I love Tiny Desk. It almost doesn't matter if it's an artist you're into. Everyone has their own interpretation of the format and most do something memorable with it. I even enjoyed Sting and Shaggy's collaboration and I don't have any particular interest in either of them.

Somehow I got chatting to a school mum about music and festivals at the easter ceremony at Tabitha's school and she was into house music. That's not something I'm terribly conversant in, but I can go to Skrillex, Pendulum (a DJ set I saw about twenty years ago 🤫) and Fred again (I've seen his Boiler Room set so I'm something of an expert) and it served me pretty well. Nice to connect with new people about music.

I told her I was usually into pretty heavy music that a lot of people find quite unpleasant, but she asked for a recommendation nonetheless. I recommended Every Time I Die because that's who I recommend to everyone. They're heavy but accessible and they've got a good vibe and an amazing sense of humour. I wonder if she listened to them.

Anyway this Fred again... set is quite special, in my opinion. I'd almost categorise it as post-electronic. Live sampling and basically writing songs on the bounce is an absolutely incredible skill that I feel is only available to people who live, breathe, and think in music. Obviously it's rehearsed, but writing a song whilst you invent instruments in front of a room full of people will never not impress me. It reminds me a lot of this J-E-T-S video where they're cutting samples up live. An enviable skill.