I came across the Brumcast podcast around the time it started and my initial impressions were “meh…” so I filed it away under “Nice idea, shame about the execution.” That was a mistake and having dabbled in podcasting myself I should have known it takes a while to get into the swing of things.
Prompted by a few mentions about the place I checked out the latest show, number 35 which in itself is an achievement. Little Chris has certainly found his groove. The hour long show, featuring only Birmingham-based musicians with an emphasis on the unsigned, darts all over the genre map from jangly indie to death metal, ska to post-rock, acoustic singer-songwriter to the madness of the Modified Toy Orchestra. The quality is generally high and the presentation clear. There’s not much from the rap/r&b or bhangra aspects of the city (bearing in mind I’ve only listened to one show so far) but that’s more indicative of the way music tends to be segregated in Birmingham as a whole than a criticism. It’d be nice to see someone try to bridge those divides though.
To subscribe to Brumcast drag this link into iTunes (or similar). Alternatively mp3 downloads can be found here. More info can be found on MySpace.