Fenster’s Funky Sevens

Fenster’s Funky Sevens

A podcast based on the 7” single in my record collection, each episode I choose seven 7”s and arrange them into a genre or theme, then I talk about the history of the songs and musicians

Episodes

June 5, 2025 279 mins

Jamaican Sound System Culture and its influence on British Music 1950 - 1991 

Using Soul II Soul's massive 1989 hit Back to Life as a starting point we trace how Sound System Culture has played a fundamental part in shaping British Music; taking in early Jamaican Sound Systems and the American RnB t hey preferred, through Ska. Reggae, Roots. Dub, Lover's Rock, and Dancehall. Northern Soul, Jazz Funk, early Electro, Rare Groove, Aci...

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The story of how dubstep developed; from US Garage to UK Garage, through speed garage, two step, break step and on into grime and dark garage until the underground dubstep sound went overground around 2005 and how it continued to develop into the 2010s.

 

The podcast features tonnes of music, and interviews with the people who created the sound .

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In this episode we explore the origins of disco music in the early 1970s, in the gay dance clubs of Boston; The Other Side and the 1270. 

The episode features excerpts from a series of interviews with first generation disco DJs conducted by Brian Halligan of Boston LGBTQ organisation, the History Project.

In particular I focus on one DJ, Jimmy Stuard, I feel Jimmy's contributions to the craft of DJing have been overlooked. 

 

The H...

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December 11, 2024 48 mins

What we're gonna do here is go back... back to first evidence of human artistic expression, back to the dawn of civilisation and back to the enduring human need to be, both physically and spiritually. free. 

 

As we voyage across the millennia, Let's uphold the fundamental right of all the peoples of this earth to write their own histories. 

 

And never forget to embrace that unquenchable desire, found in every man, woman and child...

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November 22, 2024 275 mins

Fenster's Funky Sevens- Ep 28 - A History of House Music

Covering the time period between two UK pop chart entries;  George McCrae's number one "Rock Your Baby" in June 1974, and Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk "Love Can't Turn Around" in August 1986;  the first disco hit and the first house music hit. 

I look at how Disco developed over the 70s until its "death" in 1979.  Then how, with Funk and Post-Disco and European influences, Disco ...

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October 3, 2024 15 mins

An update to episode 19 - Irish Hip Hop - 1979 to 1999

 

Some exciting revelations about Ireland's first ever rap record and an overlooked vibes man supreme

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September 25, 2024 117 mins

A continuation of Ep 24, where I retroactively created a genre called Dude Hop. Dude Hop is a particular type of indie rock influenced hop hip that was made by white dudes with hangovers in the mid 90s,

 In this episode I talk a little about the mid to late 90s US punk and ska scenes and show the connections between t...

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September 5, 2024 154 mins

The history of the Californian Punk Scene from 1976 to 1994; covering the early LA punk scene, the beginnings of hardcore, the influence of hardcore on metal, ska and funk, Westbeach Recorders, Epitaph Records, Gilman Street, Lookout Records and the rise of punk to mainstream pop culture

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July 12, 2024 51 mins

A introductory guide to a particular type of alt-rock infused hop hip made by white dudes with hangovers in the mid 90s, a genre I have decided to call Dude Hop. 

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A look at how Jamaican music influenced British culture from the early 60s until the late 70s Ska Revival period/2nd Wave Ska. 

Taking in; Mento, RnB, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Dub and Roots.

And travelling through; Soho mod clubs, Island records, Trojan records, rude boys, skinheads, smokey bears, punks and 2 Tone. and connecting the dots along the way 

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A history of breakbeat music from Bronx DJs in the 70s, to Electro, tape cut ups, Chicago hip house, early hardcore, big beat, the California desert raves, Florida Breaks, UK Garage and through to the hotbed of breakbeat creativity that was London in the late 90s; showing the development of the New School Breaks sound over seven foundational DJ mixes  

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Third and final part of Irish Hip Hop history, with a focus on MCs, from 2000 to the early 2010s ,taking the form of a road trip around Ireland;  stopping off in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Norn Iron.

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A look at the Irish hip hop scene from the year 2000 to 2010 with a focus on DJs and the MCs they worked with, including: 

Collie, DJ Flip, Tuki, MJEX, The Gudmen, Rob Kelly, Urban Intelligence, Ri Ra,  Captain Moonlight, White Noise, All City Records and plenty more 

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November 29, 2023 96 mins

The Irish hip hop scene from 1979 to 1999, taking in breakdancing, the first Irish rap records, early MCs, DJs and producers the music they made.

 

DJ Laz-E's story of his life in hip hop

https://www.mixcloud.com/djlaze/plastic-attack-radio-show-last-orders/

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In this episode I look at the history of the seven inch 45rpm single, and play some of my favourite funk and soul b-sides

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This is an episode of two parts, the first part is a history of Sampling, from the tape manipulation techniques of Musique Concrete in the 1940s to  stem separation of today.

The second part is a selection of seven "Preset Hits": popular hit songs that are built around a preset setting from a synth, drum machine or sample pack 

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Looking at my journey through hardcore, jungle and DnB in Dublin, Ireland in the 1990s with a focus on the clubs Quadraphonic and Bassbin, and their records labels 

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IN this podcast I look at how Drum and Bass music developed in the UK from US House to acid house to  Hardcore to Jungle to Drum and Bass, and filling in the points along the way, the time period is 1986 to 1996

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A look at how some of the best soul, funk and disco music of the 60s, 70s and 80s was made by members of the same extended family; all descendants of a man known as Prince Bell.

Based on an interview with Leroy Burgess on the Quest Love Supreme podcast 

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August 6, 2023 116 mins

A look at the genre of music known as Grebo, mostly centred in the UK in the late 80s and early 90s, Grebo is a broadly defined term covering a variety of punk, indie or rock bands who started using technology and hip hop and house music influences in their music.

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