Episodes
Monday Jun 23, 2014
Full Interview: Ivo Watts-Russell of This Mortal Coil and The Hope Blister
Monday Jun 23, 2014
Monday Jun 23, 2014
This is the recording of an interview I conducted with Ivo Watts-Russell on May 26, 2014. I was at chez Catharsis in Ithaca, NY, and Ivo was, I presume, at his place in New Mexico. This was a Skype-to-phone conversation.
Small pieces of this very generous interview aired on the Hall of Legends special
featuring music from This Mortal Coil and The Hope Blister.
I've said it elsewhere, but Ivo has been very gracious and friendly, and this was one of those "one thing leading to another" experiences that came together really easily. An honor and a pleasure!
Indulge me for a minute and imagine this hypothetical situation. You love music and records, but you're not a musician. You're not a singer. You're not a songwriter. You're not trained as an engineer. You know some people who do each of these things, but you don't do them yourself. But you really want to make a record of your own, and you even have some concrete ideas about what to put on it. Incidentally, you are having these ideas before the advent of laptop recording, filesharing, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and all that. So in order to make this record you're dreaming of you'll have to use a real studio and it will have to be released in a physical medium. There's also no Kickstarter to fund this. Under what circumstances could this record become reality?
"You'd probably have to own a record label." Right? And yet I don't think either of us really wanted to talk about this little detail. I certainly didn't. I've read about it quite a bit, and I didn't want to produce yet another 4AD interview. I owe a great deal to Martin Aston and Jeff Keibel, who've already asked a boatload of those questions, and whose interviews gave me a long list of answers I didn't need to seek. What I did do was try, absurdly perhaps, to talk to Ivo as though he had "merely" made some great records of his own. They are, of course, why he's in the Hall of Legends.
Technical notes: If you follow this program at all, which would flatter and bewilder me, you probably know that recording an interview is always an adventure for me. This time, I managed to capture the whole thing, on the first try, thank goodness, but not without glitches. Audacity, which was capturing Ivo's voice "solo," worked fine. For the first 49 mins or so of this audio file, that's what you're hearing when Ivo is talking, without having to listen to me say "mmm hmm," or "yeah," or anything similarly useful. However, my voice was recorded using Amolto Call Recorder (I had both programs running at once as a precaution), which was also recording Ivo, but that app pulled our respective tracks out of sync, which occasionally made it sound like I was stepping on the end of Ivo's answers and cutting him off. I'm really not that rude of a person. I swear it's the software's fault. I've tried to make the best of it with the editing, but I am amateur and proud. The second half of the interview--from about 49mins onward--is much smoother sailing. At least I hope you think so. If you're disappointed I offer you a full refund.
Thursday Jun 05, 2014
The Hall of Legends - Ivo Watts-Russell: Transmission 128, 2014 June 4
Thursday Jun 05, 2014
Thursday Jun 05, 2014
We herewith induct Ivo Watts-Russell into the BOMBAST Hall of Legends, where he joins The Wolfgang Press, The Dub Syndicate, A.R.Kane, Little Annie, Dif Juz, Prince Far I, Coil [part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4], Billy Childish, Stereolab [charter members], and The Fall [charter members].
Some of you, no doubt, are visiting for the first time,
having been lured here by the Ivo interview. A special welcome to you. Poke around as much as you like. The hyperlink above will take you to a loose description
of the Hall of Legends, and this page
describes the "idea" of the show, such as it is. The prose you find
everywhere on the site is mostly for my own entertainment, since this is
my outlet; if you enjoy it, that's a nice bonus. Audio's at
the bottom of the post if this is all TMI.
"I heard This Mortal Coil's music," I wrote to tonight's inductee, "before I knew what 4AD was, and I continue to treasure it long after I stopped caring what 4AD is." And I concede that it's weird to approach a Legend by listing things one doesn't want to discuss, but that's the way this went. Labelthink, when I was young, was a convenient shortcut to loads of interesting music, but it is a bad habit which I am striving to break. At the end of the day, it's about records, bands, and people. And records, bands, and people are awesome. A discussion of that other thing can be had at other places.
With this induction I struggle to recall silly anecdotes and things like that. There are no flashpoints of relevance; this music has just been with me for the better part of three decades. I guess I remember this time, it would have been in the period around Filigree & Shadow, in which my extended family made fun of me for liking a band with the name "This Mortal Coil." And hearing the word "pretentious" being tossed around quite a bit. But who cares? [And what did anyone think this music was pretending to be?]
