Leisure Link, 25 November 2014

Listen again to Leisure Link broadcast 10pm, Tuesday 25 November 2014 on RRR 102.7FM, Playlist below:

HANNAH DIAMOND - EVERY NIGHT
TRANSYLVANIAN GALAXI - SEQUENCE
BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS - TOUCH BASE
POOLS - UNTITLED B
POOLSIDE - DO YOU BELEIVE?
KALIDASA - IPOTANE
FOCKEWULF 190 - BODY HEAT
LOWTEC - B1 (WORKSHOP 20)
CROWDPLEASER + ST. PLOMB - NOT YET NOT YET
JAPAN BLUES - MYSTERIOUS SATUMA
M. GEDDES GENGRAS - ISHI
STEVE MOORE - ZEN SPIDERS
KEJEBLOS - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (LEXX'S SQUEEZE ME TIGHT DUB)
OCTO OCTA - I CAN FEEL YOU
HAULES BAULES - CREEPER
MOVE D - LE FOU (EDDIE C'S SPACESHIP REMIX)
PATRICK COWELY + JORGE SOCCARAS - BURN BRIGHTER FLAME
SSOL - UNTITLED A1
WILLIE BURNS - PONG IN A TRACKSUIT
MISS PLUGIN - YOU & I
BISQUIT - ZOO ZOO
NEW MUSIK - WARP (ILO EDIT)
STEFFI - TREASURE SEEKING

I'm back 10pm tonight, 2 December, playing more of the same, including this:

Digital Voices

Listen again here to Digital Voices broadcast on Triple R 102.7FM 7pm on Thursday 27 November, playlist below:

B.O.B. - Auto Tune
Meek Mill feat. Kirko Bangz - Young & Gettin It
Bon Iver - Woods
DJ Screw - Too Much Lean In My Cup
Clams Casino - The World Needs Change [Soulja Boy]
Burial - Endorphins
Nima - Morning
DJ Rashad & Freshmoon - Everybody
DJ Nate - See Into My Eyes
GFOTY - Don't Wanna/Let's Do It
Hecker - Hinge*
Ben Vida - Slipping Control (Part 13)
Oneohtrix Point Never - Midday
Holly Herndon - Chorus
Hatsune Miku - Ura Omote Lovers
Voltex - Beautiful Moon Light
Katie Gately - Pipes (excerpt)

Berceuse Heroique

Absolute doozy:

How High The Moon

On Friday 10 October I filled in for Dan Dare on RRR's How High The Moon. Listen again here, and below is what was played:

Eyeliner: New Zealand
Jeff Mills: See This Way
Dopplereffekt: Delta Wave
Ital: Concussion
Jo Johnson: Ancestral
Andy Stott: Science and Industry
Lukid: La Cuacaracha
Not Waving: Enemies of the People
Jurgen Paape: Heuringer
Sun Ra: Interplanetary Music
Hieroglyphic Being: 1343430 Pluto
Francis Bebey: Sanza Nocturne
Amadou and Ariam: Ce Nest Pas Bon (JD Twitch Edit)
Tin Man: No New Violence
Maximillion Dunbar: Jubilee
Peaking Lights: Hypnotic Hustle
Kejeblos: Please, Please, Please
Golden Teacher: After Party People
Cooly G: Wait Til Night
Brackles featuring Cherri V: Go
Micachu and Tirzah: I'm Not Dancing
Julianna Barwick: Pure
Kovyazin D: Winter District
Ossa Jams: A1
Matrixmann: Artifical Intelligence
Angelo Badalementi: The Red Room

Elvis

The wonderful Ian Penman on Elvis in the LRB:

A day in the life: pure liquid cocaine soaked into cotton balls and stuffed up his nose for breakfast; a tutti-frutti of eviscerating biphetamines to get the day off to a smart jog; a whole undulant funhouse spin of downs, any downs at all, for tea. And yet, and yet … Presley’s excess never feels particularly Dionysian; it seems far more a matter of exerting control. Sex and drugs were never binged things, but run always according to his pernickety little itineraries. In the 2005 photo history Elvis by the Presleys, there are two books embossed with his special golden name-stamp: a slim black New Testament Prayer Key and his colossal, multi-coloured Physicians’ Desk Reference. (The latter was his bible, next to the Bible.) Life became more and more a closed-off space, Graceland a cathedral dedicated to endless self-reflection. He was his own icon, long before he became ours.

