Photos:
Dread at the controls

George and Sam. George, my mum always closes her eyes when she's having her photo taken.

Karl robot dancing and repairing hardware in the heat of the moment.

George, your foul-mouthed host, and Sam.

Holly and Phil from "The Scene."





Tourette’s Can Afflict Us All

Yesterday was the first full broadcast day for 209 Radio from our new premises, The Howard Mallett Centre in Cambridge. My guests were Sam, organiser and resident dj at the Priory, and Priory promoter George. We arrived around an hour before we were due to go on air. Phil and Holly were busy seamlessly presenting “The Scene,” so we relaxed and I took a few photos. Little did we know what carnage would soon erupt around us.

We took to the studio a little before 7 pm to get a feel for the place. The familiar surroundings of Karl’s living room had been replaced by the more pressurised, but ultimately more professional environment of the broadcasting studio. The show started well, and came together seamlessly for the most part. I made the competition questions as awkward-sounding as possible, (translations at the end of this article), but apart from that, and Sam’s sweaty palms, the show was going swimmingly.

Then all hell broke loose. I’d already loaded the cd containing James’ (The Fish, and Sam’s Priory djing partner) mix for the second hour of the show. However, on coming back to look at the cd display and to pfl (pre fade listen) the cd to check the levels, I saw that the display read “no disc.” Stress crept out from nowhere and myself, George and Sam began frantically looking for the missing cd, turning everything over in the studio in the process. The problem was that I’d absent-mindedly left the microphone channel open and anyone listening could hear me putting Gordon Ramsay to shame in the swearing steaks as we searched high and low for the missing medium.

Pete from Loop Soup had just come back from playing some gigs in Greece and switched on his computer. He phoned the station to tell us what was happening. Karl appeared at the studio door, ashen-faced, pointing at the mixing desk and open mic channel. Emmanuelle, my partner, was listening at home, and my kids were rolling around the floor laughing at my pain. Needless to say we quickly brought the whole episode to a hasty close, but were was the cd?

Well, the cd player, compressors, etc, are all set up on an angled rack at around 15 degrees. What had happened was the cd had actually slipped back over the sliding door and into the mechanism of the player. Luckily I had enough records to keep us sailing on an even keel, so while Karl opened up the player to extract the cd, I played on. Nero came to mind. You couldn’t make it up.

As soon as Karl got the disc and rebolted the cd player, he put the disc back in to play, and guess what happened? Yep, I went to open the cd tray again and nothing came out. It had slipped into the machine again. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Karl had to go through the whole sorry process again. I got to complete my impromptu mini-mix on the station’s new decks, which were fine, and that was that. Of such events are broadcasting history made, but I do feel a bit of a tit. To compound my evening, my bus didn’t turn up, I got soaked, and had to shell out £13 for a cab. I was seriously pissed off when I got home.

Competition questions. Reply to machines@209radio.co.uk, or by leaving a comment below. Please don’t forget to leave your contact details.

To win two copies of the new Ellen Allien and Apparat LP “Orchestra of Bubbles” (to read an excellent review of this album by Philip Sherburne, click here)answer this insultingly simple question.

What is the name Ellen Allien’s label?

To win two wristbands (winner and guest) for the Saturday part of London’s
Encompass festival, answer this even more insultingly simple question.

In which city is Soma Records based?

Good luck y’all.

Playlist for Machines Are Funky: 6/5/06

The Dance – Rhythim Is Rhythim (Transmat)
Ghostrider – Lars Wickinger (Traum)
Urban Wind – Matt John (Perlon)

Priory Interview Pt. 1

5.3 – Rekorder (Rekorder)
Ride (Der Schmeisserlovelysplinetmix) – Aswefall (Kill The DJ)
Noite de Carnaval (Matthew Herbert dub) – Cibelle (Crammed)
The Dance (Mr Negative remix) – Thugfucker (Was Not Was)

Priory Interview Pt 2

The Intergalactic Baptist Church – Underground Resistance (UR)
Intimacy Girl (Someone Else remix) – Heartz4 (HelloRepeat)

Hastily-arranged Minimix:

El Encuentro – Alex Under (Plus 8)
Silent Shout (Troy Pierce Barado en Locombia mix) – The Knife (Brille)
Frequentraeger (Pan-Pot remix) – Misc (Sender)
Finger Food – Phage & Daniel Dreier (Higrade)
Fancy (John Tejada remix) – Suxul Music (Suxul)
Cannon Shakedown – Lansley & Brockespeir (Substatic)
The Cat’s Pyjamas – Sweet n’ Candy (Einmaleins)
Rotums Kanoner – Steady Cam (K2)
Fueron Dos Y Volvio Uno – Damien Schwartz (CMYK)
25 Bitches – Troy Pierce (Minus)