radiobombast

I Got One Doctor That I Talk to Every Week About This Panic: Transmission 523, 2020 April 22

From my contemporaneous notes: "I have to say I enjoyed this show, it seems to demonstrate that I had made peace with pre-recording and had found a way to still be good." Wow, just wow. I suppose this is going to happen a lot, but I am just not as keen on this episode as I was at the time.

Listening to these broadcasts from another time always brings up a jumble of associations--what was happening then, what is happening now, etc. You know the deal. Get me out of this dream!, as the wise man says somewhere in this mix.

Even though it often feels inauthentic, there are a few surprise things here that probably shouldn't hit right but do anyway.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 April 22, 2100-2300:

• "What It Does" | Handle | In Threes | Upset The Rhythm
• "Far Too Gone" | Hallows | Subtle | Phage Tapes
• "African Science (Mix 2)" | TNT Roots | Raw Dub Creator | Bokeh Versions
• "Kervan Yolda" | BaBa ZuLa | Glitterbeat_tak:til_2019 | Glitterbeat
• "My Door Is Never" | The Fall | Reformation Post T.L.C. [reissue] | Cherry Red
• "Where Next Columbus" | Crass | Penis Envy | Crass
• "Reckless" | Jay Glass Dubs | Epitaph | Bokeh Versions
• "Spandrels 3" | Doomsquad | Spandrels Vol 2 | self-released
• "RUTHE14ME" | Slum of Legs | Slum of Legs | Spurge
• "My Eyes" | John Holt | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "Someday You Will Pay" | The Miller Sisters | Hillbilly Fillies & Rockin' Chicks | Charly | "The Listening Parlour"
• "Boogie In My Bones" | Laurel Aitken | The Story of Jamaican Music: Tougher Than Tough | Mango
• "Paisaje" | Ranil | Stay Safe & Sound Ranil Selection !! | Analog Africa
• "Reason in the Sky" | Alton Ellis | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "Gospel For A New Century" | Yves Tumor | Heaven to a Tortured Mind | WARP
• "Electric Love" | The Mystery Plan | Zsa Zsa | Ten Millimeter Omega
• "Down Harm's Way" | The Black Watch | Magic Johnson | ATOM
• "Whales Tails" | Cocteau Twins | Victorialand [reissue] | 4AD   
• "Come Here Get Away From Me [Ezra & Tim, late December 2016, Studio Ballistico, Chicago]" | Ezra Furman | To Them We'll Always Be Freaks | self-released
• "Peeping Tom" | Brentford All Stars | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "O.K. Boomer" | Brian | Dabbs Hill | self-released
• "Finding the Sea (Live)" | The Durutti Column | Vini Reilly [reissue] | Factory Benelux
• "I Woke Up in a Fucked​-​Up America" | Lonnie Holley | MITH | Jagjaguwar
• "Let It Fall" | Martin Bisi | Solstice | Bronson
• "Orderliness, Godliness, Discipline and Dignity" | African Head Charge | Songs of Praise [reissue] | On-U Sound
• "Mydriasism" | The Sun's Evil Twin | Come On Feel The NoiZe, Vol. 5 - Amour pour la France | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "Anarchy in the U.K." | Sex Pistols | Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols [reissue] | Warner Bros. - Rhino
• "Ship Of Fools (Demo)" | An Horse | Don't Stand So Close To Me: A Lame-O Compilation For Self Isolation | Lame-O Records
• "Paper Flower Projects" | Pia Fraus | Empty Parks | Seksound
• "A Stupid Thought" | The Pristines | Shelter | Sunday
• "Imaginary Letters" | Ultramarine | This Time Last Year | Real Soon
• "There Is No Year" | Algiers | There Is No Year | MatadorEpitaph | Bokeh Versions

just because I really love you

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But What Do You Expect Me To Do? Transmission 522, 2020 April 15

Welcome to Eighties night! Are you up for some Cocteau Twins? Shriekback? Breathless? Durutti Column? Crass? The Wedding Present? How about two versions of the same R.E.M. song? "Sure," I can hear you saying. "Sounds tubular." Public life had stopped when this broadcast aired, so why not time itself?