Koons, Dada

Great article by Martin Filler for NYRB attacking the Koons retrospective at the Whitney, with strong words for Dada:

Dadaism, which erupted a hundred years ago in the midst of World War I, may be one of the most misunderstood developments in twentieth-century art. There is a purity, almost an innocence, about the carnivalesque impurity of the original Dadaists and their objects and their ideas... Art, Duchamp worried, is “a habit-forming drug,” and with the readymade he somehow hoped to break the habit, which is perhaps what every artist hopes to do by inventing art anew. Jean Arp, one of the very first Dadaists—he was also and almost simultaneously one of the great classicists of twentieth-century sculpture—wrote that “Dada wished to destroy the hoaxes of reason and to discover an unreasoned order.”

Repetitive Rock

Drunken times listening to lots of music with D, highlights being minimalist-repetitive rock via Nisennenmondai and Shellac, both revelatory:

Shellac: Terraform – slow, long loops of spiky restrained rock, in kinda Scape/late 1990s dub techno-electronica mode:



Nisennenmondai: N – captivating ultra-minimal and repetitive rock, or techno by rock trio:



And on other notes, also loved this Prince gem, what a doozy! Gloopy loops of woozily seductive pop-soul, with synths that seem to melt. Interesting blurb:

"The Beautiful Ones" is the third track on Prince and The Revolution's soundtrack album Purple Rain. Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince, the song was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles by Peggy Mac and David Leonard in early September 1983.

"The Beautiful Ones" is a haunting musical tale of emotional longing and unrequited love. Starting out as a slow falsetto ballad, with Prince's piano and organ-sounding synthesizers providing a lush backdrop, it gradually builds in volume and intensity, and by the end of the song, Prince is screaming out "Do you want him, or do you want me? 'Cause I want you." The song comes to a quiet close, with Prince's keyboards and drum solo serving as the closing instrumentation.

The song replaced "Electric Intercourse" on the Purple Rain album.[1] It was originally written for Susannah Melvoin (Revolution band member Wendy's twin sister) to woo her away from her then–boyfriend.In the film, Prince sings the song directly from the stage to Apollonia, who is sitting with his rival Morris Day. The song is a direct and urgent appeal to Apollonia to choose Prince as her lover — and it is a direct challenge to Day. Ultimately, as the song ends and Prince lies, apparently spent, on the floor of the stage, Apollonia leaves in tears. (Later, she surprises him when he is unlocking his bike to leave.) The version on the Purple Rain album is slightly cut; a longer version of the song exists."

Also played a lot of 80s disco, this Peter Tosh killer among them:

The Enduring Charm of Classical CDs

Interesting article entitled 'The Classical Cloud' by Alex Ross for the New Yorker (can't seem to access it via work's IE6) where he discusses his abiding fondness for CDs over digital music streaming, despite the accumulation of damaging and space-occupying petroleum-produced objects. Among the benefits of CDs he particularly lists the liner notes (the comprehensiveness of which is almost unique to classical music), and how much information they provide that streaming platforms cannot; cover art; the joys in browsing spoines and selecting discs at random, and the memories provoked from seeing an old CD – where it was acquired, where it was most enjoyed, where it has lived and travelled … Spotify is singled out for its poor handling of classical music tracks, mixing up movements, symphonies, confusing artists, etc. Who'd have thought?!

