Only an April fool would choose to miss this month's show. I'll be taking a look at a few of this year's quirkier Record Store Day releases, including a fried egg edition of "This Is Eggland" by The Lovely Eggs and a hippo picture disc from Sparks.
In "Secret Songs From The Sixties" I've chosen two cuts from the recently released "Fool's Paradise Favourites" compilation, courtesy of fellow freeform station WFMU. And for "Soundtracks of the Strange", I've appropriately picked a piece from the "Stranger Things" TV series, along with a track from the 2016 weird black comedy "The Greasy Strangler" by Andrew Hung from Fuck Buttons.
To celebrate the recent deluxe reissues of "Please" and "Actually" by the Pet Shop Boys, I'll be bringing you four cover versions of PSB hits as you've never heard them before, from a metal version of "West End Girls" by GWAR to an anarchic punky take on "Rent" by Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine. All this plus plenty of very recent or brand spanking new tunes including former Cuban Boys members Spray and Japan's crazy Otoboke Beaver.
In the words of the late, great Jim Bowen, hopefully you'll think these two hours are super, smashing, great.

We're delighted to present the stunning debut session from Japan's Astro-B in this month's show, along with some of the best recent releases in what's already shaping up to be a great year for music. There's something from the new album from Hinds, plus the debut from Bas Jan, a new single from Baker Island and something from amazing forthcoming EPs by Corporationpop and Rodney Cromwell.
Reaching slightly further afield, this month's featured compilation is a dub album from Lithuania's Cold Tear label. There's also something from the new EPs from Switzerland's Dadive and M.A.Z.E. from Japan, the new album from Catalonia's Juny and a field recording from Mali courtesy of the always wonderful Sahelsounds.
Meanwhile, Manwel T offers a track from a tribute compilation in memory of the late Stephen Bertrand, while our Peel Back... feature includes gems from sessions broadcast by John Peel 50, 40 and 30 years ago this month and we round off the show with a track on the 50th Anniversary Box Set of what remains, for me, the finest album ever released.

April sees the welcome return of Istanbul Hippodrome on session duties - their second for the show in 5 months! There's also new tunes from as far afield as Mali, Autralia, Poland and Stockport.
Ty Segal reaches back to the 70s for inspiration while The Lucid Dream do the same to an abandoned warehouse in 1991. We celebrate 10 years of the amazing Fruits De Mer label with three cuts from their decade-spanning triple album, and mark the tragic passing of Srey Thy with a classic from The Cambodian Space Project.

A full length three hour show this month, full of new music, including an exclusive session from The Groove Farm, their first new studio recordings for over 25 years.
We open with a 16-minute epic from the new Cavern Of Anti-Matter double album, and there are new tracks from The Creeping Things; Hinds; Say Sue Me; Corporationpop; Karen; Kudzu; Beau; Camp Cope; The Total Rejection; Chemtrails; Rainbow Reservoir; Courtney Barnett; and The Cavemen.
There's also a shedload of great electronica in the show, including tracks from Martin Roth; Butch; Dual Shaman, Burial vs The Bug; Dapayk Solo; Dirty South; plus the fantastic remix of Bicep by Four Tet.
This month's Rocker's Shellac Attack is a 1940 country blues out of Nashville, TN, while this month's Educating Elizabeth record is a soul classic from 1967, out of LA.
As well as little known acts, here's this month's little known fact: Roy Acuff was one of the most successful country artists of the 1930s and 40s, his name became synonymous with country music when he teamed up with songwriter Fred Rose to create the Acuff-Rose publishing company, which became the most successful country music publishing house for four decades.

Unfortunately we have to be the bearer of awful news this month. Anybody who listens to my show regularly will know that many moons ago my label released three wonderful albums by the the magical The Cambodian Space Project a truly singular band with a singer who embodied the great spirit of that country's new generation after the pol pot genocide of the 70's and 80's.
On the 20th of March, Kak Channthy was killed in a traffic in Phnom Penh returning home from a club, she was only 38 years old. There's not much more that I can say except that she'll always be remembered fondly as a bright, strong, fiercely independent woman who clawed her way up from a Cambodian rural existence and exploitation to become a true SE Asian superstar. Some have called her the Amy Whitehouse of Asia, we just believe that her jukebox memory for remembering songs she heard on the radio as a child brought a new lease of life on one of the most singular styles of pop music of the 20th century and inspired many in her country to take great pride in their modern as well as ancient cultural heritage. More than most of us could manage in 3 lives.
Also on the show this month music from Durban, beautiful pop sung in Cornish, yet another one from Brisbane's The Chats (Can't tell you how much I love that band), a new one from Parquet Courts that sees them return to form and a 15 minute modular synth, future classic. As always thanks for listening to Ring of Fire.
Finally if you like to know more about Kak Channthy the BBC penned a rather well written piece here http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43482011 and a lot more detail in The Diplomat https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/remembering-cambodia-rock-star-kak-channthy/

This month's show is a slightly odd presentation in some respects. We're back to one hour and the time is crammed with a wide variety of releases, most of which you'll probably not hear anywhere else - Noisy Pig anyone?
Our new favourite label, Kapitän Platte, provide a splendid array of sounds throughout the show, including album tracks from Monophona, Lingua Nada and Nihiling. All very different, but all wonderful in their own way.
We continue to support the Spanish band Uniforms and introduce the extremely laid-back Drugstore Romeos. Chirpy Japanese band Goofy18 give us a sneak preview from the forthcoming Thomas Imposter label compilation 'Tokyo Chikatetsu vol 1'. There are also some top tracks from Caroline Martin, Transmission 13, Queen Mab and DJ Kobayashi. There's even something new from Sir Robert Orange Peel.
Finally, we are delighted to announce that this show features our first session track, a beautiful live, extended recording by the magnificent Nolika. We are sure you'll love it, swoon!

As mentioned in the introduction to Thomas' April show, he totally gets it if you decide early doors to listen to the new Camp Cope album in full instead. But that's not to say there aren't myriad delights awaiting you in the deeper recesses of (as it's affectionately known around these parts) dandelion_2018_04.mp3 - and only once will a child threaten to make your nose explode right off your face.
Having abandoned the genuine idea of just playing everything off the recent LISTEN Records compilation (it's great) there's now room for new stuff by Busdriver, Nice Biscuit, Hearts And Rockets, Horse Pills, Mod Con and so on, plus music from the Peruvian Andes to Poland to Portland to the Palaeozoic era.
Thomas also nicks a formatting idea off Dandelion's own The Beatbox Saboteurs (who in turn borrowed it from The Pig, let's be real) and appears to have trouble pronouncing anyone's name correctly, unless your name is Martyn Bootyspoon.

April is here. And so is my new show featuring the first ever session recorded for me. Delighted that My Lo-Fi Heart - the solo project of Ian Turley from Sheffield have recorded four songs for the show.
Elsewhere - the featured artist is The Sugarcubes and new sounds this month comes from the likes of The Shna, Dog Chocolate, Worst Witch, Thigh Master, Special Moves, Corporationpop, The Fish Police and Miggs.
Cardiff (my home town) is represented by the ever-so noisy Twisted Ankle.
All in, another wired and wonderful 3 hours this month.