The "three decades" thing: nostalgia, do you suppose? Tell me what year this music sounds like. Pre-emptively, I'll disagree. Because I just don't know. This is part of its greatness.
The music speaks for itself, and the subject speaks for himself. "I have no words," as the saying goes. Well, that's obviously false. I have a few. As always I'm amazed that anyone wants to talk to me. And, as I've told the next Hall inductees [yes, there will be a next, after a relaxing run of "normal" shows], these things wreck my nerves! Nothing to do with other people, especially Ivo, who is every bit the "angel" that Kristin Hersh describes in her book.
BOMBAST playlist, 2014 June 4, 2100-2300:
- "Song To The Siren" | This Mortal Coil | It'll End In Tears | 4AD
- "Filigree & Shadow" / "Firebrothers" / "Thais (I)" / "I Must Have Been Blind" / "A Heart Of Glass" | This Mortal Coil | Filigree & Shadow | 4AD
- "Fyt" / "Fond Affections" / "The Last Ray" | This Mortal Coil | It'll End In Tears | 4AD
- "Come Here My Love" | This Mortal Coil | Come Here My Love 10" | 4AD
- "Drugs" | This Mortal Coil | Come Here My Love 10" | 4AD
- "Ivy And Neet" / "Meniscus" / "Tears" / "Tarantula" | This Mortal Coil | Filigree & Shadow | 4AD
- "Acid, Bitter and Sad" | This Mortal Coil | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Late Night" / "Ruddy and Wretched" / "Help Me Lift You Up" / "Carolyn's Song" / "D.D. and E." | This Mortal Coil | Blood | 4AD
- "Is Jesus Your Pal?" | The Hope Blister | ...smile's ok | 4AD
- "Dagger" | The Hope Blister | ...smile's ok | 4AD
- "It'll End In Tears" | This Mortal Coil | Kangaroo 7" | 4AD
Thursday May 22, 2014
Full Interview: Michael Allen of The Wolfgang Press
Thursday May 22, 2014
Thursday May 22, 2014
Here is the interview I conducted with Michael Allen of The Wolfgang Press, as well as Rema-Rema, Mass, Geniuser, and an as-yet unnamed current group. Portions of this conversation appeared in the Hall of Legends special featuring the band's music.
This conversation took place on May 3, 2014, via Skype. I was at my place and Michael was at his. Extra karma points to him--it was after midnight, London time.
I would love to describe this as the "full recording," with everything in a clear, linear context. BUT. I very nearly had another software disaster, as with my first attempt at interviewing Andrew Gray; to be "safe," I was recording on two different platforms at once. One crashed and one didn't. Audacity, the one that didn't, retained all of Michael's input channel, but not mine. It could have been worse.
So what we have are 33 responses, or soundbites, or whatever you'd like to call them. I've done my best to figure out what the questions must have been! At any rate, it's a nice discussion, and we cover a lot of ground--youth, becoming a musician, the bass guitar, Rema-Rema, Mass, The Wolfgang Press, the mysterious Alberto Ricci, working with Tom Jones, and the new band. Yes, it's a disjointed experience, but at least you pretty much know what you're getting with each click, and the responses are listed in the order in which they were given.
References: "Ivo" is of course Ivo Watts-Russell. "Robin" is Robin Guthrie. "Gary and Danny" are Gary Asquith and Danny Briottet, of Mass and Renegade Soundwave (and other things). "Wobble" is...come on now, reallly?
As this completes the set of interviews, I wanted to say how happy I am to have had the opportunity to speak to these guys. This experience reinforces for me what I've always enjoyed about TWP's music: its sense of identity and refusal to compromise.
For audio, click any of the hyperlinks below. Enjoy!
Early gigs, meeting Marco Pirroni
Art college
Why become a musician?
Why bass guitar?
Favorite bass players
More McCartney
The beginning of Rema-Rema
Did Rema-Rema's "drummer wanted" ad really say "no hi-hats?"
How Mass began
Why was Mass so dark?
How people reacted to Mass
Birth of The Wolfgang Press; The Burden of Mules
Scarecrow; Water; Sweatbox EPs
Not intellectualizing
Was there a plan to do a series of EPs, or did it just happen?
