02/05/2025

Fank Fuck it’s Friday Freak,

I’ll keep this brief… first they went after Kneecap, who’s next?
We’re systematically being shut down and told to shut up.
Where the fuck is free speech? What next? Thought crimes?
As the veneer of democracy starts to fade…
Loop have been asked multiple times to play Israel and I have always turned down the opportunity and said we will go when Palestine is free.
I’ve talked to Jewish friends and I have met some wonderful Israelis and they all have agreed with my stance.
And it shall remain until Palestine is free of tyranny.
Never took Sharon Osbourne as a snowflake, but she can fuck right off.
Stop digging Sharon, go eat some more Ozempic

There… got that off my chest.
Let’s have some stellar tunage.

First up
Talking Heads were a fantastic live band and by the time the Remain In Light tour kicked in, funk fiends like Buster Cherry Jones were in the line up.
They went off the boil for me trying to follow roads to nowhere, and as good as the first three albums were, they slayed it with Remain In Light.
The perfect album.
ENO is still in the mix and his fingerprints are all over it.
And he and David Byrne still had time to record the outstanding My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.
Although they’d touched the Afro funk rhythms before on Fear Of Music, the wiggle was full on Fela Kuti by this one.
Crossed and Painless? Yes please Sir!

What can you say about Miles Davis that hasn’t already been said.
But when he was a shut in, paranoid about every single thing and coked out of his gourd, he wasn’t doing well in the studio.
His deal was lock tight and albums needed to be released.
Already a genius, Teo Maceo had to work his magic without Miles.
A veteran and I will say an incredibly astute editor, which is much the power of Miles.
Big Fun wasn’t really what the people wanted, a hotchpotch of outtakes from prime 70’s funky Miles.
But fuck me, Teo earned his pension compiling it and why oh why they never used Great Expectations on Bitches Brew, only Teo and Miles could tell you.
Has to be my all time fave Miles… he fucking runs the voodoo down on this one.
It’s long, but it snakes around your brain like the most potent drugs always do… stick with it, it’s fucking majestic.

Before Roky lost his mind, he was a prime garage punker.
A harmonica that out screeched Dylan, thank fuck they traded that for a jug that bubbled and went dugga dugga dugga a lot.
Here we have the original You’re Gonna Miss Me.
It’s got it all… terrible mix, terrible playing and that fucking harp.
Dunno how the cutting engineer got that on wax but he grabbed a couple of brownie points for it.
But most of all, this is def 110% ROKY laying it on the line and not fucking about.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the freak, I give you The Spades.

See ya next week
Same Freak Time
Same Freak Channel

Over n Out
RH X

25/04/2025

Greetings, Children Of Freak!

Back in the days before Kate Bush, the weird sister in the charts was the divine Noosha Fox.
Dressed head to toe in flamboyant attire from the 30’s, her unusual voice (which I must say, must have been quite the influence on fellow weird sister, Alison Goldfrapp) cut quite the swath in amongst the double denim and bubble top hairy blokey types.
As I say to friends (I do have a few) those were the days when Top Of The Pops hosted a wide array of tunage. Eclectic was the word and demolishes the auto tuned bullshit that gets called pop these days.
She wasn’t around for long as Fox but those singles were fantastically odd.
Here’s the best one I think, and some ace flanger work to boot.

David Thomas passed away on Wednesday.
I fucking love Pere Ubu – the avant garage, as they liked to say.
Even on his own or with whatever collaboration he would muster, he was the most intriguing fellow. A wonderful giant of a man who gave me hours of joy over the years.
Years ahead of his time, he truly is one of the highest peaks of freak.
Rest In Freak Crocus Behemoth
We don’t need a joke…

Lastly, a slither of later period/post Damo CAN
A beautiful bleary eyed Karoli led piece that relies less on the Holger majik edits and more on his radio interference pools of lushness…all of which gently evolves and evaporates only the way that these gentlemen could gather together.
Some fine stick work as always from Jaki, who keeps it minimal but still has the perfect heartbeat of perfect time.
If cats had thumbs, this gets a double thumbs up from my cat. She likes this one, it sends her to sleep.

Til next time
Keep the freak flag flying

RH X

20/04/2025

Hey Boy
Hey Girl
Superstar Freakdom
Here we go!

Let’s get it on with some superior cosmic slop from a real god… Mr George Clinton.
An anthem for a star child and something to believe in fer real. The kingdom of heaven is within.
Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow… probably only to the local supermarket for that forgotten pint of milk, but there you go.
As a side note :
Fuckin’ Eddie Hazel playing his absolute A game… god damn… and what about that organ distortion?!
A rival to Cale on Sister Ray on any day of the week.

Next up!
The mighty Stacy Sutherland takes his stand. It’s not just Roky y’know.
Like Eddie Hazel, his playing is majik on another level.
But both died way too fucking young and they just don’t get the props they really should do.
C’mon, it’s Easter Everywhere!

And finally o peeps of faith!
The mighty ( and I’ll say it to the day I die, best drum programmer that lives) Photek.
Running some rings around Saturn in that beautiful skip only he can rustle up… with some astral travelling help from Pharoah Sanders.

That’s it fer me this week.
I hope you are all having superior weekends.
As yer Ma would say… “don’t be spoiling your dinner with all those choc eggs!”

Love and Light
RH X

11/04/2025

Welcome to the Freak all you people out there

It’s been quite the day in my part of the world… that’s Sunny Leeds to you.

A sunny shimmer will purvey the list this week me thinks.

