For all the advances in how, and where, we consume music, there’s still no substitute in our book for the regular radio show – that intimate, authoritative portal into unfamiliar music old or new. With podcasting and online streaming creating a global platform for local stations, there are a wealth of essential shows that should be in any adventurous listener’s diary. In this new occasional FACT series, we’ll be profiling our favourite shows from across the globe.
Show: The OST Show
Station: Resonance FM
Hosts: Jonny Trunk
When: Weekly 16:30-18:30
What: Lord love Jonny Trunk – hoarder of oddities, pornographer-in-chief , and diligent archivist of all manner of post-war tchotchkes and long-forgotten tosh. Like his ongoing #50pFriday series, the Trunk Records boss is always good value, and his label’s kept up their usual flow of soundtrack work, vintage smut and oddball miscellanea: notable releases this year include Classroom Projects, featuring a glut of material recorded in British schools between 1959 and 1977, and an ace retrospective of Jeff Keen’s sound work, Noise Art.
Trunk gets to communicate directly with the commonweal on his long-running The OST Show – as the blurb has it, “the only show anywhere dedicated to film music, TV music, library music and related recordings”. Broadcast weekly on redoubtable London art station Resonance FM for the best part of a decade, it features a rich selection of modern and vintage scores, kooky library snippets, rescued jingles and more. He’s strong-armed some great artists into joining him the studio over the years, with John Parish, XTC’s Andy Partridge, Andy Weatherall and BBC Radiophonic Workshop veteran Paddy Kingsland among those who’ve joined him. Trunk’s mission has always been to take music stuck in blind spots – whether that be through historical neglect, or general indifference towards “functional” music – and give it a chance to shine on its own terms. Whether you’re a hip-hop digger with an ear for arcane samples or a fan of Death Waltz’s horror reissues, it’s one to tightly lock into the diary.
Playlist: To pick from a random show from the archives: Michael Small’s rustic soundtrack for 1971 crime drama Klute, a lost score by Francois De Roubaix, Dickon Hinchliffe’s Winter’s Bone score, and a classic from Assault On Precinct 13, amongst other tracks.
How to listen: Stream live via Berlin Community Radio page, or grab an assortment of older shows as iTunes podcasts (the uploading is sporadic, so tuning in direct is advised).
