This month, John and Luke discuss what they’ve been up to and their favourite bits of culture at the moment. John reveals the secret to being a terrific wedding DJ, revealing what tracks you need to ensure you buy the crowd off with before dropping ‘Short Dick Man’, Nitzer Ebb and SIKK’s song about washing machines malfunctioning for the assembled guests later on. Also in the preamble discussion of Swedish Midsummer traditions and the daft dances where you have to pretend to be a frog hopping around a greenery-bedecked pole with two huge nadgers dangling from it. That aside, John recommends High John The Conqueror, the new novel from Tariq Goddard, “a political, philosophical police procedural black comedy in a weird fiction universe” and “the Wiltshire/Hampshire borders True Detective”. There are chapter titles named after Cure songs but really, says John, the vibe of the book is ‘Spectre vs Rector’ by The Fall, “English rural modern gritty weirdness, druggy, apocalyptic and funny”. Luke goes in for a load of albums from the Rocket Recordings stable, who are having an amazing 2022 with The Utopia Strong's brilliant second album International Treasure, which seems to give credence to the idea that the best art is often made from a place of naive and happy experimentation. Then there’s further amazing LPs from Rocket artists Holy Scum, Alison Cotton, J.Zunz, Moundabout . We also have a chat about a recent gig at the state51 warehouse in Bethnal Green where Brood/Cycles and Better Corners marked the release of the vinyl editions of the music commissioned for our subscribers – you can buy them here. Thanks to our producer Alannah Chance and Lisa Cradduck for the new illustration above.

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