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1
Conakry
09:00 - 11:00

A special hour on Editions Syliphone Conakry, the Guinean state-funded record label that ran from 1967 to 1986, across the tenure of President Sékou Touré. The purpose of the label was to support and promote Guinean traditional and national music, at home and abroad. Since its independence from France in 1958, Guinea's artists had been radicalised by an official cultural policy that sought to modernise the arts while still being faithful to the traditional roots. It was a policy called authenticité, and music was its prime focus. Under the policy each region in Guinea, some 34 in total, were represented by artistic troupes. These consisted of an orchestra, a traditional music ensemble, a choir, and a theatrical group. The government purchased new musical instruments for the orchestras, at a huge cost, and encouraged the groups to write songs about topics such as African nationalism, anti-colonialism, and anti-imperialism. The Syliphone label thus captured a moment in African history when a new nation asserted its voice and placed music at the forefront of its cultural identity. Their’s is a story that is intertwined with the political struggle for independence in Africa.

2
London
09:00 - 11:00

Clandestine record label, The Trilogy Tapes, tear up the NTS studios once a month, ripping through the grittiest and muddiest tracks. No words on this one, just tunes.

Venus & The Razorblades

Venus & The Razorblades

Venus & The Razorblades has been played on NTS in shows including Got Kinda Lost Records Presents Planet Fever, featured first on 14 November 2018. Songs played include Big City.

Venus and the Razorblades were a short-lived New Wave rock band from Los Angeles, put together by Kim Fowley after he severed professional relations with The Runaways. Fowley sought to put together a band with a teenaged male singer and teenaged female musicians backing him up. They put out a novelty single called "Punk-A-Rama" on the independent label Bomp! Records trying to capitalize on the popularity of the punk rock genre of the late 1970s and then broke up. (An album came out later, which is extremely rare today.) The recordings featured session players associated with Fowley projects such as guitarist Mars Bonfire, formerly of an early version of Steppenwolf and keyboardist Billy Bizeau, formerly of The Quick, as well as members of the band itself. The band's song "Young and Wild" was sometimes covered live by Van Halen when they were still a Los Angeles bar band. Fowley then tried to make guitarist Dyan Diamond into a big star, and got her a deal with Elektra Records ; due to the late 1970s not being very conducive to the bubblegum pop/teen pop genre, Diamond had no success.

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Venus & The Razorblades

Venus & The Razorblades has been played on NTS in shows including Got Kinda Lost Records Presents Planet Fever, featured first on 14 November 2018. Songs played include Big City.

Venus and the Razorblades were a short-lived New Wave rock band from Los Angeles, put together by Kim Fowley after he severed professional relations with The Runaways. Fowley sought to put together a band with a teenaged male singer and teenaged female musicians backing him up. They put out a novelty single called "Punk-A-Rama" on the independent label Bomp! Records trying to capitalize on the popularity of the punk rock genre of the late 1970s and then broke up. (An album came out later, which is extremely rare today.) The recordings featured session players associated with Fowley projects such as guitarist Mars Bonfire, formerly of an early version of Steppenwolf and keyboardist Billy Bizeau, formerly of The Quick, as well as members of the band itself. The band's song "Young and Wild" was sometimes covered live by Van Halen when they were still a Los Angeles bar band. Fowley then tried to make guitarist Dyan Diamond into a big star, and got her a deal with Elektra Records ; due to the late 1970s not being very conducive to the bubblegum pop/teen pop genre, Diamond had no success.

Original source: Last.fm

Tracks featured on

Most played tracks

Big City
Venus And The Razorblades
Visa Records1978