How do the songs originate?
Abstraction and atmosphere
Alberto Ricci, whose paintings grace the record covers in 1984 and 1985
Having an art background and negotiating with 23 Envelope / v23
Bird Wood Cage, part 1
Is BWC a personal favorite?
What did Flood contribute to BWC? Note: there's a moment in here when Michael asks if someone's coming into the room where I'm sitting; I must have been waving, and he must have seen this on Skype. Someone is entering. It's Junior, wearing a pair of wings that she'd made herself. This moment was too good to edit out.
The Everything Is Beautiful retrospective
Standing apart from "the 4ad sound," if there was ever such a thing
Working with a different producer on each album
Remixes
What is it like to listen to Wolfgang Press records after all this time?
Music and "timelessness"
What do your children think of The Wolfgang Press?
Working with Tom Jones
The new band, with Gary Asquith, Andrew Gray, and Steve Gray
Will the new band perform live? Note: Michael's final words are in response to my assurance that I'd be interested to see this happen!
Tuesday May 20, 2014
Full Interview: Andrew Gray of The Wolfgang Press
Tuesday May 20, 2014
Tuesday May 20, 2014
Here is the full interview I conducted with Andrew Gray of The Wolfgang Press, as well as In Camera, Limehouse Outlaw, and an as-yet unnamed current group. Portions of this conversation appeared in the Hall of Legends special featuring the band's music. This is the "full" recording, with everything in its proper context.
We discuss a number of things: early musical influences; the In Camera period, his joining, then leaving, then re-joining The Wolfgang Press; record covers and music videos; working with different producers; touring the United States in the 1990s; the current group he has going with his brother, Steve, as well as Gary Asquith of Rema-Rema, Mass, Renegade Soundwave, and the Lavender Pill Mob, and Michael Allen, his Wolfgang Press bandmate.
This interview was conducted on March 19, 2014, via Skype-to-phone. I was at my place and Andrew was at his. But that is only half the story. We had actually done a full interview, a week earlier--hence all the references to "last time" and "before"--but those files had been destroyed when Skype and its attendant recording software didn't shut down properly. That was a BAD day. Anyway, Andrew is a champion among humans and deserves some kind of medal for agreeing to talk to me again.
References: "Dave" has to be David Steiner [Scinto] of In Camera, and Ivo is of course Ivo Watts-Russell.
You'll have to watch this space, or this one, to find out when I've received some .mp3s of the new group. I will indeed feature them on the ongoing program.
Interview audio is below. Enjoy!
Monday May 19, 2014
Full Interview: Mark Cox of The Wolfgang Press
Monday May 19, 2014
Monday May 19, 2014
Here is the full interview I conducted with Mark Cox of The Wolfgang Press. Portions of this conversation appeared in the Hall of Legends special featuring the band's music. Here's the "full" recording, with everything in its proper context.
By his own admission, Mark would be a shoe-in for Team GB if there were an Olympics of Talking. So this discussion is long and rich with detail; people and place names abound. There are many stories here, from the time "before 'punk'" up through the end of TWP, and a bit beyond.
This interview was conducted on March 7, 2014. I was in the studios of WRFI, and Mark called via landline from his flat in London. The conversation was recorded digitally, as WAV, on a flash drive, and for reasons of storage capacity is rendered here as a 128kbps .mp3. There was a point in the middle of the conversation--somewhere during the discussion of Queer and Drostan John Madden--where we had to disconnect & reconnect. I edited that as "subtly" as I could. Hopefully it doesn't bother you. If it does, write me for a full refund.
* References: I think everything is pretty well explained here; of course "Ivo," in case you miss the first mention, is Ivo-Watts Russell, co-founder and head honcho at 4AD for most of the first 19 years of that label.
"Richie," as in "Richie has a house in the Adriatic"--that is Richie Thomas of Dif Juz. And indeed he doesn't look old enough to have "met anyone in 1980." But doubtless he was.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLAIMER: even though we at WRFI are a rag-tag bunch of amateurs (in the best possible way, most of the time), we do have standards. One of these relates to "inappropriate benefits." We're not allowed to derive any sort of gain, or "special consideration," on account of our programs.
