Spencer Clark on Max Headroom

Tonight on Max Headroom for RRR 102.7FM I'm diving deep into the world and music of Spencer Clark - 7.00pm Melbourne time tonight. Here's the blurb:

Ex-Skater, Hypnagogic popstar, Vaporwave pioneer, Spencer Clark is one of the most exciting and difficult to categorise musicians working today. His latest album Avatar Blue presents itself as an alternative soundtrack to the yet to be released James Cameron Avatar sequel, and adds to Clark's esoteric interests: underwater aliens, astrobiology, biodome science and regression hypnosis. Confused? Tune in as Clark beams in from Belgium with Joshua Meggitt this Thursday for Max Headroom on Three Triple R.

Spencer has been extremely generous with providing extensive interview material for this special, which i hope to present all of tonight. If possible I may include it here in text format.

Spencer's discography is enormous so I encourage all to check his label Pacific City Sound Visions for more info (even this presents but the teeniest sliver of his work). Here are a few choice moments:

Spencer's next project, coming soon, is a mammoth exploration of the Avatar world,, presented as AVATAR BLUE. I'll leave the story to him, but the mix CDR available at his website is well worth the 5 euros, and can also be heard here





Tune in tonight at 7.00pm Melbourne time, streaming link to follow...

Urgent!

On 5 April 2018, Dave L. and myself returned to RRR 102.7FM to present a survey of the Urgent! genre. Urgent! was coined by Dave and a pal of his to describe a particularly intense form of high-energy AOR, frequently featured in fight scenes of 1980s action films. The archetypal Urgent! song is Frank Stallone's 'Far From Over', above, which spurred the invention of the genre in the first place.

Listen again here:

https://www.rrr.org.au/explore/programs/max-headroom/episodes/3139-max-headroom-05-apr-2018#episode-playlist

Some other Urgent! classics:












Now to create a Wikipedia entry...

Soft Options

Soft Option is over, so relive those mellow midnight memories by streaming! 4 episodes, 8 hours, 2 charming hosts, and 4 sadsack Sabbath songs:

Episode 1: http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/player/128/201605070000
Episode 2: http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/player/128/201605140000
Episode 3: http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/player/128/201605210000
Episode 4: http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/player/128/201605280000

Soft Option

For the month of May, I am back on the aiRRRwaves to present a new program for the Friday midnight Tabula Rasa slot, entitled 'Soft Option'. Joyously, I'll be joined by Lexican Devil on presenting duties.

The title is rather self explanatory as to the show's content, but here's the blurb:

Soft Option celebrates music’s tender, gentle moments, a world of mannered, smooth vibes and adult contemporary sophistication. Soft Option finds the common ground between hazy country classics, heart-on-tear-stained-sleeve rock ballads, slick yacht rock product, honeyed Philly soul stirrers, wispy new age doodles, major-keyed fusion noodlers, dinky Balearic chuggers, and private press bedroom whingers… united under a shared vision of sweet, smooth, soft music.

Sometimes revolutions happen in velvet.

Tune in midnight, this Friday 6 May. It's going to be a cool night...

Haruomi Hosono

On 29 October 2015 for Max Headroom I presented a special on the early works of Japanese maverick Haruomi “Harry” Hosono. I paid particular attention to his run of tropical albums from the mid-to-late seventies, truly glorious music. Stream it here, and here's what was played:

Apryl Fool - Honkytonk Jam
Happy End - Kaze Wo Atsumete
Haruomi Hosono - Party
Haruomi Hosono - Muji Original BMG (excerpt)
Haruomi Hosono - Peking Duck
Haruomi Hosono - Exotica Lullaby
Haruomi Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band - Japanese Rumba
Haruomi Hosono - Hepatitis
Haruomi Hosono - Coral Reef
Haruomi Hosono - Atlantis
Haruomi Hosono - Cosmic Surfin'
Haruomi Hosono - Philharmony
Haruomi Hosono - Pac Man
F.O.E with James Brown and Maceo Parker - Sex Machine
Miharu Koshi - L'Amour Toujour
Haruomi Hosono - Sportsmen

Dean Martin - The Later Years, on Max Headroom

More belated and perfunctory posting. I recently presented a special on the later years of Dean Martin for 3RRR FM's Max Headroom, which can be streamed here. There I celebrated what I find to be Dino's most interesting period, a strange world of almost intentionally lacklustre recordings, a melange of stale Tin Pan Alley standards, big band, country and sixties bubblegum pop that, in the late 1970s, sounded particularly incongruous. Ironically such product could also only come from the 1970s.

Here is the blurb for the show:

Over his long and varied career, Dean Martin, "The King of Cool", was a heart throb, crooner, film star and leading member of the rat pack.

He was also known as "The Laziest Man In Showbiz", churning out countless albums of stale standards and hosting formulaic, TV specials for over 40 years.

On Max Headroom this week, Joshua Meggitt explores this lacklustre Dino, playing choice filler from his later albums, with excerpts from such cinematic highlights as The Cannonball Run 2

By focusing on the later years, I intentionally avoided his younger, more well known material, the stuff of nostalgia shows and Scorsese films, and went straight to the end: his lazy, resolutely uncool, critically condemned, and now long forgotten (if ever paid attention to) final years. It's a world of strange, almost studied mediocrity, so mindlessly middle-of-the-road that hearing it now, its quite unlike all other music. Exemplary is "Old Bones", the opening song from his final album, 1983's The Nashville Sessions:

Today, Dean Martin is largely remembered as a lazy, lackadasical Frank Sinatra, a Las Vegas self-parody, his reputation resting on a few comedies he made with Jerry Lewis, and some charming pieces of pop fluff that once topped the Hit Parade with retro “lounge” revivals and appearances in mafia films. Even by the later years of his own career, his early days as a global, charismatic romantic icon are long forgotten… and yet I can’t look away! This song is so stupid, but I love it: "Love Thy Neighbour" from 1978's penultimate Once in a While:

The main appeal with Dean Martin was his carelessness, a quality I've even managed to get my four year old to appreciate. He was, as biographer Nick Tosches dubbed him, the ultimate menefreghista - one who just doesn't give a fuck.Or, going further, what contrarian commentator and Oxbow singer Eugene Robinson describes as outright violent misanthropy. 

