In my Boris write-up the other day I made reference to the music fan’s buzz of stumbling across an unknown album – in other words, a find.

Well, this week I was reminded of a different but no less satisfying buzz that shocks us every now and again – unexpected uber-heaviness on the radio, like when (for those who were there) Harvester of Sorrow got an airing in the Top 40 and it gave you a four-day high because one of YOUR BANDS had broken into the charts for the first time ever.

This week’s radio buzz was a bit like that.

Stuart Maconie’s Freakzone on BBC 6Music is my must-listen radio programme, and which molten heaviness descends from our beloved DAB on Sunday evening?

I, the Witchfinder, by Electric Wizard.

WOAAARRRRRRR! Maconie’s only got Dopethrone – yes, bloody DOPETHRONE – as his featured album this week (soon to be last week coz there are only a few hours left to listen again on t’iplayer).

Now I’m taking this as a sign, an omen, a Dorset-sized kick up the you-know to finally get this little feature – called TAPED – off the notepad and into the blog. It might end up being unsustainable, or a fistful of cack, or both and/or worse, but we’ll get it started anyway.

TAPED. What is it?

TAPED is stuff from the radio that’s caught my ear, simple as that. In other words, the things you’d tape if you were still taping* (now is the time to check the thing of beauty splashed across the top of this page).

As I said, Freakzone is my source for getting turned on to new stuff. Not necessarily new by release date, but new to the ears. It’s not a rock show – far from it. It’s anything outside the mainstream … obscure prog, 70s fusion, avant rock, field recordings, free jazz, anything really, but it’s not Wire obscure either. The old stuff is as bold as the new so, in the spirit of discovery and general music fan-dom, why not a share a few new names and bits of music news?

That’s what TAPED will attempt. Next time we’ll get straight into the music but now, here are the Feb 2^nd Freakzone highlights:

PORT SULPHUR – The Faith Healer, featuring Jock Scot. Sleazy industrial disco with guitars.

MUMPBEAK – Forlock. Track of the week! Crimson-sinister prog with Slint air of well-heavy dread. Who Mumpbeak? Dunno, but Bill Laswell and Tony Levin are among ‘em.

ALARM WILL SOUND – Cliffs. Non-electronic arrangement of Aphex’s opening drift on  Selected Ambient Works Volume II.

And of course, ELECTRIC WIZARD’S DOPETHRONE, an unusually metal choice to even get played on this show but to be elevated to the status of featured album???? No complaints here though.

*I am still taping. A bit.