Controlled Weirdness

15/06/2026

Latest show up on YouTube. Link in bio. Lots of fresh new Electro and Techno in the mix and plenty of fu**ed up funk. As always I will play you some tunes you have never heard before. Full track list below.

Dany Rodriguez - Treasure
Passarani - Hypercuatro
Yaleesa Hal - First Cullen
Decal - Freekin Failures
Anterspace 02 - Polygonization II
Sematic4 - Machine
Roi - Faith and Oath
True Self - Data Problem
Omicron - Zero Point Repeat
Mero - Interface
Scan Mode - Planetary Boundaries
Breakdata - Take Off
Sematic4 - Dial in
Drexciya - The Plankton Organization
The Martian - Eagle Dance (Original Mix)
DJ Funk - Work That Body
Justin Jay, Coldsweat, DJ Deeon - Back to the Groove (feat. DJ Deeon)
DJ Godfather - Funk For The Trunk
Mero - TC2600
Magnetize - Hardcopy
Silicon Scally - Cascade Lasers
Kerrie - Funk Fidelity
DJ Mell G x Unklevon - Get Down (Sync 24 x Controlled Weirdness Remix)
Kanse - Scratch 808
Plant43 - Storm Control
Songpancake - Psyched
Lekkyelectro - Shlorpy
L/F/D/M - Yellac Gold
YMDUB23001 - UnknownArtist
JSPRV35 - Intrakt
Ikeaboy - Onwards Upwards
RMM - Velo Dramatic
3rd Sphere - Sprawl
Saah - Engage
Gamadon - Reprogrammed (X-Truder Remix)
Mero - SP1G system
Luxus Varta - Building Peaks
Club Cab - Stay Pressed
Magnético - Chapter 3
Shawescape Renegade - Monstrosities
DJ Godfather - Make Your Body Jerk featuring DJ Deeon

08/06/2026

You can now stream Aaron Trinder's amazing "Free Party: A Folk History" until June 21st. If you haven't seen it yet it's essential viewing whether you were there at the time or just want to know more about the late 80's and 90s outdoor free party and acid house scene in the UK. You get lots of cool extras to watch as part of the rental too. I did a a 3 hour podcast with Aaron talking about his own history as well as the film and I will link that in a comment below too.

The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new age travellers during Thatcher's last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton free festival in 1992 - the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic chan...

04/06/2026

50 years ago, one of the most mythologised gigs in history happened. The S*x Pistols at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. June 4th, 1976. Audience: less than 50 people.
Organised by Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto of the fledgling Buzzcocks, this show kick-started the Manchester punk scene. Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner and Morrissey were definitely there. Tony Wilson claimed he was – but some say he was on holiday. Mick Hucknall is always mentioned as attending, though he himself says he wasn’t. No one believes him.
Want the full story? Read “I Swear I Was There” by David Nolan. There’s also a great YouTube documentary by him with the same name.
A tape of the whole show exists. You can hear Lydon taunting the crowd, and them hurling abuse back. To me, the crowd’s reaction is almost more important than the music. I cleaned up the audio of the between-song banter. Here are some highlights:
Early on: “If you don’t like it, you can f**k off out of it!”
Someone shouts “Eddie and the Hot Rods.” Lydon: “F**k off.” Then: “You got a lot of mouth to say it in the dark.”
But as the gig goes on, the crowd gets raucous. Even Lydon seems surprised. “Where have you all come from?” he asks. Two encores. They finish with “No Fun” for a second time – already out of songs.
There’s one photo of the audience by Paul Welsh. Long hair. Bad 70s fashion.
This was year zero.

02/06/2026

Total Confusion by A Homeboy, A Hippie and a Funki Dred is an early UK banging rave classic that can still rock a party today. Created by Caspar Pound, Marc Williams and Tony Winter in 1990, with the main samples taken from Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” and Iggy Pop’s “African Man” (probably via Westbam).

This clip comes from Dance Energy on BBC2, introduced by Normski. He literally shouts “Total Confusion!” like he’s summoning a riot, and then chaos unfolds.

Look at the dancers. Look at the outfits. Look at the absolute commitment. This was early UK rave culture beamed straight from the clubs into people’s living rooms on a weekday evening.

For those not old enough: Dance Energy ran on BBC2 from 1990 to 1993 and was basically a rave version of Top of the Pops, aimed at the “youth market”. It was raw, low-budget, and genuinely connected to the scene in a way that rarely made it to daytime telly.

Subcultural signal bleed: ruffneck rave chaos on BBC2 at tea time.

27/05/2026

Found another tape in my archive. Recorded this in New York, end of December 1990.

