Another week means another episode of the Codex (03). You’ll find the link to download the episode below, as well as the playlist, but remember that you can also find all of this info at the show’s home, and also subscribe to an RSS feed, so as not to miss any future episodes.

Also, as I mention at the end of the show, I’m going to soon introduce a new segment I’m calling “Codex Coda,” in which I invite someone to contribute a short 3-track set to the show. I’ve already asked a few people to do them, and so I’ll be adding them to the show as I start receiving them.

Codex 03 (33MB)

1. Dom – “Burn Bridges”
2. Baths – “Aminals”
3. Lullatone – “The Bathtime Beat”
4. Deep Sea Arcade – “Keep on Walking”
5. The 1900s – “Babies”
6. Tegan & Sara – “Walking With a Ghost”
7. OK Go – “White Knuckles”
8. Of Montreal – “Enemy Gene (ft. Janelle Monae)”
9. Antony and the Johnsons – “Fletta (ft. Bjork)
10. Teddybears – “Chrystal Meth Christian (ft. The Flaming Lips)”

Last night I decided to put together a quick and dirty website for Codex — as you’ll probably notice, it’s a simple mod of the SNOW Magazine site. Should make it easier to keep up with what’s going on with the show, instead of having to search for appropriate posts here.

Also, I already have my playlist decided for the next episode (03), but trying to be patient and wait a week before recording it.

It’s no secret, I can be an impatient guy, and after I was done recording the first episode of Codex and released it — something that happened just last night — I was already really looking forward to doing a second one. And so here we are, the next day, with episode 02 of this “weekly” podcast.

About the cover images, that logo was something I just put together quickly in a couple of minutes because I wanted an image to accompany the post where I announced the launch of the show — for me, a project isn’t really a reality until it has some sort of visual component to it. I kinda still like it now, and my plan is to just change the color scheme every month, but keep the same basic layout (at first I was thinking of moving the letters around each time, but I think I now prefer having a proper logo).

You can download the show below, or even better, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Codex 02 (33.3MB)

1. Caribou – “Odessa”
2. The Books – “A Cold Freezin’ Night”
3. Four Tet – “Sing”
4. Brian Eno – “Dust Shuffle”
5. Das Racist – “Puerto Rican Cousins”
6. Mark Ronson – “Tomorrow feat. Devi Nova & Q-Tip”
7. Guided by Voices – “Kicker of Elves”
8. Pas/Cal – “Grown Men Go Go”
9. Pavement – “Heckler Spray”
10. Belle & Sebastian – “I’m Not Living in the Real World”

Here it is, as promised, the first episode of my new (hopefully) weekly music podcast called Codex. As I explained before, I record it live using the Djay software, so please don’t mind the errors here and there — it’ll get better, I’m sure. This one was recorded at home, but for future episodes I’ll probably try recording at Cafe Pause, or other spots. New episodes will probably come out on weekends, which is when I expect to record them.

The download link is below, but I’ve also created an RSS feed, so subscribe if you dare.

Codex 01 (43.7MB)

1. Mark Ronson and the Business Intl. – “Bang Bang Bang”
2. Laetitia Sadier – “Ceci est le coeur”
3. Stereolab – “Nous vous demandons pardon”
4. Karkwa – “Le pyromane”
5. Sufjan Stevens – “Too Much”
6. Homo Duplex – “No and No”
7. Plumtree – “Scott Pilgrim”
8. Weezer – “The Good Life”
9. Wavves – “King of the Beach”
10. Pixies – “Subbacultcha”

The seventh issue of Steven Gregor’s excellent Gym Class Magazine is about to come out, and I’m very happy to have contributed to it in the form of a short interview with composer Shigeru Umebayashi (In the Mood for Love, House of Flying Daggers, A Single Man).

The cover feature is an interview with legendary Esquire cover art director George Lois by Andrew Losowsky (Magtastic Blogsplosion), and GCM 7′s cover — an homage/wink at a classic Esquire cover — was also Andrew’s idea.

I was recently asked by FILE magazine to contribute a “mixtape,” and it’s now up on their site, available for download. The track listing is posted there too so I won’t repeat it here, but just know that it’s a very indie rock friendly mix. Big thanks to Fabio for the invitation.

Pictured, the latest issue of FILE (4), which can be purchased online.

A long, long time ago in a country far, far away (that would be Canada) I used to have a college radio show. I had two of them, actually, first when I was truly a college student — believe it or not, it was called The Jean Snow Show — and then 10 years ago when I was back in Canada for a year, I did another show on the same station (CKUM) which I decided to call Codex (for a reason I can’t quite recall). I’ve long missed those days of doing a weekly music show — in a proper studio — and although I can’t replicate that same environment, I’m feeling like it’s time to start doing something again like that on the net.

This doesn’t mean the end of Radio OK Fred — we’ll do some more shows eventually, when we can all get together — but this is something I want to do on my own, although I wouldn’t be opposed to the occasional guest. I’ll be using the same setup I use for recording Radio OK Fred, meaning it’s done live in one take using the Djay software on my MacBook Pro. Right now I’m just missing my mic — my trusty Zoom H2 Handy Recorder — which my fellow OK Fredders were recently using for interviews, but as soon as I have it back I’ll get recording.

