Sunday, 1 December 2013

131201 ep. 35

RYOJI IKEDA Check
RABIH BEAINI Song of Extreme Happiness
JAR MOFF Commercial Mouth
BELLOWS Reelin' #5
RENE HELL Chamber Forte
BERNARD PARMEGIANI Incidences / Résonances
BERNARD PARMEGIANI Accidents / Harmoniques
RASHAD BECKER Chants/Dances I, II, III, IV

Bernard Parmegiani 'L'Ecran Transparent' (1973) from PAN on Vimeo.

Sunday, 17 November 2013

131118 ep. 35

FRED FRITH & CHRISTIAN MARCLAY Live at Cafe OTO 2012
KIM GORDON & DJ OLIVE & IKUE MORI Olive's Horn
BURNING STAR CORE Challenger
DEREK BAILEY & STEVE NOBLE Breakaway
BILL ORCUTT I Remember Pedro Bell
HARRY PUSSY Sex Problem
SEX VID Misprint
SHELLAC Copper
IRON LUNG A Grim Possibility for Owen Moses
IRON LUNG Life. Iron Lung. Death.
WOLF EYES No Matter
GREG KELLEY & JASON LESACALLEET Autumn Leaves


Monday, 28 October 2013

131027 ep. 34 transmitting from FreshAir.org.uk

JAR MOFF vidr
BERNARD HEIDSIECK Ravaillac tu connais?
AARON DILLOWAY Rotting Nepal
REZETT Firebomb
VOISKI From White To Red
KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN Disingenuity
BLACK SITES N313P
BOARDS OF CANADA A is to B as B is to C
BOARDS OF CANADA Over the Horizon Radar
ZOVIET FRANCE Voice Print Identification
POPOL VUH Ah!

Sunday, 30 June 2013

130630 ep. 33⅓ the last broadcast

Final transmission of The Big Racket! on IC Radio. Coincidentally nodding to our LP's RPMs, being the 33rd episode in 3⅓ years. A lovely farewell after 3⅓ years of aerially racketeering aural receptors, bowing out with the 5th instalment of Channeling the Spirit of Jazz, joined by Jazzmaster Phrij (co-founder of Imperial College London's Musictech Society) plus textile/visual artist, Kumi.

A double serving of afrocentric reverberations and intoxicating grooves; the first hour blessed by a waxwork of Phrij's finest funky jazz selection, the second a back-to-back stagger on a minefield of flashbacks and crack-ups with fella Kumi. (Fun fact: the 2nd track of the 2nd part was the previous record spun backwards to buy time in the search for a 45RPM adaptor, rather the curious catastrophe.)

Ears up to the penultimate tune, the mesmerizing 'Din Ya Sugri' from Ghana's Christy Azuma & Uppers International – an absolute gem uncovered in the inimitable Soundway Records's Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981 compilation.


SÃO PAULO UNDERGROUND Pombaral
HARRY WHITAKER Black Renaissance
AZYMUTH Meu Mengô
HERBIE HANCOCK Sly
DON BLACKMAN Heart's Desire
EARTH, WIND & FIRE Getaway
DON BLACKMAN Never Miss A Thing
EVELYN "CHAMPAGNE" KING I'm In Love
PLEASURE Space Is The Place
PHRIJ Zigzaggard

II 
RON DEACON Workshop 10
01 pohskroW NOCAED NOR
JUNIOR MURVIN Cool Out Son
RAS G Lisa Bonet
KING SUNNY ADÉ Ja Funmi (Ja Waka Version)
HYPE WILLIAMS Love You
BRAND NEW FUNK Interlude
FLYING LOTUS 1983
BROTHER JACK McDUFF Oblighetto
CHRISTY AZUMA & UPPERS INTERNATIONAL Din Ya Sugri
MADLIB Montara



Sunday, 27 January 2013

130127 ep. 32 resolution free

Unexpected turns on the decks last night. Not sure what happened but the evidence is a slur of relaxation and elation, in order of appearance. Trust the jagged spirit of Madteo to interface the two halves, from a blissful wash-out to the quadro-monophonic barricade of Ike Yard.


