Join Magpie Brown on Sundays at 4pm on Rhubarb Radio, so she can share some delicious shiny nuggets of audio goodness from her Treasure Nest.  There’s good stuff from folk to jazz, Sami chanting and kuduro to Balkan punk, Brazilian and Senegalese hip hop, and anything in between capable of ruffling feathers. Pop into the studio at The Custard Factory for a visit, or get in touch with your music, requests or shout outs. Tune in on Sundays at 4pm, or whenever you wish, via the schedule on Rhubarb Radio.

Balkan gypsy orchestra The Destroyers- an immensely energetic gaggle of some of the UK’s finest and most dedicated musicians, have trotted and tumbled their way around the globe for many a year, sharing their gorgeous music and rip roaring floor show with audiences of all ages.

From fancy dressed revellers at Shambala to awe struck children at school workshops, thousands of human beings have come face to face with this ecstatic musical beast. The Destroyers are fronted by charismatic storyteller Paul Murphy, who, emerging from his cobwebbed coffin, sporting a threadbare fez and with eyes as black as skull sockets, leads the audience through sinister tales, tinged with the dark humour of Edgar Allen Poe, and just a touch of the Blarney. The orchestra mix klezma, Balkan rhythms, improv jazz and beat poetry with an obvious enjoyment that springs from years of collaboration, and each Destroyer has an enviable musical portfolio.

Frank Moon plays with both Trio Manouche and Medieval Baebes, as well as his own Desert Groove Band, Leo Altarelli makes wonderful, chilled out dub pop, and when Leighton Hargreaves isn’t ‘destroyering’ with his fiddle, he forms part of ceidlidh veterans The Burdocks. Little wonder, then, that all this talent in combination makes for a heady mix.

Herding this sixty limbed umpa umpa monster into a studio, brandishing clarinet, hurdy gurdy and more brass than you could shake a monkey at, must have been quite a task for Magic Garden Studios, but finally, the beast has been tamed for long enough to record The Destroyers’ debut album- Out of Babel- which is available on iTunes. Wonderfully virile, textured and tantalising, one dose of this album will have you rushing to the box office for their next live performance. Brummies can catch The Destroyers in concert at Birmingham Town Hall on October 11th, along with The Toy Hearts and The Old Dance School. Check out The Destroyers Myspace for other dates.

This barn storming video for the opening track on John Fairhurst’s Joys of Spring was recorded by Paraffin City during the early hours of the morning at Manchester’s Big Hands.