Radio Kaos Caribou

Ralph recently celebrated his first anniversary of music blogging it seemed only right that he blogged his favourite Internet Radio Station Radio Kaos Caribou this very week as they're celebrating their first year too!  Since its first tentative steps in bringing an eclectic 24 hour 7 days a week non-stop music mix to the world at large, in the UK it's developed a certain cachet due to their allowing Ralph to play his picks of the best in Indie music in this country and in turn they are added to their playlist to be featured on a regular basis every week.







RKC's founder, Jerome Dumortier, known as DJ NT (or affectionately - Ze Boss) uses the online service Mixcloud to concoct amazing musical cocktails, designed to tell a story, set a mood, and always flow from one idea to the next. 



Using spoken vignettes from film, together with world-class music he weaves together palettes that include classic rock (complete with rain effects) from the Doors' "Riders on the Storm", but that winds its way to the Doobie Brothers and disco, and eventually lands on Diana Ross' version of "Good Morning Heartache." The mix itself includes multiple music genres, from smooth jazz, driving funk, Mexican mariachi music, a power ballad and all within the space of 10 minutes!

What makes RKC so much fun is that with each podcast offering, upon pushing PLAY, the listener has no idea what to expect, other than the blissful absence of commercials and other annoying pop-up ads.  Each podcast, while prepared in advance, comprises several hours' worth of nothing but music, claims that many other online stations no longer can make.  Each podcast underlies a distinct theme, whether for Friday night clubbing, current political or social issues, maybe as simple as Sunday morning coffee and toast.




Each mix in French is called a "decoupé" and the RKC Mixcloud site skillfully shows the names of each of the tracks so that if a track catches one's attention, listeners can either buy the single directly from the site, or at least know the name of the band long enough to research it further.

At present, four mixes are available for RKC's site, but DJ NT has indicated that they are ready to release over 30 new ideas in the course of the next few months, and I will certainly be listening for more independent artists and fresh ideas as a result of the station's "decoupés."

RKC does offer a traditional radio streaming feed, twenty-four hours a day, in addition to its eclectic podcasts at rkc.noip.me however, to experience DJ NT's work, visit Mixcloud at www.mixcloud.com/RadioKC.

Thanks to Kathryn Ballard Shut of TIMKAT Entertainment for her assistance in this blog.