I must say, though--as good as the segues are (some of them are quite good), this show doesn't have a center. My methods may be new but the old shortcomings remain.

There aren't many chances for me to speak (I don't anticipate any complaints) due to the scarcity of instrumentals here, but there are lots of people, seemingly, burying their vocals in tonight's music. I remember this impulse--the vocalist needs to do something on the track but doesn't want to be understood, lest they be exposed, found having actually nothing to say.

I am trying to deprogram myself from these remembered impulses, but I think we'll see it happen on the program before it happens in real life.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 April 15, 2100-2300:

• "Keres" | Mikael Fyrek | Further Asunder | Kahvi Collective
• "Monkey Talk" | Breathless | The Glass Bead Game [reissue] | 1972 - Tenor Vossa
• "This Big Hush" | Shriekback | Oil And Gold | Island
• "Oomingmak" | Cocteau Twins | Victorialand [reissue] | 4AD
• "Subtle" | Hallows | Subtle | Phage Tapes
• "Te Quiero Mucho" | Ranil | Stay Safe & Sound Ranil Selection !! | Analog Africa
• "Sammy" | Brentford All Stars | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "TroubleRoundDiCorner" | SEEKERSINTERNATIONAL | RunComeTest EP | Bokeh Versions
• "Otis (Live)" | The Durutti Column | Vini Reilly [reissue] | Factory Benelux
• "Land" | KL​/​BE​/​DH​/​RS | Avon Garde | Avon Terror Corps
• "He Don't Love You" | Larry Williams | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "Your Agent Man" | Cabaret Voltaire | 3 Crépuscule Tracks | Rough Trade
• "Ecstasy" | Sneaks | Highway Hypnosis | Merge
• "Heartbreak Hotel" | Brian | Dabbs Hill | self-released
• "Wolves, Lower" | The Death of Pop | Welcome To The Occupation, A Reverence to R.E.M. | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "The Sea B" | Lebend | Come On Feel The NoiZe, Vol. 4 - La Furia | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "Still Too Far To Go" | Electric Sewer Age | Contemplating Nothingness | Hallow Ground
• "Cruel Set of Shades" | Harry Stafford | Gothic Urban Blues | Black Lagoon
• "At the Edge Of The Sea" | The Wedding Present | Once More | Optic Nerve
• "Problems" | Sex Pistols | Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols [reissue] | Warner Bros. - Rhino
• "Don't Bleach" | I Jahbar | Mutual Aid 2020 | Bokeh Versions
• "Nothing Bloomed" | Algiers | There Is No Year | Matador
• "Health Surface" | Crass | Penis Envy | Crass
• "Wolves, Lower" | R.E.M. | Dead Letter Office | I.R.S.
• "Dunkin" | Letters From Mouse | Proto Human | Kahvi Collective
• "Konowale" | Super Rail Band Of The Buffet Hotel Del La Gare De Bamako, Mali | New Dimensions In Rail Culture | Globe Style
• "Passwords" | Ultramarine | This Time Last Year | Real Soon
• "To My Benefitors" | Jay Glass Dubs | Epitaph | Bokeh Versions

i will love myself

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Let the Sirens Sing Out Their Nightmare: Transmission 521, 2020 April 8

"I keep falling asleep during this episode," my notes say, "but I assure you it is quite good." Here's hoping you can (a) stay awake and (b) find this assessment accurate. Despite the distance between then and now, it's tough for me to be objective.

I know there are strong tunes here, but the segues seem weak to me. Plus, I just don't sound up for it. Hopefully you can excuse this--I'd had a bad week at work; specifically, I was threatened by a student and then scolded by my superiors for setting a boundary with this person. Prepare yourself for many work anecdotes to come. Things don't get better, despite what you may have heard.

