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Unsung Podcast

Music Podcasts

If there was a definitive discography of classic albums, what should be in it? Host Mark Fraser from The Curator Podcast, and titans of Glasgow music/co-hosts David Weaver from Detour and Chris Cusack from Bloc, discuss and dissect perceived classic albums to decide which albums would make this list. Then, after we've talked it to death, we turn it over to you to decide once and for all via a handy poll. Cast your vote on our Facebook page and let's celebrate unsung classics.

Location:

United Kingdom

Description:

If there was a definitive discography of classic albums, what should be in it? Host Mark Fraser from The Curator Podcast, and titans of Glasgow music/co-hosts David Weaver from Detour and Chris Cusack from Bloc, discuss and dissect perceived classic albums to decide which albums would make this list. Then, after we've talked it to death, we turn it over to you to decide once and for all via a handy poll. Cast your vote on our Facebook page and let's celebrate unsung classics.

Twitter:

@unsungpod

Language:

English

Contact:

07816396316


Episodes

The Unsung History of Turbofolk (Side D) - 305

3/18/2024
On this episode we look at modern turbofolk. It's still hugely popular in some areas of the Balkans, in particular Croatia. So we dive into some recent examples from the genre and then take a wee peek into what the future of the genre might be.

Duration:00:37:43

The Unsung History of Turbofolk (Side C) - 304

3/18/2024
Last week was heavy. We ended on a pretty sour note. This week is slightly better if only because you get to hear some actual music and we talk a lot less about war criminals. Operative word here being less; we're talking about Ceca this week which means we must talk about Arkan. After that we then get start to look at some of the other popular turbofolk artists that emerged in the late 90s and 00s, then

Duration:00:41:17

FROM THE VAULT: Episode 71 - Weezer (White Album) by Weezer

3/14/2024
Turbofolk is heavy. Not musically. Thematically. You'll notice that, if you've made it through both episodes, that Side B ends with Weezer, so for this week's From the Value episode we thought, let's go back to that episode! The band have a massive back catalogue. One which has only grown since. It's a tough listen at times, but we did it. Rumour has it that Mark still hasn't fully recovered from the near lethal amount of Weezer he had to imbibe for this episode. And he's a fan! What's the half life of that stuff anyway? Who knows. Anyway. Let's go back to the Before Times of 2019 and chat about Weezer (White Album) by Weezer.

Duration:01:23:54

The Unsung History of Turbofolk (Side B) - 303

3/11/2024
WARNING: This episode contains some pretty hideous shit. We play samples and quote some truly despicable lyrics. Now that we've laid the foundations for what turbofolk is and the environment from which it came, we talk about some actual music in side B. We looked at Rate Your Music's list of the most critically acclaimed turbofolk albums and decided to do a brief rundown of their music and their message. There are some real, grade A bastards in this mix. Literally some of the worst people to have ever walked the earth writing about terrible things. We bring these songs to your attention for a multitude of reasons, the biggest of which is that many of these songs have MILLIONS of plays on Spotify and some of the artists in question were popular in the 90s. Some are still popular now, too. History, it seems, has not been as forgetful about some of these acts as it could be. Anyway, on this episode we continue our fascinating journey into turbofolk.

Duration:00:49:46

The Unsung History of Turbofolk (Side A) - 302

3/11/2024
Turbofolk is basically Serbian, and sometimes occasionally Balkan, pop music. It's something of a thriving scene these days - think eurodance with traditional Balkan rhythms - but it's origins are very, very murky. It came to prominence in Serbia during the Yugoslav wars in the 90s, and was heavily exploited by Slobodan Milosevic government. In fact, it essentially became propaganda, pushing a nationalist, often ethno-fascist message. Focused on chauvinism, gangsters, guns, obscene wealth and often racism, it's a fascinating subject that soundtracked some of the darkest times, and acts, in human history. In Side A we talk about the Yugoslav Wars and touch, very briefly, on some of the artists.

Duration:00:47:33

FROM THE VAULT: Episode 145 - Mitch's Movie Mixtape (Side B)

3/7/2024
Four people with a bunch of songs each is, as it turns out, a whole lot of songs to talk about. That's why Mitch's Movie Mixtape is split into two parts. Across both episodes, the first of which you can find here, we chat about our favourite needle drops in films. We also talk about why they work and also chat more generally about film. Mark even drops some film theory on these poor folks.