Let’s have a bit of Serge, shall we?
Bonnie and Clyde?
Why not…
Prime period Serge and his then current obsession with B.B., who for the great mysterious beauty that she was… couldn’t sing a fucking note the same way twice.
That aside, this is a stone cold classic. Unique and masterfully done. Peak Serge.
And B.B’s Nicoesque honking doesn’t spoil a damn second.
You’ll be saying “Bon-eeeeeee” all weekend now.

Back in the days when Phil Oakey was still wanted and chasing a cocktail waitress around Sheffield, he cut a very different dash under that curtain of hair alongside a couple of fellas that didn’t want a fascist groove thang later on.
People talked seriously of The League with the same chin stroking edge as fellow Sheffield types like The Cabs and Clock DVA.
Weird lyrics and dark passages surrounded their black hit of space on two great albums, Reproduction and Travelogue.
How different things would have been if this had been the biggest hit in the land.
Electronic Pop don’t get much better than this tall wall.

And finally…
He was the godfather of soul and if he wanted his licking stick quick, he fucking got it.
Damn Right

Some hot funk to finish and you go start your weekends right peeps
Have fantastic ones wherever you roam

RH X

05/04/2025

Late again, and I’m normally so punctual.
Old age and a weathered brain do not go hand in hand.

Anyways, let’s get into it.

First up we have one of my favourite bands ever to exist on this here globe…
Cabaret Voltaire.
Jazz The Glass originally came as a seven inch wrapped up with the Eddies Out / Walls Of Jericho 12”
All encased in a plastic wallet and you got a free badge too
Lots of neon pink involved.
It’s a mad little fucker, don’t know if the boys had been to a tapas bar that night in Sheffield but there’s a distinct Spanish flavour to the track and I have always assumed Mal is screeching Ahhh Toro!
Maybe not… but it’s a cracker and complemented still by Chris Watson’s Vox Continental organ doing its best proto Seeds psyche out.

One for the Aussies here today… Severed Heads
What can be said about the warped touch of Mr Tom Ellard? One minute (actually more like 6) you get a tape loop of a basketball bouncing and doing its best to be that annoying little fucker next door that just won’t stop bouncing that cunting ball all fucking day… and then you get the pop genius of Dead Eyes Opened.
Years before techno, this obviously has common ground with Kraftwerk… but with morbid humour.

Actually another for the Aussies, it’s a twofer!
We’ll leave with the company of Graham Revell/SPK
This is where the industrialist sprawl became quite something else, more ethereal and plaintive.
The whole of the Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers is liquid beauty and obviously the pointer to Mr Revell’s future in Hollywood.
If you think you’ve heard it before but can’t place it, it’s used sparingly in the movie Dead Calm in a slightly changed form.

That’s it for the freak this week.
See ya next one!

Have splendid weekends everyone,
Over n out
RH X

29/03/2025

Welcome to a slightly later makin’ with the freak freak.
Second week in and I’m already slack.

Let’s hit it or quit it fellows and remember… PLAY IT FUCKING LOUD

First up, in tribute to the last of the Dolls, a fearless bunch of freaks if there ever was a day, the lightening strike that is Jet Boy.
One of the many high points of a much neglected classic first elpee, which I still say to this very day, that Todd Rundgren was the right man for the job of helming and I think he captured the mercer street spirit splendidly.
As an aside, when I was a very very young man, I turned up for the first day of a job in my resplendent Dolls tee ( this very album cover shot ) and pretty much the first thing the manager said to me was “ I knew you’d be trouble”
A very high compliment to me naturally.
Anyway, enough of my yakking, let’s rock this motherfucker!
RIP David Johansen

Next!
Another bunch of street fighting muthafuckers were The Five.
Sadly, now all gone too.
Looking At You is the rug stomping high of the still hard to listen to Back In The USA mishap.
Don’t get me wrong, not much wrong with the songs, but how can such a violently proud B52 bomber of a band sound so enfeebled by a lousy production?
Well, I ain’t here to split hairs when the party’s on, so get yer lugholes around this beautiful shaker

Finally, a little lighter number but still a slice of hip shakin heaven, courtesy of Tennessee’s finest… Mr Bobby “Blue” Bland.
It’s blues breakin’ but with the unmistakable Bland heart full of soul.

So that’s it for this week freak
Have wonderful weekends all of you
Until we see each other again

Adios amigos
RH X

21/03/2025

Welcome to The Freak all you lovely motherfuckers!

It’s been a good while since I’ve done this shit and it feels good to be back.

No pissing about, let’s get it on!

Bit of a theme this week – have you guessed what it is yet?

First up,
Before Beyoncé tried to get freaky, the queen of freak was Missy Elliot.
Time was when an album of hers hit the streets, you knew you were in for a freakin’ good time
With Timbaland at the controls, the freak hit maximum freakatude within two songs.
With tablas as fast as fuck that even Zakir Hussain would have bust a sweat and the typical hybrid minimalist Timbaland production, Get Your Freak On just slays and sways. Beyoncé can keep her fucking cowboy hat, she ain’t no queen when next to Missy.

Next up you freaks:
This is a certified banger, I don’t give a shit for the naysayers. If you’ve heard this on a dance floor, it’s monumental.
Of course, the samples ain’t very new man (geddit?) but this have been given steroids.
With more line up changes than The Fall, Sugababes get it right on this un.
It’s a fucking monster

And finally my dear sweet people, the freak of the freaks, the holiest of the holys

Often imitated but those that try just don’t cut the mustard, this is the sound of a poptastic maelstrom

Im gonna leave you now.
Turn these fuckers up and then turn them up more.

Have absolutely fantastic weekends y’all.

Love,
RH X