The Balloon

FREE DOWNLOAD

Tim Deluxe - It Just Wont Do (Spence 140 Flip) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

🌿👻 'Inhale Exhale' - A Spine-Chilling Suburban Saga 🇬🇧💨

Just dropped a new audio tale that's not your usual smoke sesh story.

If you love a good scare with your smoke, this one's for you. 

Transcript

  📍  📍  

Back in the day when I was just a kid really, 

me and my mate couldn't bill up at his because he wasn't allowed to smoke at the gaff. 

So it became our little ritual, 

knock off work, 

jump in the motor and go find a spot to have a chat, smoke weed, an listen to mixtapes. 

This time it turned out a little different.

Sun's already done one,  I pick him up, we fancy something different so we find ourselves cruising down this dodgy dead end near his. There's this little bridge at the end, right? 

Just for the cyclists and the wanderers to cross the old river ford. 

All surrounded by these moody trees, one solitary flatbed truck filled with construction gear and massive wrought iron fencing.

Like, suttin', out of a horror film.  

Off to the side, there's this padlock on a huge iron gate. 

And behind that, uh, this old, creepy, massive gaff that's been left to rot. 

So, thinking I'm the bollocks, right? 

I park up right in front of that gate.

Got a lorry on my right, metal fencing on the left, and that eerie padlocked gate behind us.

So we get to smoking, chatting away, listening to bangers.

Roll it up, light it up,

Roll it up, light it up, light it, inhale, exhale. 

Roll it up, light it up, inhale, exhale. 

Few spliffs 

later, and we're out like a light. 

He was out first, and me not long after. To get extra comfy, I've slipped off me trainers. 

Pure bliss.  

Next thing I know, I'm being violently shaken awake, proper hard mind. 

My mate's got this wild look in his eyes, pure terror, pure fear. 

Trice mate, they're coming, go, go! 

I look the gate,  bathed in shadows, face obscured the darkness, two gypsy geezers that had been staying on the land, pulling at the gate, trying to get it open, to get to us. 

By this point my mates shouting go go they're coming.

I'm panicking 

can't get a whip in gear, the clutch won't go all the way down, gears grinding against metal.

I'm trying I'm trying I shout 

the geezer starts trying to climb the fence 

My mates pulling on my arm, 

then I clock it 

my fucking shoes! Jammed under the clutch. 

That's why I couldn't get the thing down. 

Them two geezers are looking more menacing by the second, 

climbing up the gate, 

shaking it 

Trying to break that padlock,

I lean down to the clutch. 

My mate's audibly panicking. 

I chuck my shoes in the back seat, get the clutch down, slam the gear, and we're off. 

Tyres  squealing. 

 We burst out of that creepy spot and back onto the main road, streetlights guiding us. 

From sheer terror to absolute stitches, pure adrenaline mixed with fear has us both cracking up, pure genuine belly laughs.  

The adventure is over. Safe to sleep and smoke another day.

Hopefully, more calm next time.

Inhale Exhale - A True Short Story

The Leeds Cross stands in Leeds Minster. A sign in the minster itself describes the cross: 

“The pieces making up the cross were found built into the medieval structure during demolition of the church in 1838. The cross would originally have stood outside the church, together with other crosses, and may have served as a grave marker. It dates to the tenth century A.D., and is carved in the Anglian style. The wheel-head originally belonged to another cross, although the shaft would have had a similar top. All the crosses from Leeds appear to have been produced in one workshop, and also have artistic links with other pieces from Wharfedale, such as the Collingham, Otley and Ilkley crosses. 

The upper tiers show several probably Christian figures, the angel and patron possibly copied from Irish manuscript art. At the bottom of the main faces are figures from Germanic mythology. One panel shows Weland the Smith, who was captured by Nithad, hamstrung, and forced to work as a smith. In revenge Weland murdered Nithad’s two sons and made their skulls into cups which he presented to their father, and then made Nithad’s daughter, Beaduhild, pregnant. Weland escaped by means of a flying machine, which is here shown strapped around him. He is shown surrounded by the tools of his trade and reaching up to seize a female figure, possibly Beaduhild or a Valkyrie, by the hair and skirt. The juxtaposition of Christian and pagan iconography indicates the mixed nature of tenth-century society, although the figure of Weland was sometimes employed to represent Elijah who ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot.”