This includes things like 7-inch singles. Mark says at one point that "there's a way" the "new" Rema-Rema 7-inch, "International Scale / Short Stories," and its accompanying fanzine, "might come to" me--which is very nice of him to offer, but I would have been unable to accept. In actuality I bought a copy myself. TWICE. Scandal averted. Sorry, I realize this sort of thing is really only fit for in-house discussion, and sounds very paranoid, but you can't be too careful.
Anyway, enjoy the discussion.
Friday May 16, 2014
The Hall Of Legends - The Wolfgang Press: Transmission 125, 2014 May 14
Friday May 16, 2014
Friday May 16, 2014
We herewith induct The Wolfgang Press into the BOMBAST Hall of Legends, where they join The Dub Syndicate, A.R.Kane, Little Annie, Dif Juz, Prince Far I, Coil [part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4], Billy Childish, Stereolab [charter members], and The Fall [charter members].
Some of you, no doubt, are visiting for the first time,
having been lured here by The Wolfgang Press. A special welcome to you. Maybe this post is the only one you would care about here, but I invite you to do as much poking around as you like. The hyperlink above will take you to a loose description
of the Hall of Legends, and this page
describes the "idea" of the show, such as it is. The prose you find
everywhere on the site is mostly for my own entertainment, since this is
my outlet; if you enjoy it, that's a nice bonus. Audio's at
the bottom of the post if this is all TMI.
Bombast listener "Paul" wrote to me sometime in late 2013 and more or less "nominated" The Wolfgang Press for the Hall of Legends. I found this daunting and hilarious all at once. In the grand scheme of things this entire program is a deadly serious joke. But a listener nomination is a momentous thing, and would have to be addressed, at least. Fortunately, and embarrassingly, I actually do keep a list of "Hall of Legends" candidates somewhere, and TWP were already on it. But this was certainly a catalyst.
One determining factor in these specials is that I have to feel like interviewing the band members will actually fill some information vacuum. Hopefully this will explain to anyone who cares (and I'm not sure anyone does) why the Hall of Legends includes this person but not that one, why certain artists have gotten "the nod" (whatever that's worth) and not others (yet, anyway). Some people have already bared all through interviews, blog entries, and social media. And then other people go and publish books. I can't exactly figure out, or at least it will take me longer to figure out, how to contribute any kind of value to the existing discourse in some cases.
And yet--isn't this all terribly patronizing, or self-aggrandizing, or both? I'd find it awkward, presuming to do anyone a favor by featuring their music or "helping them tell their story" on this little radio show that airs in the middle of nowhere. This would be the "deadly serious" part. As I've said elsewhere, I was never really "punk" and have never fully internalized the world free of boundaries that said movement was meant to promote. Try as I might to dispel the notion, in my mind there are still "rock stars," it is still surreal that I occasionally talk to the people who have made some of my favorite records, and as I have no journalistic pretensions to objectivity or gatekeeping I just feel fortunate that they give me the time of day.
Anyway, for me it all began with Big Sex. [Isn't that true for all of us? --Ed.] That was the formative experience, mid-stream though it was. I was 18 years old. I was just starting a band, sort of. I was just beginning a stint at a college radio station. I was not knowledgeable enough to make associations, through discography or label affiliation or whatever. I just had a sense of what sounded good and what didn't. This did. God I miss that time.
Thankfully, though, I did read every word that anybody bothered to print on a record. So I made connections. And through that I found out about Rema-Rema, and Mass, and In Camera. There are no Holy Grails in music of this kind, but there are rich, Historical veins, and this was certainly one. And at the expense of telling you something the music already makes clear, it's an a-historical vein as well. This music is outside of time in the sense that it never sounds like its era, so it could just as easily be 1979, or 1989, or last week, or next.
Enough of that. I also remember Bird Wood Cage getting me through a difficult time, and Queer getting me through another difficult time. What is music good for if it doesn't do this? ASIDE: Why must there be so many difficult times?
Anyway, the actual interviews with Michael Allen, Mark Cox, and Andrew Gray yielded much more material than would fit in this broadcast. So those interviews will be posted in full early next week, either on Soundcloud, or Mixcloud, or here. I'll let you know. Those three deserve my thanks, and yours, for giving up time and being patient with me. (You have no idea.)
Also, there are a bunch of other people who helped make this possible, either in an immediate sense or a long time ago. They include an aforementioned ex, "Friends of Bombast" Mr. D and Jeremy, Steve Webbon at 4AD, Hall inductee Richie Thomas of Dif Juz, Kel and Craig of The Wolfgang Press Facebook group, and finally Lady Catharsis for giving me time and space to do these interviews at odd hours.