In re. one of the artists on tonight's program, I should have said "Abby Normal" and not "Abe Normal." I had certainly listened to that release prior to playing it, but I suppose not carefully enough, or maybe I didn't retain the experience. Who knows. There is a lot of that to come too.

Sleep well, if it's what you need.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 April 8, 2100-2300:

• "Freedom Fighters" | Delroy Washington | Beyond the Frontline | Front Line - Virgin
• "Powerful" | Earthquake | Raw Dub Creator | Bokeh Versions
• "The battle for Karbala" | Saint Abdullah | The Sounds of Evil - Vol. 1 | Boomarm Nation
• "Reformation!" | The Fall | Reformation Post T.L.C. [reissue] | Cherry Red
• "Tiet" | Mikael Fyrek | Further Asunder | Kahvi Collective
• "How Many Stars?" | The Mekons | Glitterbeat_tak:til_2019 | Glitterbeat
• "Foliba" | Super Rail Band Of The Buffet Hotel Del La Gare De Bamako, Mali | New Dimensions In Rail Culture | Globe Style
• "Dancing With Aliens" | beto | DISBOARD | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Ballad of JC Quinn" | The Mystery Plan | Zsa Zsa | Ten Millimeter Omega
• "Mash / Time: The Donut Of The Heart / Glazed / Airworks / Lightworks / Stepson Of The Clapper / The Twister (Huh, What)" | J Dilla | Donuts [reissue] | Stones Throw
• "Sweet Sensation" | Half Nelson | Avon Garde | Avon Terror Corps
• "Foundation (Mix 2)" | TNT Roots | Raw Dub Creator | Bokeh Versions
• "Losing Is Ours" | Algiers | There Is No Year | Matador
• "Psychedelic Rock" | Ernest Ranglin | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "The Call // Ravenous" | Hallows | Subtle | Phage Tapes
• "Guidance" | Yahweh Warriors | Raw Dub Creator | Bokeh Versions
• "Kajo Golo Weka" | Peter Tsotsi Juma & The Eagles Lupopo | Kenya Special (Selected East African Recordings From The 1970s & '80s) | Soundway
• "Happy Go Lucky Girl" | John Holt | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "side a" | abenrmal | [在常情節中找到自己] | Virtual Soundsystem
• "The Autojector" | Letters From Mouse | Proto Human | Kahvi Collective
• "Andalusia" | Ranil | Stay Safe & Sound Ranil Selection !! | Analog Africa
• "Get You Off My Mind" | The Freedom Singers | Jamaica All Stars Vol. 1 & 2 | Studio One / Coxsone
• "Trompo sin punta" | Aura en el espejo | Niñez | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Cob Twenty" | Happy Mondays | Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) [reissue] | London

hold on like i do

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Can You Pretend To Love Chaos? Transmission 520, 2020 April 1

Bless me, listeners, for I have sinned! It has been 575 days since my last post. And to paraphrase the world’s most famous TERF, I solemnly swear I have been up to no good.

Serendipity and dialectics: as I embark on a mission of piecing together the past, I find that this show performs a feat of alchemy, in piecing together various fragments of shows that I had planned on doing before the Great Lockdown, and yet striking me as “a little too perfect.” That’s what my notes from the time say, and I have no standing at present to second-guess them.

Early on, I feel like this program “makes no sense” and is “too retro”; it doesn’t seem to get into gear until about 20 minutes in, when we go from African Head Charge to TNT Roots to Breathless. And that’s just it, as pleasant and weird as this strikes me, I’m still struggling for content in this early-COVID period when the old can’t die and the new struggles to be born. I’m running on the fumes of old staples like The Blog That Celebrates Itself (RIP). Sometimes a thing is playing (let’s say Jay Glass Dubs) and it sounds like “my show” as I currently understand it and sometimes a different thing (I don’t want to name names here, but let’s imagine a band with a name that sounds like “Octo Fins”) and it just doesn’t sound like me. 

