Tak Tent Six

Tak Tent is an internet radio station broadcasting out of Scotland. Last year The Wire magazine included them in a round up of radio stations worth listening to. A couple of years ago I was asked if I'd like to submit an hours' worth of songs for transmission and since then have been back several times. Last week Tak Tent put out my sixth Bagging Area mix, one that is made up almost exclusively of songs from this year and all from artists that are very familiar to this blog. You can listen to it here. 

Tracklist

• Pye Corner Audio: Let’s Emerge Pt. 1
• Reinhard Vanbergen and Charlotte Caluwaerts: They Do Not Care
• Sheer Taft: Requiem For Pablo
• Mark Peters and Dot Allison: Switched On
• 10:40: Coat Check
• A Mountain of One: Star (Glok Starlight Dub)
• Perry Granville: Dexter In Dub (Bedford Falls Players Remix)
• Unknown Genre: Elevator Ride (The Orielles Ambient Remix)
• Coyote: Home Grown
• The Summerisle Six: This Is Something (Rico Conning Mix)

Tak Tent Mix Pour Lundi

No long song today, a mix instead. Tak Tent Radio is an internet radio station broadcasting out of Scotland with mixes and shows from an array of contributors and regular guests. Some time ago I was asked if I'd like to provide an hour of music for Tak Tent and have since been back four times. The latest Bagging Area Tak Tent mix went up on Saturday and can be found here. More ambient, instrumental and Balearic sounds segued together in a way that I hope is pleasing and semi- competent. I've posted quite a few of the tracks in the mix here in recent times. 

• Underworld: Dark & Long (Most ‘Ospitable Mix)
• David Holmes and Jon Hopkins featuring Stephen Rea: Elsewhere Anchises
• William Alfred Sergeant: Circles
• Chris Carter: Poptone
• William Orbit: Wordsworth
• Sonic Boom/ Spectrum: True Love Will Find You In The End
• Steve Cobby: 45ft. Tide
• Gabriel Yared: C’est Le Vent, Betty
• Andy Bell: When The Lights Go Down
• The Vendetta Suite: Purple Haze, Yellow Sunrise (David Holmes Remix)
• Projections: Original Cell (Coyote Deep State Remix)
• Coyote: The Outsider

For some reason while putting it together the Gabriel Yared track suggested itself to me- I have no idea why. C'est Le Vent, Betty is from the soundtrack to the film Betty Blue. I'm sure you remember Betty Blue...

Betty Blue was released in 1988, directed by Jean- Jacques Beineix and starring Beatrice Dalle as Betty and Jean- Hugues Anglade as Zorg. Zorg lives in a beach house on the coast, making a living as a handyman while trying to become a writer. Betty arrives and turns his life upside down, setting fire to a beach house, stabbing a customer at a pizzeria with a fork and a sharp, painful descent into depression and hospitalisation. The film's first half, all young love and impulsiveness, sex and bohemian lifestyle, contrast sharply with the horrors of the second half. According to the director the film's two stars became very much intertwined, a relationship that went beyond acting. 'We didn't know if they were in the movie anymore', he said. Which puts the film's opening scene, a lengthy sex scene, in a different light. The soundtrack was by Gabriel Yared, a Lebanese composer and pianist and works as a listen in its own right. As well as the track on my mix above, this pair are a good way to start the week. 

Betty Et Zorg

37.2 le Matin

Tak Tent

The latest issue of The Wire (number 449 dated July 2021) has a lengthy feature on the growth of internet radio stations and an A to Z of 100 essential online stations. The Wire has been dedicated to exploring and focusing on experimental sound and music since 1982 and the internet radio stations in the article cover have a global reach- from China to South America and all points in between. Closer to home, one of the stations they've recommended in their list is Tak Tent Radio, based in central Scotland and with a similarly wide and eclectic range of music on offer- everything from Turkish psyche to dub, from weird folk to obscure Swiss coldwave. This is what The Wire said....

Last year Ali at Tak Tent emailed me out of the blue to say he'd found some of my Isolation Mixes done in the first lockdown and asked if I'd like to submit a mix to Tak Tent. I was stunned and flattered obviously and I've since done three mixes, one, two and three, lots of ambient, drone, Balearic, some techno, bits of dubby stuff, some Blade Runner and some Escape To New York- the sort of stuff that goes on here mainly. 

There's loads to explore at Tak Tent not least the regular spots from Richard Youngs, a genuine talent, hugely prolific and maker of all kinds of outsider music- experimental avant rock and folktronica if you're looking for labels. There's one here, a show done only using 10" vinyl, and the one referred to in the magazine, an hour of all vinyl, all acapella music here. 

Richard is also in AMOR, a slinky avant- disco outfit who have made some really good records in the last few years. One of the first records that dropped into my porch back at the start  of this year was their LEMUR 12", four slices of brilliance led by this song, Unravel, which I've posted before but that's no reason not to post it again- a sublime, dreamy, groove based seven minutes.