What with classical music’s interest in supporting information (composer and artist biographies, work analyses, performance reviews, instrumental detail, recording dates, locations, libretto, extracts of original scores, etc,), the anorak nature of so many of its more devoted listeners, the need for high definition sonic clarity, and the money and support behind the industry, classical certainly does the CD format better than most genres. I too still value classical CDs more than others, often even over classical vinyl. I recently even bought some, all $5 a pop brand new, or rather still in shrinkwrap but having lingered in the dust filled (now defunct) warehouse of a certain music distributor. I even recalled handling these when working there many moons ago:

James Dillon: Book of Elements (NMC)- dizzyingly complex piano music, with enough strange hooks to cut through the chaos. Dillon was a semi-staple on Dead and Alive, reckon we'd have played more of him if we'd kept at it :


Player Piano 6 - Original Compositions In The Tradition Of Nancarrow (MDG) - Core Dead and Alive repertoire - wonderfully strange sounds from player pianos in post-Nancarrow language, a world I'm obsessed with. Music by Daniele Lombardi, Tom Jonson, Krzysztof Meyer, James Tenney, and interestingly pianists Marc-Andre Hamelin, Stefan Schleiermacher, kind of like writing themselves out of work:



Bernhard Lang: DW (Col Legno) - Using samples and turntables to produce a type of high-brow, refined hauntology; ice-cold and terrifying:



Luigi Nono: Orchestral Works & Chamber Music (Col Legno) - Part of what I always thought looked like Col Legno's "budget sampler" range:

Waiting versus Gorging

Excellent article by Simon Reynolds on music media of yore (1960s-1980s) versus now which while romanticising the good ol’ days is very eloquent on the problems of today. Good point which I’d not given much thought too is the decline in quality of writing and criticism of today, not just from the volume of amateur/public opionion spewed forth everywhere but through the jaded, what’s-the-point-in-adding-my-two-cents sense that many professional critics (do they even exist anymore?) must surely feel. I know I can seldom be bothered weighing in on any musical subject these days. How much time will readers spend on reading anything, in between the constant distraction and churn of information?

In romantic love and in music fandom, absences and delays create the space in which desire grows. The remoteness in space or time of the “unattainable” or “yet to come” fills the present with exquisite tension, a forward-directed propulsion. In an “always on,” instant access world, the flooding nowness and nearness of everything unavoidably smothers and stifles these impulses. It kills not just yearning, but eventually appetite too.

Certainly the all-you-can-eat availability of music now has largely killed my appetite. For me, listening to new music now seems less about discovering a new sound/artist/song that might provide a new fresh thrill, than a search to find a link back to how music used to be perceived. Also, and yes this is a very old and tired argument, the cheapness, intangibility and sheer voluminousness of digital music makes its consumption low on pleasure. The limitation of physical formats - through physical space and budget limitations - makes them such a more pleasurable medium.

Another factor that makes listening to digital music a chore is the need to use a computer, particularly if I'm going through the full collection. After working on a computer all day the last place I want to be when not at work is on one. I know there are ways around this, through wireless Ipod apps and such, but again your tied to staring at an illuminated screen. I wonder how much discussion has been given to this aspect of digital music consumption, or are most people happy at the screens? Walking around this world and looking at the numbers of people on phones, tablets, laptops etc., certainly doesn't seem to be a problem for most people.

Motorik Futures

In refining the schtick for Pattern Repeat I listened to a lot of what could be termed ‘ambient motorik’, a not-quite-house-not-quite-ambient chugging music, zipping along an imaginary autobahn, at night of course, illuminated by neon blips and spacey bleeps, the synthetic rush providing a sensation of forward motion. Cast back to the likes of Neu!, Harmonia, Michael Rother et al and the original sense of the motorik, even Kraftwerk’s iconic Autobahn, and perhaps more so to the original NY Minimalists – Riley especially but early Glass too, repeated arpeggios evoking endless space and sense of movement. Add in the recent rediscovery of new age synths, the bucolic edges of low-fi industrial music, traces of synthetic Balearic disco, Patrick Cowley soundtracks … No shortage of early versions to explore.

In the present day there’s masses of stuff in this mould, too much perhaps, but also too much of quality to write off completely. Stretching from the new new age synth and guitar dudes of LA and beyond, of which there are very many, to the possibly kookier ends in Europe and elsewhere … Again, nothing really new here, and no need to lasso all this together aside from the fact that there is much fun to be had zinging across these sounds, stringing mixes together taking in these tangents. Here’s a few recent highlights:

From recent Opal Tapes collection (May 2014), Holvr’s “Space Weight” was a highlight and perfectly representative, acid for beanbags:


Postmodern Autobahn update:


Drifting into actual house rhythms but hardly dance music, everything Steve Moore does is smooth gold:


Getting more bucolic, Vermont is exemplary, and hopefully influential on future Pop Ambient collections:


Jurgen Muller - Science of the Sea – A homage/pastiche of an imaginary soundtrack to a 1970s Jacques Costeau figure, said to be the work of LA’s Norm Chambers…


… aka Panabrite, which his Sub Acquatic Meditations removes any doubt:


Much great stuff in this realm can be found on house and techno B-sides and album fillers, such as this:


… And the godfather of techno b-side motorik synthscapes:


And back further, this Michael Rother track is superb:


The net is wide but such beautiful music all this, and masses to explore.