I could never have guessed I would be here, but here I am. Thank you for hearing my confession.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 April 1, 2100-2300:

• "Kuff Dam" | Happy Mondays | Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) [reissue] | London
• "Sub-Mission" | Sex Pistols | Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols [reissue] | Warner Bros. - Rhino
• "Healing" | $entric | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "The Heart You Break May Be Your Own" | Patsy Cline | The Legendary Patsy Cline | Special Music | "The Listening Parlour"
• "How to Bring a Blush to the Snow" | Cocteau Twins | Victorialand [reissue] | 4AD
• "Healing Ceremony" | African Head Charge | Songs of Praise [reissue] | On-U Sound
• "Glorious Dub" | TNT Roots | Raw Dub Creator | Bokeh Versions
• "Touchstone" | Breathless | The Glass Bead Game [reissue] | 1972 - Tenor Vossa
• "Cold Hands" | Numerals&Letters | Come On Feel The NoiZe, Vol. 5 - Amour pour la France | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "Repeating Night" | Algiers | There Is No Year | Matador
• "Animal Estate ft. Yorgia Karidi" | Jay Glass Dubs | Epitaph | Bokeh Versions
• "Lord of Hosts" | Earthquake | Raw Dub Creator | Bokeh Versions
• "Addis" | Sneaks | Highway Hypnosis | Merge
• "Habla Plasma" | PASS | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "True Love" | Ivan Black | Modern City Scapes | vanguardista
• "Chebo" | Electric Sewer Age | Contemplating Nothingness | Hallow Ground
• "Get Me Out Of Echo Park" | The Black Watch | Magic Johnson | ATOM
• "Mr. Land Freezer" | Pia Fraus | Empty Parks | Seksound
• "ブラジル" | Xela Memories | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Ubirr" | Mikael Fyrek | Further Asunder | Kahvi Collective
• "The Ghosts Of Winter Stalk This Land" | The Membranes | What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away | Cherry Red
  "slow syrup" | serpentwithfeet | soil | Secretly Canadian
• "Joy_33 aci4.5test" | CYBEREALITY | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Space Carnival" | The Comet Is Coming | Channel The Spirits | Leaf
• "Ladaney (Woman's Name)" | Dur-Dur Band | Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972​-​1991) | Analog Africa
• "We Were Dancing" | TUPPERWAVE | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Industrial dead" | Milbentia | Disintegration | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Dry" | The Durutti Column | Vini Reilly [reissue] | Factory Benelux

I am pickled, I am done

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My Revenge Against the World Is To Believe Everything You Say: Transmission 519, 2020 March 25

Now it can be told! Methods and agendas disclosed in this week's blurb. It's all here.

To begin we have to go back to the very early days of this program, when I decided (a) my library was not enough and (b) I had to chase the ghosts of my past and prove that I could follow the "rules" of my old radio station from undergrad days, which I was never good at doing. There's a lot to unpack there but I'm sure somewhere along the way I have referred to what I often do as LARPing and that is basically the jist of it.

We used to have this rule about "currency," according to which your playlist was supposed to be 30% "current" records. This meant playing discs from the "current" bin, and what was in there had been added by the station (NB: not necessarily "released," just acquired) within the last 3 months. To the extent that I was ever successful at this, it was only just: early on I had a lot to learn from the past and somewhere along the way I decided that the present (at that moment) wasn't up to my standards and apparently I wasn't open to many new experiences. I look back on this as a failure that I have to correct. For whom? The voice in my head of course.

So, anyway, in 2013 or so, when this show was less than ten programs old, I was auditioning lots of new releases on Spotify and building my playlists that way. I would often call this "radio magic" or whatever, but it was a kind of fraud. It helped, but didn't help, that at some point we got this software at the station called DeejayPro that could incorporate Spotify into your broadcast (controversially, I guess).

