Please note: if the stream buffers, click on this link and select the option to listen through your desktop player.

Just a few months after pecking my way out of my egg, I took flight with my parents to live in a place called Sainte Rose du Lac, on the prairies of Manitoba. I was far too young to form any memories of the place that I can recall, instead I have appropriated stories from my family. Dad skiing to work, Mum wrapping us kids up in so many layers that we could hardly move, stuffing us in cardboard boxes and dragging us in sleds across frozen lakes to feed bears peanut butter sandwiches in the Riding Mountain National Park, before singing us to sleep beneath the wailing of the Northern Lights.

All the half imagined memories I’ve been fed over the years have woven together with vague conceptions of Canada’s vast landscape, so now beyond the Atlantic, just above the USA, lies a dreamlike expanse of windswept plains, fragrent pine forests and endless, bitter cold lakes.

Although this may bear some resemblance to parts of Canada, I’m sure it’s a laughably naive description to anyone who actually knows the place. The variety and cultural blend of music played on this week’s Treasure Nest gives the lie to this romantic silliness. Nonetheless, the gorgeous, atmospheric sounds of The Wilderness of Manitoba have plucked at my memory’s heartstrings since the moment I first heard them, making me long for recollections of a childhood lost in Canada before my brain began to record.

Anyway, enough reminiscing, back to Treasure Nest, Canada style! This particular treetop shrine to audio joy is lined with varied rhythms from across the country. There’s Quebecois folk, both traditional and new, from the slightly unhinged, stridently sexy a cappella harmonies of Galant, tu Perds ton Temps to Bette + Wallet’s punk accordian lament about squeegee kids in winter.

From Toronto there’s Cuban licked jazz in the shape of Jane Bunnett. Canada’s first lady of saxophone and flute, as well as being an award winning composer and musician, is a social activist whose work to spread cultural understanding between Canada and Cuba has earnt her the official recognition of her home country in the shape of The Order of Canada. Bunnett’s music is an incredibly rich blend, challenging and vital in its layering of rhythmic culture upon culture. Her latest project, Embracing Voices, is a perfect example of her imaginative, boundary breaking approach.

There’s also a healthy dose of lo-fi shoestaring from Alberta’s Chad Vangaalen, who’s EP is available for free download from his Myspace, and a heartbreaking lovesong from Montreal’s Leif Vollebekk. Add to the mix Canadian heavyweights Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, and three super slick kinky lounge pop numbers from coquettish chanteuse Caracol, a few non Canadian crepes to layer between the maple syrup, some rambling from this little bird, and Treasure Nest’s good to go.

Playlist for Oh, Canada! Treasure Nest 24.01.10

Les Sauvageau - Les Tireux D’ Roches
Dingo De DJango - Christine Tassan and les Imposteures
L’amour est un tricheur - Caracol
Master Song - Leonard Cohen
La Comparsa - Jane Bunnett
Somerhill - The Miserable Rich
Crows Feet - The Wilderness of Manitoba
Willow Tree - Chad VanGaalen
Love on the Brew (Radio Edit) - Worm
Go! Canada - 6 Day Riot
You Couldn’t Lie To Me In Paris - Leif Vollebekk
Cold box - Caracol
Squeegees - Bette + Wallet
Shosholoza – Zogma
In The Pines - Sarah McQuaid
That Song About the Midway - Joni Mitchell
Our socks forever more - This Is The Kit
Samara (Bulerías) - Camarón De La Isla
Decara A La Pared - Lhasa De Sela
Rabbit Story - Ahn Sook Sun
En Filant Ma Quenouille - Ffynnon
P Stands For Paddy/Road To Lisdenvoorna/Sporting Paddy - Dave Gossage and The Celtic Mindwarp
Quand J’étais Fille À Marier - Galant, tu Perds ton Temps
Summer Shoes On - Michael Jerome Brown
Get Up-Sam Sam - Les Mon Oncles
Paye La Traite - La Bottine Souriante
Tes larmes - Caracol
Ula Nagalei - Nørn
Que Reste T’il De Nos Amours ? - Angelo Debarre & Ludovic Beier
El Rio - Jane Bunnett and The Spirits of Havana

OBSESIÓN / Obsesión’s interview

This week, Treasure Nest is one year old. Your favourite treetop shrine to audio joy has nestled in the canopy of the Custard Factory‘s Rhubarb Radio plantation for 35 hours of airtime. 12 Special guests have clambered up through the branches to join Magpie Brown in the studio, and we’ve played a heady concoction of tunes from 42 different countries.

As you’ll see from the massive length of this week’s playlist, Treasure Nest is now two hours long, which means there’s be much more time for japes and tomfoolery, and, more importantly, more music than you can shake your tail feathers at.

Rhubarb Radio’s audio stream has been fixed, so you should have no trouble listening through the player above, do let me know if it still buffers.

I hope you enjoy the show, please follow the links to find out more, and spread the word about Treasure Nest by embedding it in your own little corner of the interweb, by following this link. If you have some music you’d like Treasure Nest to share with the world, just get in touch.

