in the city

Pirates in cyberspace
Cool sounds courtesy of the Internet. By The Viking

Shiver me timbers and hoist yer yard arm - pirate radio has, finally hit the Inteniet. Captain Mad Ash and his merry band of salty DJs are cruising the uncharted territories of the world-wide web. The once unfathomable bastion of technics, geeks and info freaks is at last revealing its buried booty.

Seven nights a week from a basement in Farringdon, the Interface site of Mad Ash drum'n'bass DJ in his own right broadcasts some 60 different DJs, playing anything from gabber to garage. It is currently registering visits from punters as far afield as South America, Australia, Japan and Scandinavia.

In the six months that the site has been online, Ash has maintained one principle: to keep the site underground. Interface is run exactly like a pirate station except for one major bonus: it's not illegal, so no cunningly disguised antennae and transmitters are needed.

The process is remarkably simple: a DJ,plays on decks, the sound is digitally transferred through a computer and sent to a service provider in London and then sent via America to anyone who wants to log on. All you need is a computer with a sound card, a modern, a Real Audio plug-in and a modicum of computer literacy.

Sounds simple, but there is one major hiccup for anyone who wants to set up their own site on a commercial basis, with advertising or sponsorship. Interface's facilities would cost your normal punter about a million quid, but because Interface refuses to make the site commercial, costs are covered by the DJs themselves. Certain altruistic rebels have therefore given these swashbucklers a free haven in innerspace.
Interface runs 7pm-6am at the weekend and from 7pm-2am during the week at www.pirateradio.co.uk