This created a couple of messes: one was the general fakeness of many programs, even though I was sharing music that I genuinely liked--not to mention the use of that awful, unethical app--and the technical issue of playing those supercompressed mp3s (evident in last week's disaster).

Apparently it took a global pandemic to force me to reconsider, but on this broadcast I said goodbye to the old ways. I would only use actual sound files in my possession, currency be damned--this meant using what I owned and what I was buying, which also meant a deeper commitment, which I consider a good thing. It also meant the return of dynamics and crazy levels, which I guess is also a good thing because it's teaching me to embrace imperfection even though I hate it.

So this particular show features a lot of material I picked up on the very first "Bandcamp Friday," five days prior, as well as things I'd bought recently. But, I have to say--it also included a lot of promotional freebies (including yet another cringeworthy Membranes track--what is it with them?), plenty of channeling 1985 and 1986 (so what else is new), and, let's face it, a big focus on the white past and not the black future. I don't know how it's possible to do a show that's "honest" and at the same time "in bad faith" but I manage.

That said, I really miss old R.E.M. and I did love the then-recent viral video of Michael Stipe singing along to "Underneath the Bunker."

I also miss Richenel and I miss the days when that This Mortal Coil cd blew my little mind; now it's all wrapped up in guilt and regret. Here's hoping someday it will sound fresh again.

Since this program was broadcast, 410 days ago now, I've gone "on the air" 55 times. I have delivered 54 pre-recorded episodes on account of the pandemic. That gives us a lot of time to work through my issues, and there are many of them.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 March 25, 2100-2300:

• "Yahweh The Redeemer" | TNT Roots | Raw Dub Creator | Bokeh Versions
• "Russell" | Happy Mondays | Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) [reissue] | London
• "Pandora's Box" | The Membranes | What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away | Cherry Red
• "Old Man Kensey" | The Starling Effect | Welcome To The Occupation, A Reverence to R.E.M. | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "Coelocanth" | Shriekback | Oil And Gold | Island
• "Slumpledunk" | LameBøy™ | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Cattle Herders Chant" | African Head Charge | Songs of Praise [reissue] | On-U Sound
• "Late Summer Night" | Pia Fraus | Empty Parks | Seksound
• "Dekotur" | Electric Sewer Age | Contemplating Nothingness | Hallow Ground
• "Inch-Blue" / "I Want To Live" / "Mama K (1)" / "Filigree & Shadow" / "Firebrothers" / "Thais (I)" / "I Must Have Been Blind" / "A Heart of Glass" | This Mortal Coil | Filigree & Shadow | 4AD
• "Hollywood 4-5-92" | American Music Club | Mercury | Virgin | "The Listening Parlour"
• "The Earth Is Flat (Fool's Anthem)" | The Room in the Wood | We're the Martians, Now | A Turntable Friend
• "People's Pleasure Park" | The Durutti Column | Vini Reilly [reissue] | Factory Benelux
• "Albores De Mi Selva" | Ranil | Stay Safe & Sound Ranil Selection !! | Analog Africa
• "See How the Land Lies" | Breathless | The Glass Bead Game [reissue] | 1972 - Tenor Vossa
• "Garlands" | Cocteau Twins | Garlands [reissue] | 4AD
• "Johnny Damas and Me" | Brian | Dabbs Hill | self-released
• "The Usher" | The Fall | Reformation Post T.L.C. [reissue] | Cherry Red
• "Plainsong" | Darkswoon | Disintegration Revisited | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "you're so sad" | Fever 103° | Avon Garde | Avon Terror Corps
• "いつかきっと" | beto | DISBOARD | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Big Blow" | Manu Dibango | Africafunk: Return To The Original Sound Of 1970s Funky Africa | Harmless

Didn't know it was a song you hated to sing

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Everything's Coming to a Grinding Halt: Transmission 518, 2020 March 18

There is a weird symmetry to this post, as it comes (seemingly) at the end of the pandemic era even as I am trying to make sense of how it began. Maybe there was a point in dragging my feet all this time. Increasingly I think things happen as they are meant to, when they are meant to. My brain must be getting old, soft, and smooth.

