Feeling a bit saucy today, so I thought I might stray from my comfort zone of Yorkshire community radio and dive into something a bit different — and less distracting, as I have a hell of a lot of work to get done in the next three days. Decided to take a trip over to Moscow and see what they had going on on their airwaves.
Mainly, this stems from an idea I read yesterday in Spooks Digest about noise-burst transmissions on a Moscow state radio station… believed to actually be Korean signals to their subs, if you go in for these kinds of conspiracy theories. Anyway, got me wondering what Russian radio must be like if only the trained experts caught the transmission. So, I flipped around a few and settled on Radio Jazz 89.1. Good music, but slightly disappointing. Most of what they play is standard American fare, with a few surprises (or at least somewhat more obscure artists than I’m used to) thrown in. No actual Russian jazz players, as near as I could tell, though.
Not sure if I’ve officially put it down here, but I suppose most of you know my handicap system for the standard 10-point female-classification scale. Essentially, one bonus point for redheads, or Eastern European accent of some form, musicians, or holding a melee weapon. Two bonus points if the accent is vaguely Slavic, they’re playing a musical instrument well on stage, or being handy with said melee weapon. (Yes, this makes Suzanna Hoff something like a 12 when she’s playing … and I don’t even particularly LIKE her music.)
Similarly, a lot of the particular flavors of Jazz these guys were playing I found a bit “meh,” but when a Russian DJ announces it, it’s just so freakin’ sexy. Well, okay, NOT sexy was the sultry Russian jazz version of “Conjunction Junction” by Schoolhouse Rock. Not sure if this was a joke, or maybe our Eastern Bloc friends don’t know the context, but it added a bit too much surrealism to the morning, so I decided to flip over for some rock-and-roll.
