Mainstream radio is a phenomenon of blandness. So many shows with so many producers have bored my ears to tears with the exact same combination of nothing, meaning I hadn't listened in a happily long time.
But then, Monday night, 22:00-24:00, Fuse FM, I listened to Tom Whyman's two hours of wonderful aural confusion and was gleefully fed my first taste of Sixties Cambodian Pop.
Ros Sereysothea playfully flittering her voice over addictive rythmns as they stop and start, traditional flute and plucked guitar swirled together into a perfect blend of pop. The sweetness of The Chiffons matched with the musical complexity and lush sound of MV&EE, even the Cambodian language is beautiful.
Other songs reveal the distorted guitar of antique 50s rock n roll and on I'm So Shy she shrieks over driving drum beats and blasts of dirty brass. Every song she sings seems to explore a step further than the last, making the discovery even more exciting, and my debt to the online stream even greater.
