Wednesday 28 December 2011

Intermission


Please excuse the lengthy intermission since the last broadcast. The recording server at IC Radio was burnt out by a power cut in college around All Hallows and replacing it has proved to be quite an ordeal. Hopefully the system will be sorted in the new year. Prepare your receivers...

In the meantime, here is a recording of a selection I played out at IC Music Tech's We Are Metric night at Imperial College Union. Try jerking the dancefloor to this load.

CARL ORFF O Fortuna
TEEBS Arthur's Birds
LURKER OF CHALICE This Blood Falls As Mortal pt. III
FLYING LOTUS Archway (TEEBS remix)
PATTEN Ndi Bem (MY PANDA SHALL FLY ''Unknown Igbo'' Incident)
MISEL QUITNO Tadd's Children's Lost in Coutances
METAMATICS What the Birds Overheard
ANDY STOTT New Ground
FLYING LOTUS Lullaby
PATTEN Out the Coast (SCULPTURE remix)

Wednesday 12 October 2011

111009 ep. 24 farewell, Fabian

Last show with Fabian for the time being, as he heads back to the Motherland. We made sure to make it count. Starting off in some manner of half-there quietness, then setting off on an magnetic tangent catching a few electrons in some kind of time-skipping-well. Eventually the beats began to drop, fall off, come back and disappear again before a 1970's Spanish funk cover of a J.S. Bach classic, followed by some fine funkadelics. A ridiculous reenactment of James Brown led to a brief barrage of low end pummeling, interrupted by a free jazz interlude before cracking down to the gritty blues. The closing track was the result of a late night / early morning jam in Vienna with Fabian and Nick Appelgren, with me reciting a passage from Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Like going to bed after a long day, faulty thoughts running into each other in your head.

<< RWD



DICTAPHONE Rising Minimal

MISEL QUITNO Im Halbhohen Gras

HRVATSKI ewc3

KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN Stereo Music for Acoustic Guitar, Buchla Music Box 100, Hewlett Packard Model 236, Oscillator, Electric Guitar and Computer - Part One

KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN Stereo Music for Acoustic Guitar, Buchla Music Box 100, Hewlett Packard Model 236, Oscillator, Electric Guitar and Computer - Part Two

HIGH SKIES The Earth at Night

SEAZO Semilanceata

DAISUKE TANABE BFR014

INSIGHTFUL Agonate

WIDOWS Drama

MATTHEWDAVID All You'll Never Know

ALGO RITMICO Happy

FLYING LOTUS Melting3

FUSIOON Tocata y Fug

MEDESKI, MARTIN & WOOD Macha

HUGH MASEKELA Keep Me Hangin' On

RAMP Daylight

DANIMALS Nightshift in Blue

THE STEPKIDS Brain Ninja

JOSHUA REDMAN Hide and Seek

STEWWIWONDA IGotYou (I Feel Good)

ANTHONY "SHAKE" SHAKIR Flyswatter

T++ Tensile

ANTHONY BRAXTON The Bell

SHACKLETON Death is Not Final

TOM WAITS Make it Rain

HOWLIN' WOLF Smokestack Lightning

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND Some Kinda Love (Closet)

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN Etude (1952)

FSHSTK / N.APP / IÑIGO Hark! A Zephyr / The Fall of the House of Usher


Sunday 10 July 2011

110710 ep. 23 once more before the summertime

Final transmission of the term before summer comes a knockin'... opening easy with Japanese psych-gem People and staying cool with offerings from Can members Jaki "Secret Rhythms" Liebezeit and Holger "Cool in the Pool" Czukay. Another highlight was the unreleased Immer.chic opus Fontain Bio which I really hope will cut the wax one day.


Later on experiencing some heavy electronic weight from a few modern characters. From synthesized wizardry (K.F.W.) to computational abuse (ae). Some beats steady (Kafka), others less so (Twin), and others mostly between the ears (not Panasonic).


Watch this space for summer intermissions in the form of off-air affairs to melt the ice and shine some light in your ears. Meanwhile, enjoy the summertime!