Waltz

On Thursday 17 July I played waltzes for Triple R's Max Headroom, listen again here http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/player/32/201407171900.

"From its highbrow haughtiness of 18th century Vienna through to rough hewn contemporary hoedowns. Along the way I’ll visit mournful Country and Western dirges, space age jazz ditties, gravel voiced urban scrapings and electro neo-waltzes. Why go for four on the floor when you can go for three?"

Here's what was played:

Johann Strauss II - The Blue Danube
Al Bowly - Sunset on the Nile
Shigeru Umebayashi - Yumeji's Theme
Hank Williams - Wealth Won't Save Your Soul
Kitty Wells - Honky Tonk Waltz
Michael Hurley - Negatory Romance
Thelonious Monk - Carolina Moor
San Ra - Love In Outer Space
Ray Cathode - Waltz In Orbit
Mary Wells - My Little Boy
Toru Takemitsu - The Face Of Another
Tom Waits - Diamonds and Gold
Can - Sing Swan Song
Still - Dear Billy
Nas - Heaven
Adamski feat. David McAlmont - Viennese Whirl

Pattern Repeat: Episode 4

Final episode of Pattern Repeat for Max Headroom aired Friday 26 June 2014, listen again here http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/player/32/201406280000.

Here's what was played:

Eva MM - Pattern Repeat Jingle
Richard Wagner - Prelude, Das Rheingold (Dead and Alive Vinyl Remix)
Wolfgang Voigt - Ruckverzauberung 6.1
Fatima Al Quadiri - Hainan Island
Austin Buckett - Thomas William
Jurgen Muller - U-Boat Nach
Maggi Payne - Flights of Fancy Mike Ratledge - Riddles of the Sphinx Sequence 7
Traxman - Bubbles
Conrad Schnitzler - Frozen Bubbles
Mamman Sani - Zara Zarakoy
Arrest and Incarcerate - Dog on a Wet Tin Roof
Snd - Untitled (TPlay 2)
Muslimgauze - Fear of Gaddafi
Hacker Farm - Drive Time
Lawrence English - Wilderness of Mirrors
Lawrence English - Graceless Hunter
Marcus Schmickler and Julian Rohrhuber - Refrain Numbers Negation
Holly Herndon - Solo Voice
Ben Vida - tztztztzt Part 13
Hecker - Hinge*
Thomas Brinkmann - N.M.Q.P.
Marina Rosenfeld - New York _ It's All About
Voiski - Eccentric Habits
Oren Ambarchi - Passage
A5 - Cut 2
Moomin - I Whisper a Prayer
Visionist - The Way
Erik Fiedel and MMM - Syncro
Julee Cruise - Questions in a World of Blue

Thanks for listening.

Pattern Repeat 3

Playlist below for Pattern Repeat #3 broadcast June 21 2014. Stream here.


Eva MM (below) - Pattern Repeat

DVS1 - S.O.S.
Charles Cohen - UTEP1
Caustic Windows - Fingertrips
Infinity Frequencies - Wisdom
Arve Henriksen - Zircon
Laurence Crane (below) - Sparling

Oneohtrix Point Never - Meet Your Creator
Philip Glass - Floes
The Other People's Place - Sorrow and a Cup Of Joe
The Soft Pink Truth - Invocation for Strength
Professor Genius - Vista
John Chantler - November Pts Hi_ Dismantled Cabaret
Lawrence English - Waves Sheer Light
Efdemin - Parallaxis (The Borderline State Remix)
WIFE - Like Chrome
Bass Clef - Neon Black and Vulcanae

