peel1

John Peel Archive releases first streamable "record box," curated by Pink Floyd/Nick Drake producer Joe Boyd (listen)

John Peel

Legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel is renowned for introducing thousands of ears to the sounds of psych, prog-rock, punk, reggae and hip-hop and amassed quite a collection of records before his sudden death in October, 2004. (A lot of them are by The Fall.) The John Peel Archive has been working to document the massive personal collection of over 20,000 LPs and over 40,000 singles over the past few years and have now posted the first of six curated Record Box collections delving deeper into what’s on the shelves.

The first mixtape-style collection is curated by producer Joe Boyd, who’s worked with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and, recently, Robyn Hitchcock. Boyd pulled over 20 records including several of the bands he worked with as well as groundbreaking material from Bob Dylan, (an original test-pressing of the legendary Demo White Label!), Tomorrow’s psych classic “My White Bicycle,” the Talking Heads’ first Top 30 hit, their cover of Al Green’s classic “Take Me To The River,” plus Brian Jones, Bonzo Dog Band, 10,00 Maniacs and more. Each of Boyd’s selections is now available to stream, with audio ripped direct from Peel’s own turntable and records. There’s a video of Boyd digging through Peel’s shelves and talking about the records over at the Peel Archive.

Let’s hope Mark E. Smith gets to curate one of these.