This episode was originally broadcast on Bondfire Radio August 19, 2016. It is dedicated entirely to the music of the Barely Breaking Even (BBE) Records label, which has been celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year. The playlist below represents a mere toe dip in the pool of their massive catalog, but it speaks to the diversity of this great label. Hope you enjoy the show.

This episode's track list:

Katalyst - Dreaming Of You
Mathias Stubø - I Never Knew
Jim Dunloop - The Only Thing feat. Devon Parker & S. Squair Blaq
Pete Rock - Something Funky
Phantogram - As Far As I Can See
Kid Sublime - Music ft. Dudley Perkins & Georgia Anne Muldrow
Lady Daisey - My Story
Tha 4rce - Damned If I Do feat. Russell Nash
Space Invadas - Done It Again (Remix by Katalyst)
J Dilla - So Far To Go feat. D'Angelo and Common (7" Edit)
The Ambassadors - Ain't Got The Love (Of One Girl On My Mind)
will.i.am - Possessions
Jay Dee - Rico Suave Bossa Nova
Marley Marl - Hummin' feat. Roy Ayers and Edwin Birdsong
Slakah The Beatchild - Enjoy Ya Self V2
King Britt - Cobbs Creek (Great Skate Mix) feat. Pos and Trugoy
Foxy - Tena's Song
Deep Tenor City - Fireheart
Joy Jones - Over (Osunlade Remix)
DJ Duke & Roland Clark - D2-D2 (Blaise Fade)
Aaron Jerome - Late Night Mission (feat. Yungun)
Kalyanji Anandji - Back Ground Music
Universal Robot Band - Barely Breaking Even

Radio BSOTS broadcasts live on alternating Fridays 8:30-10:00 p.m. EST on Bondfire Radio. http://bondfireradio.com

BSOTS ON BONDFIRE broadcast archives can be found at the following link: https://www.spreaker.com/show/both-sides-of-the-surface

Twitter: http://twitter.com/bsots

Mixcloud: http://mixcloud.com/macedonia

("you might find yourself...in a foreign land...")

Early on in 2016, Bondfire Radio began a playlist series called Tranquil Beats. Focused on chilled out instrumental music, this playlist opens and closes the broadcast day Monday through Friday (9 a.m. and 12 midnight, EST). A new guest curator is invited to select music to feature every month. I took on the guest curator role for August of 2016.

Normally, Bondfire asks for individual songs from the guest curator that are played in whatever order they see fit. From the website, listeners can see both the artist name and song titles as they play. This episode features my Tranquil Beats picks that were played on Mondays in August, but they are presented in more of a mix tape style rather than a playlist one. This is not the same order in which the songs were originally broadcast on Bondfire, either. I just felt like the podcast audience should have something a little different.

This show is dedicated to all my USA heads who will be suffering from P.T.S.D. due to the 2016 presidential election campaign. We all need a moment to decompress and I certainly hope that the songs within this episode can help with that effort.

This episode's track listing:
1. Jon Phonics - "Candy Coupe" (2014)
2. Darondo - "I Don't Want To Leave feat. Tall Black Guy (Sure Know How To Love Me Re-Edit)" (2013)
3. Keyboard Kid - "Life's Real World 2 Gil" (2012)
4. BADBADNOTGOOD - "Speaking Gently" (2016)
5. ELWD - "citystreetflower" (2016)
6. The Stuyvesants - "Sunrise In The Stuy" (2010)
7. Submerse - "Fumes" (2014)
8. Dabrye - "Piano" (2006)
9. Karriem Riggins - "12's in 8" (2008)
10. Darkhouse Family - "Disco Duck" (2016)
11. Denaun Porter - "jUsT 4 dA hAwAiI eVeNiNg" (2013)
12. fLako - "Humming" (2011)
13. Def Dee - "Rain" (2011)
14. Alain Goraguer - "Le Bracelet" (2014)
15. Ultramarine - "Nova Scotia" (1991)
16. Sepalcure - "See Me Feel Me" (2004)
17. Mount Bank - "We Could Be Real" (2016)
18. Big La vs. Todd - "Death Wish" (2016)
19. Nangdo - "1st 2 Know" (2010)
20. Tha Silent Partner - "Love really?" (2016)

http://bondfireradio.com/radio-bsots
http://mixcloud.com/macedonia

More information available at http://bsots.com.