Leyland Kirby (above) - Locked Into Situations
Jeff Mills - Rainbow Clusters
Dino Sabatini - Terpsichore
James Ruskin - Excerpt 1
Miami Vice - Tokyo Negative
Oren Ambarchi - Fractured Mirror
Dirk Leyers - Come To Where I Go
Jahilliya Fields - Turned On Type
Luxury Elite - Gracefully
Dominique - He Said

Final show next week. Leave with this fine example of contemporary abjection:

Pattern Repeat 1 and 2

Two episodes down and two to go on Pattern Repeat, track lists below and stream it here and here. Back midnight this Friday on 3 Triple R 102.7FM.

Episode 1: 6 June 2014

Larry Heard - Faint Object Detection
Harold Budd - Feral (Odd Nosdam Remix)
Fatima Al Quadiri - Shanghai Freeway
Iori - Moon (Steve Moore Remix)
Austin Bucket - Sand Loops 3
Slow Walkers - The Flood
Julle Cruise and Khan - Say Goodbye
Rene Hell - Baroque Ensemble Coda
Tin Man and Donato Dozzy - Test 7
Inverto - Miura
Vermont - Yaiza
Luke Howard - Pan
Ricardo Donoso - Diagonal Environment
Sandra Electronics - It Slipped Her Mind
Pandabrite - Celestion
A5 - Dzhaz
William Basinski - Untitled (Meloncholia)
HOLOVR - Space Weight
Chris Abrahams - Stabilised Ruin
Farben and James Din - Kader Dolls
Roman Fluegel - Piano Piano
Klaran Lewis - c a t t
Jon Hassel - Streetfaxx
Ibaraki Tracks - Singapore Airport
Yagya - Sleepygirl 4
Osborne - Oyasumi
Scanner - Singing through Qualia
Brian Eno - And Then So Clear

Episode 2: 15 June 2014

Pattern Repeat Theme - Eva MM
Sutekh - Untitled #3
Plastikman - EXtend
Joey Anderson - Space Colors Ideas
Seaworthy and Taylor Deupree - Hollow
Inga Copeland - Advice To Young Girls
HTRK - Feels Like Love
Jean Claude Risset - Fall
Ben Frost - The Teeth Behind Kisses
Julianna Barwick - Blood Brothers
Bruno Pronsato - To Be Seen
Delia Derbyshire - Pot Au Feu
Conrad Schnitzler & Wolf Sequenza - Fata Morgana
Oren Ambarchi - Girl With Silver Eyes
V/VM - Big Eddie's Van - Bowler's Car Park
Lee Gamble - M25 Echo
Lorenzo Senni - EVOLVER
DJ Sprinkles - Ball'r (Madonna Free Zone)
EVOL - Rave Slime (B)
Tobias - Heartbeat
Some Truths - Acid and Prozac
Arrest and Incarcerate - Hunter
Answer Code Request - Axif (feat. Elizabeth Bernholz)
Kaito - Everlasting (beatless)

Pattern Repeat

Fridays midnight in June I'm back on RRR 102.7FM with Pattern Repeat:

Minimalist modern music from ambient to techno. Hypnotic transmissions, motorik serenades and new age lullabies: sonic narcotics for contemporary nightmares.

Random Disco Pleasure

DJ Rashad

Chicago is suffering, and we with it.

Candido

Via Frankie Knuckles's Choice mix, absolute gold:



Seems all the Thousand Finger Man does is super and fits in fine with today's tastes:

Frankie Knuckles

I'm presenting a Frankie Knuckles celebration for Max Headroom 7pm Melbourne time Thursday 17 April on 3 Triple R FM. Plenty of golden hits, Frankie was King Midas!

