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The Current State of MusicThis is an attempt to find out what is going on i Author: Chris Cracknell
This project is an exploration of the current state of music and the music industrytold through the voices of artists, producers, musicians, DJs, and insiders. By sharing their personal stories, insights, struggles, and successes, we aim to understand how they've shaped their unique corners of the music world. Its about uncovering the real journeys behind the soundwhat drives them, what challenges they face, and what keeps them going. In doing so, I hope to inspire othersand myselfto keep pushing forward, especially during the tough times. chriscracknelldj.substack.com Language: en Genres: Music, Music Interviews Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Current State of Music Radio Show - Archive
Saturday, 28 February, 2026
Well, hello. Its been a busy week and spring gave us a little glimpse behind the curtain which I think has lifted everyones spirits a little. I went to Manchester for a day to catch up with good friends (and buy some records obvs) and it was even sunny up there! It felt good to get out of the daily run of things and go see friends, I highly recommend it and something I don’t do enough of.Thursday evening I had a pair of tickets to a screening of the new Gorillaz mini doc and animation, ahead of the release of their new record ‘The Mountain’. I found the doc incredibly insightful and has made me want to go to India and the animation is funny and moving in equal parts. Its online now so you can check it out here:Back to this archive show, picked entirely at random, opening as I often did, with a track from Four Tets 2017 album, Two Thousand and Seventeen. I follow that with a track by Derek Dripper, which entirely blows my mind, and hopefully yours too. Funnily enough, whilst in Manchester, I picked up an album by Barney Wilen and I couldn’t remember the name of the records I had from him, so for this to pop up randomly is quite weird, its glorious though. Zara McFarlanes’ album from that time is an awesome work, and Fisherman is as beautiful as it comes, I don’t listen to this enough, as I don’t listen to Sister Rosie by Abdullah Ibrahim enough, it’s literally the happiest song I think I own.I played a bit of funk, which is quite unusual for me to do these days, but trying to avoid the Owen Cutts easy finds and heading deeper, which is quite satisfying before heading another direction with the Malcolm Catto produced The Spellbinder Project and into the, frankly, mesmerizing remix of Melanie De Biasios’ ‘The Flow’ by Hex. I’ve had to stop typing to listen this and its blasting out of my studio. Four Tet’s Lion with Jamie XX on the remix still rumbles like something from Middle Earth, with DJ Shadow’s Pitter Patter erupting out of it like somethign possesed. Plenty of bassline to trouble your neightbours with. I was also talking about Death In Vegas this week, so the unverse is finally tuning in to my thoughts, about fucking time and beware!Rising like a pheonix from Dirge is David Holmes’ ‘69 Police’ which offers the light to the previous dark and nicely ends that section, allowing me to head to the fringes with the Free Design and ‘Where Do I Go’ and its almost like I’m asking myself that question to see how I get into the next section of the show.If you don’t know The Free Design, they are wonderful and better still are the couple of remix albums which I dig into next, these keep on giving depending how you are feeling. I get into a retro groove for a little while, which always feels good, but I think I need to deepen my bag here, I’ve played these tracks a few times, you’ll know them by now…The Schubert remix is from an album that Mr Scruff did a remix for, sadly its a little too Clean Bandit for my liking, but when I did these showws I had to turn up with a bag of records and play pretty everything during a three hour show, so it made it. There is a couple of tracks I couldn’t ID, one of which I think is a Daniel Avery remix, but we head towward Rival Consoles and Slow Song and getting toward the end of the show. One thing I used to do, depending on who was following me that day, was to play massive bangers so whoever was following me would have zero energy to start with, I thought it was funny but maybe I was a bit of a dick. This wasn’t one of those shows though, winding down the energy to leave my listener feeling refreshed and placing them back on solid ground and ready to attack the day. Nothing does this better than Nils Frahm followed by Kiasmos and with that we are done. Hope you enjoy this one. Peace xTracklistingFour Tet - Two Thousand and SeventeenDerek Gripper - Konkobaa (Earth)Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyani - The Night (Gece)Barney Wilen - ZombizarNilamayé - Les NegritosZara McFarlane - FishermanThe Dixie Cups - Iko IkoAbdullah Ibrahim - Sister RosieRasputins Stash - Whats On Your Mind?Groove Holmes - No Trouble on the MountainBernie Worrell - Woo TogetherErnie K-Doe - Here Come The GirlsGloria Ann Taylor - Love is a Hurtin’ ThingMike James Kirkland - Hang on in ThereThe Lyman Woodard Organization - Saturday Night SpecialThe Spellbinder Project - Dark is the LightDon Sebesky - Guru VinScorpios - SaparnaMelanie De Biasio - The Flow (Hex Remix)Four Tet - Lion (Jamie XX Remix)DJ Shadow - Pitter Patter (feat G.Jones and Bleep Bloop)Death in Vegas - DirgeThe Free Design - Where Do I GoThe Free Design - Kites are FunThe Free Design - Kites are Fun (Mellow Remix)Super Furry Animals - The Proper OrnamentsChris Geddes and Hush Puppies - 2002 A SongBelle and Sebastian - Legal ManJean Jaques Perry - E.V.ABrigitt - Da Beisst Ein Goldfisch AnSusan Cadogan - FeverJennifer - Chelsea MorningVisioneers - The World is YoursSchubert - Schwanengesang (Kate Simko Remix) Rival Consoles - Slow SongNils Frahm - You (Bug Lover Rework)Kiasmos - Looped This is a public episode. 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