This recording will divide opinion. This might be seen by many as the proverbial two-fingers to the folk establishment or the ultimate contempt for a national broadcasting treasure. Equally, it might be seen as an essential reinterpretation that extends these seminal recordings to a whole new audience. The material sampled here is from the legendary 1950s and 1960s Radio Ballads, marrying regional voices and sayings of old to funky 21st century dance beats.

The ingenuity in this recording is the way in which it sets the sentiments of yesteryear against a vibrant modern backdrop that accentuates the source material -- one could even argue that it manages to remain true to the attitudes of the original material. Certainly on "Loneliness," which samples from the original programmes On The Edge and The Travelling People, the often sparse dance beats capture the sheer desperation and isolation with a stark and tense arrangement. The opening track, "England," begins with a gritty northern accent proclaiming "England, and there's nowhere like it at dawn," before morphing into a triumphant celebration of funky and exuberant beats -- this really is pure and simple, unadulterated good fun!

"Stop Turning" has a punchy, edgy groove that perfectly complements a somewhat belligerent sample from The Fight Game : "Anybody can press a button and blow a ship up, anybody can use an atom bomb, anybody can pick up a big whip and whip you, anybody can stick a knife into you, anybody can pull a trigger, but where's the man with the character as can take a punch on the nose and keep his temper and keep control of himself." These are samples of people rich in spirit and character, given the chance to talk to a whole new generation.

The original Radio Ballads will always be celebrated as one of Britain's finest examples of broadcasting and will long serve as an important historical reference point. With Primary Transmission, we have a recording that will help us to reconnect, not just back to these seminal broadcasts, but back to voices from our history, to characters that we may never see or hear the likes of again. This is a refreshing and vibrant reinterpretation that deserves plaudits as much for its achievement as a piece of work in its own right, as for its audacity in reinterpreting these seminal recordings.