Ben Ward
Technical Director
Roll up, roll up, it's the 2020 roundup–roundup

We made it! It's a new day, 2020 is gone. As we embark on whatever it is we make of 2021, many of your friends here BFF.fm took one last look back to salvage something from that year that was. Read More →
The No Magic Roundabout: Ben's 5 for 2020

In imperfect routines we laboured to make it through 2020. Routines have soundtracks, and of course, music is what we do here. There’s opportunity for catharsis over the whole debacle: Music that soothed, uplifted, defied, and distracted. Read More →
A Kind of Magic: Ben Ward's 5 for 2019

It's traditional around these parts to publish an annual retrospective at the start of each new year. Here, No Magic's Ben Ward does that for 2019, and then spents 9 months not publishing it. Read More →
Parboiled Kettle: Ben's 5 for 2018

Ben Ward — half of Eclectic Kettle — compiles his records of the year. A delightful mix of indie pop, dance, and the ear bleedingly avant-garde. Read More →
Parboiled Kettle: Ben's 5 for 2017

Wrapping up 2017 from half of Eclectic Kettle, Ben talks Kelly Lee Owens, Destroyer, Sufjan Stevens, Los Camp! and really doesn't give much credence to the “top 5” concept. Read More →
Parboiled Kettle: Ben's 5 for 2016

Once again in the turn of the new year, I get to distill the thousand pieces of music we played in 2016 down to just five records. Read More →
Parboiled Kettle: Ben's 5 for 2015

In 2015 we played 1,112 pieces of music on Eclectic Kettle. It's a tremendous quantity of great music to distill into just 5 for the year. Read More →