Kool DJ Red Alert cutting and scratching up a storm. Absolute master at work.

Red Alert and Chuck Chillout were my idols growing up. First heard them on LWR pirate radio in London back in the early 80s. Tim Westwood used to play their Kiss FM mixes on his show. Hearing those New York voices and that incredible DJ skill? Left a mark.

A month before this tape, I somehow blagged an invite to Red Alert’s private birthday party at a downtown club. Seeing him play in a small room like that was something else.

This mix is from the Rapology section of his show — old-school joints only. At the end, he says he’s doing another show on Kiss FM the following night, going even further back. I recorded that one too.

Link to the full tape in bio.

🎧 More from the archive coming.

24/05/2026

Sonic Treasure - 22nd May 2026

Anatolian Weapons -You Are Not Alone
Ingo Hammer - Chinois
Esplendor Geométrico - Rotor (Broken English Club Remix)
Numbers Are Futile - Monster (Marco Bernardi Remix)
Lost In The Sound - Red Light
Now - Paranoid London Remix
Tom Carruthers - Pump It Up
Posthuman - Beat Down
Timothy “J” Fairplay - RZ-1 Cave Trax
PBR StreetGang ‎– Late Night Party Line
T. Trax ‎– Project Piano
Mike Ash - Blue Light
DJ MoReese - Night Vision
Stakker - Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid (Mix 1)
Noamm - Clone Machine
Control Vertex - NSFW
Chris Mitchell - Otr V2
Passarani - Locked In A Trance
PSS2099 - Kir’Shara
Anthony Rother - Destroy Him My Robots
Seidensticker - Verdichtung
Gamadon - Reprogrammed (Original)
Machine Ethics, Ufaze - The Mantra Machine (Ufaze Remix)
Violet Poison - You´ll Never Walk Alone
Randomer ‎– Smokin
Docta Gee & Dark Vektor - Syntechnique
Nino Šebelić ‎- Church Of Tasmania
D.I.E. - Keep Hanging
Elektrotechnik - Radius
Moebius - Voice Stealer
The Hacker & Jensen Interceptor - Trigger Zone
Lekkyelectro - Glorpy
Omicron - Zero Point Repeat
Scanone - Skip (Cursor Miner Vs Blackmass Plastics 3Mix)
JSPRV35 - Slytherin
Cybonix - Let Yo Body Rock

Recorded at Planet Wax, an independent vinyl record shop and DJ bar...

21/05/2026

Stakker Humanoid is such a tune. I still rinse this out in sets, and it always delivers. Simple, hypnotic, and stunningly effective—it was made by Brian Dougans, who later went on to form The Future Sound of London with Garry Cobain.

In 1988, it somehow climbed to #17 in the charts, released by Morgan Khan of StreetSounds fame on his Westside Records label. Unbelievably, it was championed on Radio 1 by Bruno Brookes—and Pete Waterman loved it.

Check this amazing clip from The Hitman and Her in 1988, filmed in Flicks nightclub, Brechin. Look at all the punters in shirts and ties standing around while sc****ly clad dancers gyrate.

For those not old enough: The Hitman and Her ran on ITV’s Night Network from 1988 to 1992, broadcasting in the early hours of Sunday morning when only insomniacs and ravers back from a night out were watching. It was presented by Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan.

Each week, they’d turn up at a decidedly unglamorous commercial nightclub somewhere in the UK (Flicks in Brechin being a perfect example). The “dancing” consisted of local punters in their best shirts and ties awkwardly shuffling around while sc****ly clad professional dancers writhed on podiums. Pete would shout over the mic; Michaela would smile through the secondhand smoke. The whole thing felt like a fever dream captured on grainy tape.

It was cheap, chaotic, and utterly mesmerising—a time capsule of late-80s British club culture before the rave scene fully took over.

Subcultural signal bleed: acid house meets sticky carpets in a Brechin nightclub.

21/05/2026

Whole tape is on my YouTube channel. Found a few other bits that will go up soon so please like, subscribe, follow etc. if you wanna hear more 😉

Found this tape recently in my archive. I recorded it in 1989 when I lived in Finsbury Park and used to listen to pirate radio all the time. Mostly Sunrise, ...

18/05/2026

Found this tape recently in my archive. I recorded it in 1989 when I lived in Finsbury Park and used to listen to pirate radio all the time. Mostly Sunrise, JFM and Fantasy FM. Some classic early rave and house tunes on here and some cool shout outs from Matthew B. “See you down Shoom on Wednesday”. A nostalgic time capsule of the 1989 London underground party vibe, post Balearic and Acid House. Link to the full show in bio.