As for content, it’ll be a weekly mix of 10 tracks I’m into, with me chatting in between — basically the same format we use on Radio OK Fred, although I may occasionally record them live at Cafe Pause. I’ll of course have an announcement here when the first show is ready, and include the track list as well as a prepare a feed for subscribing. Hope it’ll be something you’ll want to listen to, but more importantly, it’s something I need to do now for myself I think.

Episode 23 of Radio OK Fred is now up, and as you can probably tell by the photo, I unfortunately couldn’t make the recording because of scheduling issues. But it’s a terrific show, featuring special guest — and our good friend — Missla Libsekal, founder of Another Africa. All selections on the show are by her. The link to the episode is below along with the setlist, and you can subscribe to a feed as well.

Radio OK Fred 23 (46MB)

1. The Very Best (feat. Ezra Koenig) – “Warm Heart of Africa”
2. Malcolm Mclaren – “Double Dutch”
3. Miriam Makeba – “Pata Pata”
4. Madou & Mariam – “Sabali”
5. South African Gazelle – “Chic Afrique”
6. DJ Mujava – “Mugwanti”
7. MC Afrikan Boy – “Lagos Town”
8. Pasto Mbhobho – “Ayobaness”
9. Dirty Parraffin – “Aha – Mind Over Matter”
10. Schlachthofbronx (feat. MC Spoek Mathambo) – “Too High”
11. Spoek Mathambo – “Mshini Wam”

Endtopic has been an amazing supporter of Radio OK Fred, and I absolutely love the cover they created for the post about our last episode (“Robots”).

Very nice to see that when my friend Jeriaska decided to interview Michiru Yamane, composer to the Castlevania series, he did so at Cafe Pause here in Ikebukuro. You can read the full interview here, as part of his “Chiptuned” column on the 1UP site.

As promised, here we are with a brand new episode of Radio OK Fred (22), the “Robot” episode. Yes, that’s us trying to act cyborg-like with a few wires sticking out — and from the looks of it, I’m a pretty broken machine I think. Below is the link to download the episode as well as the playlist, and you can subscribe to a feed too.

Radio OK Fred 22 (50MB)

1. Kraftwerk – “The Robots”
2. Prefuse 73 – “Robot Snares Got No Cadence or Balance”
3. RJD2 – “Chicken-Bone Circuit”
4. Playdoe – “Neolectro Afrobotic”
5. La Chatte – “Cosmique Cosmétique”
6. Universal Robot Band – “Dance and Shake Your Tambourine”
7. Cornelius – “Brazil”
8. Röyksopp – “The Girl and the Robot”
9. James Kochalka – “Monkey vs. Robot”
10. Breakbot – “Happy Up Here (Breakbot Remix)”
11. Dan Deacon – “Jimmy Joe Roche”
12. Born Ruffians – “I Need a Life (Four Tet Remix)”

This week’s episode of Radio OK Fred (20) is the “Dark” episode, something to listen to during these cold winter months. Below, a list of the tracks played as well as a link to download the episode — or subscribe to the feed.

Radio OK Fred 20 (41MB)

1. Tricky – “Broken Homes”
2. Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Christine”
3. Misfits – “Where Eagles Dare”
4. Rick White – “Darkland”
5. Eric’s Trip – “Hate Song”
6. Louis Prima – “That Old Black Magic”
7. Curtis Mayfield – “Right on for the Darkness”
8. The Gossip – “Dark Lines”
9. The White Stripes – “Death Letter”
10. The Velvet Underground – “The Black Angel’s Death Song”
11. Yo La Tengo – “Black Flowers”
12. Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”

Even though we were all stuck in OK Fred HQ here in Tokyo — in Yutenji to be more precise — this week we get to travel a bit by way of our track selections, with “Places” being the theme for Radio OK Fred 19.

You’ll find the full track listing below, as well as a link to download the episode — although you may want to subscribe to the feed instead.

Radio OK Fred 19 (36MB)

1. Flin Flon – “Ukraina”
2. The Books – “Tokyo”
3. Bran Van 3000 – “Montreal (Featuring Youssou N’dour)”
4. Hibari Misora – “Under the Rainbow”
5. Unknown – “Piso Somalim #2″
6. Luna Parker – “Tes Etats d’Ame… Eric”
7. Serge Gainsbourg – “New York USA”
8. 3rd Bass – “Brooklyn-Queens”
9. Vampire Weekend – “California English”
10. The Magnetic Fields – “In My Secret Place”
11. Milosh – “The City”
12. Tahiti 80 – “Chinatown”

Néojaponisme takes an exhaustive look at the decade that was in Japanese Music, from J-Pop to indies and everything in between.

And so as promised last week, here we go again with a new episode of Radio OK Fred (18), this time an episode that was recorded in Paris last year, featuring music selections by Marie from Colette. The link to download is below, and remember that you can always just subscribe to the feed.

Radio OK Fred 18 (48MB)