August 7, 2025

The Human Recommendation Radio Show continues on webstream

For most of the month of August, Flirt FM is not broadcasting on FM in Galway city but The Human Recommendation radio show continues to stream weekly from http://flirtfm.ie at 8pm IST and the playback for all shows are available on the Mixcloud archive.

Music still matters, forget the "samey algorithms" and help celebrate music discovery through human curation and tune in online or your favourite radio app. Reject A.I slop & algorithms now, more than ever.

Album Quilts

Last FM recently rolled out a new Feature 🚨 called “Album Quilt”, which allows you to create an album quilt from your most listened to albums and E.P’s.

This was my Top 25. There were loads more I could have included but I think the 5 x 5 is optimal size. I would like to catch more of these artists play live, someday I guess🤞

Recent Interviews

The democratization of music has meant it has never been easier to create and release music but it also has led to an oversaturation where smaller artists just cant get past algorithmic gatekeepers in the various music streaming sites.

In my show and interview podcast I continue to try shine a light on those indie artists that I think warrant further listening. I had such a hoot interviewing Toronto based musician Sasha from Tractor Beam, I really dig that 'Monoliths & The Early Reflections EPs' album. The interview is available here on Mixcloud

From New Zealand, but now living in London are a band called Mild Orange. They release their fourth album on Friday called ‘The Glow’ and it is just a gorgeous, warm sounding album. I had the pleasure of interviewing two of the band members Mehrt and Jah, have a listen on Mixcloud:

The Human Recommendation interview #35, Mild Orange by The Human Recommendation | Mixcloud

The Human Recommendation is a weekly radio show on Flirt FM 101.3 in Galway city showcasing the best of indie & alternative music from Ireland and around the globe. But in this special interview side project, host Damien had the opportunity to talk with Mehrt and Jah from New Zealand band Mild Orange. Forming in Dunedin in 2017, Mild Orange have built an international following on the back of their independently released debut album, 'Foreplay' which reached every corner of the globe on YouTub...

Live Music

After listening to Mogwai for more than 20 years and collecting their records I finally managed to catch them play live but it was worth the wait. It was even better that they played in my small part of the world.

Radio Free Alice at the Sound House

"You have to be 18 to get in folks" exclaimed an exasperated staff member who was growing increasingly frustrated having to turning away over enthusiastic teenagers from seeing their Australian post-punk heroes Radio Free Alice.
The band are pretty active on TikTok I'm told by my own grown up children, which may well explain the younger turnout but my wife(and life long gig going partner)and I brought up the age demographic considerably!
I think it's always worth going along early to a music gig to check out the support act. I was also keen to see female-fronted Delivery Service whose track "Ghost" I have played on my radio show just last week. They didn't disappoint and dispatched a stellar set. The band are Becca Daly, Ashley Abbedeen, Ciara O’Neill and Niall Thornton. They are working on new material to be released in the near future and are a band to keep an eye on.

After a hastily rearranged stage change, Radio Free Alice appeared and my first thoughts were “crikey”,..these fresh young student faces weren't even born when the post-punk era was in its heyday. 

The band hail from Melbourne and is made up of members Maayan Barnatan, Michael Phillips, Jules Paradiso, Lochie Dowd, and Noah Learmonth.

But in a Blitzkrieg style sonic attack, they blazed through their small catalog of songs and pummeled the boisterous audience in a short, sharp set. They blazed through bangers such as "Johnny", "Paris is Gone", "Waste of Space", their current single "Toyota Camry", fan favourites "Empty Words" with live saxophone and the anthemic "Look What You've Done". They also included a cover of Gang Of Four's "Damaged Goods" which drew delight from the handful of us more mature folks in attendance.

Before we knew it, the house lights came back on despite a clamouring for “one more tune” and the show was over, it wasn’t even 10pm!
But sports and music have been my life-long passions, and to use a sporting analogy I haven't been this enthusiastic about young Aussie potential since a baby-faced Michael Hooper took the field for his international rugby debut for the Wallabies, back in 2012.

Radio Free Alice just have this chaotic energy, potential and a great front man in Learmonth. I'm old enough to remember and be very familiar with all their influences and references including Gang of Four, The Cure, Joy Division, The Smiths and even a little of The Clash.

Whether they are doing something new in post-punk or think the genre has some unfinished business, remains to be seen. What matters is they are connecting with young music fans as their sold-out shows can testify.
I expect when they return to these shores again it will be in a bigger venue when some more of the current teenage fan-base are old enough to get in, and then their shows will be even more exuberant!

P.S. Want to write about music?

While the music writing landscape is bleak at the moment, this Maynooth University music criticism course was enjoyable and I gained a lot from the enthusiastic lecturers delivering the modules. The University are running the micro credentials course again, starting at the end of September running for 11 weeks. For more information, visit the Maynooth University page website: https://www.mu.ie/writing-about-music