First thing on Fridays - Jack Rollo's here to take care of things.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/early-bird-show-jack-rollo/episodes/early-bird-show-jack-rollo-23rd-may-2025

The Early Bird Show w/ Jack Rollo & Troth 230525

We're none too fond of terms like 'selector' here at the figurative 12th Isle HQ. We think it was a shrewd marketing ploy concocted by natural wine bar owners - and possibly the freemasons - who repackaged the spergy single-mindedness of record nerds into something that sounded much more socially agile and cool in order to distract punters from the exorbitant price of nibbles. Thankfully, the time of white label soundtracked £40 sashimi seems to be behind us, and DJing can go back to being obsessives playing odd music made by even odder folk without much in the way of pretence. Someone who encapsulates that kind of energy has very kindly put together a nearly 4 hour long sprawl and has stated that under no circumstances should this mix be enjoyed alongside thinly sliced bits of raw beef and wine with bits in it or there will be hell to pay. Floor Length Skirts for Forecast 79, it's good gear like.

Forecast 079: Floor Length Skirts

Houndstooth

Australian dream pop and folk duo Troth take on the Early Bird shift in a series of guest episodes.
 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/early-bird/episodes/early-bird-troth-15th-september-2025

The Early Bird Show w/ TROTH 150925

Introducing The Early Bird Show - our radio offering for morning people, hosted by Maria Somerville (Mondays and Tuesdays), Spirit Blue (Wednesdays and Thursdays) and Jack Rollo (Fridays). Weekday mornings, 7-9am. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/early-bird/episodes/early-bird-troth-22nd-september-2025

The Early Bird Show w/ TROTH 220925

Luminous Void

Delta Waves Dream

Introducing The Early Bird Show - our radio offering for morning people, hosted by Maria Somerville (Mondays and Tuesdays), Spirit Blue (Wednesdays and Thursdays) and Jack Rollo (Fridays). Weekday mornings, 7-9am. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/early-bird/episodes/early-bird-troth-29th-september-2025

The Early Bird Show w/ TROTH 290925

Tusagi [03.10.25]

Track ID: @voice-of-bush

Website: https://bush.tw/

Mixes on this channel have become increasingly rare. I often can’t keep up with work-related and other things enough to fit everything into my schedule. Perhaps that’s one of the disadvantages of ageing for me—being busier, less spontaneous, unable to do all the things I used to with the same regularity. It means learning to choose, to prioritise—and those choices are rarely easy.

This mix was long anticipated, and maybe it, too, was ageing before being recorded.

When I thought about the theme Thomas proposed, three visual metaphors came to mind: winemaking, cheese ripening, and the ageing of a tree. All are linked to the cognitive representation that time refines things, giving them depth, texture, and a sense of character. And yet, when we tend to think about our own ageing, it might be less poetic. It’s a deeply personal process—often ambivalent, oscillating between anxiety and fear, curiosity and pride in the journey that has shaped one’s own character. 

That’s exactly how I perceived Thomas’s mix: as a reflection on that complex, intimate experience. Some tracks unsettled me; others sparked curiosity, joy, or a quiet melancholy. By the end of the mix, I felt a warm nostalgia. I’m grateful to Thomas for this multi-layered work, which I experienced through the prism of the *ageing* metaphor.

I’ve wanted to invite Thomas to the mix-series for a long time. I’m a long-time admirer of his music and very happy that we’ve come to know each other personally. I first discovered Thomas through the debut album by RAP, the group he’s part of.

When I lived in Malmö, I shared RAP Junction with my friend @herman240p, who was deeply inspired by the production. After some searching, Herman found out that Thomas, surprisingly, was living in Malmö, too—and that’s how we first connected.

To end this sentimental journey, I want to thank Thomas once again. Earlier, in May 2024, he was looking for someone to help him organise a concert in Belgium. That eventually became the starting point for the @lise.gent concert series that @tobin.verdonck and I have been running—and fittingly, Thomas played the very first show.



De Kat Memwa #59 w/ Thomas Bush: Ageing

Track ID: @altered-states-tapes

Troth's last LP Unfinished Rose: https://troth.bandcamp.com/album/an-unfinished-rose

I often find myself saying that each episode — and each invited guest — feels special to me as the curator of this series. This time is no exception.
There are several reasons for that, the most immediate being that this is the 60th edition, recorded by Cooper Bowman and Amelia Besseny of Troth.

Like many others, I became captivated by Troth when Oak Corridor appeared in 2021. Since then, inviting them to the series felt like a quiet dream of mine. For some reason, I hesitated. It seemed — or so I believed — that they were too far away in Australia, and simply too remarkable to ever take interest in something as modest as my mix series.

Ironically, earlier this year I had the chance to help organise a Troth concert in Ghent — a collaboration between the Morс label and the @lise.gent project I run together with Tobin Verdonck.

I often question why I continue organising concerts or inviting people to record mixes, and inspiration is the only answer that consistently makes sense.
Meeting Cooper and Amelia was profoundly inspiring. Their approach to creativity struck me: after travelling thousands of kilometres from Australia, they arranged their entire tour across Europe and the UK themselves, without any commercial expectations — driven purely by the wish to share their music and to seek inspiration in new encounters and unfamiliar places. That sincerity, that grounded honesty, made a deep impression on me.

A few words about the mix: it instantly evokes the natural surroundings of Nipaluna, where Cooper and Amelia live. It carries the qualities I associate with their music — serene, lulling, quietly mysterious, touched by a gentle, luminous melancholy.

Here is what they wrote about the mix:

“The mix was going to be called —

‘bead of rain, wisp of air, scents of calm embrace’

But also doesn’t need a title.

Made over two days of cosy rain at home following a tumultuous period. Several Japanese artists who we adore are featured, to acknowledge preparation for some Troth shows in Japan in February 2026. Motifs are repeated throughout the mix: romance, enchantment; the sounds of rain, sacral bells and whispers of air.”

Houndstooth

Mouving