PEOPLE Prologue + Shomyo Pt. 1
BURNT FRIEDMAN & JAKI LIEBEZEIT Royal Roost
IMMER.CHIC Fontain Bio
VLADISLAV DELAY Raamat
HEADCASE The Red Star
GOBLIN School at Night
BAD BRAINS Leaving Babylon
HOLGER CZUKAY Witches' Multiplication Table
BJØRN SVIN Browen
AUTECHRE y7
APHEX TWIN Meltphace6
KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN Disingenuousness
ALGO RITMICO La Cocina
EINTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN Ragout: Küchen Rezpt von Einstürzende Neubauten
WOLFGANG VOIGT Kafkatrax 1.1
SURGEON Whose Bad Hands Are These (AUTECHRE remix)
T++ Allied
TERRESTRIAL TONES Experimental Farm
PAN SONIC Liuos

Sunday 26 June 2011

Birds can also play guitar

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot
Barbican Centre
Sat 27 Feb — Sun 23 May 2010

The Curve became a walk-through aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects in Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s commission.

Trained as a musician and composer, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways.

As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they created a captivating, live soundscape.

110626 ep. 22 durcheinander

A vertiginous variation of sounds this time around. Opening with a run-off groove and gazing at the stars, then unexpectedly settling into some sort of rhythm or another. From computer hip hop to dub and some sort of electronic thump. The second half was coloured by a brief visitation from the spirit of jazz, the 'acid on acid' guitar explosions of The Human Instinct and cubist reggae like only the Snares can devise. Closing with a blissful jam on guitar and synthesizer.

Revisit.


NANA APRIL JUN (run-out groove)

SAWAKO Far Away

THE ADVISORY CIRCLE Warm Air

BOARDS OF CANADA Sunshine Recorder

CRETIN Quest

KING SUNNY ADÉ Ja Funmi (Waka version) @ 33 1/3

COMFORT FIT & JINNA MOROCHA The Moon Comes Closer

KOLLEKTIV TRUMSTRASSE Uneins

KOLLEKTIV TRUMSTRASSE Deine Distanz

GIL SCOTT-HERON The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA The Revolution

KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN Variations for Oud & Synthesizer side B

THE HUMAN INSTINCT Stoned Guitar

VENETIAN SNARES The Identification Circles Levitate

BUDGIE The Author

HUGH MASEKELA Child of the Earth

NINA SIMONE Summertime

BISON BISON BISON jam on air


Rest in peace...

Sunday 8 May 2011

110508 ep. 21 three dog years

Conveniently timed the day after my 21st birthday, episode 21 was a colourful bag of far out synths and throbbing drums. Psychedelia mixed with dub and some hip hopping beats to keep the public interested. Given the occasion, I thought I'd play some recent recordings of my own, under the signs of algo ritmico (solo computer muzak), No More Reality (psychedelic electro/acoustic trio) & Bison Bison Bison (improv duo with Fshstk). No sign of the analogue noise excursions of lo. batt. but mayhaps another night. Speak of the devil, buffalo jams with Fshstk once again to end the show. A weird mix of extrahuman hummings, ADD beats and dodgy cables. Ah yes, and plenty of fun with the turntables.
Enjoy.

1000NAMES Haunted Landscapes

ALGO RITMICO Perlen vor Die

ALGO RITMICO Gliese 581g

PEAKING LIGHTS Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)

THE TWINKLE BROTHERS No Loving Tonight

PEVERELIST Gather

PEVERELIST & APPLEBLIM Circling

DEMDIKE STARE Conjoined

ALGO RITMICO Manila

THE DURIAN BROTHERS Mille Yeux

LAME GRANDMA WITH BIG BAG Forgotten Planet

GONJASUFI Candylane (GRILLO Helium Pressure remix)

POTE YYYY

MOONDOG Tree Frog / Be a Hobo

BISON BISON BISON Chronopolis Backwards (21st birthday jam)

NO MORE REALITY Gliese (live @ Felix 19.02)

BISON BISON BISON jam on air @ 1:40:00


Monday 25 April 2011

Halana magazine, speaking of avant garde


Looking through my old Soulseek folder, I found a 5 page interview with japanese avant garde multi-instrumentalist Keiji Haino which I never got around to reading. Google reveals it was originally published in the issue #2 of Chris Rice's Halana, a magazine which profiled some of the key figures of contemporary avant garde music; touching on styles as wide as the minimalism of La Monte Young, the Americana folk guitar wizardry of John Fahey, Pauline Oliveros's pioneering electronic explorations and the free jazz and improvisation of the likes of pianist Matthew Shipp and guitarist Derek Bailey.
First published in 1996 and running for 4 issues until 1999, in printings of a couple thousand, each edition included a unique CD or 7" record to accompany the literature.

Some highlights are interviews with minimalist pioneers La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in #1; filmmaker Tony Conrad and electro-acoustic composer Pauline Oliveros in #2; guitarist John Fahey and minimalist Charlemagne Palestine in #3; Sun City Girls guitarist Sir Richard Bishop in #4; and a monumental offering in #5 with 1950's French electronic music composer Eliane Radigue, modern Spanish composer Francisco Lopez and guitar wrangler Derek Bailey.

