Episodes
We're hurtling back millions of years for this week's show, dear listener as we bring you a show all about terrifying lizards. There's music from Vancouver, which may or may not have a beach, improvised music from Trondheim, Nazi dinosaurs from Australia and a version of the theme to Jurassic Park with the lyrics rightfully restored. We also have a remarkable 1980s treatment of a 1920s vision of prehistory and we close with a terrifying children's song from South Korea.
Published 05/04/16
It's time to celebrate the work of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the show this week, dear listener. We have a Moonbase classic from the patron saint of PMB, Jean-Jacques Perrey as well as some Indian retro-futurism from visionary Ananda Shankar. But this show mostly contains tracks from musicians we've never played on the show before - and some of them are even quite new! We apologise in advance for this flirtation with the contemporary. Normal service will be...
Published 04/19/16
We're still full of the joys of spring here on the moon, dear listener as we bring you a show all about blossom and the trees which produce it. The fruiting seed for this idea was the arrival of a lovely new album on Ghost Box by exciting new pop duo Hintermass (aka Jon Brooks and Tim Felton) which has the sound of folk music from the future. In addition to that, we also have some Norwegians sounding Scottish, some TV advert music from Germany, some Greek philosophy by way of Taiwan and a...
Published 04/06/16
We return from our recent hiatus with an admittedly somewhat deranged chimera of a show for you, dear listener. This is two themes for the price of one as we bring you a show about both country music and the current Easter festivities. We have country Moog x 2, Japanese banjo enhancements, chiptune cake music, two bunny rabbits and some extremely futuristic folk music from Pakistan.
Published 03/27/16
It's time to catch up with some new releases and reissues on the show this week. We have a couple of new reissues from Dutton Vocalion, including a version of show favorite Caravan which we've inexplicably neglected up until now. There are a couple of tracks which could be fake 80s but sound more like fake 90s filtered through the fake 70s. There's also a double bill from Japan and we close the show with a couple of cornerstones/pillars of the Moonbase musical universe.
Published 02/23/16
This week we celebrate the work of the construction industry, with a show all about bricks and mortar. We have humoristic music from Russia, library music simultaneously from France and Belgium, Japanese rap from London, twinkly electronics from Canada and possibly the first ever mash-up of Fingerbobs and Deodato.
Published 02/16/16
This week we take a good look behind the mask, with a selection of music which isn't quite what it appears to be on first listen. We have Frenchmen pretending to be Japanese, a Japanese man pretending that Duke Ellington was also Japanese, an Irishman pretending to be Hawaiian, the sound of exotic Hackney and a duo pretending it's still the 1980s (#callback). WARNING: Surprisingly, no Germans.
Published 02/09/16
It's time to take another trip back to the imaginary 80s with, ironically, some of the newest music we've ever played on the show. We have highly-polished, adrenalin pumping tunes from such epicentres of 80s music such as Milwaukee, the Isle of White, Finland and Rome.
Published 02/03/16
We return to our journey through the rainbow this week, dear listener, with an all-blue edition of the show. But rest assured that, while the theme might be blue, the music itself is very much up-beat. We have some French easy-disco, home-made music boxes, a Welsh TV theme tune, The Herb, steel drums and plenty plenty Moog synthesizer. WARNING: Dangerously high levels of harpsichord.
Published 01/20/16
We kick the new year off by blasting away the cobwebs with some splendid reissues and new releases. We've got French space disco, a lost retro-futuristic relic from 1977, British exotica, Italian space-themed cinematic funk, something from Manchester's answer to Sun Ra and we close with a meditative piece from Tim Gane's current band ahead of their imminient triple-LP release - and there's plenty more besides too.
Published 01/10/16
It's time for an extremely sweet edition of the show, dear listener, as we bring you a selection of some of our favourite boilings. PLEASE NOTE: Any connection to the festive season is purely coincidental.
Published 12/22/15
Continuing on our journey through The Rainbow Collection, we reach that most verdant of colours, green. You'll hear slightly creepy library music from the UK and France, a brand new release from Ghost Bost and no less than four German artistes, dear listener, not to mention the First Lady of the Hammond.
