The odd couple

Whilst the DJing was, admittedly, a bit amateur, I was pleased with all the music I played on #electronicears, and I used to enjoy putting together the playlists and the shows. 

For the first few weeks of broadcasting, I enjoyed selecting music from my CD collection but it began to nag at me quite quickly that I was playing a lot of music from 1978 to 1983 but not so much from outside that period. Now, to some extent, that's understandable, as I still believe that was an exceptional period for pop music but what really began to bug me was how little new music, especially electronic music, I had bought and listened to over the previous ten years.

So I started listening to a lot more new music and buying a lot more CDs. Soon, all those much loved albums that I'd played to death weren't getting much of a look in. Plus, I dug out albums that I had bought but never listened to properly (hello, Aphex Twin!).

Even though the radio stopped last year (when the station closed down), that appetite for new, interesting music - particularly electronic music - has continued. And I like that; it's like being in my teens again!

And as I'm actively looking for music, I do come across some interesting oddities and this one, Lloyd Cole and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, is a bit of a prize winner; the prince of jangly, mid-eighties, lit-pop putting down his guitar to collaborate with the one of the names of seventies German experimental, electronic music. 

I rather like it, actually, although as collaborations go, the outcome is not much of a hybrid. I can only assume that Mr Cole is a big fan of Herr Roedelius' music and more than met him half way.