You can still order the 4th issue through the website though it seems #5 was in the works until 2004 but never made it out. The first three appear to be sold out which is a pity, though you can still find some of the transcripts with a quick Google search.

You can hear excerpts of Derek Bailey & Keiji Haino's 1996 collaboration "Drawing Close, Attuning..." on TBR!'s 3rd transmission from January 2010. More to come with the 4th instalment of Channelling the Spirit of Jazz, very soon...

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Domino Festival #15 last edition :(


It saddens me deeply to hear this year will see the last edition of the incredible Domino Festival at Brussels's Ancienne Belgique. This festival has been a beacon for amazing, diverse and unique artists to play in this city ranging from the legendary Einstürzende Neubauten (including a stop on their 25th anniversary tour in 2005), Sunn O)))'s monumental Moog Ceremony with Julian Cope on the mic (2006), a Raster-Noton label night featuring the mind-swirling A/V of Frank Brettshneider (2007), the psychotropic vibes of Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit (the latter being the late Can's drumman) in 2008 and so many more... I want to give a wholehearted thanks to the organisers for bringing such wonderful musicians to the capital and giving me and so many others the pleasure of witnessing such unforgettable performances.



My first encounter with the festival was also my first with Sunn O))). They happened to be in town the same week a friend had told me about them. He showed me an interview in Terrorizer magazine with Attila Csihar (Mayhem et al.), who was collaborating with them at the time on the White albums, so I couldn't resist the chance. Needless to say it was my last concert ever not wearing earplugs... I maintain that gig was the primary cause of my tinnitus.

This year's highlights for me will be Touch Records's 30th anniversary featuring Pan(a)sonic half Mika Vaino, rock ballast Battles sharing the bill with kosmische reviver Oneohtrix Point Never, Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld's latest venture with Raster-Noton co-founder Alva Noto, as ANBB, and perhaps the most thrilling of all, the god of noise himself, Merzbow! A fair end to a monumentous festival which has left it's mark on many individuals here and which no one will easily forget.

Check the rest of the Domino #15 line-up and enjoy yourself :)



April 6th - 12th, 2011
DOMINO FESTIVAL #15
Ancienne Belgique
Brussels

Sunday 13 March 2011

110313 ep. 20 jamming with Fshstk

If you listen to this for any reason, may it be for a unique rendering of 99 Red Balloons at 33 1/3 instead of 45 RPM. The B-side is a genius discotropic dub excursion. Drench in reverb for extra haze. Sweep in flange for extra swirl. Jamming with Fabian at the end once more. The good bit got cut out of the replay but you can find it on Soundcloud (see below for the link)
After 7:47...

DEMDIKE STARE Janissary
SHACKLETON Man On a String pt. 1
VLADISLAV DELAY Anima
JOYRIDE Kekse
JOYRIDE L.A. Pink
PRINZ PI Laura (TUA Remix)
KASSEM MOSSE Workshop 12 B1
1000NAMES Cup of Joy
PIXELORD Hypnofrog
ALVEOL Glitter Path (KASSEM MOSSE remix)
BATTLES SZ2
NENA 99 Red Ballons (33 1/3 dub)
NENA Ich Bleib' Im Bett (33 1/3 dub)
THE DURIAN BROTHERS Mille Yeux
THE DURIAN BROTHERS Overexposed Scream Contest
AUTECHRE See On See (PIXELORD remix)
DATA The Fall of Phaeton
MORPHOSIS Silent Screamer
LO. BATT. + FSHSTK On Air + Off Air



Czech out this awesome EP by Joyride on the brand new Millions of Brilliant Idiots imprint. Put the needle on the record!

Saturday 5 March 2011

High light: PEAKING LIGHTS "936"

Peaking Lights (Aaron Coyes & Indra Dunis) have already made some of the most beautiful music I've laid ears to. Just listen to "Silver Tongues Soft Whispers" from their Imaginary Falcons LP and you'll hear what I mean. When they played Barden's Boudoir some time last winter, a small basement in North London, to a small gathering of people, I was utterly in rapture with their huggy grooves and psychotropic leads. It's the sort of music you'll close your eyes to and dance around to in your room. Like lying down on a cloud and waiting for the stars to move.

