Flamingo - 1020 Radio Takeover Special (28/03/21)
A fortnight ago, Rádio Quântica took over the airwaves of Bristol’s 1020 Radio for the afternoon and evening’s programme. Representing Flamingo, I decided to do a one-hour special using music taken exclusively from a CD collection I had recently bought from flur.
The shop has just been moving premises from down by the river in Santa Apolónia to Mercado de Arroios, not far from where I live, and were getting rid of a lot of old stock as a result. So I bought up this suitcaseful of CDs for 25€, hoping that in it there’d be enough good stuff to make it worth slogging through the shite.
As I separated the wheat from the chaff, it was fun speculating about the person who amassed this collection through the 1990s. Like most music fans interested in electronic sounds at that time, they had proclivities for downtempo, trip-hop and chillout. This was often of the cheesy acid jazz or new-agey type that I find more than a bit insipid, but every so often I would find one of those tracks that transcends its genre baggage with attitude and distinctiveness.
They also had faster stuff - techno, jungle and drum and bass - usually in the form of compilations from labels like React, Harthouse, Soma and FFRR. This turned out to be a welcome opportunity to immerse myself in some of the >140bpm strands of dance music that I have until now neglected (Hi-NRG being a notable exception).
Finally, there were plenty of DJ mixes and compilations from Portuguese institutions like Alcântara-Mar and Kaos Records, which I understand were era-defining as far as 90s clubbing here goes. Listening to these artefacts from a very particular cultural moment in Portugal is both fun and educational, supplementing the excellent archival work done by José Acid on his Paraíso radio show.
(Spot the odd one out)
Resisting the temptation to do an entire show with only the absolute worst music I could find, I decided to do one with the best. What I settled on was a selection drawing heavily on those different currents of mid-90s electronic music of varying speeds and intensities, punctuated by two fantastic soul tunes from the 70s. I chose the latter partly as stand-ins for the middle-of-the-road acid jazz they inspired, but mainly because they’re just massive bangers.
Here’s a photo of the line-up, and below that you can find the Mixcloud link and full tracklist:
FLAMINGO x 1020 RADIO SPECIAL (28/03/21)
The Cranberries – Pretty (Remix) [Columbia, 1994]
Everything But The Girl - Before Today [Virgin, 1997]
FSOL - Lifeforms (Radio Edit) [Virgin, 1994]
System7 - Interstate (Edit) [Butterfly, 1995]
Dillinja - Soverign Melody [MCA, 1995]
Little Matt - Sparkling [React, 1996]
Voo Doo Phunk - Yerbabuena [Irma, 1997]
The Modulations - Rough Out Here [Acid Jazz, 1995]
Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes - The Love I Lost [Eclipse]
Little Lloyd - Herbert [Indochina, 1996]
Alex Reece - Chill Pill [Spectrum, 1995]
Maas - San Narciso [Soma, 1995]