with Apple's iPod - quite a large group of people are anti-iPod (or Apple) and as such ignorantly dismiss podcasts as being things only for people that own an iPod.

But… they are a great way to catch new music, talk shows and the such via an RSS feed. If you aren't one for all the technical jargon, just know that through most audio players (iTunes, Winamp, WMP, etc…) you can subscribe to a particular podcast. Once you have subscribed, your media player will regularly check the feed to see if a new episode is available - if one is, your media player will download the new episode and let you know - if there isn't, obviously it wont. Either way your media player will continue to regularly check for updates to the stream. No fuss needed.

There are loads and loads of different podcasts available online, enough to suit anybody's needs. So, anyway, here is a list of the podcasts I am currently subscribed to, along with the URL for each feed. You can use these URLs to add the podcasts to your subscriptions…

• East Village Radio (Mark Ronson show) - weekly show hosted by Mark Ronson. Mainly hip-hop, but generall funky - URL: http://www.eastvillageradio.com/auto-archives/MARK_RONSON/dircaster.php
• BBC 1xtra Homegrown - weekly podcast from 1xtra, featuring the best of Britain's homegrown black acts. - URL: http://download.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/1xtra/homegrownmix/rss.xml
• IndieFeed Hip-Hop - New podcast comes out about once every three days. The podcasts are just one song long. But each podcast features one fantastic independent hip hop track - URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/IndiefeedHipHop
• KCRW's Today's Top Tune - A daily podcast featuring one track as selected by KCRW - URL: http://www.kcrw.com/podcast/show_itms/tu
• Mad Decent Worldwide Radio - Diplo and his team present a once monthly podcast featuring hip-hop, dance-hall, and other funky beats - URL: http://rss.mac.com/diplo1978/iWeb/mad%20decent%20radio/mad%20decent%20radio/rss.xml
• Radio 1's Best of Unsigned - Radio 1 regularly feature unsigned British acts for your listening pleasure - URL: http://download.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/radio1/radio1sbestofunsigned/rss.xml
• Solid Steel - Roughly weekly podcast from Ninja Tune, featuring a mix from a different guest DJ each week. Typical Ninja Tune sounds - URL: http://ninjatune.net/solidsteel/rss.xml
• Stones Throw - Monthly podcast from hip-hop label Stones Throw - URL: http://www.stonesthrow.com/jukebox/podcast.xml
• The Xfm Sessions - Radio station Xfm provides a weekly podcast featuring one artist. Within the podcasts are interviews and music - URL: http://www.xfm.co.uk/sectionalRSS.aspx?id=6199
• Rapnews.co.uk - Rapnews.co.uk provide a regular podcast featuring the latest in UK hip-hop - URL: http://rapnews.co.uk/?feed=rss2

If anyone has any questions bout podcasts, feel free to give me a shout, I'll try my hardest to help. Also, if you know of any other decent podcasts that may have sneaked past my eagle internet eye, let me know!