Duration:01:40:00

Any Other City by Life Without Buildings (Side B) - 301

3/4/2024
Modern post-punk music (the post-punk revival revival?) has a fair few acts that all indulge in sprechgesang and sprechstimme vocals. From Dry Cleaning and Squid to Idles and Fontaines D.C., there's a whole lot of artists out there using the same vocal technique that Sue Tompkins deploys effectively on Any Other City. In part two we chat about modern examples of this sound, including a bunch of post-hardcore and punk bands that do it too. Then we dive headlong into Any Other City itself.

Duration:01:12:06

Any Other City by Life Without Buildings (Side A) - 300

3/4/2024
In part one we chat a little about Life Without Buildings and their origins. In doing so, we're forced to reckon with the particular vocal style of Sue Tompkins. In some quarters it's been quite divisive (there's a particularly bad NME interview that is a good example of this) but really her style is part of a much longer and larger legacy, one that is still very much alive and kicking to this day. Yes, we're talking about spoke-sung artists, or more specifically the vocal techniques of sprechgesang and sprechstimme. In the latter half of this episode we go on a little journey through history to really show how these vocal styles have been a part of popular music for a very long time.

Duration:00:48:29

FROM THE VAULT: Episode 144 - Mitch's Movie Mixtape (Side A)

2/29/2024
With our levels of existential dread reaching the normal level following our episodes on The Haxan Cloak, we thought we'd stick on the movie theme but go in a completely different direction for this week's From the Vault episode. We're going back to pandemic times and revisiting our excellent two part movie mixtape with our good friend Mitch Bain. We chat about our favourite needle drops in films in Side A. Genuinely hilarious stuff. Go listen!

Duration:01:28:55

Excavation by The Haxan Cloak (Side B) - 299

2/26/2024
We wrap up this week's dual episodes on The Haxan Cloak with Mark going deep into the Returnal soundtrack, doing a quick drive-by on the Beef soundtrack, touching on a couple of other movie scores, before taking Excavation on in its entirety. Due to the hype around Excavation when it came out, we go on quite the tangent about PR in music. We discuss how there seemed to be very little in the way of critical feedback on this album, and in doing so we explore whether or not this album actually has a narrative at all, or if the narrative simply exists because it was created by the press to give the media something to hang its hat on when talking about the album. We're not saying we start to question the meaning of music, but we do get damn close to it.

Duration:01:13:38

Excavation by The Haxan Cloak (Side A) - 298

2/26/2024
Diving deep into the discography of R.E.M. rapidly turned into a sorta of existential torture, particularly as we got towards the end of their career. So what did we decide to follow it up with? A journey into what existential despair may ACTUALLY sound like with The Haxan Cloak. Under the guise of The Haxah Cloak, Bobby Krilc has only released two albums, three EPs and, more recently, a single. In this episode we take a brief look at the first, self titled, Haxan Cloak record and those EPs, before turning our attention to Bobby's soundtrack work. A fair more eclectic and overall less abyssal oeuvre. In part one we cover a selection of his output up until the soundtrack of the (frankly stunning) game Returnal.

Duration:00:48:16

FROM THE VAULT: Episode 93 - Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol

2/22/2024
This week's From the Vault episode is from the pre-pandemic days when we were starting to get into the flow of how this show goes. There's still a few rough edges, but the dynamic and banter are all here. There's some particularly spirited debate in this episode where Chris talks about one of his favourite albums ever and Mark absolutely detests every single note of it. But hey, that's one of the things that makes this show so much fun to listen. And so little fun to actually record... There's also a tangential link to R.E.M. in this episode too, so it really does all tie together this week. Any suggestions of episodes you'd like to see us pull from the vault? Let us know!

Duration:01:32:35

New Adventures in Hi-Fi by R.E.M. (Side D) - 297

2/19/2024
Well, we did it. We got to the end of R.E.M.'s discography and now we turn our attention to the album that started this journey in the first place - New Adventures in Hi-Fi-. Chris explains to us why he thinks it's unsung classic, and grapples with the possibility that his choice may not have been the right one. And as ever, we drop the nexus too. See ye next week!

Duration:00:51:39

The Unsung History of R.E.M. (Side C) - 296

2/19/2024
R.E.M. never really chased superstardom, and yet they found themselves thrust into it in the mid-90s. Last week we ended by talking about Green and Out of Time. In part three we chat about Automatic for the People and Monster, before diving into the records they made after drummer and founding member Bill Berry left: Up, Reveal, Around the Sun, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now. This episode's the longest of all four parts precisely because we cover so much ground. We try to give each album a fair hearing before we circle back to Chris' choice of New Adventures in Hi-Fi in part four/Side D. There's a ton of samples of this, and it soon becomes clear that without Berry and dimming commercial appeal, that they were starting to become a little bit listless. Hope you enjoy getting stuck into it!

