Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 90 – The Turning Light: To The Solstice edition by Raquel Pinheiro @ Yé Yé Radio Monday 15 & 22

The Stone Roses

My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 90 – The Turning Light: To The Solstice edition is broadcasted Monday 15 December, 3-4pm (London time), repeating Monday December 22 – my birthday – same hour on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).

In the Northern Hemisphere we’re on the pathway to Winter Solstice, the beginning of the return of the light. We’re also in Hanukkah – the festival of lights – season (sundown of Sunday December 14 to nightfall of Monday December 22). And, of course Yule that coincides with Winter Solstice and Christmas.

Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 90 – The Turning Light: To The Solstice edition begins with the year’s promise, renewal with The Zombies’ This Will Be Our Year, and concludes with The Stone Roses danceable I Am The Resurrection, a welcoming to the turn, the return of the night, as well as an homage to the recently departed Mani.

There’s sunlit songs, there’s Popol Vuh’ Aguirre I (L’Acrime di Rei) with its somber tone, Aztec Camera’s Wall Out To Winter (extended version) is deliberated. It honors the walk, that Winter is a time of going inwards, not to cut short. The two I See The Light – Todd Rundgren’s and Tom Hiddleston singing Hank Williams’ one – add to the sense of clarity, hope.

Tracklist:
01: The Zombies – This Will Be Our Year
02: The Altons – Your Light
03: Todd Rundgren – I Saw The Light (2015 remaster)
04: The Offline – La belle en lumière
05: Damh the Bard – On Midwinter’s Day
06: Popol Vuh – Aguirre I (L’Acrime di Rei)
07: The Sound – Winning
08: Tom Hiddleston – I Saw The Light live in the Wittertainment studio (Hank Williams cover)
09: Nick Drake – River Man
10: The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (2011 Remaster)
11: Aztec Camera – Wall Out To Winter (extended version)
12: Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
13: Love & Money – Winter
14: Stone Roses – I Am The Resurrection

All previous shows on mixcloud: Yé Yé Radio mixcloud | Mondo Bizarre Magazine mixcloud

Noiserv, Casa da Música, 06.12.2025.

© Nuno Lopes/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

words: Paulo Carmona (freely translated by Raquel Pinheiro); photos: Nuno Lopes

Noiserv is a brilliant project, conceived by a brilliant artist gifted with an unusual, multifaceted creative capacity.

David Santos, the driving force and sole member of the project, is a talented multi-instrumentalist who manages to capture an audience’s full attention, despite barely being able to move, far too occupied playing instruments, recording, sequencing, and performing all at once, offering his audience live music that almost always grows in dynamic range until it reaches its melodic peak.

Sala Suggia of Casa da Música, though not sold out, was very respectably filled to welcome Noiserv, and David delivered exactly what was expected, or even more.

The concert revolved around his new album, 7305, the artist’s fifth full-length record. Another remarkable work whose spacious, contemplative sound carries us into landscapes with the atmosphere of a northern lights sky.

© Nuno Lopes/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

All one had to do was close one’s eyes and let the sound take us anywhere. Long Journey and Resumidamente opened the way for older pieces such as The Sad Story Of a Little Town and Don’t Say Hi, If You Don’t Have Time For A Nice Goodbye. The set list moved fluidly between tracks from the new album and selections from earlier periods.

Special note must go to A Self-Conversation Is To Loud For An Empty Room, singular and unsettling in its beauty, performed entirely on acoustic guitar.

Noiserv also presented tracks featuring collaborations with A Garota Não (Cátia Oliveira) and Milhanas, the latter appearing onstage to perform A Casa das Rodas Quadradas, where their two voices intertwined in perfect synergy. The staging and lighting were superb, fully worthy of that iconic Porto hall.

It was a warm, celebratory evening, not least because David is an excellent storyteller with a wonderful sense of humour. We all left happy.

© Nuno Lopes/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

When Men “Clear Out” Their Lives: What Decluttering Really Reveals at The Listening Room HQ

Pablo Picasso – L’étagère, 1912-1912

There’s a new post at The Listening Room HQ When Men “Clear Out” Their Lives: What Decluttering Really Reveals regarding understanding when men clear out their lives: navigating inner collapse, boundaries, and maintaining your own stability. It can be read here.

Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 89 – Of Mist & Metaphysics edition by Raquel Pinheiro now @ mixcloud

Led Zeppelin

My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 89 – Of Mist & Metaphysics is now available on mixcloud.

Amazing Songs & Other Delights new editions are broadcasted on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app) first and third Monday of the Month 3-4pm (London time), respective repeats second and fourth Monday of the month.

Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 89 – Of Mist & Metaphysics edition title comes from a series of coincidences, synchronicities. As well as of waking up to thick, misty days. The kind you would think yourself in the Scottish Highlands, or, according to the legend, the foggy day Arthur and D. Sebastião will return. You can read more about the programme here.

Tracklist:
01: Richard Wagner – Parsifal, Act II: Prelude – Die Zeit ist da (excerpt)
02: Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven
03: Paus – Ficamos Por Aqui
04: Roxy Music – Avalon
05: Loreena McKennitt – The Lady of Shalott (Live)
06: Queens Of The Stone Age – In the Fade
07: José Cid – A Lenda D’el Rei D. Sebastião
08: Opeth – In The Mist She Was Standing (excerpt)
09: Paraorchestra – The Killing Moon (with Brett Anderson and Charles Nodier)
10: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand
11: Mcalmont & Butler – Although
12: Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – Kingdoms of Rain (live Mark Lanegan 60th celebration)
13: Crown Lands – Lady Of The Lake
14: Einstürzende Neubauten – Stella Maris
15: Die Among Strangers – Lancelot & Elaine
16: Rowland S. Howard – Autoluminescent

All previous shows on mixcloud: Yé Yé Radio mixcloudMondo Bizarre Magazine mixcloud

Best Youth – CCOP, Porto, 04.12.2025.

© Paulo Carmona/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

The Best Youth performance at the CCOP auditorium in Porto unfolded in two distinct parts — different in texture, yet beautifully complementary.

Part I – celebrating 10 years of Highway Moon

Best Youth are a breath of warm, gentle air drifting across a deserted beach on a spring morning still steeped in youth.

The atmospheres they summon almost allow us to levitate for a moment or two. The melodic, contemplative pop of this Porto duo sinks easily beneath the skin, thanks to the richness of the composition and the spell cast by Catarina Salinas’ performance. Her vocal nuances coexist harmoniously with her physical mannerisms, a perfect symbiosis.

Ed Gonçalves, the project’s creative soul, moves between guitar and synths, weaving in vocal melodies here and there. From Sunbird to Renaissance, this was the prevailing atmosphere — the audience yielding to the ritual through rhythmic swaying, sweat-slicked bodies, and joyful shouts.

© Paulo Carmona/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

When Mirrorball arrived, it felt like a prelude to what was coming next.

Part II – An open space for dance-driven rhythms

We stepped into a slightly more frenetic territory of Indie Pop, one that called everyone to the floor — danceable, sensual melodies that remained atmospheric in their pull, the hallmark of what Best Youth do so well.

From Rumba Nera to Midnight Rain, Back With a Bang, and, to finish in style: Cool Kids and Nightfalls. The night was won by all involved. It began well, and ended even better.

Warm-up done!