Domino Radio

Another radio station popped up on the UK's airwaves this week. Domino records has its own radio station up this week until Sunday 12 - it's a truism, but the news seems to mirror the fragmented state of the record industry.

We now, for example, have not only Glastonbury and the more established festivals but also a bewildering variety of boutique festivals catering to niche and genre. Radio,too, is a case of specialization.

I could get misty eyed about how the whole family used to listen to John Peel around the Bakelite and miss the unity that Top Of The Pops used to bring ( now there's iTunes and whatever ) but this may miss the point. The exposure Peel gave to developing genres such as dubstep is now covered by specialist stations such as Rinse FM 106.8, which I listen to occasionally. With his Grimy Breakfast show they have a star in DJ Scratcha, who knows his Stones Throw from his dark dubstep and while the station's other shows often cater to niche dance music nostalgia you can still hear visionary tracks like LTJ Bukem's 'Good Times'. I'd never heard this track but nearly 20 years after it was made it sounded a ( very) fast track to urban music's future.

I wanted to make some vague point about how dissipation of media and increased availability has perhaps devalued music but also to be positive about Peel like enthusiasts like Scratcha across diverse media. And you can't really blame the medium of the internet - it's up to us to invest culture with value. So i'll shout my mouth off about Becoming Real, who've i've just listened to on Soundcloud - great! And mention Egyptian Hip Hop, Wu Lyf, Young British Artists, The Horrors and All The Young. Use the media, step away, the music's still good.

http://dominorad.io/schedule