Here's my favourite:

Graveyard 14 March 2014

Stream here the Graveyard Shift broadcast 14 March 2014, playlist below:

Hannes Wader (pictured above) - Die Internationale
Rhythm & Sound - Mango Drive
Robert Ashley - "Flying Saucer Dialogue", Atalanta
The Orb with Lee Perry - Ball of Fire (Deadbeat remix)
Inga Copeland - So Far So Clean
ESG - Talk It
A5 - Cut 2
A5 - Untitled (Udacha 8)
Throwing Shade - Mystic Places
Heatsick - Clear Channel
Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe
Todd Terje - Snooze 4 Love
Internet Club - The New Digital Frontier
Laurence English - Aurora Boreensis
Miami Vice - Palm Haze
Qualia - New U
Bernard Parmegiani - Pleins et Deles
Blank Banshee - Teen Pregnancy
Visionist - I'm Fine
Nike 7 Up - Lucky!
Kane Iken - A Synthetic Setting
Jon Hassell, Harold Budd and Gavin Bryars - Map of Dusk
True Man - Oddysey Saga
Corbi - Arktika (DJ Sprinkles Mix)
Generation Next - Lamborghini Dreams
DJ Nature - Dance
Theo Parrish - Peter Wetfeet
Romansoff - Sour Cream
LK aka Lee Konitz - Untitled
NA3 - Dubby
Asusu - Rendering
Cooly G - Hold Me
Vakula - Night Walks
Oren Ambarchi - Passage
Sutekh - Untitled 3
A Rocket In Dub - Rocket Number 3
Tin Man - Mystified Acid
Octo Octa - Uneasy
Blank Mass - Chernobyl
SSOL - Untitled (A1)
The Tramps - Soul Searching
Quincy Jones + Patti Austin - Razzamatazz
Boys Town Gang - Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Smith N Hack - Falling Stars
Blank Banshee - Java Clouds
Giorgio Moroder - Knights In White Satin
Miami Vice - Synth Colour
Infinity Frequencies - Computer Death
Laserdisc Visions - Lucky Tomato
Skeleton - Silk Sheets
Luxury Elite - Sincerely
Protect & Survive - Night Waves
Band Of Holy Joy - Open The Door To Your Heart

Thank you for listening.

Graveyard

I'll be hosting the Graveyard Shift on Triple R 102.7FM in the early hours of Friday 14 March 2014 (the 131st anniversary of the death of Karl Marx), from 2am - 6am, for all nighthawks, insomniacs and far flung types craving southern hemispherical radio.

It's been a long time, so it'll be good to revisit the cosmic Retro Futurist / Lost in the Stars vibes of previous broadcasts. I'll try and raise Marx from the grave, his spirit in any case, and clean up this fucking mess.

Vaporwave on Max Headroom

Many thanks to Adam Harper for his input on the Max Headroom special on Vaporwave. Playlist is below and you can stream it here.

PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises - Start Up Sound
James Ferraro - Linden Dollars
Chuck Persons - Nobody Here
James Ferraro - Palm Trees, Wi-Fi and Dream Sushi
Chuck Persons - Eccojam B3
esc 不在 (‘esc fuzai’) - Tonight on HBO
Computer Dreams - Untitled 1 (Silk Road)
骨架的 ('Skeleton') - Clouds
Computer Dreams - Untitled 2 (Silk Road)
Laserdisc Visions - Lucky Tomato
Internet Club - Dreams 3D
骨架的 - Memory
PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises - Narayani Falls
Eyeliner - Sauvignon Blanc
Qualia - New U
Miami Vice - Tokyo Nightlife
Infinite Frequencies - Wisdom
Internet Club - The New Digital Frontier
Coolmemoryz - s p i r i t
Memorex Dawn - Fountain
PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises - Impressions

For more info on Vaporwave visit Adam Harper's articles for Dummy which start here.

Vaporwave

At 7.00pm Thursday 20 February on Triple R's Max Headroom I'll play an hour of Vaporwave and chat to guest Adam Harper. Here's the blurb:

Vaporwave is the sound of Capital - the high-gloss, caffeinated cousin of Hypnagogic Pop. It's the music of the shopping mall, the infomercial, the internet - frozen yoghurt in sound. Chatting with critic and vaporwave theorist Adam Harper, Max Headroom - Vaporwave explores this cheeky musical movement, and asks how music so shiny, so... nice, can hide such destructive impulses.

Listen here.

Julian Love

Vacant late night Youtube staring and red wine guzzling and stumbled across this: disco-house gold by recent RBMA alumni Julian Love:





Beautiful! On a similar vibe as Soundstream's latest:



Then the quality control trailed off and I faded out to this nonsense: