Essential footage of early electronic music pioneers Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire. In the 1960s, weird new sounds were infiltrating mass media. Cosmic tones generated through electricity, first […]
Watch John Peel visit Aphex Twin in Cornwall and Robert Wyatt in Humberside in 1999 (and bonus Autechre set from ’03)
Watch John Peel’s Channel 4 TV series ‘Sounds of the Suburbs’ series featuring Aphex Twin, Robert Wyatt, Luke Vibert, and more!
“This is how I shall die, incidentally: Driving along at night, holding a cassette trying to read the name of the band while the headlights behind me slap into the back of the lorry,” the late DJ John Peel says while driving a small truck on the highway in the opening scene of the Cornwall episode of “Sounds of the Suburbs,” a 1999 series for Channel 4 in the UK. (He didn’t die that way, but of a heart attack five years later.)
In 1999, Peel was one of the most influential DJs in the world, a seasoned musical curator whose nightly show Mondays through Thursdays had been a part of British music life for 12 years. He’d helped break hundreds of artists and justified the existence of thousands of others through his ego- and reputation-boosting spins.
At the time, internet radio was in its infancy and the BBC was establishing its global presence. Peel’s show quickly became required listening not just for those within radio range, but around the world. Add in his syndicated show, “Peel Out in the States,” which aired on left-of-the-dial US stations throughout the 1990s. Because of the time difference, his 10 p.m. show aired at 2 p.m. in Los Angeles, which meant that tracks he played began influencing not just the market in England but America.
Launched for a single season, “Sounds of the Suburbs” was what’s now known as a limited series: an eight-episode run in which Peel and his producers hit the road to learn about distinctive sounds in the massive ring of suburbs surrounding London: Lanarkshire, Oxford, South Wales, Cornwall, Humberside, Bradford, Isle of Wight, and The North East.
Each episode is a fascinating time capsule. In Cornwall, Peel hooks up with Richard James and Luke Vibert, who, along with Mike Paradinas, helped define the sound of British experimental electronic music.
In Humberside, Peel visits his old friend Robert Wyatt.
In South Wales, Peel visits the experimental musician Richard Thomas.
Combined, the series is a time capsule of artists and musicians creating work outside of the London establishment by artists who have either rejected city living and embraced the countryside; 25 years later, many of the musicians remain obscure.
Bonus mix: In 2003, Autechre curated the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, which that year featured artists including Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Public Enemy, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, The Fall, Mouse on Mars, Tortoise, Broadcast, and Squarepusher. Peel broadcast Autechre’s set live. Here it is: