Swimming In Sound is a weekly two-hour radio show curated and presented by Malka Spigel and Colin Newman. It’s broadcast live on Slack City Radio on DAB in Brighton, Manchester, Norwich and Portsmouth, and online via slackcity.org.uk as well as through services such as Tunein and Receiver.

The show first aired in July 2020. And because Slack City was born from totallyradio.com, all previous episodes are available for catch-up and can be easily shared online.

The show is a weekly labour of love. Malka does most of the trawling of available sources to find new and old music suitable for the show – to the point we now have a 100+ hour Spotify list to draw from. Our aim is to present a balanced selection, covering a wide range of genres and styles.

We’re guided by our own tastes and buy the majority of what we play, to support artists. Buy links are provided in each episode, to help listeners further explore featured artists.

We have diverse musical tastes and actively explore a broad range of musical aesthetics. Our selections include jungle, neoclassical, American primitive, jazz, egg punk, desert blues, lo-fi breaks, indie pop, classic soul, electro-shabbi, ambient country, and more. We research artists we play to give the listener more context. And although we tend towards contemporary releases, we’ll play music from many decades past if we like it.

Yes. Each week, Malka selects a Wire piece and Colin a Minimal Compact one – these may include covers. We also feature music we’ve worked on, such as Immersion, Githead, and other relevant solo projects and collaborations. Additionally, every episode includes a Beatles track and a piece of classic soul.

No. While we’re deeply interested in what’s ‘out there’, we believe our show’s uniqueness stems from our tastes and choices. It’s the same perspective an artist takes. We feel it would compromise the show to rely on or feel obligated to draw from the same promo materials as countless other shows. In short, generic is the enemy of originality, and so although we will sometimes take recommendations from listeners (as long as they’re not promoting their own music), we’ll mainly ignore emails from labels.

The show originated during the covid lockdowns, which made meeting and travel impossible. So we featured ‘foreign correspondents’ to connect with friends abroad. Instead of formal interviews, we’d just chat and use the best bits.

We also wanted to keep in touch with live music and the Brighton scene, and so started a weekly discussion with our friend Andy Rossiter from Love Thy Neighbour. While other guest slots are now infrequent, Andy’s is now a staple. He chooses what to play, and often covers local gigs and touring bands – although the conversation often strays far from the original subject, leading to very unforced jollity!

Beyond that, we’ll occasionally do a co-host special with our friends Gil Luz and Graham Duff or have a musician guest who’s a friend. But in general, we aren’t open to any passing artist plugging their new album or tour.