To make things better, Aaron had a suitcase full of homemade electronics (pictured below). Bent circuits, rainbow wires, bits & pieces from dead appliances. I'm studying this stuff at uni so I just had to ask. "Trial & error & loads of solder burns." Soldering irons burn at 300ºC by the way.


I just heard some cuts from their freshest offering "936" and it has absolutely made my morning! Bouncing drums, liquid strings and the voice of sun light. I could make all sorts of metaphors to grass, the tropics and fuzzy currents but you really should hear it for yourself. Peaking Lights will brighten your life.


Peaking Lights - All The Sun That Shines from Not Not Fun on Vimeo.


Sunday 13 February 2011

110213 ep. 19 Algo Ritmico & Fshstk

"A journey into the mind."
Return.

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER Stress Waves
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER Returnal
SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Assyrian Blood
ONI AYHUN OAR004-A
OREN AMBARCHI Lost like a star
BRION GYSIN I Am
KASSEM MOSSE Demo Drums Ripping Demos
EFDEMIN Cowbell
PAVEL DOVGAL Solar Midnight
CAPELLA My Way
TOKIMONSTA Lucid Walking
AL QUETZ aka QUETZAL Kalakuta (Interlude)
THE DURIAN BROTHERS Haisai
MADLIB Jungle Soundz (Part One)
FLYING LOTUS Unexpected Delight ft. LAURA DARLINGTON
AL GREEN Light My Fire (GROOVE ARMADA)
POLE Green is not green-yellow
REDINHO Pitter Patter
MORGAN PACKARD Insist
BOARDS OF CANADA Growing Hand
BENGE Faun 6
KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN Generator
···
ALGO RITMICO + FSHSTK jam

Wednesday 9 February 2011

High light : AL QUETZ aka QUETZAL "Drums Come From Africa"

Wonderful sound committed to wax and numbers. This is absolutely making my day (night actually) right now and it will make yours too. A subtle shake between high life vibes and hip hops. Guaranteed to have your eyes closed and your butt grooving in under a minute.



Buy it for less than £4 from Al Quetz aka Quetzal @ Bandcamp and have a nice time :]

Monday 24 January 2011

RCM concert: Xenakis, Stockhausen, et al. Friday 11th Feb.

I just received an email from the Royal College of Music's KeyNote emailing list, announcing what's probably going to be the creamiest crop of the season. The concert features a couple percussive pieces from Iannis Xenakis, Greek engineer by education, architect by profession, turned composer after a period working in the workshop of French architect supreme Le Corbusier. His compositions merge stochastic processes and architectural forms into complex amalgamations of sound events to challenge even the most open minded listener.


Friday 11 February | 7.30pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Freiburg Percussion Ensemble
RCM Percussion Faculty

IANNIS XENAKIS Claviers from Pleiades
DIETER MACK Jonico
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN Zyklus
MARK APPLEBAUM Straitjacket
IANNIS XENAKIS Oeaux from Pleiades
NICOLAUS A HUBER Herbstfestival


Tickets are £5/£10 and can be purchased from https://www.boxoffice.rcm.ac.uk/

In case you don't get out much, the RCM is just behind Imperial College, between the student Union and the Royal Albert Hall.


Monday 10 January 2011

110109 ep. 18 w/ AQUA DENTATA live

A very warm return from the holidays, bringing the first live session on the show, from the musical entity of artist/photographer Eddie Nuttall, Aqua Dentata. As I said after the show, like a sitar playing at the end of a tunnel in the dead of space, while you stand 100 metres away from its opening... In the words of one Freek de Ruiter, "no drugs needed". A broadening of your ear lobes, persuaded by the hums and jitters of electron movements, interferences from other worlds. Joined for a second set by myself on 5 string, retuned guitar.
Forgot to press On Air*... skip to 28:42

MUSLIMGAUZE Rhodesia
TANGERINE DREAM Rubycon Pt. One
MARCUS SCHMICKLER Wabi Sabi 4
BJØRN TORSKE Gullfjellet
APHEX TWIN Bbydhyonchord
MUSLIMGAUZE Mumbai Vibe Garden
SHACKELTON Man on a String, Pt. One
MARK ERNESTUS vs KONONO Nº1 Masikulu Dub
1000NAMES Private Hero
1000NAMES Pocket Calculators
INSTRA:MENTAL End Credits
···
AQUA DENTATA live ... @ 1:31:34
AQUA DENTATA + LO. BATT. jam ... @ 1:57:27
···
KASSEM MOSSE Workshop 08 A1
BENGE Adam-Age Loneliness
KIT CLAYTON Humbaba
SHACKLETON Man on a String, Pt. Two





*standard...