Episodes

  • Deep Dive 15: Covers

    Deep Dive 15: Covers
    Jun 17 2022
    Covers: Jimi Hendrix once said that ““I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.” Tell me, why would somebody wish to perform another’s work? What is the artist actually thinking when they cover a song? Is it the knowledge that such a great song will be popular and make them money? Maybe. Could it be the fact that as you already know it to be a great song, you want to be personally associated with it? More likely, I suppose. Or moreover, perhaps it’s a personal statement, a song that you are proud to be associated with. I guess that’s the Crispy definition. Whatever it might be, it’s great that so many of us copy the hell out of each other, and this Deep Dive will bring you just a smidgeon – a scintilla - of the billions of amazing out there. Rest assured, Crispy will be revisiting the wonderful world of the cover version. But until then, grab a glass, sit back and enjoy some really talented people doing really talented stuff, with other people’s material. This is the wonderful world of covers.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Deep Dive 14: New Romantic

    Deep Dive 14: New Romantic
    Jun 17 2022
    New Romantic: The United Kingdom of 1979 was a drab, unforgiving place in which to be young. The colourful tie dye of the sixties’ hippy era had now washed out, replaced by the oranges, yellows, browns and blacks of seventies’ clothes and soft furnishings. Something had to change, and in a small corner of British society it most definitely was doing - the ‘New Romantic’ movement was being born. Out of the nightclubs in London (The Blitz) and Birmingham (Billy’s), eccentricity was the new cool. Their key musical inspirations were Bowie, Kraftwerk, Roxy Music, and Marc Bolan, all doubtless on mid-70s TV screens throughout a new romantic’s formative years. Their fashion sense, however, looked much further back, with the romantic period of the early 19th century playing a key part in the peacock styles of both Kahn and Bell in Birmingham and PX fashion studios in London. Nothing was off bounds following the punk movement of a couple of years previous, and an outrageous mix of Far Eastern, ancient Babylonian and an eye-catching ‘English Dandy’ look, owed as much to the styles of Byron and Shelley as they did to ancient Mesopotamia. As for the music, the synthesizer now drove the music - the key exponents of this very British movement being Visage, Duran Duran, The Human League and Spandau Ballet, all paving the way for bands like A Flock of Seagulls, Thomas Dolby, Ultravox and Classix Nouveaux to make their mark. There were many others who have subsequently been sloppily labelled as ‘New Romantic’ over the years (Adam & the Ants, Gary Numan, Japan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark being key examples of bands who despised the New Romantic moniker). As with so many other fads around the 1980s, New Romanticism was over very quickly - by early 1982, its appeal was waning as the synthesizer sound became more accessible to the masses - keyboards becoming a standard component of the 80s pop single. So, join Crispy, and visit a brief period in time when foppish was the new cool and synth was king.
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    59 mins
  • Deep Dive 13: Seasons🍂

    Deep Dive 13: Seasons🍂
    Jun 2 2022
    Crispy Zebra presents Seasons I’d like to tell you about the seasons, as I experienced them as a child. Snowdrops and spring meant a shiny, new outside world to re-explore. It meant wellies, thick jumpers and big puddles, it meant travel and the rebirth of hope. With the daffodils came the inevitable onset of yet another warm, often damp summer. In times of fair weather, summer meant sand dunes, crabs (the crustaceous kind, cheeky!) And as I got older, it meant cider, laughing – a lot, loud music and red squirrels. Every autumn arrived with conkers, Indian summers - which I adored - and kaleidoscopic tree lines. Every November, without fail, you slipped back into the big boots and secured your long, buttoned coat, a beast of a cold front just around the corner. Today, in the 2020s, the start (or end) of seasons is becoming harder to differentiate. Questions such as ‘Do I have enough jumpers?’ or ‘When do I put the big coat on, again?’ seem quaint, and a very long time ago. Now, seasons can herald in blasts of intense cold, weather bombs, tornados, forest fires, blistering heat waves and so much more. Monsoon season is no longer a thing you can set your clock to, and a desolating famine or life-ending drought is never far away from many of those living on planet Earth today. All of us, regardless of location, are now experiencing a ‘blurring’ of the seasons, as the earth starts to heat up exponentially. You’ll recall the theory of ‘non-habitable zones? That’s right, the ones so often ridiculed as crazy, left-wing propaganda by those in the seats of power? Well, sadly, this is now a reality of life for millions of people; those without the means to escape a weather-based hell on earth. I have stood, alone, in a shaded square in Sevilla in August at noon, where the thought of just two more minutes outside in such brutal heat made my wet skin shiver with fear. All I can remember was praying all day long from my air-conditioned room that an electricity outage didn’t take the city off-grid. Trust me, that would have been very, very bad. But for now, let’s take out some time to celebrate spring, summer, autumn and winter – the way they were supposed to be. Artists include XTC, Small Faces, Sunbeam Sound Machine, The Killers & The Doors.
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    59 mins
  • Deep Dive 12: Dark🦇

    Deep Dive 12: Dark🦇
    May 30 2022
    Come with Crispy (don't worry, he'll hold your hand) on a visit to a haunted house, at midnight on a stormy winter's night.  Some of the darkest, freakiest psychedelic and left field tracks, mixed with narration from Boris Karloff, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price to name but a few. Artists include Bauhaus, Joy Division, The Sisters of Mercy, Iron Butterfly and Nine Inch Nails. What was that sound? Did you hear that? Better stay close to Crispy - it's really dark in here...
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Deep Dive 11: Taste🍋

