Live and Unleashed: the tracks are all either live or recorded in a single take

1. Smoke Rings - Laurie Anderson
   At first I thought this was going to be really soporific and a bit pedestrian. But before I realised it, it had reached out tentacles and started to draw me in. Strange, beautiful and captivating. I'd like to hear more. (I gather Laurie married Lou Reed recently, which seems a bit odd as I didn't think Lou was into that kind of thing. But what do I know?


2. Clocks - Ed Alleyne-Johnson
   Ah, the Chester busker! I don't much care for Coldplay so it won't be a surprise that I like this version better than the original. All the same, a little goes a long way and I suspect that this works best on a sunny Saturday under the Rows.


3. Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
   I can take all the Talking Heads I can get. The only thing I regret about this live performance is not being there. Tight and funky and exhilarating as ever.


4. News Rave - Bill Bailey
   Witty electronic funk built around the Greenwich Time Signal, with a manic rant from the Billy Connolly of the West Country himself. Fun, and blessedly short so it doesn't outstay its welcome.


5. Rez/Cowgirl - Underworld
   This kind of synthetic electronical really isn't my kind of thing I'm afraid. It lacks wit and subtlety and it gives me a headache. At one point the robotic voice seems to be saying, over and over again, "I'm invisible". I found myself wishing it was inaudible. Sorry.


6. Tour de France 2003 - Kraftwerk
   More of the same. This, however, does have a bit of subtlety about it at least. Still not my kind of thing but I could wish this was the almost 12-minute track and not the previous one.


7. Not So Manic Now - Client B (Sarah Blackwood)
   I don't know who Sarah Blackwood is but she says this was originally a Dubstar song and I think I've heard of them so presumably she was associated with them. This, however, is treated in a folky way and in a voice that milks its Yorkshireness for all its worth, as if she's trying to be a second Kate Rusby. Or maybe it's the other way round, I don't know. Nice voice though, I'd loke to hear more. Nelly McKay's Ding Dong was a favourite from my last mix and this is another neurosis-as-song, but without quite having Nelly's charm.


8. Across the Alley from the Alamo - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
   What a contrast! If I cared about such things I'd worry that this was desperately uncool, but I don't, and I really enjoyed this bit of period cowboy jazz. Very infectious. Good call.


9. Kung Fu Internationale - John Cooper Clarke
   Not a song, but a piece of performance poetry. As such it's not something you really want to be listening to at home, but as a taster of what was undoubtedly a very enjoyable evening in the back room of a pub somewhere it's a mouthwatering tease. You really had to be there


10. John Otway - Cheryl's Going Home
    Oh hello there Neil, it was you all along, wasn't it! John Otway trades on being awful, which he isn't at all. Over a good, if not spectacular, driving beat he weaves his idiosycratic vocal line into something immensely enjoyable.


11. My Generation - The Who
    A live set, with not just the title song but See Me Feel Me and a lot of rollicking good Who type rock which nevre gets tedious and is over a lot sooner than the track indicator says it ought to. A terrific finish to the mix


Thank you Neil, most enjoyable.