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