By Paul Harper
It’s a sunny Sunday morning and I’m at the breakfast table. Light is streaming in through the open doors. Deepbed Radio is playing.
Since its launch in April, Deepbed Radio has been running a daily programme showcasing DJ’s and audio artists linked to artist-led hubs in Stroud and Gloucester. Today I’m listening to Hidden Notes. The music all has an acute, yearning quality that suits my mood as I read my Sunday paper. The news is all about Coronavirus. Outside, the usual background noise of traffic is stilled, the sky is bright and clear of vapour trails and the birds are singing. Everything is beautiful - but for that undercurrent of anxiety. Nevertheless, I am happy. Every once in a while something on the radio particularly catches my attention – what is that playing now? As I write it’s Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint.
To be fair, I gravitate naturally towards Hidden Notes. This is the kind of music that I listen to on record, and the festival was one of my high points from 2019 – a particularly rich year for live music in Stroud. But, over the last few weeks I’ve tuned in most days and it always feels like I’m discovering something new and strange to my jaded ears. When I was a teenager I would scroll through the shortwave band on my old radio. This was an absorbing operation – the radio had a large dial that you would turn slowly and with great delicacy. Hovering within the crackly, hissing ether you would discover unfamiliar, exotic sounds, broadcast from the far reaches of the world. Scroll too quickly and you might pass over some rare gem. The appeal for me was the very randomness of drifting through the airwaves. Listening to Deepbed Radio has reminded me of this haphazard listening. I have realized that I rarely listen to music on the radio anymore – Late Junction occasionally, or Night Tracks, where I know that I’ll find stuff that I like. I’d forgotten that sense of joyful discovery that comes with indiscriminate listening.
It’s great to hear the familiar, half forgotten stuff, but the real pleasure has been the unexpected and, occasionally, the downright eccentric. Chief among the latter is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Sean Roe’s Weird Shit, where I found Slap Happy Humphrey, who play gently lilting Japanese folk songs, sporadically overlayed by discordant, chaotic electric guitar noise. Mermaid Chunky play an absorbing and surprisingly coherent miscellany of sounds, and Orbury Common’s Stoneage Birdsong is…uncanny.
Deepbed Radio has been initiated under the auspices of Stroud Valley Artspace, but Neil Walker, one of the Directors, is keen to emphasise that it has been led primarily by the participating DJs. Dylan Shortback, Griz-o, Situation Sounds and Moina Moin, amongst others, have driven the project forward and have curated the programme. Nevertheless, credit where credit is due, Deepbed is an example of one of SVA’s real strengths, they have been instrumental in encouraging young talent – giving them space to develop ideas and a platform to experiment and to present their work. Inspired by the work of stations like Resonance FM (which now hosts the wonderful Mixing It, since it was axed from Radio 3), Worldwide FM, NTS and Noods, SVA have a longstanding interest in radio as a medium and have intermittently produced their own programmes as Resound Radio.
Rich endowed as Stroud and Gloucester are with all kinds of musicians and DJs it isn’t surprising that Deepbed has been able to put together such a good radio station, but alongside the consistent quality, the diversity of the programming is remarkable. This is true not just in terms of the range of shows, but the playlists are eclectic in a way that is rare on mainstream radio. Will Mendoza is a genius in this regard. He builds his playlists from film themes, mixing genres, with the familiar and the strange coming together in unpredictable juxtapositions – it’s always good to hear Curtis Mayfield, Can and Herbie Hancock, but Bollywood music was a revelation for me.
There are a striking number of women, hosting some of the strongest shows - I’ve mentioned Mermaid Chunky and Moina Moin, but Sarah Phaedre Watson’s African Express has been a joy, We Call it Yazz with Jelly Cleaver and Beth Hopkins, who were one of the highpoints of Stroud Jazz last year, was a constant delight, and it’s been a real treat to hear the very talented Ruby Kester reading her own poetry in such a clear, strong voice.
If I have grumble it is just that not everyone publishes as playlist! The music is all so good, and I find myself constantly trying to remember what the presenter said we were listening to. Weird Shit very helpfully posts a weekly list on Facebook...
The last couple of months have been challenging. Most of us are missing our friends and families. I feel fortunate in that I’ve been busily engaged in trying to deliver a meaningful programme for my students, and to maintain a sense of collective endeavour in the virtual world. But I have felt disconnected. Deepbed Radio has been a regular companion throughout and I’ve been reminded of what a great medium it can be. It is no exaggeration to say that it has renewed my interest in music radio.
Listen to Deepbed Radio live at deepbedradio.org where you can also listen back to previous shows) and follow on facebook and instagram for news and updates
Paul Harper has a wide range of experience of working in the arts. He was a founding director of Alias Arts and is Vice-chair of the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust. He currently combines writing, research and teaching with consultancy in the visual arts and crafts.