Feedback? I love it. Voice mail messages can be left at https://www.speakpipe.com/bsots.  Email can be sent to radiobsots@gmail.com.

As a person who never wants the summer to end, I can't say that September is one of my favorite months. It's the usual routine: back to work, back to school, back to life, back to reality. And for me, it's back to BSOTS on the podcast end of things. The broadcast side of my life has been thriving thanks to Bondfire Radio and there's no reason why I can't dive into those archives to create shows for the podcast feed. Not everyone gets to hear the live broadcasts, so I should make more of a concerted effort to bring some of that back to home base.

Continuing with the playlist approach from the previous episode, all of the songs in this show (except for "Mothership Riddim") were pulled from 2015 broadcasts along with a few talkover moments. The selections within this show include everything from hip-hop and drum and bass to gospel house and even some Afrobeat from Eastern Europe. While it's not brand new music, I do believe that quite a few of these joints have a timeless quality to them and will still sound good a decade from now. Beyond that, at least one song in this episode will be new to someone out there. Perhaps your next favorite artist is hiding out within this playlist. Here's hoping that you enjoy the show and will share it with someone else who loves music. :-]

This episode's track list:

1. Blakesmith - "Live & Create" (2015)
2. Steve Spacek - "Dollar" (2005)
3. A Tribe Called Quest - "Lyrics To Go (Jesse Fischer Remix)" (2015)
4. Roots Manuva - "Facety 2:11" (2015)
5. Heresy - "Da Call Out" (2015)
6. Mikal Amin (Hired Gun) - "Get Away" (2015)
7. Saun & Starr - "Look Closer (Can't You See The Signs?)" (2015)
8. Dokkerman & the Turkeying Fellaz - "Illegal Move" (2015)
9. The Whole Truth - "Memories Of Love" (2015)
10. J-Felix - "Keep On (We Ain't Here For Long)" (2015)
11. Essa - "LeLeLe ft. Kashmere of Strange U (produced by Flako)" (2015)
12. Bastien Keb - "Down River" (2015)
13. Alicia Myers - "Right Here Right Now (Hallelujah Anyway)" (2015)
14. J Dilla - "Walkinonit" (2006)
15. Exist - "Lookin' At Blue" (2011)
16. Submerse - "whyarntyou" (2015)
17. Om Unit & Fracture - "Chatting Breeze" (2015)
18. Om Unit - "Mothership Riddim (feat. Mark Force)" (2016)
19. The Polyversal Souls - "Goin' In (feat. Afrika Baby Bam)" (2015)
20. Ahmed Sirour - "The Mourning After" (2014)

I could list a dozen reasons as to why I haven't done this earlier, but none of them would be good ones.  For any one who ever wondered what on earth has been keeping me from creating new podcast episodes, the live broadcasts for Bondfire Radio every other Friday certainly have something to do with it.  With that being the case, I figured that I really ought to bring the BSOTS on Bondfire broadcast experience to the podcast feed.

Big shout out to Classick Material of the Cold Slither Podcast Network, whose encouragement served as inspiration for me to finally get this show done.  With that being said, it's clear that consistency lies on the broadcast side of things, so for more Bondfire archives and to subscribe to the broadcast feed, just go here to make that happen.