Duration:01:08:28

FROM THE VAULT: The Remote Part by Idlewild

2/15/2024
2017 was a much simpler time. Both for society and for this podcast. Every Thursday we'll be putting out an old episode and to mark the occasion we thought it'd be good to revisit the very first episode: The Remote Part by Idlewild. The episode lengths were shorter, we were all younger, fresher, more naive. Oh and we still had three hosts. Dave was a fixture from the very beginning and we miss him dearly. We used to record four episodes in one night at a friend's recording studio in the south side of Glasgow. We also miss that place dearly, too. We also didn't do as much of a deep dive into our chosen artist like we do now. Like we said, a simpler time. Hope you enjoy this insight into the early days of Unsung.

Duration:00:35:37

The Unsung History of R.E.M. (Side B) - 295

2/12/2024
Welcome to part two of our R.E.M. series! Now that the context is out the way, we dive headlong into their discography. In Side B we talk about all the records the released on I.R.S., and also dispense some trivia about the band during the time on the label. We talk about Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Lifes Rich Pageant and Document, discussing our highlights, lowlights, and our overall impressions of the band's early output.

Duration:00:57:59

The Unsung History of R.E.M. (Side A) - 294

2/12/2024
Welcome to part one of our short series on R.E.M. So, as fans of the show know, the general thrust of Unsung is that each week we choose a record by a band. That record is either a classic by an unsung artist, or an unsung classic by a well known (and we take a fairly liberal view on what "well known" actually means) artist. The catalyst for this series is that Chris has chosen the album New Adventures in Hi-Fi by R.E.M. as an unsung classic. But before we even get to the album (coming next week in part four) we need to do our due diligence and take a quick glance over their entire discography. And folks, for R.E.M., it's a big ol discography. With fifteen albums, there's a lot to wade through, which is why this is a series in four parts, as opposed to one episode. But before we dive into the discography, we need to give context. So in episode one Chris talks about his affection for R.E.M., why he picked New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and we do a little bit of background on the band's pre-history. We also talk about our overall impressions of the band, what it was like to get to grips with the back catalogue. We also talk about Elizabeth Wurtzel's 1993 article "R.E.M. for The People", a key text for this series. In the next episode (dropping today RIGHT after this one) we dive into their discography. Stay tuned!

Duration:00:43:35

Episode 293 - Town Hall: Xmas Leftovers

2/5/2024
We're back! In new surroundings (digitally). To kick off our tenure in our new home of Bleav we thought we'd get out some Christmas leftovers and reheat them for you. Long time fans of the show will know that every Xmas we answer questions from our lovely listeners. Well, we had a couple we didn't answer from the 2023 Xmas specials and it just so happens that they pertain to the podcast itself and its future. So we talk a little about what drives us, why we're still doing it, what things might look like going forward and also chuck in some silly shit too. Can't be too serious all the time. Particularly when we talk about how fucked the music industry is. So sit back and relax with the first episode of the new era, and look forward to a bit more this week...

Duration:00:49:47

An Update on the Future of Unsung

1/22/2024
A little update on what's in store for the future of this podcast.

Duration:00:03:51

Episode 292 - The (Belated) Xmas Xtravaganza 2023 (Side C)

1/15/2024
So here we are, the truly magnificent, slightly chaotic, overly long conclusion to our Xmas madness. It’s seen us well into January this year, which is maddening and funny. We had so many questions this year. A ridiculous amount, frankly. But we couldn’t let the die hards down, and that meant doing each and every single one. Somehow, despite divvying them up equally across the three episodes, the final part of this trilogy comes in a whopping 3 hour episode. Yes folks, bear witness to our first and hopefully last ever 3 hour episode. It was a chore, the edit was painful but it was also an immense amount of fun. This is probably actually our funniest episode ever. The hot takes are hotter than ever and the bantermobile has gone off the track and into some truly outlandish territory. After all this we’re taking next week off. Mostly because we actually have a lot to do and a lot of research on a band with a huge back catalogue. A band you perhaps never thought we’d cover (it’s not Prince). To keep you going we’ve created a playlist of our favorite albums of 2023. See ye in two weeks!

Duration:03:00:55