Physical Distancing Discs – Series Two

Between June 2021 and 2023 I recorded mixtapes for friends which were sent to them in the post. Recordings of these tapes were also broadcast on Slack’s radio for a monthly show called Physical Distancing Discs. You can listen to these mixtapes here.

After a hiatus, I’ve started a new series of the show. This time, instead of recording tapes at home, I have been inviting people to join me in the studio so we can play tracks to each other, kind of like a collaborative mixtape.

Before we went into the studio, my guests and I sent each other questions to help us get to know each other a little better and select tracks to play.

The title of each show is decided between myself and my guest during the show.

Slack’s uses Instagram to promote the station’s schedule and I try to keep up on my own account, which you can find here.

#1 – Charlie Don’t Surf (September 2024)

#2 – If you saw someone stealing food; no you didn’t w. Kat Bevan (October 2024)

#3 You could do better, but no-one can prove it – Nick Malyan (November 2024)

This month I was joined by Nick Malyan. We first met in Durham when he was one of the directors of Empty Shop where I had my first exhibition after finishing my MA at Sunderland University. There were only 3 CDs in the building during the install of the show. The one which got played the most was Hot Potatoes: The Best of Devo. 

From there we became close friends and worked on several art projects together. One of which was a fictional band that only played covers of other people’s songs, including Mongoloid by Devo which is why I started the show with that song. 

The title of the show is taken from a lyric in the Thank song I played for Nick. We both felt that this line summed up perfectly the ethos of the band we played in together. 

Over the course of the show we took it in turn to play tracks to each other while reminiscing on our friendship over the years and Nick’s increasingly nostalgic relationship to music, as work and other commitments take up so much of his time. 

#4 Top of the Rots  – Lib Hodes (December 2024)

This month’s guest was Lib Hodes. She is an artist, comedian and plays guitar in The Slugs.

In the lead up to recording the show I send my guests a series of questions that are designed to help us get a better sense of our music tastes and aid track selection for each other. 

I really enjoyed Lib’s responses, particularly to this question: “What song makes you run across the room to turn the radio off?” 

Which was: “I have a fairly high tolerance for a lot of music that many people may find intolerably rubbish, especially things from the novelty world. I am partial to songs such as the crazy frog and the hamster dance, and a lot of things that are the highest strength of naff.”

I had fun testing her “high tolerance” with some of my favourite novelty tracks. 

Songs that make me turn the radio off include anything by Oasis and Christmas music. However, as it was December, I made an exception, and played a couple of alternative Christmas songs. Lib played one anti-Christmas song. 

#5 Jimmy Carter says Yes  – (January 2025)

Slack’s took a well deserved break for the beginning of January, so there was no live show from me. I decided to repost this mix I made back in 2020 during the first UK lockdown. 

It was originally released the week of the US election and the start of the UK’s second National Lockdown. This was all before Slack’s even existed and the thought of a monthly radio show was just a pipe dream for me.

It felt like a good time to share this mix as it contains elements of the recording of Jimmy Carter’s visit to Newcastle in 1977, who passed away in December 2024 (RIP).

Even though I have never been a fan of Biden, the election result in 2020 feels utopian compared to what’s happening today. I’ll be thinking of friends and family in the states today. We survived one Trump term – I hope we can endure another and build a better future in its wake.

In the meantime, I’ll be trying to focus on the positive things in my life and around the world – music being a prime example. I hope you enjoy the mix.

If anyone is able to identify the unknown track in the mix, please contact me. The record is somewhere in my collection, but I couldn’t find it when putting the tracklist together and it’s been bugging me since then.

#6.1 Public Dances  – Al Hoyos-Twomey (February 2025)

There were two Physical Distancing Discs shows in February. Both with Al Hoyos-Twomney.  

The first (6.1) is a mixtape I made for Al Hoyos-Twomey, following the format for series one of the show.

The second show (6.2 – see below) returns to the series two format, where Al joined me in the studio to play some records together to make a collaborative mixtape. 

This makes Al the first person to feature on the show in the style of series one and two.

#6.2 Supernatural strategies for assembling a noise group – Al Hoyos-Twomey (February 2025)

I met Al while we were both studying in the Fine Art department at Newcastle University. We got on well and I knew he was a cool guy, but it was when he mentioned that he’d gone to a noise gig at the Lubber Fiend that I realised we were going to be firm friends outside the context of the university.

In the lead up to the show I sent him a few questions, one of which was “Are you in or have you ever been in a band?” In his response he asked whether we should start one together. My answer was yes. The records in this show could act as a taste for what this speculative band could sound like (if we were both talented musicians). I’m not sure if that happened, but what emerged was our mutual love for jungle, noise and alternative rock, but mainly jungle. Neither have the skills to make jungle though. 

The title of the show is adapted from the excellent how-to guide for rock bands by Ian F. Svenonius. 

The image on Slack’s soundcloud archive is a Polaroid photograph of me, taken when Al and I recorded the show. This is part of a project by Lens and Lead, who are documenting all of Slack’s resident DJs and asking us to contribute a drawing to go alongside the portrait. 

See below for the photograph of Al and I holding records up to cover our faces.