This episode's track list:

1.  The Hot 8 Brass Band - "Homies (Radio Edit)" (2012)
2.  DJ EFN - "Paradise (feat. Talib Kweli, Wrekonize & Redman)" (2015)
3.  DJ Vadim And Sena - "Work Hard" (2015)
4.  Markis Precise - "Back To Life (feat. Eligh)" (2015)
5.  Blitz The Ambassador - "JuJu Girl" (2015)
6.  Core Rhythm And Zajazza - "Grown Folk Biz (feat. Homeboy Sandman And Eagle Nebula)" (2015)
7.  Romare - "Nina's Dream" (2015)
8.  Semi Hendrix - "Jesus Pressed Mute" (2015)
9.  Sebastian Paul - "Birth" (2015)
10.  Public Enemy - "Corplantationopoly" (2015)
11.  Benjamin - "Those Memories (Sneak Up On Me)" (2015)
12.  NxWorries - "Link Up" (2015)
13.  The Greg Foat Group - "The Hunt" (2015)
14.  Mbongwana Star - "Malukayi (feat. Konono No. 1)" (2015)

You can get in touch via email, Twitter, or leave a voice message on the Speakpipe page.  More information can be found at the Radio BSOTS home page, which is probably the visual equivalent of cyberspace Section 8 housing, but it's home.

Have a good day and a great week.

Please email feedback to radiobsots@gmail.com or reach out to me via Twitter.  Audience participation is strongly encouraged, so please leave a voice message via the Speakpipe page.

Despite the fact that I'm typing this on the last day of January, I'm still saying "Happy New Year" to you all.  Feel free to hate on me if I'm still saying it come Easter Sunday, but as for right now, 2016 is still young.

I always like to start off a new year of Radio BSOTS by looking back at the previous year of music and things are no different this time around.  There are quite a few releases that came out within the last four months of the year that I think were exceptional and shine some light on those that we should keep tabs on in 2016, particularly Mizan K and Sarah Williams White.

If you've been listening to the show for a few years, you know of my love for Harleighblu.  Word has it that she'll be working on a full-length this year, which has me really excited.  Beyond that, the new album from Chi Turner was originally scheduled for a February 7th release, but dropped early on his Bandcamp page.  It's a really special one, certainly his best release to date.

Other highlights in the show include Satele's drum and bass take on A Tribe Called Quest instrumentals, the feverish remix of Moresounds provided by Clap! Clap!, the self-love affirmed by Rat Habitat, the melodic perfection of Prefuse 73 and My Panda Shall Fly, and the cathartic energy of Young Fathers.  And let's not even get into how relevant a song "Don't Poison All The Water" by Mo Kolours is in light of the water crisis in Flint, MI.

There's so much more that I could say about the music, but it's always best to let it speak for itself.  I invite you to listen and (hopefully) enjoy.

This episode's track list:

1.  JGivens - "Ignorantro" (2015)
2.  London Jazz IV - "Death Is Near" (2015)
3.  The Gingerbread Express - "Missed Another Day" (2015)
4.  Mo Kolours - "Don't Poison All The Water" (2015)
5.  Werkha - "Falling Through The Wall" (2015)
6.  Harleighblu - "Meant To Be feat. Azure" (2015)
7.  Blacksmif - "Beautiful Things" (2015)
8.  Prefuse 73 - "Infared (feat. Sam Dew)" (2015)
9.  Sarah Williams White - "Hum Pt. 2" (2015)
10.  Mizan K - "7 Billion" (2015)
11.  My Panda Shall Fly - "Asylum feat. Katherine Joyce" (2015)
12.  Young Fathers - "Rain Or Shine" (2015)
13.  Ziga Murko - "Marjana Flip" (2015)
14.  Georgia Anne Muldrow - "Sans Vacay" (2015)
15.  Dam-Funk - "Floating On Air, feat. Flea & Computer Jay" (2015)
16.  Rat Habitat - "Pat Yo Afro" (2015)
17.  Moresounds - Simon Peacefull (Clap! Clap! Remix) (2015)
18.  Satele - "Red Bourbon Street" (2015)
19.  Blackalicious - "Imani (feat. Zap Mama)" (2015)
20.  Chi Turner - "Hold You" (2016)