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Sound Science · Music History · Music Theory · Origins & Oddities · Genre Tombola · Entertaining Noises
Follow a musical thread: Five notes, many musical worlds.
Episode 42 – Never the Same Melody Twice with Akram Abdulfattah
What happens when a melody can never be played quite the same way twice? Akram Abdulfattah brings his six-string violin to explore maqam, microtones and improvisation, with stories of musical tradition, family and his Palestinian-American identity.
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 35 — Mulatu Astatke, Pentatonic Worlds and Ethio Jazz
Mulatu Astatke — the father of Ethio jazz — joins me in a long-lost interview recorded during Hackney Colliery Band’s Collaborations Vol. 1 sessions. We dig into pentatonic worlds, the Derashe tribe, unusual scales, and how Ethiopian traditions shaped global music.
There’s also a trip through the physics of sound, a live Barbican recording of “Derashe”, and reflections on Mulatu’s incredible collaborations from Duke Ellington to Talib Kweli. A deep, warm, gently mind-bending episode.
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 32 – Sampling Firepits, Feeling Flamenco, Finding Tonás
From a Dorset firepit to Manchester flamenco, Steve Pretty explores how rhythm and emotion evolve through sound.
Episode 22 — Rock n roll defibrillators, bierhall melodies and tech trance
Rock ’n’ roll fundraisers for defibrillators, Bavarian beer hall brass at the Hofbräuhaus, and a Tech Trance Prosit — a Genre Tombola trip through how music saves lives, oils communities and powers dancefloors.
Episode 21 — Oud, microtones and underwater soundscapes
Live at Wilton’s with Hackney Colliery Band and harpist Valeria Clarke, plus a deep-dive with Syrian musician Nawar Alnaddaf into the oud, the ney and the emotional power of microtones — with a sea-soaked soundscape in between.
Episode 19 - Narco music, Ola Onabulé and turf wars
Studio time with Ola Onabulé, AI-anxious soul grooves and a corrido-fuelled look at narco music, diss tracks and musical turf wars.
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 14 — Eliza, a cello made of U-boats and Igbo flow
Eliza on announcing pregnancy live on stage, Verity Simmons on a U-boat-spiked cello, and a Genre Tombola dive into Igbo rap, rhythm and call-and-response.
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 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.
Episode 6 — Festive phasing, guitar percussion and Nitin Sawhney
Festive Reich-inspired phasing, sleepless sleigh bells and a deep studio conversation with Nitin Sawhney on flamenco, Indian classical music, rhythm cycles, modes, identity and what music is actually for.
Episode 4 — Harmonic remembrance, blues shouting and deathgrind taxonomy
Bugles in Abney Park, brass harmonics and Remembrance Sunday, binaural blues shouting with Nicole Cassandra Smit, and a gloriously over-detailed tour through deathgrind with Andrew O’Neill — plus Philip Larkin over blast beats.
Episode 2 — Tiny trumpets, harps, jazz and Robbie Williams
Pocket trumpets by the pool, a close-up tour of orchestral harp sorcery with Valeria Clarke, a no-nonsense jazz 101, and a Genre Tombola detour into pop rock and Robbie Williams with Alexander Bennett.