Tag Archives: 10 years

Eclectic Mainline 16th April 2014

My favourite opening track on an album so far this year is Mask Maker by Liars, and ooh look, a record with string in it – I want!

It’s not just me celebrating a 10th anniversary this year.  Bleep has also been going 10 years and they are releasing a compilation featuring exclusive tracks, including this by Machinedrum:

I played both of the above in this week’s Eclectic Mainline.  You will find the full programme on the BCB Listen Again service.

I only have 2 weeks left of Eclectic Mainline now.  Next week’s programme will be a look back (listen back, I suppose) at some of the wonderful live sessions I’ve had during my 10 year tenure.

Here is this week’s track list:

Liars – Mask Maker (LP – Mess) (Mute) YouTube
Dum Dum Girls – Are You Okay? (LP – Too True) (Sub Pop) YouTube
Ben Jacov – Ipsää (Transalp EP) (Doumen) SoundCloud
Machinedrum – aeolia (Various Artists LP – Bleep:10) SoundCloud
I Break Horses – Disclosure (single and LP – Chiaroscura) (Bella Union)
Alice Bowman – What (single) (Happy Death)
Ambassadeurs – Make Me (free download) SoundCloud
Gruff Rhys – American Interior (single and LP – American Interior) (Turnstile) YouTube
Plaid – Hawkmoth (LP – Reachy Prints) (Warp) SoundCloud
Blank Realm – Bulldozer Love (single and LP – Grassed Inn) (Fire) SoundCloud
Lufth – Democracy Is Dead Like Printed Matter (LP – Distanz und Nähe) (Kompakt)
Archie Bronson Outfit – We Are Floating (single and LP – Wild Crush) (Domino) YouTube
Yann Tiersen – A Midsummer Evening (LP – ∞ (Infinity) (Mute) SoundCloud
Francois & the Atlas Mountains – La Fille Aux Cheveaux De Soie (LP – Piano Ombre) (Domino)

10 years and out! Eclectic Mainline 2nd April 2014

I made it to the big one oh!Albert 10 Years on BCB
It is now 10 years since my first programme on BCB, and what a 10 years it has been.  While preparing for this week’s anniversary edition I looked back over what I have achieved, and thought to myself…

“S**t, did I really do all that?!”

Eclectic Mainline has evolved a fair bit over my decade at BCB.  From starting to get a healthy number of new releases coming my way through 2004, I then had a frequent flow of interviewees on the programme in 2005.  The December 2005 edition of The Big Issue In The North ran an article under the title of “The Spirit of John Peel lives“.  This cited my own programme as one of several on community radio stations that had a similar ethos to that of the late Peel. Discovering that article on Boxing Day was by far the best Christmas present I got that year.

2006 was a turning point for Eclectic Mainline, as I dipped my toes into the world of live sessions, and I had several session guests a year for the next 5 years.  I would say that those sessions made the years from 2006 to 2010 my purple patch on BCB.  In 2011, Laura Rawlings and myself were up against the big boys and girls of the radio world, as our live sessions won us a Radio Academy Awards nomination. Continue reading