BOMBAST playlist, 2014 May 14, 2100-2300:
- "Cut the Tree" | The Wolfgang Press | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Rema-Rema" | Rema-Rema | Wheel In The Roses | 4AD
- "Fond Affections" | Rema-Rema | Wheel In The Roses | 4AD
- "Co-ordinates" | In Camera | Fin | 4AD
- "You and I" | Mass | You and I / Cabbage | 4AD
- "Prostitute" | The Wolfgang Press | The Burden of Mules | 4AD
- "Deserve" | The Wolfgang Press | The Legendary Wolfgang Press and Other Tall Stories | 4AD
- "My Way" | The Wolfgang Press | Water | 4AD
- "Heart of Stone" | The Wolfgang Press | Sweatbox | 4AD
- "My Life" | The Wolfgang Press | Standing Up Straight | 4AD
- "The Wedding" | The Wolfgang Press | Big Sex | 4AD
- "Bottom Drawer (live at Cabaret Metro, Chicago, 1989)" | The Wolfgang Press | not on album | unreleased
- "Shut That Door" | The Wolfgang Press | Bird Wood Cage | 4AD
- "Birmingham" | The Wolfgang Press | Queer | 4AD | "Listening Parlour"
- "Sucker" | The Wolfgang Press | Queer - bonus 12" | 4AD
- "Executioner (Adamson Mix)" | The Wolfgang Press | Everything Is Beautiful (A Retrospective 1983-1995) | 4AD
- "People Say (live)" | The Wolfgang Press | Everything Is Beautiful (A Retrospective 1983-1995) | 4AD
Tuesday Oct 22, 2013
The Hall of Legends - The Dub Syndicate: Transmission 67, 2013 October 19
Tuesday Oct 22, 2013
Tuesday Oct 22, 2013
We herewith induct The Dub Syndicate into the BOMBAST Hall of Legends, where they join A.R.Kane, Little Annie, Dif Juz, Prince Far I, Coil [part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4], Billy Childish, Stereolab [charter members], and The Fall [charter members]. Here is a hastily-assembled program, thrown together on account of DJ Helen Stride's sudden illness. As I mention during the show, it's been a while since I've done this sort of thing. The madness of this past summer exhausted my "reserve" of tunes, at least those which had been sorted into "coherent" programs [LOL-ed.]. The Dub Syndicate are definitely Hall-worthy and were very much in the proverbial pipeline for induction. It was a good night for dub--when is it not?--so when opportunity knocked, I opened the door.
I'ma go off on a tangent for a sec., but I'll return to the point soon enough. I don't know if this "Arthur Parker" fellow who wrote the liner notes for Lonely Is An Eyesore was really Tom Friedman in disguise, but sure enough, he deploys a fictional "cab driver" to share this bit of wisdom: "The only incandescent pearls of light within a mile radius of the Cocteau Twins...are in their music. Not your gob, mine, or anyone else's." I was recently reminded by Rudy Tambala that this is true of any great band. SO--getting back on topic--I have nothing to say regarding The Dub Syndicate's music that the music can't tell you itself. I'm happy to reiterate, perhaps needlessly, that L.V. "Style" Scott is an absolute monster drummer, and that I can't think of any percussionist-led bands that are even in The Dub Syndicate's league. [Sorry, Genesis and Rush fans.] Come to think of it, African Head Charge is close at hand, but that's another program for another day.
Anyway, my life would be much emptier had I not stumbled upon Tunes From the Missing Channel in my local record store, during my first term at college. "Friend of Bombast" Mr. D will attest that we used to blast "Ravi Shankar" and "The Show is Coming" from our dorm room, much to the consternation of the Eddie Money and Van Halen fans living close by. When I attend a party, I usually arrive late, and this case is no exception: TFTMC was my first On-U Sound record, and what a gateway it proved to be. The Pounding System seemed like ancient history then, but still sounds like the future now. As do the other Dub Syndicate records. So much for not saying anything.
