There's been a fair amount of ink spilled on X Japan over the years in certain media outlets. You can even find recent interviews with drummer/pianist/primary songwriter and Japanese megastar Yoshiki in prestigious publications like Time magazine.

X Japan, however, remain something of an enigma on British shores. Sure, Yoshiki – a classically trained pianist with a background in drumming for the power metal band X Japan – can sell out the Royal Albert Hall solo, but X Japan themselves have never played a single show in the UK, despite being around for over 40 years.

If you're a fan of power metal, speed metal, or Iron Maiden, there's a good chance you'll dig a lot of X Japan's music. But their relative obscurity here in the UK isn't the only reason we're dedicating two episodes to them. It's because the story of the band is absolutely wild, and in episode one, we'll delve into that story in detail. Next week, we'll take a deep dive into their discography.

Grab a cuppa and let's dive in!

We knew this episode was gonna grow arms and legs when we realised that there are 27 Bond songs to talk about. So, now that we've dispensed with the history of Bond music, it's time to tackle every single one of these songs in chronological order. This doesn't include the original Bond theme from Dr. No (cause we discussed that at length in side A), but does include the two songs in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the two non-Eon Bond films, Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again.

It's a lot to cover. So we approached it a bit like our covermount episodes, only we decided to rank each song from 001 to 007 cause how could we really pass up that chance? We also give a little bit, the tiniest smidge, of detail about each film its place in the canon and the critical and audience receptions for each film. And song, where appropriate.

Ready? Shake your Martinis and let's get stuck in.

What if we told you that the musical history of James Bond is actually so much more interesting than the history of the films? And that's not knocking the history of the films - they're plenty fascinating too.

The music though? Super interesting. From the theory and the cultural cache of the Bond song, to the near misses and the rejected tracks, we cover a lot in Side A of our look at the music of James Bond.

If it feels like the length of our episode are getting longer on average then you’d be correct. This is likely because we have lost all pretence of restraint around how comprehensive we are. This week, we’re joined by Scott Walker for the Shit You May Not Have Seen Podcast to do a fairly definitive overview of the band Biohazard. A band who are also quite unrestrained...

Many would believe that there’s not a whole lot to say about Biohazard because pretty much all of their albums plough the same furrow. Turns out, there actually is a lot to say. Over 2 hours worth of things to say. The band are actually somewhat interesting in how they tried to change their sound over the years. Attempts that were so unsuccessful that the albums aren’t actually available on streaming platforms. There’s good reason for that - it’s cause they’re nu metal albums.

Anyway, on this episode we dive deep into their catalogue and also chat about the NYC hardcore scene they came up in, and touch a little on how it evolved over the years.

Big thanks to Scott for joining us and picking this album. You can find his excellent podcast here.

Here it is. Another whopper of an episode. But this one has lots and LOTS of contributors. From one time and former hosts and a bunch of your suggestions too, we tried to be as comprehensive as possible within our little sphere of listeners.

Steve Albini's impact on alternative music is undeniable. From the sheer number of artists he collaborated with to his unwavering defense of fair treatment for musicians, his presence continues to be felt. His anti-capitalist views on the music industry may not have always aligned with everyone's, but his convictions were never in doubt.

This influence extended to his unique approach to music. Whether working on his own projects or lending his talents to others, he imbued every recording with a distinct character. So recognizable and sought-after was his style that countless engineers and artists have attempted to emulate it, yet none have truly captured its essence. The deceptively simple brilliance behind his approach will be explored in more depth next week.

This week's episode dives deep into Albini's life, career, ethics, musical philosophy, and of course, the controversies that continue to surround his legacy.

This week, much like last week, wanted to provide a vault episode that was a contrast to Thursday, and you can't get much further away from Thursday than La Roux.

Chris is a huge fan of this album and because Dave and Mark couldn't quite believe that, this record and episode continually gets referenced on various episodes. It's just so improbable, when you think about it. So it's a really good one to revisit. Hope ye enjoy!

If you thought we'd prattled on about the history of Thursday a little too much in episode one well we've got some news for you - part two is a BEAST. It's 2 hours and 15 minutes long. Why? Because that's the unsung way. We give their discography a thorough analysis whilst continuing to chart the band's history. We also hear about how Geoff Rickly once slept on Sean's couch, and even take a wee detour in No Devotion, too. An episode for the true Thursday freaks, and also one which contains some Bischoff-esque Attitude error booking (iykyk - wait til the end).