I don’t miss JK and Joel though, obviously
I hadn’t realized until I was back in England over Christmas, but I kind of miss Radio 1. At least during the day, the playlist still has a vague remnant of a kind of public-service universalism, which is very different from the rigid demographic separation of American radion stations. Of course, given the state of pop music at the moment, this does mean that 75% of the time they’re playing Chas and Dave shite, but the rest of the time it’s ludicrous dance music and/or the fantastic new Kelly Rowland single (which is not even being released over here), and the contrast is so appealing its almost worth listening through the crap.
While I was in Yorkshire, I also went looking for some bassline CDs, unsuccessfully, as it turns out. I’d assumed I’d be able to find dodgy bassline mix CDs in the shops I’d bought dodgy happy-hardcore mix tapes in when I was a teenager; unfortunately, they’ve all closed down and/or been replaced with chain stores (which, ironically, now all sell glossy happy-hardcore mix CDs; evidently happy hardcore is big business). I did get the Woolworths-exclusive Girls Aloud remix CD, though, which is worth £5 of anyone’s money. Tony Lamezma proves himself to be the new Trouser Enthusiasts (who were themselves the new Motiv8, with whom, of course, Brian Higgins got his start in the music business); three different remixers, over the course of about 17 years and god-knows how many tracks, always sounding identical and still sounding fantastic. Actually, that’s not quite true; Lamezma stretches his range a bit by finishing off the CD with what is more or less a happy-hardcore remix of “Biology”; it is, as you would expect, amazing.
Anyway, now that I’m back in the Bay Area; “Popos” off Turf Talk’s new-ish album is really fucking good.