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I've figured out something about the Hall of Legends. Would you like to know what that is? Of course you would. It struck me, around the time of our last induction, that we had played about 800 different musical acts on the program, and that we had inducted 8 acts into the Hall. That seems to me a good ratio. And here we are, on our ninth induction, having played about 900 different musical acts at this point. [If we're not careful, we'll break the 1000-act barrier before the show's first birthday--how great does that "anti-rotation policy" look now?] Bill James has observed that roughly 1 out of every 10 plate appearances in the history of Major League Baseball have been taken by a Hall of Fame player, so let no one accuse us of having low standards. At any rate, doing an induction special at or around the time we pass each of these milestones feels about right. Bombast: a program for the musical 1%.
Also--I was excited to receive, around the time of our last induction, our first listener nomination for the Hall of Legends. How awesome is that? Very awesome IMO. I won't give it away, but let's just say the label which released this act's records begins with "4" and ends with "AD." And not one of the obvious choices either. Anyway, that is a thing that will happen sooner or later--probably later, as I am hoping to digest this book before going down that path again, and I don't want to be pigeonholed as "that guy" who rhapsodizes about all "those bands." We are mostly a "current music" program, after all.
That said, Dub Syndicate, you're still going, right? Feel free to swing through Ithaca, anytime.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 October 19, 2000-2200:
- "Train to Doomsville" | Lee Perry & Dub Syndicate | Pay It All Back Volume 2 | On-U Sound - Nettwerk
- "Humourless Journalist Works to Rules" | The Dub Syndicate | The Pounding System | On-U Sound
- "10K at 0 VU - 60Hz - Mind Boggles!" | The Dub Syndicate | The Pounding System | On-U Sound
- "Stoned Immaculate" | The Dub Syndicate | Stoned Immaculate | On-U Sound
- "Lighthouse" | The Dub Syndicate | Night Train | Industrie Discografiche Lacerba
- "Chapter 4" | The Dub Syndicate | Pay It All Back Volume 4 | On-U Sound
- "The Precinct of Sound" | The Dub Syndicate | Classic Selection Volume 2 | On-U Sound
- "African Landing" | The Dub Syndicate | Murder Tone | On-U Sound
- "Haunting Ground" | The Dub Syndicate | Pay It All Back Volume 2 | On-U Sound - Nettwerk
- "Ravi Shankar" | The Dub Syndicate | Live At The T + C - 1991 | On-U Sound
- "93 Struggle" | The Dub Syndicate | Echomania | On-U Sound
- "Shout It Out" | The Dub Syndicate | Strike the Balance | On-U Sound
- "The Show Is Coming" | The Dub Syndicate | Tunes from the Missing Channel | On-U Sound
- "Can't Stop Dancing" | The Dub Syndicate | Classic Selection Volume 2 | On-U Sound
- "Mafia" | The Dub Syndicate | Strike the Balance | On-U Sound
- "Man of Mystery" | Dr. Pablo & The Dub Syndicate | North of the River Thames | On-U Sound
- "Dr. Who?" | Dr. Pablo & The Dub Syndicate | North of the River Thames | On-U Sound
- "Vibrate On" | Lee "Scratch" Perry | From My Secret Laboratory | Island Jamaica
- "Over Board" | The Dub Syndicate | Tunes from the Missing Channel | On-U Sound
- "Forever More" | The Dub Syndicate | Tunes from the Missing Channel | On-U Sound
- "2001 Love" | The Dub Syndicate | Echomania | On-U Sound
- "I'm the Man for You Baby" | The Dub Syndicate | Strike the Balance | On-U Sound
Tuesday Sep 24, 2013
Drastic Plastic: Transmission 62, 2013 September 18
Tuesday Sep 24, 2013
Tuesday Sep 24, 2013
We herewith complete the induction of the mighty Coil into the BOMBAST Hall of Legends. Lady Catharsis even informs me that she enjoyed one of their songs tonight. I told you this was the most beautiful single of the bunch, did I not? As we steadily approach normalcy, we also throw in a host of new tunes and take care of some long-unfinished business.
It seems like we just talked, and I guess we did. There's a sizable backlog of BOMBAST programs, and I'm working my way through them as best I can. I believe this post gets you caught up on the "regularly scheduled" episodes, with the "impromptu" or "fill-in" episodes to come--Cthulu willing, we'll have them all posted by the end of the month.
This episode is a weird, dynamic set. I wouldn't necessarily say it's one of the "best," but it does contain many textures, moods, and energies, which was the original "dream." It's always a strange night when Coil is playing--what would life be without strange nights?
