It is. Admittedly I'm not quite sure if I quite get it, but it's quite interesting to hear something that's quite different from Tallulah Gosh, Heavenly et al
13.03.2026 12:23
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It is. Admittedly I'm not quite sure if I quite get it, but it's quite interesting to hear something that's quite different from Tallulah Gosh, Heavenly et al
The five genres of music, NDW, indiepop, anything in English that isn't indiepop, anything in Japanese, and odd stuff that doesn't fit into the other categories.
I'd sort them alphabetically if I didn't have loads of Japanese stuff, or at least that's my excuse.
I don't have that many really, but I've also finally got around to at least partially sorting my singles. At least sorting by incredibly vague genres now is better than everything just being thrown on the shelf as the were before.
Some more German records that arrived today.
Some decent pop songs came out of Germany in the 80s, and conveniently, as is usually the case with forgotten mass market pop, the singles are also really cheap.
The best piece of Austrian music just arrived (Sorry Mozart)
Ba Ba Banküberfall by EAV
open.spotify.com/track/1LAdc8...
Tonight's listening
I'd like to say there's some common thread between these singles, but I can't think of anything, beyond that they're songs I think are alright.
Tonight's listening, 3 pop songs of the Neue Deutsche Welle.
One of them is definitely the best song I've heard to use a calculator as instrument (although now I think of it Two Divided by Zero and Pocket Calculator both also use calculators, so I'm not so sure)
Tomix's new containers go quite nicely with my 90s rake
The problem with modelling container trains is you either have too many wagons or too many containers. There will never be an equilibrium, there's always something more to buy.
They do look nice though.
#modeltrains
The corresponding rake of coaches for this were made at the same time, but they're quite hard to find.
I remembered I'd bought JR Hokkaido's barbeque car though, and I reckon that's American enough to do.
Also in late 80s trains, we have the American Train, which calls itself American despite being electrified, and probably unable to haul profitable quantities of coal.
Believe this was basically used on a buy more American stuff tour, as they were concerned about trade deficits.
#modeltrains
There's a really interesting story behind these. In the late 80s the Japanese economy got a bit out of hand, and with all the money floating around, a TV station decided to run a CIWL rake from Paris, through the USSR, and then on a boat from Hong Kong to Japan.
I'm adding smuggler to my CV, given they won't sell these outside of Japan.
Had to use the proxies I usually use to get second hand stuff.
(I get why, I suspect licensing the Orient Express name globally is more trouble than it's worth)
The badge still survives on my jacket
Today's listening
A Million Zillion Miles by Annie & The Aeroplanes, a lovely janglepop record that got stuck in my head whilst listening to the C88 comp
There's a box of news ones of these being sold on Discogs if you want one
open.spotify.com/track/5lRR9c...
It'd would be lovely if there were a better way of getting an electric unit from Manchester to Doncaster
ROG move next Saturday, I think this'll be a 397, but usual caviat that it might not run.
(Also not one I've worked on, beyond platforming Waverley)
realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:
Thanks Adobe, I've always wanted an AI podcast making from the Scotrail unit diagrams.
(I obviously have them from work, but these are publicly available at www.scotrail.co.uk/about-scotra...)
Now I've done the unimportant task of finding somewhere to live, now onto why I'm really here, to look at trains.
There's a pair of SX class 320 diagrams that, on an evening, go out to Wemyss Bay and Gourock, usual 380 services.
Here they are at the rather lovely Wemyss Bay.
Haven't seen a ticket formatted like this before
What an exciting life I lead
I'm meant to be in Glasgow to look for a flat, which is the opposite of fun, but I had to go to monorail whilst I'm here.
Somehow I didn't already have this, probably one of my favourite records from last year.
Provisorische Fußnote aus meinem Kursbuch mit den Verkehrsperioden für den genannten Zug. Zu wild, um sie von einer Text-to-Speech-Software vorlesen zu lassen, aber die Tage sind wild vom Januar bis Anfang Juli verteilt, einzige Konstante ist das Verkehren am Samstag und nicht-Verkehren am Sonntag, ansonsten wechseln die Fahrtage unter der Woche wild umher.
Und da war er wieder. TGV 8377 von Paris nach La Rochelle ist auch heuer wieder der Zug mit den MIT ABSTAND (!!!!) bescheuertsten, unregelmäßigsten und am schwersten (nämlich so gut wie gar nicht) zusammenfassbaren Verkehrszeiten im gesamten TGV-Netz überhaupt.
Warum nur????
#LGVKursbuch
Shame it's so hard to find a physical copy of this, at least from the usual sources. Would be lovely if this got a pressing onto vinyl.
The label sells downloads of it at www.indies.eu/us/alba/4913..., or someone's ripped it onto YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Hc...
Today's listening, Swirl by Hear
A great Czech shoegaze album from the 90s
I admittedly don't know much Czech music; I found this last time I was over there, listening to one of Radio Prague's podcasts about the Czech shoegaze scene to pass the train on a train.
open.spotify.com/album/1NO7zm...
Saw this on discogs and had to buy it. Space Manatee, one of my favourite Heavenly songs (and I'm only being slightly sarcastic.)
I was quite happy this was on the setlist for their last Islington gig, it's just a really fun song.
The usual habitat.
Unusually I'm seeing a band that aren't quite old enough to be my parents this time.
Went to see The Primitives in London today, 40 years (almost to the day) since their first gig.
There's worse ways of spending an evening.
(Also, the Bush Hall is a really lovely venue. Probably a bit wasted on us in the dark)
[November 14th, 1985] The Primitives performed their first concert with lead singer Tracy Tracy. The show took place at The Hope & Anchor pub in Coventry, England.
Tonight's listening
I'm not sure I quite get the transitions between the songs, but the songs themselves are great.
You can guess some of the inspirations for this band by the title, which fits quite well with what I like.
Today's orange arrival.
REM's newish release, containing quite a few new versions of Radio Free Europe on a rather orange 10 inch record.
Great song, and some nice new mixes on here. (I do now need to get some 10” inner sleeves though - I've only got one other 10")
Tonight's listening, some lovely Swedish indiepop in the form of Hari & Aino's A Considerate Kind Of Home.
I do like the insert - a few things about the industry might have changed since then
In a similar vein, this arrived today from Japan (the country not the new wave group).
Nous ne sommes pas des anges, released 1965. I think this is actually my first French record.
Their cover is one of my favourite Heavenly songs, so nice to have the original.