nts guide to...

Effortlessly cool French alternative sounds from the 1980s, selected by NTS.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/french-coldwave-14th-october-2022

The NTS Guide To: French Coldwave, Post Punk, Synth & Other Oddities 1980 - 1989

Trailing down the dusty highway at dusk, soundtracked by Western-flavoured downtempo sounds. Lapsteels, anachronistic electronics, and deconstructed country ballads.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-ambient-americana-16th-february-2023

Dust To Dust: The NTS Guide to Ambient Americana 160223

In a vague coalescing of producers and scenes in the late 1990s, the worlds of fuzzy, reverb laden indie rock and drum & bass fused on projects by artists like Bowery Electric and Flying Saucer attack.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-drum-and-bliss-17th-february-2023

NTS Guide To Drum & Bliss 170223

Rounding up the best tracks from Cordelia Records' quietly influential compilation series, which scoured the backrooms, dusty crates, and defunct studios of the world in search of oddball art pop, DIY rock, synth experiments, and other amateur musical ephemera. 

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-obscure-independent-classics-2nd-march-2023

NTS Guide To Obscure Independent Classics 020323

NTS selects rap music with piano led instrumentals, featuring glittering jazz gangster rap from Westside Gunn, club rap bangers from Thugger and more.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-piano-rap-31st-march-2023

NTS Guide to: Piano Rap 310323

Considered a reaction to the more lively bebop styles of jazz, the postwar era saw a rise in subdued styles, often referencing classical music. NTS selects two hours of cool jazz from Miles Davis, Chet Baker and more.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-cool-jazz-9th-april-2023

NTS Guide to: Birth of Cool - Postwar US Jazz 150423

Madlibs most heartache-inducing production moments, pulled from the vinyl depths of soul, gospel, and beyond. Featuring Anderson.Paak, Erykah Badu, Freddie Gibbs and more.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-5th-june-2023

NTS Guide to... Madlib's Romantic Beats 050623

An hour of strictly classic soul and disco cuts turned reggae anthems.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-soul-and-disco-covered-in-reggae-15th-june-2023

NTS Guide to: Reggae covers of Soul & Disco 150623

The devil and the blues have been intertwined since the blues got it's name. The name was derived "the Blue Devils”, a symptom of alcohol withdrawal where one sees intense visual hallucinations. It was soon shortened to "the blues" to describe a sense of depression or sadness - a key motif of the music.  
https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-blues-and-the-devil-17th-october-2023

NTS Guide to: Blues and the Devil 171023

In a [2011 New York Times article](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/the-fierce-imagination-of-haruki-murakami.html?pagewanted=5&ref=baseball), Murakami estimated that he owns 10,000 records, but was too afraid to count. Music is elemental to the atmosphere of the stories he creates, his works filled with quotations, references and inspiration from the music world; even entire novels are structured around musical pieces, as with 1Q84. 

In this Guide, NTS collects just a few of Murakami's classical references found in his novels. 
https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-classical-works-in-murakami-novels-23rd-january-2024

NTS Guide to: Classical Works in Murakami Novels 230124

'Somewhere along the line Coltrane’s soprano sax runs out of steam. Now it’s McCoy Tyner’s piano solo I hear, the left hand carving out a repetitious rhythm and the right layering on thick, forbidding chords. Like some mythic scene, the music portrays somebody’s - a nameless, faceless somebody’s - dim past, all the details laid out as clearly as entrails being dragged out of the darkness. Or at least that’s how it sounds to me. The patient, repeating music ever so slowly breaks apart the real, rearranging the pieces. It has a hypnotic, menacing smell, just like the forest'

Music, and specifically jazz, has always featured heavily in the literary imagination of Haruki Murakami. In this radio special, NTS lays down two hours of jazz records as featured throughout Murak... 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-jazz-in-murakami-novels-21st-november-2024

NTS Guide to: Jazz In Murakami Novels 211124

Don't sleep on the flute – an often overlooked woodwind instrument in the history of jazz, the humble flute has brought a unique warmth to many of the genre's great records, and has had an influence across post-bop, spiritual, fusion and beyond.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-jazz-flute-13th-january-2025

NTS Guide to: Jazz Flute 130125

An hour of classics from the weightless grime scene – atmospheric instrumentals, mostly eschewing MCs in favour of airy sub bass, tearjerking melodies, and pure empty space. Featuring music from Mssingno, Rabit, Strict Face, Mumdance and others. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-weightless-grime-27th-february-2025

NTS Guide to: Weightless Grime 270225

A two hour overview of the distinctive blues and rock sounds from North Africa, a loose assimilation of artists and styles often dubbed "Sahara blues" or "Desert blues". The music is frequently associated with (but not exclusively) the nomadic Tuareg peoples who made the music famous around the world.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-sahara-blues-14th-march-2025

NTS Guide to: Sahara Blues 140325

An hour of Ryuichi Sakamoto's piano focussed compositions, in memory of the legendary musician's passing.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-sakamoto-piano-works-28th-march-2025

NTS Guide to: Sakamoto's Piano Works 280325

A snapshot of a short-lived microgenre, created by a niche network of producers in New York, fusing two of the dominant sounds of the city in the mid 2000s – the ostentatious, trunk-knocking drum programming of Diplomats beats, and the euphoric big-room trance sounds spilling from the city's clubs. Dipset Trance.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-dipset-trance-8th-april-2025

NTS Guide to: Dipset Trance  080425

Sounds of stillness and peace from the Japanese "kankyō ongaku" movement - environmental and ambient recordings, produced as a reaction to the growing hyper-commercialisation and urbanisation of 1980s Japan. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-japanese-new-age-and-environmental-music-vol-ii-9th-april-2025

NTS Guide to: Japanese New Age and Environmental Music Vol II  090425

From Syriac chants to Orthodox choirs, NTS presents a selection of traditional christian music centered around the Holy Week of Easter. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-sacred-songs-of-easter-18th-april-2025

NTS Guide to: Sacred Songs of Easter 180425

A deep dive into scenes, record labels and genres from around the world. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-us-80s-power-pop-jangle-pop-26th-april-2025

NTS Guide to: US 80s Power Pop & Jangle Pop 260425

The LA Beat Scene emerged in the early 2000s as a loose community of producers pushing instrumental hip-hop into new territory. Built around live nights like Kutmah's Sketchbook, and later Low End Theory, it created space for new kinds of sampling, strange drum programming and a DIY approach to sharing music. This mix brings together artists central to the scene’s development - Flying Lotus, Ras G, Teebs, Samiyam, Knxwledge, and others who shaped its sound from bedrooms, basements and backrooms across LA. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-la-beat-scene-13th-may-2025

nts guide to...

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