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Tonight we feature a great chat with David Skimming, who under the Lunar Isles moniker has been making some of the best lo-fi surf psyche dream pop out there from his adopted home of Cheongju over the past two years.
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
July 29, 2022
Far Caspian – Between Days
Community Swimming Pool – valentine
Joe T. Johnson – Twist
Jaguar Sun – Forever & More
Young & Sick feat MUNYA – ANGELS
The Strokes – Eternal Summer
Sunset Rollercoaster feat HYUKOH – Candlelight
Jazzycal & nogymx – Dancing Willows
Mac DeMarco – On the Level
The Holydrug Couple – If I Could Find You (Eternity)
Chicano Batman – Passed You By
Lunar Isles – Bloom
Lunar Isles – Anchorage
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It is 20 hours past midnight as the literal heat has subsided but the weekend readies its own mischief, and tonight marks a very special if overdue guests & requests Friday night. Danno here salutations to one & all of you tuned in whether live or later. On the mic as always between 8 & 10pm on GFN and holding it down from studio 2, GFN HQ in downtown Gwangju, how do you do? So as the weekend rolls out of its lengthy slumber this evening, we have a very special and local artist to interview in part 3 & 4 tonight. David Skimming is an artist out of Scotland who has called Korea home for 9 years now, but the last couple of years have seen him making some amazing bedroom pop under the moniker Lunar Isles. Based in Cheongju, which if you know is a bit of a hotbed of music and creativity here in Korea, Lunar Isles has put out two albums and an EP in the past two calendar years, and we’re glad to welcome him to the show this evening to rock a playlist of favorites and inspirations to his dreamy sound in hour 2 this evening. So, in order to ready the audio runway tonight, we’re going to get right into our favorites and skip the history for the opener, although this is a bit of history from Fridays past for this show. We open with Far Caspian’s Between Days, and we’ll discuss further after the sonic stuff floats around. This is The Drop.
Far Caspian – Between Days
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The Drop has signaled the weekend and we are on the air officially for our guests and requests Friday night programming. This is Danno doing the usual but then again quite unusual radio thing from the usual place in downtown Gwangju, and tonight we welcome David Skimming aka Lunar Isles to the show. Based in Cheongju, the Scottish expat artist has seen a prolific couple of years under the Lunar Isles moniker, and we’ll have him on the phone to play DJ and talk the sounds that inspire his own celestial surfing coming up in hour 2.
So, to warm up tonight, we just opened with an artist you’ll hear more from in hour 2. That was Far Caspian with Between Days, which was the title track to the band’s 2018 EP released in November.
Now, there is a bit of history related to this that touches on both then & now. Joel Johnston who’s based in the UK but is out of Ireland is the main man behind this project, which nowadays he is the solo on. However, back in 2019 Far Caspian was a trio, and we had them on the show in 2019 right before their sophomore EP The Heights dropped in full.
Interesting to see how the band has shrunk but their following has exploded in the intervening time. That night was also quite historic as we also had noted fashion designer Paul Smith choose a selection of tunes in the first hour as well.
Now, as to intervening time and just to keep it 100 with you, fair listener, we did interview Lunar Isles a couple of weeks ago but due to some intervening circumstances had to delay broadcast. So, just keep that in mind in hour 2 during interview, but no big deal.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, podcast…
So now that we’ve sent our first balloon to space, let’s go to Scotland with Community Swimming Pool to continue the warm-up, and we have cuts from Joe T Johnson, Jaguar Sun, and MUNYA to complete the rare square for our first block. THIS is The Drop on your Lunar Isles Friday night.
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Back on The Drop as we head towards the jump during quarter one on our nightly game of audio mirrors. Danno here, ready to welcome Lunar Isles to the show as our most honored guest artist selector for this week. True name David Skimming, the artist is based right here in Korea’s Cheongju, and we’re merely reflecting the celestial glow of his own playlist presently, so let’s let you know the mirror readings on that first block of cuts…
Community Swimming Pool – valentine (…the latest from our main man bmac in Glasgow right there, which I don’t believe we’ve gotten a chance to launch into space. The artist has a great collab coming out August 19 with Chicago’s Cool Heat, so look out for that, which is titled all the time.)
Joe T. Johnson – Twist (…now, I swear I’m not trying to confuse you by playing Joel Johnston’s Far Caspian and this artist, fair listener. Just playing what we love as always here on Friday nights, and this is another interesting UK-based artist who hails from Bristol. This tune is so hypnotic even with it’s quick-hitting nature. One of this year’s favorites here at Drop Central.)
Jaguar Sun – Forever & More (…another favorite artist here and one Lunar Isles is also gonna rock in hour 2 tonight, this is the title track to the Canadian artist’s 2019 EP. True name Chris Minielly, the artist hails from Toronto, and put out their career 2nd album earlier this year called This Empty Town, so go check that out.)
Young & Sick feat MUNYA – ANGELS (…great team-up here from off an album called BROTHER from last year. Young & Sick has a bio that merely reads Why am I here, but we do know this is LA-based Nick Van Hofwegen, who’s been active since 2011 with four albums credited, BROTHER being the latest.)
Okay, so we’re going to play a little something off The Strokes and their latest LP The New Abnormal from 2020. Can you think of an album title that catches the moment so aptly? This one ranks pretty high for me. Up next is Eternal Summer and that’s gonna do it for part 1 tonight, but we get swervy after the jump in part 2 so keep it locked. This is The Drop on your celestial archipelago Friday night.
The Strokes – Eternal Summer
II
The Drop as the ice cold slow flow 2nd can of brew helps us get steamin’ tonight. Danno here, cooler than very few, ready to welcome David Skimming aka Lunar Isles to the gig tonight on our Friday night selector sesh. We’ll talk with the artist about the songs that inspire his own, and talk about being a musical dynamo in the process amongst other things. As for right now, we just featured some Korean indie artists coming up in hour 2 on David’s playlist, so let’s break it down but not off…
Sunset Rollercoaster feat OHHYUK – Candlelight ( …another strong but we think somewhat underappreciated album from 2020 is this Taiwanese band’s LP called SOFT STORM. This is the final track of the album featuring noneother than Korean indie dynamo OHHYUK on the vox.)
Jazzycal & nogymx – Dancing Willows ( …this tune along with the rest of the EP just dropped July 12, with the mini record being titled Towards Nowhere, which is our favorite place to go. Not a lot of info on Jazzycal, which is a duo, but we do know a bit about nogymx (note sp.), as true name Jimmy Dunne originally out of Ireland is also based in Cheongju. Dunne’s lo-fi sounds and constant output have built a quite sizeable following on the streaming services, now approaching a million streams per month on Spotify alone.)
Now before we continue with what we’re doing here….#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
So to continue with part 2, our next triangle starts with Mac DeMarco then we have The Holydrug Couple and Chicano Batman in respective order, and we’ll talk more after the flotation ceases. THIS is The Drop on your Lunar Isles Friday night.
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The Drop continues tonight as we stretch towards the first half’s finality. Danno here, putting the finishing touches on our warm-up playlist for Lunar Isles, who joins us on the phone from Cheongju in hour 2. As for what we just threw towards Saturn, let’s explain that last audio triforce...
Mac DeMarco – On the Level (…how amazing is the synth on this song? Just glimmering. This tune appeared on DeMarco’s 2017 album This Old Dog. And I don’t know, do you think it’s fair to call DeMarco the Clown Prince of Indie? I find it a bit ridiculous, but what do you think? #9870 @gfnthedrop if you wanna send us your two cents, or, I guess it’d be closer to 7 cents if you go the text route.)
The Holydrug Couple – If I Could Find You (Eternity) (…apropos tonight’s guest artist selector, hard to think of a more perfect title than Moon Lust, which is the LP from 2015 this tune appeared on. The group itself is a duo out of Chile, and they’ve been active since 2008.)
Chicano Batman – Passed You By (…off the Freedom Is Free LP from 2017, this is just a lovely bit of Latin Soul out of LA and very guitar-centric on the melody so we just had to play it because...)
…we gotta finish the hour with Lunar Isles tonight, who’ll join us on the phone momentarily. Guitar is David Skimming’s main focus in the music he makes, so we have a couple of tunes to give you a further taste of what’s coming up in hour 2. Up next we have a tune called Bloom from the Visitor EP released earlier this year, then it’s a joint called Anchorage, released on the artist’s 2nd album released in 2021 called Mirror Shapes. We’ll talk about all this work and so much more when David joins us after the jump, but for now that’s a wrap. THIS is The Drop in pure Moon Lust at halftime.
Lunar Isles – Bloom
Lunar Isles – Anchorage
III & IV: Lunar Isles
Lunar Isles – Tow
Cigarettes After Sex – K.
Far Caspian – Plans
The Strokes – The End Has No End
Jaguar Sun – With You
The Human League – Don’t You Want Me
Radiohead – House of Cards
Lunar Isles – Balloons
HYUKOH – Help
Nogymx – Mellow Springs
Mac DeMarco – Another One
Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime
Wesley Joseph – Ghostin’
Kevin Krauter – Changes