Actually they have all got it wrong. It’s a radio show. Of course they would get it wrong because the radio hadn’t been invented at the time when these illustrious men of thought lived, philosophised and sometimes would get sick after a very greasy kebab.

Yes, Notes from the Underground is a radio show with a title lovingly borrowed from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name. He actually gave his consent provided that we played good music and we obligingly did so. The program is hosted by Vasco Pereira, a somewhat odd individual that came from the more disreputable parts of Portuguese suburbia.

If Notes from the Underground could be described as a type of person it would be the manic music enthusiastic. The kind of person that would ramble on very passionately after a few lagers about his favourite bands, grabbing people by the lapels, almost evangelizing them without noticing that he is dribbling on a bit and though people might be curious about the music, they might be somewhat disgusted about the dribbling.

Notes from the Underground is aimed at those people that don’t like being confined to just one type of music. One could call them musical omnivorous. It’s for people that are suspicious of rigid labelling. People that like being surprised. People who are inquisitive and could wander to the ends of the Earth just to find out who was playing those divine sounds that they just have heard.

The aim of the program is to share music with people. It should be something akin to having one of your mates recommending this great album you never heard rather than merely doing a playlist dictated by the interests of the big corporations and just playing what is deemed to be popular. There is space for that, sure, but we would like to give our space to the other stuff that tends to be ignored, the nuggets of gold that might be lurking within the mud and mire and which perhaps are closer than we think they are. We just need to keep our eyes, ears and minds open