Kiosk Radio.

Another great thing from Belgium...

If ever in need of a dope webradio that is into no genre and all genres at the same time, then you should drop an ear at Kiosk Radio. 

Airing from a wooden cabin located in the heart of Brussels, under the trees of the Parc de Bruxelles in front of the Royal Palace, it explains why the radio only broadcasts during the afternoons. 

What makes it special is that "programmers" are actually DJ's and music lovers who play live with the CDJ or turntables. The style vary from one hour to another, according to the tastes and intent of the person behind the boards. Expect everything from dub to hip-hop to techno to soukouss to molam to jazz to rock to anything that makes people shake or nod their head. 

Some hosts are regulars, and most hosts are local Belgians. Others are friends of the radio passing through the city, sometimes to play live shows in some venue of the Capital City of Europe. 

Also, the shows can be watched and listened to on the Facebook page. Awesome.

Make yourself a favor. Listen.   

small talk about records...

I could be wrong, but it seems that the Fuse-produced YouTube series "Crate Diggers" has been discontinued since January 2017. That's bad, real bad. Wrong even. What remains is an incredible bank of 56 videos, filled with stories of records, digging, collecting, trading, ordering, rarities etc. 

Along with the also discontinued Radio France-produced "Radio Vinyle" (en passant, thanks to the compiler of those videos) series, "Crates Diggers" was a great contribution to the record digging and collecting culture. Sure, it wasn't perfect, episodes were rather short, so choices had to be made. 

But other ressources exist on the web. And the most interesting ones are basically... words. And a few photos. When well conducted, interviews are increbily interesting, especially since they allow everyone to have access to the correct spelling of record titles and musicians without having to guess... The prominant websites for such ressources are :

• the obvious Dust & Grooves : founded by Israeli NY-based photographer Eilon Paz, its pace of interviews is irregular but they are always, always, essential. Eilon makes the reader feel at home, right in the middle of a casual conversation... every now and then, the reader may feel lost and buried under the amount of exchanged information, but what a sweet exhilarating feeling... Being able to interview the crème de la crème of record collectors, Eilon Paz signed a book (two editions actually) which, of course, displays his impeccable photography skills.   
• the Belgian Vinyl Frontier : sponsored by Red Bull, this website is a gold mine for anyone interested in record digging in Belgium, but not only. The interviewed collectors, all based in Belgium, have crazy stories to tell. Which is understandable as most of them are or were actors of the music industry in Belgium, either as DJ, radio host, club manager, store owner, label founder, etc. And it's in English (the best way to solve the Belgian linguistic quarrel). 
• the well-named Vinyl Factory : it is indeed a pressing plant, and a source of articles about vinyl records. You'll have to browse the website by yourself to find the interviews of crate diggers (under the "Features" category), but it's absolutely worth it. Interviews are long, intimate, well documented, and feature pretty pictures. The Vinyl Factory also has a series of mini-interviews of collectors, called Home Grown, but it is insubstantial compared to the real deal.  

I'm aware there are other websites (such as Koeppel Design, and strangely several websites dedicated to metal/hardcore) that dedicate space to interviewing record collectors, or even interviews floating here and there, but I wanted to select the most consistent websites in terms of interview conducting skills, also in terms of genre diversity. 

Oh, and this is a treat : an interview of Hans Pokora, the guy behind the world-famous Pokora guides of rare psychedelic records, courtesy of the excellent It's Psychedelic Baby blog. Not the best interview, probably done via email, but whatever, the guy is a legend. 

Dans Le Club.

For the European heads, and especially the German and French ones, Arte has been labelled as a TV channel for old people, one that is so boring that everyone would know its primetime schedule without even checking : half the time, you would fall sleep in front of black and white films of World War II. 

This is however a misleading reputation, because it totally discards the fact that Arte has also been instrumental in promoting the underground cultures and trends, provided that you could watch TV in the middle of the night. For instance, a program like "Tracks" is probably unique in the history of French/German TV. 

A few years ago, Arte started making use of the internet to broadcast countless pieces of material related to music. 

"Dans le Club" is my latest discovery from the Arte website. 

Simply explained, it's just (and so much at the same time) artists from the French underground hip-hop scene playing their music live surrounded by a small but lively young crowd. 

Those who sweated on stage are Belgian veteran Isha, Jok'Air, the multi-talented Grems, Rémy, Nusky (wow), Lefa, 13 Block, Sopico (alone with his guitar...unusual), and even the mighty DJ Pone who showed his latest tricks and tracks on the newest gear from Rane. 

Enjoy those vids until... 2021. Nice use of our taxes. Sweet.