Dean Martin’s vocals say one thing to my ears: FUCK YOU!

The more I listen, the more I agree. Hostility and scorn for both his material and his audience is clearly expressed in his reading of "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'", from the wonderfully titled, My Woman My Woman My Wife of 1970. Essentially a ballad about the pain of breaking up, listen to Dean laugh as he delivers the line, "I cry myself to sleep each night", as though the very concept of him feeling heartbreak is absurd:

The ilovedinomartin Dean Martin fansite blog got wind of the program and promoted it heavily. Check out their kind words here but here's an excerpt:

Hey pallies likes are we in for the hugest of huge Dino-treats as today, as promised we share our newest pallie, down under dude Mr. Joshua Meggitt's  coolest of cool "celebration" of our Dino....an hour long radio programme that is a marvelous  mix of  '70's and '80's Dino-croons and choice audio recordin's from our Dino's later work on both the small and big screens...
We gotta 'fess up that we  grooved on each and ever moment of this purely potent programme of passionate appreciato for our King of Cool.  We particularly loved listenin' to a number of croons from our Dino's last al-b-um, "The Nashville Sessions."  And, we couldn't 'gree more with Josh that these particular croons really are remarkably revelatory of our Dino's life and times at that point...truly these croons form a stellar set of Dino-teachin's!!!!!

We coulda goes on and on, 'bout the wonderful mixin' of Mr. Meggitt's Dino-reflections with our Dino's singin', but likes we wants  youse all to enjoy this amazin' programme lovin'ly presented by in-the-know Dino-holic Mr. Joshua Meggitt.

We salute Josh for this tremendous tribute to our main man and for encouragin' his audience to develop a deeper understandin' and relationship with of our Dino by readin' Nick Tosche's Dino-bio, "DINO: Living High In The Dirty Business Of Dream.  And thanks ever so much to pallie Josh for even givin' a nice shout out to our humble little Dino-blog, ilovedinomartin. for doin' our part to promote his Dino-special.

I suspect there'll be more Dean Martin posts...

How High The Moon

Filling for How High The Moon tomorrow, 10pm Friday 6 March 2015, on 3RRR 102.7FM. You'll be hearing this:

Pattern Repeat - Summer 2015

Now that summer is almost over I'll get around to cataloguing Pattern Repeat's summer programming, guesting for O'Tomorrow. I had fun, did you?

Playlist only for Midnight 30 December 2014. Listen here, hear this:

JLM & Eva - Pattern Repeat
Cry Tomorrow - Night Waves
The Advisory Circle - The Walk Home
Actress - Xoul Particles
Visionist - Something Old, Somthing New
King Tubby - Iyatha
Untold - Sing A Love Song
Cry Tomorrow - Rock Pools, Night
Pan Sonic - Johdin
Maurizio - M5
Rhythm And Sound - King In My Empire
Jake Mandell - The Story Teller
Sueno Latino - Sueno Latina (Bushwacka! Mix)
LFO - Tied Up Latino
Janez Maticic - Hypnos
Norman Nodge - BBI.O
Robert Hood - Minus (Edit)
Samuli Kempi - Water lake
Samuli Kempi - Passage
Terence Dixon - Minimalism
MESH - Scythians (Logos Remix)
Rocket In Dub - Rocket Number 3
Eric Cloutier - Anaphalantiasis
Objekt - First Witness
TCF - 54C6051C
Lorenzo Senni - Pontillisti C
Anya Kutz - Pop Track 1
Bing And Ruth - Warble
Edward Artemiev - Listen To Bach

Artemiev's take on Bach's Cantata BWV 106 for Solaris is a fitting end to the season:

Strange Holiday

Catching up on detailing old shows for the public record, this a fill for the excellent Strange Holiday program from way back on 7 December 2014. Listen here and hear this:

Andras and Oscar - Friendship Theme
Pharoahs - Sunblitzed
Frank Schroeder - Ohne Title
Claudette et Ti Pierre - Zamme Camarade (Tropical Treats Edit)
JLM - Birds, Plane
West African Swing Stars - Omo Africa
Stranger and Gladdy - Pretty Cottage
Blood Sisters - My Love Don't Come Easy
Paul McCartney - Frozen Jap
DJ Sotofelt and Fran Benitez - La Grimas Negras
Harmonia - Kekse
Yoshio Machida - Alhambra
Rei Harakami - Poof
Shirley Ross - If You Leave Me Now
The Blow - The Love That I Grave (Strategy's Strata Clay Mix)
JLM - Dawn
Legowelt - Cruise Til The Sun Shines
Prince Jammy - Crosstalk
Pepe Bradock - Attaque de Boulangerie
Mamman Sani - Ci Da By
DJ Marshmallow Man - Electric Generation
Nascar Car - Blood Type Blue
Peaking Lights - New Grrls
Panabrite - Lullaby of the Abyss
Daniela La Luz - Your Mother Told Me

Track of the show was this, a doozy:

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)

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

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 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.

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.