A Minha Menina – Os Mutantes
Funky In Here – The Dayton Sidewinders
Boca Abajo – Habana Abierta
Gypsy Doodle – Analogik
La’w Vlé – Kassav
Suni – Dotschy Reinhardt
Timido Tango – Banda Bardò
Ravatan – Tarantolati di Tricarico
Melancholy Flower – Mama Matrix
Kibori – Mahala Rai Banda
You and Me – Yes Sir Boss!
May We Meet – Dave Rybka
Brown Box – Maybe Myrtle Tyrtle
Lijo – Alina Orlova
Piazza, New York Catcher – Belle and Sebastian
Ghosts – Laura Marling
Conquistador – Emily Manuel
De Cara a la Pared – Lhasa de Sela
Your Rocky Spine – The Great Lake Swimmers
A War I Cannot Win – Phil King
Dead Man’s Curve – The Master Chaynjis
Don’t Mean to Sound Cynical - John Napier
La Vida – Obsesion (Watch their interview above)
People of the Light – Tumi and the Volume
Passing Time – John Fairhurst
Adagio – Seven Ages
Frisson – Mukta
Afoxé – Benjamin Taubkin & Núcleo De Música Do Abaçaí (twice because it’s so lovely)
? – Shambel Belayneh (provided by Blue Nile in Hockley)
Ravatan - Tarantolati di Tricarico
La’w Vlé – Kassav
Uzobuya Nini? – Simphiwe Dana
Sylvia – Sa Bat Machines

Who says Christmas shopping has to be a horrible, stress filled nightmare? Lots and lots of people, is the answer to that question. How awful trawling through aisle after garish aisle of tinsel strewn tat, trying to remember what particular shade of purple your grandmother can bear to wear, which obscure author your most pretentious relative is raving about at the moment.

Once New Year arrives, then, nothing short of a miracle will coax your average sentient human being over the threshold of any retail establishment.

Occasionally, however, a magical shopfront emerges from the biting winter cold, a treasure trove to rival Mister Benn’s Special Costume Shop, or the finest confectioners your childhood memories can muster (mine is the Stars newsagent in Parton Road, Aylesbury).

Duttons for Buttons in Harrogate is a case in point. No prizes for guessing what’s for sale here- thousands upon thousands of buttons of every shape, colour and size, made from plastic, wood, porcelain, shell, glass, leather and no doubt many other materials. This place does exactly what it says on the tin.

You may not think you need buttons, but once you see the enormous selection of tiny, beautiful discs, stored away in neat little boxes and glistening like jewels from every corner, you’ll change your mind. Even if they’ll be stored away in a tiny tin on a shelf somewhere, to be taken out and examined at a later date, they’re still worth the investment.

Once you’re all buttoned out, leave the shop and turn right down the hill toward The Ginnel, and you’ll soon find vintage paradise Space Harrogate. Prepare yourself for another Mister Benn experience- this place will take you back a few years, to a time before objects had the corners knocked off. Every few feet of the floorspace is stocked by a different proprietor, so you can lay your hands on anything from working jukeboxes to empire line wedding dresses, hand crocheted berets or original copies of The Bionic Woman.

Incisive and beautiful, sensitive yet uncomfortable, Mark Jenkins‘ work speaks to the layer that trembles beneath our conscious train of thought. Those apparitions we see only in dreams are made plainly visible in the midst of mundane street scenes and bucolic landscapes- a man drowing himself, head buried beneath the lapping tide, legs in jeans grappling with the pavement through holes in a rubbish sack, a woman lying precariously along the uppermost edge of a grubby billboard. His work can be see at Lazarides Gallery.

NB If you’re having trouble listening from here, click this link then choose ‘play in your desktop media player.

This week’s show is a hot water bottle, to slowly melt the ice and warm your bones. We’re travelling from cold lands and ice bound, clinking sounds, through to more temperate climes, then on to the tropics and Sub Saharan Africa. Those of you familiar with hypothermia will know it’s dangerous to warm up too quickly, so we’re taking it just a few degrees at a time. I’ve given each track a temperature based on its origin, starting off in Russia.

-14°C – Moscow – Scotchna & Lebedig – Gregori Schechter and The Wandering Few

The Russian capital is the birthplace of Gregori Schechter and The Wandering Few. An incredible clarinetist with a heartfelt passion for Klezmer- Jewish celebratory music with an unclear history going back thousands of years- Gregory and his band are also literally available for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.

-13.5 °C Montreal and Detroit – Kill/Any Type of Way – Tor/Sufjan Stevens

Next we head to North America for a track from Montreal rapper Tor’s darkly atmospheric remix of an album by Detroit born producer Sufjan Stevens. Illionoize is available for free download here, and it gets better with each listen. Star of Wonder/None Shall Pass is gorgeous.

-6°C Stockholm – Smält Mig Tilglod – Sofia Karlsson

According to Swedish Treasure Nest listener Anders Falbe, the title of Sofia Karlsson‘s track Smält Mig Tilglod means ‘melt me into embers’, more or less. This is appropriate, as the young folk singer’s native city is the last in this playlist to shiver below freezing.

I recently had the priviledge of seeing Sofia Karlsson play a breathtaking gig at Vega in Copenhagen- probably the city’s most hygge live music venue. Karlsson’s band comprises fantastic musicians – especially percussionist Fredrik Gille, who played an intricate and totally unexpected tamborine solo while the others were preparing for the next song, and English fiddle player Emma Reid.

The audience at Vega sat hushed and expectant as Karlsson tripped delicately between Swedish folk infused ballads, frenetic toe tapping jigs and even a spot of yodelling. There’s immense strength and subtlelty in Sofia’s tiny frame, no wonder she’s won both Swedish and Danish Grammies.

1°C Bristol – No 1 – Ben Capp

What better way to melt than to the slow, emphatic build of Ben Capp‘s No 1? I could go on about this gentleman for ages, much better to let his work speak for itself. Check out his production at Reecho. A fascinating photographic insight into the 80s and 90s Bristolian subculture that spawned Tricky, Portishead and the trip hop tradition comes in the shape of Beezer’s Wild Dayz, and the accompanying exhibition continues at Bristol City Museum until March 2010.

2°C Cardiff - Yr Adar Gwylltion – Ffynnon

Next up, Treasure Nest favourites Ffynnon with their haunting song Yr Adar Gwylltion. Last I heard, Ffynnon were touring a musical adaptation of a Mabinogion legend called Hunting the Giant’s Daughter. If their live performance at last year’s Wadebridge Folk Festival is anything to go by, audiences are in for something very special.

22°C – Dakar – Yaye Fall – Carlou D

Statuesque, ethereal and supremely confident (justifiably so, I hasten to add), Carlou D was the highlight of the Womex 2009 showcases. He was visibly fired up by the need to share a heartfelt, political message about his country and culture, and the whole affair spoke of the way artists such as himself are often exoticised by the European music industry, rather than just listened to and engaged with on an intellectual level. Carlou D is represented by the wonderful Motherland Music, who are also looking after Suzanna Owiyo.

24.3°C – Brazzaville, Abidjan, Rabat – Sobe/ The Chance – Ya Tatchi

This track is taken from a newly released collaboration between Congolese trumpeter, composer and band leader Patrick Tatih, Moroccan guibri virtuoso Majid Bekkas and musicians from Ivory Coast. Fusing jazz, West African and Arabic rhythms, Jazz ‘n Bar is luxurious yet understated- perfectly uplifting during these cold, dark months.

25°C – Cairo - Asrar el Ein – Hossam Ramzy & Sammy el Bably

Check out the brass section on this track- breathy, warm and deep as a canyon.

29°C – Rio de Janeiro – Se Não Avisar o Bicho Pega – O Rappa

This track is taken from a live recording for MTV in 2005. The exclusive concert was attended only by friends of the band and member’s of O Rappa’s official fan club, and included a special guest appearance by Maria Rita on Rodo Cotidiano.

29°C – Ouagadougou – Mama Africa – Waka Tibio

This track is, in the parlance of hip hop hypsters the world over, HEAVY, as are Waka Tibio and Ali Diallo- the man behind Ouagadougou’s Waga Hip Hop Festival.

30°C – Reunion Island – Lafrikindmada – Lindigo

30°C – Abidjan – La Folie O – Melek

32°C – Abuja – My Lady Frustration – Fela Kuti

Last but by no means least- three more to get us up to a sticky 31°C. Firstly, I dare you to stay still to anything by Lindigo, who’s uber vibrant brand of traditional Reunionese Maloya is currently raising the rafters of several venues in France. La Folie O is taken from Melek’s album Inspirations . It’s a ridiculously infectious plea to embrace insanity in your day to day life- including lines like “J’embrace ma lady à la folie/Elle me dit, “cheri je t’aime!” à la folie!” Lastly, Nigerian legend and father of all things afrobeat, Fela Kuti. Fela fans can expect more releases from his back catalogue through Knitting Factory Records in 2010, and there are also rumours of a biopic.

Fresh from the Australian Joys of Spring album launch just a few days ago at Gertrude’s Brown Couch in Melbourne, John Fairhurst has revealed the first confirmed dates in his 2010 tour. On January 11th, with one ticket for him, one for his guitar, and armed with a video camera, he’s starting up Australia’s East Coast on a busking tour. From Melbourne, John will head up to Sydney, busking along the way, in time to record a session at independent radio station and distributor Sideways Through Sound.

From there he’ll set off for Brisbane, then on to the Australian Country Music Busking Championships at Tamworth Country Music Festival. The competition takes place on Tamworth’s Peel Street, and festival goers turn out in droves with their deckchairs and sun shades to watch the acts.

This is more than your average busk to coax some loose change out of the public’s pockets, however. As well as a $1,400 cash prize and the chance to perform at the festival’s closing ceremony, talent scouts from major record labels have been known to pounce on precocious talent in previous years.

Past competition winners include EMI Australia’s country music star Troy Cassar-Daley, and the edgy Kasey Chambers-performing here with her husband Shane Nicholson.

Check John Fairhurst’s website for his progress through the outback, before he heads to the USA for the next leg of the Joys of Spring tour.