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 September 18, 2100-2300:
- "Arabesque" | Scarper! | Unfurl | Plexus
- "All Systems to Go" | Man or Astro-Man? | Defcon 5...4...3...2...1 | Communicating Vessels
- "Downing Street Rock" | Winston Edwards & Blackbeard | Dub Conference | Studio 16
- "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant" | Coil | Autumn Equinox - Amethyst Deceivers | Eskaton | "Physical Evidence"
- "Rise Before Zod - Acid Pauli's 'Things That Fly' Remix" | Zod | Rebel Rave 3 | Crosstown Rebels
- "Oh Come On" | The Julie Ruin | Run Fast | The Julie Ruin
- "D.R.I.N.K." | The Jazz Butcher | Draining the Glass | Nectar | "Listening Parlour"
- "Regel" | Coil | Autumn Equinox - Amethyst Deceivers | Eskaton | "Physical Evidence"
- "Wicked Dem Drop" | The Dub Club | Foundation Come Again | Stones Throw
- "Sonny's Burning" | The Birthday Party | The Bad Seed / Mutiny! | Drastic Plastic
- "Renata" | Holden | The Inheritors | Border Community
- "Jhonn Balance" | Wooden Wand | Blood Oaths of the New Blues | Fire
- "Rosa Decidua" | Coil | Autumn Equinox - Amethyst Deceivers | Eskaton | "Physical Evidence"
- "Sweet Jane" | The Velvet Underground | The Best of the Velvet Underground | Verve | "Listening Parlour"
- "Heaven Star" | 14 Iced Bears | Hold On Inside | Cherry Red
- "Slow Poisons" | Dead Confederate | In the Marrow | Spiderbomb
- "All Our Forts Are With You" | Wild Billy Chyldish & The Chatham Forts | All Our Forts Are With You | Damaged Goods
- "Two Night Stand" | Arkist | Two Night Stand | Inhale
- "Amethyst Deceivers" | Coil | Autumn Equinox - Amethyst Deceivers | Eskaton | "Physical Evidence"
- "Stirling" | Der Dritte Raum | Morgenland | Der Dritte Raum
- "Can't Stop the Prophet" | faltyDL | Atlantis | Ninja Tune
- "Switches" | Coil | Autumn Equinox - Amethyst Deceivers | Eskaton | "Physical Evidence"
Saturday Sep 07, 2013
Rudy Tambala Interview, Part Two
Saturday Sep 07, 2013
Saturday Sep 07, 2013
Here is the second part of an interview I conducted with Rudy Tambala of A.R.Kane. Portions of this conversation appeared in the Hall of Legends special featuring A.R.Kane's music. This is the "full" recording, with everything in its proper context. Part One is available here.
This chat happened via Skype on August 26, 2013, about two weeks after we'd talked the first time. I had some "big picture" questions in mind, some of them perhaps misguided, but that's the sort of thing that happens when you've only read about a thing rather than having experienced it firsthand. As I've written elsewhere, the Bombast program is somehow about making things difficult for myself, and one aspect of that is "looking for sense where possibly there is none."
Still, I think the answers we get in this portion of the interview are worth it. "Long live difficult."
Thanks again to Rudy Tambala for being so generous with his time.
Saturday Sep 07, 2013
Rudy Tambala Interview, Part One
Saturday Sep 07, 2013
Saturday Sep 07, 2013
Here is the first part of an interview I conducted with Rudy Tambala of A.R.Kane. Portions of this conversation appeared in the Hall of Legends special featuring A.R.Kane's music. Here's the "full" recording, with everything in its proper context.
This is the basic "music interview" material--how the band formed, label intrigue, recording processes, and so forth. However, it does reveal the importance of Janet Jackson and Jellybean Benitez as "influences" (don't take my word for it, just listen) and Rudy shares with us a humorous incident brought on by the band's move to 4AD.
Just so you know, listeners--I passed up a trip to look at eagles, for goodness' sake, and eat delicious local ice cream, so this conversation could happen. Do you see what sacrifices I make in order to bring you this stuff? Rudy, for his part, was late for dinner, which is why we had to cut this off and agree to speak another time--he too deserves your special thanks, for this and of course for the music. Part Two coming soon is available here.
Yes I know I can look at eagles whenever, but still.