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Follow a musical thread: Five notes, many musical worlds.
Episode 41 – The Whole History of Music (More or Less): For the Record with Trent Burton
Director and Cosmic Shambles co-founder Trent Burton joins Steve to explore For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music, and what notation, recording, live performance and AI reveal about what music is for.
Episode 40 - Voice, Power and the Big Machine: Opera Special
Bass Barnaby Rea joins Steve backstage at the Royal Opera House to explore the unamplified operatic voice, La Scala, class, access and the enormous machinery behind opera.
Episode 39 - A Cave, A Conch, An Algorithm
A collaboration with What We Did Before on the deep history of music, from prehistoric instruments and ritual to place, technology and AI.
Episode 38 - Nathaniel Dye: Public Service Announcement
A tribute to Nathaniel Dye (Nat) — musician, music teacher, brass band obsessive, and the creator of the brilliantly blunt song “Public Service Announcement”, performed live at Wilton’s Music Hall. We replay our earlier conversation about what music became for him after diagnosis: not escape, but purpose — teaching, making, playing, and using the time properly.
Episode 37 - A Clap, a Slap and a Stomp
What actually is musical time?
This episode kicks off 2026 with the first four days of my “12 Days of Listenmas” mini-series — pulse vs rhythm, groove, micro-timing, and why our brains can’t resist locking onto a beat.
Then we jump back to Wilton’s Music Hall (January 2025) for a live guest spot from Brazilian percussionist and former STOMP cast member Aluá Nascimento — trumpet + pandeiro on “Brazil”, body percussion (clap / slap / stomp), and a quick tour through the sounds (and stories) of berimbau and caxixi.
A practical listen, a bit of audience participation, and a reminder that rhythm is basically everywhere.
Episode 36 - Five Notes, Maisy Mouse and a Sacred Flute
Steve Pretty takes a deep dive into the pentatonic scale — the five-note sound behind playground chimes, folk traditions around the world, and the theme tune for My Friend Maisy. Featuring an Entertaining Noises detour into the Colombian gaita with Mestizo Collective, plus a playful experiment repitching a kids’ TV theme into an Ethiopian-flavoured pentatonic.
Episode 34 — Ciphers, Picks and the Art of the Jam
From WOMEX in Finland, cyphers meet bluegrass picks with Gangstagrass — a live acoustic “Do Better,” an in-studio freestyle, and why the banjo’s a “pitched rhythm” engine. Improvisation as a shared language across genres.
Episode 30 - Music therapy, Swedish Standards and Clinical Improvisation
Edinburgh conversations on music therapy, Swedish standards and what clinical improvisation really sounds like in the room.
Episode 26 — World Poetry Day Special! Robin Ince, conch baths and BRIAN BLESSED (kind of)
Robin Ince drops in at a live show from Wilton’s Music Hall for a World Poetry Day special: poems that breathe on stage, conch‑bath sonics, and a playful wander past BRIAN BLESSED (kind of) and Brian Cox.
Episode 24 — Vocal Coaching, Twanging and Matters of Life and Death
Live with vocal coach Juliet Russell at ALSO Festival: twang, resonance, breath and the warm-ups that actually help. Plus a closing tribute to Nathaniel Dye and the making of his album, Matters of Life and Death.
Episode 23 — Ass-haling, Skateboard Zithers and Golden Audio
Breath jokes, throat sounds, skateboard zithers and a trip to Audio Gold in Crouch End — an episode about how we hear, not just what we play.
Episode 18 — Serpents, shanties and shells
Serpents in Jeff Miller’s brass cave, sea shanties on the Suffolk coast and shells at sunrise — a walk through how old instruments keep reshaping how we hear.
Episode 17 — Sound balancers, Bowie's favourite studio and Debussy
Inside Maida Vale with BBC sound balancer Martin Appleby, plus Debussy's Arabesques and an AI challenge — an episode about how recordings really work and where musical nuance still wins.
Episode 16 — Double bass, planetary resonance and jam
Exoplanet harmonies at Wilton’s and an in-depth session with bassist Charlie Pyne — an episode about resonance, low end and how the bass quietly runs the show.
Episode 15 — Spirited Away, modular expression and mild despair
A bumper episode that moves from the economic reality of being a working musician to bleepy-bloopy modular synths with Jay Chakravorty, then deep into the music and stagecraft of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away with John Caird, Brad Haak and Maoko Imai.
Episode 13 — Worldwide Washboard Registry, autistic art, rockets and zydeco
Autistic Joy and accessible sound with Maddi Crease, New Orleans washboard and Zydeco with Alex Macdonald, and Robyn Rocket’s inclusive space-trumpet nights at Cafe OTO.
Episode 11 — Lofi hip hop, Zigaboo grooves and New Orleans explorations
Hannah Davis on New Orleans community music, a lofi hip hop mix deconstruction, and a deep funk homage to The Meters and Zigaboo grooves.
Episode 10 — East Anglian cowpunk, trombone marathons, the 'i' word and reverb
Trombonist and ultrarunner Nathanial Dye on living loudly with stage four cancer, Steve's deep dive into reverb from Wilton's to the Natural History Museum, and an AI-boosted East Anglian cowpunk experiment.
Episode 8 — Samplers, orchestras and fancy dress harpists
A dog-costumed harp cadenza with the LSO leads into a shed-deep dive on samplers, Amen breaks, synths and a UK hardcore rework of the Origin of the Pieces theme.
Episode 7 — End of year space and slides special, with Chris Hadfield, Rosie Turton and 1201 Alarm
Moon-bound albums with 1201_Alarm, binaural trombone wizardry with Rosie Turton and Chris Hadfield on flutes, space guitars and why music always travels with us.