Been on a bit of a bin binge lately... the nice folks at Honest Jons Records must be wondering why I keep coming back for more TTT (Dro Carey, MGUN, Willie Burns, phew!), pretending to hold back every time – but it's impossible. This label has really blown my socks off. Same goes for PAN, who just released the plunderphonic splendour of Jar Moff's Commercial Mouth. That and Madteo's Noi No are possibly the least expected deck staples I can imagine.


Plus a new cut from the Gaslamp Killer with Dimlite the Swiss multi-instru-mentalist chopping the keys. Nice as ice.
▶ hear here

BURNING STAR CORE Mysteries of the Organ
JAR MOFF Commercial Mouth
RENE HELL Meta Concrete
FENNESZ Badminton Girl
MADTEO Vitruvian Nightmare
MADTEO Ratskeller
IKE YARD NCR
DRO CAREY Leary Blips
MGUN 2
WILLIE BURNS Duh Duh Dunk
MGUN Walk With Me
GASLAMP KILLER & DIMLITE Seven Years of Bad Luck For Fun
ÉTAT BRÛT Plaza
HYPE WILLIAMS Love You & Dub

Sunday, 9 December 2012

121209 ep. 31 in return

Six months of digging makes for a pretty sweet bag of dreams. Thankfully the world didn't go kaputt or else we'd have missed out on another opus from the Flying Lotus of Coltrane Blood, new cuts from electro-acoustic upstart Holly Herndon, plus the broken techno of Bxl's Sagat and Brooklyn's Madteo of Workshop fame.



Oh, and somehow Peaking Lights managed to record Lucifer, and a versions dual, Lucifer in Dub, while I was still rinsing the old platters. What what?
▶ Hear here




OBBA SUPA Channelist (ft. FLOATING POINTS)
FLYING LOTUS me Yesterday//Corded
FLYING LOTUS Backpack Caviar
PEAKING LIGHTS My Heart Dubs 4 U
SAGAT ESC
MADTEO Rugrats Don't Techno For An Answer
LEE GAMBLE M25 Echo
HOLLY HERNDON Movement
VLADISLAV DELAY Hetkonen
LEYLAND KIRBY They are all dead, there are no skip at all
THE CARETAKER Libet's delay



Singing in choirs from a young age, Holly Herndon is currently doing a PhD in Music Composition at Stanford, in the CCRMA (Centre for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), where she is using modern synthesis techniques to transform her voice. Aside from the spastic acid excursions of her latest EP on RVNGintl, she also produces electro-acoustic music in something of an alien vein. Her gig at Cafe Oto on February 2nd is selling out fast so get in!

PS: Apologies for the pesky distortion throughout the first half...
if you noticed you'll be happy to hear it was analogue clipping from Alice, our mixing desk, and not something nasty by way of DSP.
Enjoy the fuzz!

You Don't Have To Call It Music

What happened in half a year of silence? I've been getting my fix in ink instead of air, writing a weekly column on XX C experimental music in Felix, the newspaper of Imperial College London.

Pt. 0 caveat auditor

Pt. 1 contemporary classical
or: what the atom bomb and the death of God
have to do with birds and brutalism


Pt. 2 a new ear for classical
or: when British breakcore met the Polish post-war


Pt. 3 musique concrète
or: how the Berlin Wall made it to Broadway


Pt. 4 elektronische Musik
or: drums are from Africa, synths are from Germany


Pt. 5 the American avant-garde
or: ears make music too, you know?

& a happy birthday to you, Mr. Cage!

Pt. 6 punk
or: I ain't thick, it's just a trick


Pt. 7 noise
or: RRRRrrrrxxxqtqttqtxxckkkkhhhhzzzzzzzz...blip


Pt. 8 free jazz
or: it don't have to mean a thing