Project Moonbase – The Historic Sound of the Future | Unusual music show | Podcast | Space cult | projectmoonbase.com

We celebrate the imminent 80th birthdays of those two giants of popular culture, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.

We believe in being guided by cosmic forces here at the Moonbase so we coudn’t possibly ignore the arrival in the airlock this week of *two* new releases featuring that king of keyboard instruments, the Stylophone. For not only does the long-awaited debut by the Brett Domino Trio dedicate a whole medley to this instrument, but an epically analogue re-interpretation of Tubular Bells also features the instrument prominently.The show is a rather eclectically electronic one this week, with more from the debut album by Hong Kong in the 60s, a track from a new release by listener Soulless Party and a deliciously fresh slice of chip-prog from Yakuza Heart Attack. But we do also find time for our new regular feature, Classic Steel, for those pining for the tinkling sound of the steel drum. This week MC Zirconium also believes that ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habits, to have new little hopes. It’s rather hard work… Listen now: download the MP3 The Music 1. Jerry Allen: More from The Hands of Jerry Allen 2. Hong Kong In The 60s: Diaryland from My Fantoms 3. Yakuza Heart Attack: The Wet Heart from Dayton, Ohio Vol. 2 4. Witco Desperadoes Steel Orchestra & Trevor “Inch High” Valentine: El Relicario from Desperadoes Steel Orchestra – Classical Transcriptions 5. Brett Domino: 1980s Stylophone Medley from Songs Off Youtube 6. The Soulless Party: Time Traveller from Exploring Radio Space 7. Hong Kong In The 60s: Les Petits Chasseurs Au Bord Du Lac Lunaire from My Fantoms 8. Joe McGinty and The Brooklyn Organ Synthesizer Orchestra: Tubular Bells from Tubular Bells   Project Moonbase is listener supported. So next time you buy anything from Amazon, please go via our Amazon affiliate link. It won’t cost you anything, is totally anonymous and best of all it helps keep the show running. Thank you! The Unnecessary News Hmmm how can we make skiing more dangerous… Jetpack propels skier to speeds of 47mph What is new in toast: Breville Radio Toaster The first 3D Star Wars movie gets a release date Chinese Psychologist Promotes Himself with Underwear Model “Sexting” make Oxford Dictionaries Online London Restaurant Sells Breast Milk Ice-Cream Called Baby Gaga

We celebrate the world of French soundtrack music in the form of music by Francois de Roubaix and Michel Magne. We also have another hypnotic track from Jon Brooks' recent opus as well as music made by the hands of Jerry Allen, two kings of easy listening (Ronnie Aldrich and James "Hansi" Last) and a host of other wonders for your ears.

We are big fans of the sound of latin jazz and Sir George was one of the greatest practitioners of the art. His quintet also featured two of our other favourite musicians, namely Baron Jean "Toots" Thielemans (harmonica, guitar, whistling) and Cal Tjader (vibes). So on this week's bumper edition of the show we pay tribute to Sir George by hearing music by the great man himself as well as music by Toots and Cal.

A distinctly rock-flavoured show we have some more examples of Luk Krung and Luk Thung from the latest Finders Keepers compilation, Thai? Dai! We also have a couple of selections from the recently released second volume in the Funky Fräuleins series as well as another slice of Classic Steel. But perhaps most excitingly of all, we have - for one week only - a return of some mid-70sThe Herb!

We celebrate the newly-septuagenarian sovereign of sunny samba, Sergio Mendes. Expect lots of Sergio: from his early 60s Sextet through to his futuristically-named Brasil 66 and Brasil 77. We also have some musicians associated with Sergio Mendes and close with an extraordinary slice of Luk Krung from Thailand (which has nothing whatsoever to do with Sergio Mendes).

Celebrating the astonishing, iconic work of the greatest film soundtrack composer of the 20th century, John Barry. His music was known - and loved - by literally millions of people. In fact it's hard to imagine anyone in the Western world who isn't at least aware of the great man's music. Honorary Moon Lord John Barry will be greatly missed.

We introduce a new irregular feature called Classic Steel where we play a classical (or a classic) favourite arranged for steel drums. We also have some Galactic Sounds, another track from the latest Basil Kirchin soundtrack reissue on Trunk records, we'll be celebrating the imminent 40th anniversary of the release of Get Carter, hearing some Glaswegian chiptune as well as lots of other nutritious nuggets for your ears to chew on.

We wish a belated Happy 80th Birthday to that polyglottal pop princess, Caterina Valente, by playing lots of tunes by Ms Valente and her associates. We'll also be hearing from Italian prog horrorists, Goblin and we have another track from the soundtrack to Copacabana by Tim Gane and Sean O'Hagan.

We celebrate the life of Broadcast's Trish Keenan who, passed away on Friday. Broadcast were the epitome of retro-futurism and were doing "hauntology" a good decade or more before the term was coined. Their music sounded like it was recorded in a parallel splintered dimension of space crystals. Broadcast were also, in our humble opinion, the greatest of the plethora of bands exploring this sonic landscape which sprung up in the West Midlands in the mid-90s.

We usher in the Year of the Rabbit by playing a selection of tracks generously gifted to us over the festive season as well as a selection of brand new tunes. We're also delighted to be able to finally bring you a track from the Copacabana OST by Tim Gane and Sean O'Hagan.

We do what the moon does best and reflect (do you see what we did there?) on 2010 by playing some of our favourite tunes released or reissued in that year.

A Cosmic Christmas and galactic good cheer as we celebrate the turning of another year. We have a selection of festive favourites by Alan Moorhouse, The Moog Cookbook, U900, Hong Kong in the 60s and of course Wing! We also have another (suitably festive) track from the new Shawn Lee album, Hooked-Up Classics.

The recent centenary of the king of calypso, Edmundo Ros. We also have some new tracks by Shawn Lee, more from the Moon Wiring Club, some chiptune, the sound of steel drums and a piece of electronic calypso by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman.

We have music from the new Moon Wiring Club album, some selections from a new deWolfe compilation, progressive Hungarian space jazz, 25th century exotica, a trip to the sea of tranquility with Hong Kong in the 60s, the first half of an Emperor Machine remix of a Stereolab track and plenty of other surprises.