Blastfrom Castfrom

"I like early Kanye West..." we heard 'em say. On this episode we scrutinise the work of college dropout Kanye West, charting his transition from jobbing producer in the mid to late 90s to Rapper/Producer to Producer/Rapper and finally to supposed saviour of rap music in the mid 2000s. 

The return of Perfect Breath also known as the Blastfrom Castfrom. As is now custom, we take a very short journey back to the year we have just endured - this time the year 2023. Can't remember what happened that year - well listen up and you'll discover we're all in the same boat.

It's Christmas time - a time to bring together your favourite festive songs and pit them against each other. Combatants this year include Elton John, the Andrews Sisters, Perry Como, Aqua, Destiny's Child, Tom Waits and many more. Once you've listened to this episode you can hear the winners in the playlist below, which also includes the winners of Part 1. Listen to the episode first though or it'll spoil the whole thing for you. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6XtCMjD3onbpcZw6mvhAsH?si=b07e4759cf644d74

We review the reviewers in the latest Critical Lug, this time with a slightly different format. This time we take two critically beloved albums from the year 2023 and pit them against each other. The music critics have to convince us which album is the most compelling. There albums are 'Guts' by Olivia Rodrigo 'Everything Harmony' by The Lemon Twigs If you'd like to follow along, we have included links to the reviews, compiled by Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/music/guts/olivia-rodrigo https://www.metacritic.com/music/everything-harmony/the-lemon-twigs 

Blastfrom goes to the movies once again and this time we are meeting Jables and KG for the feature film debut of Tenacious D.   Despite arriving in the middle of a red hot streak of hit movies for star Jack Black, the Pick of Destiny was a complete miss and deemed a box office bomb. In this episode of the Blastfrom Castfrom, we try to un-pick the reasons why.

The music of Deep Purple has spanned 7 decades and there have been 8 different line-ups during that time. But no line up has captured the record buying public quite like the 2nd version of the band, commonly referred to as Deep Purple Mark II. In this episode of the Blastfrom Castfrom we desks the highs, the lows, the breakups and the reunions of this version of one of the most successful rock bands of all time.

Come with us for a time swim to the year 1976. There were half as many people on earth as there are now and the doomsday clock had nearly 8 more minutes. Find out what else was going on and whether the music of the day eye wateringly better than it is today on the latest episode of the Blastfrom Castfrom. email: mail@blastfrom.com  

The wise Reginald Standholt aka Baba Gadji joins the Blastfrom Castfrom one more time. We talk about what he has been up to since 2020 as well as his new show coming soon to Blastfrom Music + Talk.  

The subject of this pukka podcast is Jamie Oliver. The overriding question is 'why?' or perhaps 'how?' If you're from the United Kingdom, the man needs no introduction. For everyone else, Jamie Oliver is a very rich and famous English chef, who likes to turn his hand at a number of activities - one of which is music. Top bloke! Get at us at mail@blastfrom.com  

This is our review of the year 2022. Because in this diabolical decade each year is better than the next, we can look back on each preceding year with both something closely resembling fondness. The big topic of the year are the end of human civilisation with the birth of Skynet… I mean ChatGPT… and we look at how this could effect creativity in the future of popular music.   Communications rendered by artificial intelligence can be sent to mail@blastfrom.com

The revolutionary force in music history podcasting is back with an episode that has nothing to do with music history. However, ancient historic musician Snoop [Doggy] Dogg has a big part to play in one of the most noteworthy moments of this years events. Let us guide you though our review of the annual festival of professional wrestling - Wrestlemania. Acknowledge us at mail@blastfrom.com

Local celebrity Robbie Williams gets the edit from the Blastfrom team. We take his critically derided, but highly successful 1998 album I've Been Expecting You and edit it down to tow sides of a single LP. Released in the heyday of the compact disc, this was a prime example of the technology. Square peg, meet round hole.   Suggestions and protestations to mail@blastfrom.com

Warning: This episode contains every possible SPOILER for the movie Bad Boys (1995). To celebrate the recent announcement of the next Bad Boys sequel and also feed our newfound obsession with notorious Oscar slapper Will Smith - we present the review of the original Bad Boys movie. In hindsight, the huge success of this film leaves little for you to wonder about. But when it was released in 1995 there was no guarantee this would work at all. A generic Miami Vice rip off action movie, directed by a nobody and starring two sitcom actors. So we blast back to 1995 and see what all the fuss was about. Reviews of the review to mail@blastfrom.com

Bad Bunny was the most streamed artist on Spotify in the year 2022. Having no idea what a Bad Bunny sounds like, we turn to the music critics. Critical Lug is where we rely exclusively on the writing music critics to guide us on whether or not an album is worth listening to. How many overwrought analogies can they draw upon; how many platitudes can they produce to effectively describe the sound of Bad Bunny’s 2022 album ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’? And is it possible for a person to become furious about music they’ve never heard? Your best wishes can be sent to mail@blastfrom.com  

The Blastfrom Castfrom is back for another year and so are the BRIT Awards, the British Phonographic Industry's annual awards show. Like a regular health check-up, this is where we try to find out health of contemporary pop music. And as we get older these health check-ups get more arduous and increasingly terrifying. Next time we’ll send Carlos.   Comments and questions to mail@blastfrom.com

In this year we discuss the year 2021, also known as 2020 Part 2. This is the Blastfrom annual review of the year that just passed, except a lot later in the year than usual. Perhaps that additional time will have generated a greater fondness for what was a very uneven year.

Anthrax - Megadeth - Metallica - Slayer The Big 4 of Thrash Metal are to this day the most famous and influential America heavy metal bands of all time. And for a brief period of time, they made metal music very popular.  In this episode we listen to all of the full length studio albums released by these four behemoths of metal - more than  half a days with of music. For the one member of the squad familiar with thrash metal it was a delight. For the others it was interesting. And what is the best way to consume that much heavy metal. Questions and hate mail can be directed to blastfromcastfrom@gmail.com    

Writing about music is like arching about dancitecture. In this episode we turn to the music critics among us - those tasked with trying to measure the worth of an art form and subsequently conveying that worth to their own audience.  We have zoned in on the collected professional reviews of Harry Styles' recent album Harry's House. We try to glean, from the florid descriptions of this piece of popular music, what it actually sounds like. Then compare the reality. Yes, it is kind of reviewing the reviewers. Now we just need someone to review this podcast episode for civilisation to fold in on itself. Show notes: Send your reviews of the review of the reviews to blastfromcastfrom@gmail.com Co-host Mat Tabletop mentions a Spotify playlist, which is available to listen to here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1sqhZSpsMShkYZZR29wTUf?si=2c69678734f24513  You can also access the reviews mentioned in this episode at https://www.metacritic.com/music/harrys-house/harry-styles 

Notorious Academy Award assailant Will Smith was once a very popular and successful musician. Not only is he a pioneering figure in the now burgeoning genre of assaulting comedians on stage, Smith was also once a trailblazer in the genre of Rap music - winning the first ever Grammy award for Best Rap Performance. Now that the 'Ali' actor's film career appears to be on the ropes, perhaps he'll turn his attention to his long neglected musical talent. With that in mind we take a listen to the multi-decade spanning album discography of the Fresh Prince.  

For heavens sake, the Blastfrom Castfrom have reunited for some severe punishment. In this episode we have the the impossible task of editing Wu-Tang Forever (the Wu-Tang Clan's 1997 quadruple album) to a single disc LP. Will it be a great triumph, or a pile of dog zhit?