Published 12/13/15
This week we explore the sunny uplands of our journey through the rainbow, dear listener, as we reach a colour associated variously with amusement, harmony and, er, envy, namely yellow. We have some 60s J-pop, a German pretending to be a Latin American pretending to be Japanese, a song-poem, some exotic Moog and the drifting stereo sounds of Werner Müller.
Published 12/06/15
We take a break from our trip through the colours of the rainbow this week, dear listener, with a trip around (some of) the capitals of the world. We hope it proves to be as much of a journey of discovery as it was for us as we share some very heart-felt and often quite puzzling celebrations of some of the world's great cities. Special thanks are due to our Canadian ambassador for finding a great 80s tribute to her very own capital city.
Published 11/29/15
Hot on the heels of last week's red show comes the next colour in The Rainbow Collection, namely orange. We have a surprisingly high representation of French music this week, dear listener, in particular French musicians pretending to be from South America. There's also beat poetry, exotica, 80s electronics and we close with a double bill of kawaii and classic Moog.
Published 11/22/15
This week's show sees the beginning of a new series we are calling The Rainbow Collection with each show in the collection taking one colour as its theme. We start our journey at the lower end of the visible spectrum with a ruddy great show about the colour red. We have library music from the UK and France, an Italian double-bill and even some music from one of the ancient kingdoms of South America.
Published 11/15/15
Time to catch up with some of our favourite new releases and reissues of recent weeks, dear listener. We have the new single from Swedish exoticists Joe Davolaz (featuring vocals from Kumisolo), a track from former Auteurs front man Luke Haines and his new all-analogue synth album about nuclear bunkers, a Colombian party from the Meridian Brothers and the organist they pay tribute to on their new album, some East German athletics training music, a track from the new single by ex-Stereolab...
Published 11/08/15
Continuing our seemingly obsessive interest in modes of transport - and to show that we do listen to you, dear listener - we present this week a selection of tunes on the subject of bus travel, a theme indirectly requested by our Canadian ambassador. There are plenty of stops along the way as we travel via New Zealand, Germany (two stops), the US, Sweden, Japan, Ghana and, most exotic of all, Leeds in the UK.
Published 11/01/15
Welcome to a truly diabolical edition of the show, dear listener. Yes, that's right, it's time to fill the house with cobwebs, turn all the lights out and hope that a mob of sinister children (dressed, inexplicably, as superheroes) don't come knocking on the door pleading for a trick or, perish the thought, a treat.
Published 10/25/15
It's time to get out on the high road, dear listener, for our altogether more high-octane follow-up to last week's bicycle special. So put your leathers on and join us as we take you - at moderate speed - down the highway to hell...
Published 10/18/15
After all the high-speed action of the last couple of weeks, it's time to take a rather more sedate approach this week with a show all about the gentle art of bicycling. We aren't talking middle-aged men in lycra here, dear listener but rather more tweed, trouser-clips (where appropriate) and poncho (if wet).
Published 10/04/15
Many listeners will have wondered why last week's all-motorway show singularly failed to play a version of that krautrock classic, Autobahn. Well now the secret machinations at work here behind the scenes at the Moonbase can be unveiled to reveal an entire show dedicated to this modern musical masterpiece! We've tried to find as many different approaches to this tune as we could, dear listener, but we won't spoilt the surprise by telling you whether there are any steel drum or chiptune...
Published 09/27/15
It's time to take to the open road, dear listener, as we celebrate the thrill of endless miles of tarmac, green verges and service stations unfolding before you on the motorway. And in case you're wondering, "why no version of Autobahn?" well let's just say that the motorway theme continues next week...
Published 09/20/15
It's time to stretch the legs and embark on a journey out of town into the country - and back again - on this week's show, dear listener. Inspired by the imminent release of Vic Mars bucolic new LP, The Land and the Garden, we've put together a series of tracks which take alternating views of the town versus the country.
Published 09/13/15
Join us, dear listener, on a long-overdue journey through some of the brightest stars in the night sky and discover just how easy-going this whole astronomy thing really is. You can also look forward to a future show complementing this one which will be all about the inky blackness between the stars...
Published 09/06/15