Line Noise Podcast

On this week’s Line Noise, Ben Cardew spoke to Mancunian extraordinaire Mike Pickering, a man whose musical history makes ordinary people quake. They spoke about Quando Quango, Factory Records (where Mike signed James), being the resident DJ at the Haçienda in the glory years of rave, making the first British house record (perhaps), forming M People and winning the Mercury Prize, A&Ring Calvin Harris and - most of all - Mike’s new book Manchester Must Dance: A Life of Music, Madness and Moving On Up. is he the best connected man in Manchester? Quite possibly. Line Noise comes to you with the support of Cupra.

The wonderful Olof Dreijer visited the RPS studios to talk about his solo debut album, Loud Bloom, a record of colour, joy and bustling life. We talked about living in Barcelona, aquatic synths, the shadow of The Knife, jazz, click consonants, sci-fi and getting away from the macho forces in dance music. Loud Bloom is released on May 4 and Olof plays Primavera A La Ciutat on June 3. Line Noise is brought to you by Cupra.

Myd returned to Line Noise ahead of his recent Barcelona gig to talk the joys of playing live, tour bus life, his recent album Mydnight and the pain of losing a hard drive. Plus, prepare yourselves for some severe Todd Edwards-spotting. Line Noise comes with the support of Cupra. Photo by Alice Moitié.

Has anyone had a more interesting life in music than Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, aka System 7? They were both in Gong in the 1970s, recorded the classic album Rainbow Dome Musick in 1979, gravitated towards acid house in the 80s and eventually formed System 7 in 1989. 27 years later, they are about to release their 15th (ish) album, the excellent Flower of Life, which includes collaborations with Coldcut’s Matt Black and The Orb, and have a new live tour planned.

We speak about all that, as well as Miquette’s work on the “heroin ‘n’ hippies” film More in 1969, talking guitars with Mike Banks, Steve playing with Sham 69, birthing dance music at Glastonbury and vintage synths. Plus, we discover their secret to a healthy working and sentimental relationship. Line Noise comes to you with the support of Cupra.

Our guest on Line Noise this week is Matt Black, half of epochal British electronic music duo Coldcut alongside Jonathan More. The reason for our talk was the 20th anniversary edition of their fifth album, Sound Mirrors, which is being reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day. And we did talk about this; but we also went gloriously all over the shop, from Top of the Pops to AI; Coldcut’s working relationship to the role that musical genre plays; and I even asked about the possibility of a new Coldcut album some day. Line Noise comes to you with the support of Cupra. Photo by Hayley Louisa Brown.