I recorded violinist and composer, James Gerrard, playing On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at. This Yorkshire folk song is based upon the hymn Cranbook; just like the Leeds Cross, it is simultaneously Christian and non-Christian. I also recorded James reading a sign describing the various sections of the cross, and combined these with recordings of bells, birds, and footsteps, all captured either in the minster itself or directly outside. I have attempted to replicate the cross’s beautiful, confusing, fragmentary character, and was inspired by its iconography, both Christian and non-Christian.

Originally From Another Cross

A look at the history and evolution of the radio documentary feature, a hybrid form which can sometimes appear closer to music or poetry than to news reporting.

The list of contributors features some of the finest feature-makers of their generation, including Chris Brookes, Berit Hedemann, Kaye Mortley, Robyn Ravlich, Edwin Brys, Simon Elmes, Mark Burman, Sarah Taylor and Piers Plowright.

First broadcast 28th June 2008 BBC Radio 4
Produced by Alan Hall

The Ballad Of The Radio Feature

Evaporating answers, mysterious music and disappearing dialects - Josie Long presents short documentaries about things in danger of becoming lost.

Pot-8-Toes
Featuring Billy Butler and Wally Scott
Originally broadcast in Hold Your Plums on Radio Merseyside

A Corner Seat in a Smoker, Facing the Engine
Produced by Robin the Fog

Echoes of Cockney
Produced by James Trice

Panchiko
Produced by Tom Whalley

First broadcast 28th May 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié and Eleanor McDowall
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S38: Short Cuts: Lost 5/6

Red of Visibility, finds a young woman overcoming childhood trauma through a reflection on the colour red.

"Red of Visibility, finds a young woman overcoming childhood trauma through a reflection on the colour red." Financial Times

Red of Visibility

I had the honour of being commissioned to create a sonic piece out of the recent Manifesto Press launch at the Marx Memorial Library of their stunning new book: Hans Hess 'Art and Ideology'.
Thank you Ben Lunn for the introduction :)
Here is the result...

Manifesto Press sonic commission - Hans Hess - Art and Ideology book launch

For Caroline Bird, writing poetry has always occurred in 'seasons.' 'I'll have a year or two of frantic writing, where every billboard, every conversation, sparks a magpie thirst in me and the words just seem to connect and spark off each other. And then it will disappear. Suddenly, overnight...'

In this documentary, Caroline Bird seeks out the company of other poets to explore these anxious silences, where it feels as if words have abandoned you. She speaks with Marie Howe, Vanessa Kisuule, Liz Berry, Oliver Carmichael, Jack Underwood and Hannah Copley.

Original music composed by Phil Smith

First broadcast 9th November 2025, BBC Radio 3
Produced by Eleanor McDowall

When the Words Leave

Produced for Short Cuts by Falling Tree Productions for BBC Radio 4.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09snj8y

Ring a Rainbow

A man in California is haunted by the memory of a pop song from his youth. He can remember the lyrics and the melody. But the song itself has vanished, completely scrubbed from the internet. PJ takes on the Super Tech Support case.

Reply All

#158 The Case of the Missing Hit

East London born Hip-Hop enthusiast and scratch DJ, Maj Duckworth cut his teeth in the clubs and bars of Leeds, running nights and cutting and scratching. 

Eventually returning to London and securing a residency in Camden, he has gone on to DJ at multiple venues across the UK from 1000 + capacity venues like the Clapham Grand, to the RumShack at Glastonbury Festival.

His passion for music covers the range of genres Soul, Funk and Rock’n’Roll to R&B, Hip Hop, Disco and classic Original Samples. 

It’s this musical inspiration that lead to him producing and presenting his weekly radio show on Hip-Hop’s Original Samples and the stories that go with them, “Sample Nation” 

First launched on Whitechapel AM, later moving to Community Station, London Fields Radio and now landing safely in it’s spiritual home, the Internationally recognized, Itch FM

Inhale Exhale - A True Short Story

MajDuckworth

Related tracks