    Deep Dive 11: Taste🍋
    May 13 2022
    Taste: Try and imagine a world where tastes like strawberry, blackcurrant, orange and lemon didn’t exist. No, me neither – it’s too painful to contemplate Now, imagine a world where sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness and savouriness all merged into a single, banal, tasteless experience, regardless of what you have popped into your mouth. Sounds hellish, right? And you’d be right - taste means a lot! Ok, here comes the science bit, concentrate. Taste is the perception produced when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells, mostly on the tongue. Your tongue is covered with thousands of tiny bumps – or papillae – there are thousands of the little blighters located all over your mouth, but especially on the tongue. A sweet taste usually means carbohydrates are at play, while too great a sour taste suggests something may be beyond their sell-by-date; the taste buds saving you from an upset stomach, or worse... This Deep Dive celebrates that most underrated of sensations, one that makes sustenance all the more exciting. Artists include The Rolling Stones, Placebo, Kyuss, The Beatles, Ride, Mazzy Star and The Red Hot Chili Peppers - tasty! Come and dine with us on Starship Crispy – it’s time to tickle your taste buds.
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Deep Dive 10: Krautrock & Beyond!🎆

    Deep Dive 10: Krautrock & Beyond!🎆
    May 5 2022
    Krautrock & Beyond The German influence on psychedelia and leftfield music has been immense; no more so than during the early 1970s Krautrock movement. By embracing new developments (mostly American) in electronic music technology, bands such as Can, Faust, Neu! and Kraftwerk paved the way for genres as diverse as Dance, Hip-Hop, Electronica, Ambient and Punk. Yes, it really was that important. Perhaps two of the genre’s biggest flag bearers, David Bowie, and Iggy Pop, had the biggest impact on the marketing of this new movement, the pair moving to Berlin for a period to embrace the culture of a nation still reeling from its virtual destruction some three decades previous. Known in Germany as kosmiche musik (literally ‘cosmic music’) it was the broadest form of experimental rock music around in the 1970s and attracted followers sick to death of the tired blues rock/verse-chorus-verse recipe suffocating the pop charts. It was time to move away from the radio-friendly cash cow and experiment. And boy, did they experiment. Synthesisers and tape loops replaced Marshall stacks and heavy riffs; a repetitive 4/4 beat and pulsating groove replaced the extended guitar and drum solos of corporate America, electronic inspiration taking its influence from minimalist artists such as Miles Davis and the ‘musique concrete’ of Stockhausen. That’s not to say that there weren’t popular influences in Krautrock – they are myriad, from Hendrix to Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa to The Velvet Underground. However, at its heart beats a desire for difference. With the constricting rule of the 7” single and obligatory Top of The Pops performance removed, Krautrock artists grooved to the beat of their own drum machine. Artists include Kraftwerk, Faust, White Hills, Gnod, NEU! and Julian Cope. Pushing the envelope? There is no envelope.
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Deep Dive 9: Chilean Psych❤️

    Deep Dive 9: Chilean Psych❤️
    Apr 28 2022
    Chilean Psych South American city Santiago is steeped in history. With a population of more than 8 million people, a rich array of 19th century neoclassical architecture sits beautifully on the banks of the fast-flowing Mapocho river, surrounded on all sides by the formidable Andes Mountains. It’s a stunning location, founded six centuries earlier by Spanish conquistadors, bringing with them a new language for the native Picunches to learn and a wide range of new, hyper-infectious diseases to spread around. Over the centuries, this unique city has been destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again (by both war and natural disaster). By the early 20th century, the Spanish yolk had been replaced by a new, independent Chile, along with banks, law and order, commerce, and a population explosion of epic proportions. But Chile has had its dark days too – none more so than the military coup of 1973 and the arrival of general Pinochet and The Mothers of the Disappeared. But it now boasts a democratic republic; its multi-party system offering hope for a proud, optimistic, and extremely artistic population. It’s from this open cultural positivity that the Santiago neo-psych movement has blossomed over recent years. Its music is hugely innovative, taking inspiration from European and north American garage and psychedelia, whilst retaining its own unique South American identity. This Deep Dive is a heady mix of the best Chilean Psych and one that Crispy is delighted to share with you. Artists include The Holydrug Couple, Follakzoid, La Hell Gang, Kayros and Chicos de Nazca. Me gusta mucho!
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    1 hr
  • Deep Dive 3: 60's Psych Pop🌸

    Deep Dive 3: 60's Psych Pop🌸
    Apr 23 2022
    60s Psych Pop: This Deep Dive will visit what will be, to many, familiar subject matter. You may ask yourself, ‘What’s so leftfield about this lot? Almost every track was a chart hit after all.’ And yes, you would be correct, but when seen in the context of what came before, it represents something akin to an earthquake – the literal birth of a cultural medium still with us to this day. Before the arrival of bands such as Cream, The Small Faces, The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, there was very, very little. Take away a couple of exceptions (Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Link Wray cases in point) and the world’s radios were awash with parent-friendly crooners and novelty comedy singles. With the arrival of bands like The Byrds, The Zombies and Love, the charts became suddenly vital and vibrant in equal measure. Colour – trippy, psychedelic colour for that matter - had arrived. TV sets began transmitting in yellow, blue, red, and green and this incredible music, perhaps more than anything else, summed up the spirit of the age best. There was virtually full employment; rationing and austerity were dead. Youth culture had arrived, and with its newfound consumerism came the opportunity for savvy record labels to prise this disposable income from baby boomers’ pockets. By the decade’s end, the pop charts had become a way of life, and with such wonderful music on offer, the 3-minute single had, in a very short space of time, become a perfected art form. It could never last – nothing ever stays the same – and by the mid-1970s the album had begun to take the single’s place as the punter’s preferred medium; but for a golden, ever-so-brief chunk of time and space, the psychedelic single ruled. Come and join Crispy on a trip back to a time when it all had to be said in four minutes or less. Artists include The Small Faces, Donovan, The Who, The Stooges, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds and The Zombies - groovy man! 
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    1 hr and 1 min