I am a radio wave. A digital pulse. An uncertainty. I am Melodica. An abstraction. A voice in space. Reliable. Traveling. Endlessly restless. Searching for new sources to feed the addiction to music. The rhythm and the melody, the treble, mid and bass. The sound that is so much more than a sum of it’s parts. The love. The energy. Forever and ever, amen. I am DJ, on a train (quiet coach), in a taxi (driving over the causeway from Holy Island to Anglesey), being wrist-banded (fetching purple colour, Gottwood Electronic Music and Arts Festival). People. Company. Waves of bass. Dappled sunlight. Barbecue smoke. Scattered dancing bodies. I am playing in a convertible caravan, roofless and all the better for it. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the wind is kind, the sea is flat, the ferry passengers are smiling, saved from the notorious Irish Sea swell, It’s high summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The trippers are taking the long route to Dublin via Holyhead and we’re on a hill somewhere, in a wood somewhere, in a caravan, playing music to sleepy Indians (no cowboys, just boys and girls in feathers), getting over the night before, waiting for the night to come. Same as it ever was. After the set, Chris and I stand behind the van, sipping red from paper cups, and wonder why we still do this. And the only answer seems to be because it’s what we do. Tell that to the 600 smelters who just lost their jobs at the smelting plant across the bay. The chimney is still there but the jobs are gone. That was what they did. Smelting. Now they don’t. But we’re here to play and then play. Same as it ever was. So we watch the sun set into the Irish Sea, sitting on top of a ruined cottage, two rooms, two fire places. We see the correspondents do their crazy jazz child catcher routine in a bedouin style tent. We hear Jack Sparrow being deep and introspective (in a good way) on a laptop in a room that used to be a cow shed that makes me feel like I’m back in London at some unspecified time in the past for all it’s smoke and sweaty bassyness. We hear Jamie XX play old house that used to be ours but now it’s not (in a good way), because it sounds good because it’s old. Youth recycling. I am ink. I am paper. I am, inevitably, converting to ones and zeroes. From here on the train back down south, on the page, to there. Everywhere.

Out now on Cool D:Vision Italy – Lazy Summer II compilation by Chris Coco. Summer’s here and the time is right, as somebody once said in a song. It’s time for golden light and long balmy nights; it’s time for cruising and lounging; early morning swims and late night assignations; it’s time for sweet music drifting on the jasmine scented air. And here, in your hands, is the perfect soundtrack for all those magic moments, the promise of adventure, a hint of the exotic, a cosmopolitan collection of beautiful tunes. Lazy Summer II is my latest distillation of the sound of summer, it’s a super-eclectic selection created from my experiences playing cocktail bars, night clubs and pop-up restaurants in my home town, London; from spinning sunsets and poolside parties in Ibiza; festivals in sunny fields all over Europe; and from making Melodica, my weekly radio show. This is mellow music with character and attitude, made by artists who are passionate about sound, melody, emotion; who are pushing boundaries, giving everything they’ve got to make something truly exceptional. But it’s not just about the new. The cutting edge modern of Nicolas Jaar and Scuba is balanced nicely by Balearic classics from Al Stewart and Harpers Bizarre. And there are new takes on classics too, Adem dares to tackle the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows with just a ukelele and his voice, and wins; Hercules and Love Affair drag It’s Alright, Sterling Void’s house classic, (gently) into the twenty first century. There are some oddities too, Wolfgang Flür from Kraftwerk delivers a fine monologue on Cultural Attaches’ Golden Light and I get to sing on The Normalites’ song for the future, More To Come. Paul Kalkbrenner’s frantic Platscher sits happily next to Letherette’s soulful Cherryade. Steffi’s ultimate Berlin cool brushes up again Sepalcure’s New York atmospherics. There is electronica, acoustica, mellow techno, post-dubstep and all sorts of other genres that don’t even have names yet. Old, new, delightful, surprising, beautiful; it’s all here and it all makes sense in the sunshine. Tracklist: 1 Paul Kalkbrenner – Platscher 2 Steffi – You Own My Mind 3 Falty DL – Endeavour 4 Cultural Attaches – Golden Light 5 Harpers Bizarre – Witchi Tai To 6 Scuba – Triangulation (Interpretations) 7 Nicolas Jaar – I Got A Woman 8 Normalites – More To Come 9 Worst Friends – Neve’s For None 10 Poolside – Do You Believe 11 Adem – God Only Knows 12 Sepalcure – Fleur 13 Letherette – Cherryade 14 Hercules & Love Affair – It’s Alright 15 Al Stewart – Year Of The Cat

More stuff about the music and stories on this week’s Melodica. In tune with the Melodica aesthetic, covering a broad range of exciting, inspiring, beautiful new music from electronica to house to experimental. Melodica chart on Juno Download: here. THAT FUZZY FEELING: SLIME – INCREASES EP Slime is Will Archer who, according to Bleep, is a young producer playing with genre in an attempt to leave behind fixed ideas about categorisation and style. So let’s try and put him in a category with Nic Jaar and Jamie XX, experimentalists informed by club music, dubstep, krautrock and indie but not tied to any style or scene. In other words, Slime makes proper new modern music for the post everything world. It’s weird but it works. And there’s a picture of a horse on the cover. DARLING FARAH – EXXY EP Darling Farah was born in Detroit, lives in the United Arab Emirates, and makes surprisingly deep techno and is, inevitably, nineteen and rather talented. He’s moving to London soon so expect to hear more from this guy. HENRY OAKLEY – MELLOWMARSH More deep techno that will work well at 5am in a club but also sound brilliant at 5pm on a beach, or any time at a festival from Henry Oakley. Falk label head Al Calavicci calls it “something special for the field dwellers out there.” DEEKIE – BRICKENDEN EP Brickenden EP by deekie Deekie are a quirky part time indie band who have become Melodica favourites. They also made some lovely jingles for the show featuring voice and melodica. Their latest EP is as downbeat and eclectic as ever. You can hear it on their Bandcamp page.

Chris Coco’s weekly radio broadcast. An eclectic selection of brilliant new music starting with house and moving on to electronica, downtempo, acoustic and all sorts of other styles loosely connected to dance and electronic music. Let tastemaker Chris Coco guide you through his selection of the week’s best new music. Port Out Starboard home, all aboard the Melodica love boat. We’re floating on a sea of atmospheric music this week from a deep version of Bob Marley’s Sun Is Shining to Holy Other with Bon Iver, Nicolas Jaar, a one minute review of Glastonbury and Slime in between. It’s all here and it’s full steam ahead. [setlist] 1 Bob Marley – Sun Is Shining (Moodwax’s Love For The Herb Remix) – digital file 2 Henry Oakley – Mellowmarsh – Falk 3 DML – Sendling I – Broque Records THAT FUZZY FEELING (TUNE OF THE WEEK) 4 Slime – Caffeine (feat Gaskel Greed) – Tough Love Records 5 Darling Farah – Younger – Civil Music 6 Deekie – Dark House – Kennington 7 Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise (Dave Aju Remix) – Circus Company STRINGS, WOOD AND A BOX OF AIR 8 Bon Iver – Holocene – 4AD 9 Sea Wolf – Leaves In The River – Dangerbird Records 10 Fleet Foxes – The Shrine / An Argument – Bella Union 11 Synkro & Indigo – Guidance – Exit Records 12 Holy Other – Touch – Triangle