Everything shut down very quickly in the second and third weeks of March 2020. By the time of this broadcast New York State was under a lockdown. I knew in advance that I would not be able to do this program "live," and I foolishly went ahead with the show that I had planned anyway.

(Ironically, on the night, I was unable to connect remotely to the airplay computer to do my weekly programming tasks, so I ventured down to the station only to find out that I--and everyone else--was literally locked out. So this was how things were going to be.)

"Going ahead with the show that I had planned anyway" meant basically digitally recording a Spotify playlist and uploading that digital recording. The results are--well, here they are. Listen for yourself. For me, every segue is perfect (timing-wise if not conceptually), every song sounds crushed. It's a travesty but I am committed to posting everything, even the travesties. "Dododo (Ekassa No. 1)" is such a great recording too. I guess I will have to buy that box set after all.

There aren't even enough current tunes here to satisfy that fetish for me. It's tough to know at this point what I was thinking. I was probably just scrambling. How long did I think the lockdown would last? One week, I say at the end. How optimistic was I?

Did I invent the term plaguecasting? I am taking credit for it in any case.

Since this program was broadcast, 416 days ago now, I've gone "on the air" 56 times. I have delivered 55 pre-recorded episodes on account of the pandemic. I'm not sure any of them sound worse than this one, but miracles are always possible.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 March 18, 2100-2300:

• "Ire" | The Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Airport Lounge" | | 空港ラウンジのドリームスケープ | | D R E A M S C A P E | New Era : 2020 Virtual Soundsystem
• "Dododo (Ekassa No. 1)" | Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestroes | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "We Spartan Dreggs (Be Fine)" | The Spartan Dreggs | Punk Rock ist nicht tot | Damaged Goods
• "Doom" | Jaxe | Seekings EP | Dom Trojga
• "MERCURIO" | DJ MALVIAJE | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Ikon Allah" | Bala Miller & The Great Music Pyrameeds Of Afrika | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "The Morning Ritual" | Rephazer | Shepherd Drift | Kahvi Collective
• "Free The World" | Inkräktare | We Are Not Really Here | ELaB
• "Wetin De Watch Goat, Goat Dey Watcham" | Eric (Showboy) Akaeze And His Royal Ericos | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Glow In The Night" | Blacklit | Out Of The Darkness | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "Chamber Assent" | Whistling Arrow | Whistling Arrow | God Unknown   
• "We Can't Be Found" | Algiers | We Can't Be Found | Matador
• "Don't Wanna Hold Your Hand" | Thee Headcoatees | Punk Girls | Damaged Goods
• "Web in Front" | Kudzu Wish | Kudzu Wish | Ernest Jenning Record Co.
• "Blackholeyday" | Car Crash Sisters | Come On Feel The NoiZe, Vol. 3 - Viva Mexico! | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "How To Start A Revolution" | Wrangler | How To Start A Revolution | Bella Union
• "Want Me - Win Me" | Thee Headcoats | In Tweed We Trust | Damaged Goods
• "Grinding Halt" | The Cure | Three Imaginary Boys | Fiction - Rhino | "The Listening Parlour"
• "Vaults of Arcadia" | Space Dimension Controller | ReSEQ | R & S
• "Strange Selfies" | Yaka-anima | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Henrietta" | Ali Chukwumah & His Peace Makers International | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away" | The Membranes | What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away | Cherry Red
• "Unity In Africa" | Eji Oyewole | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Everso" | The Telescopes | Losing Touch With My Mind: Psychedelia In Britain 1986-1990 | Cherry Red
• "Breeze" | Lush | Gala | 4AD
• "Noise Floor" | Chris Carter | Chemistry Lessons Volume 1 | Mute
• "Dekagon" | Karl Hector & The Malcouns | Non Ex Orbis | Now-Again

For they knew someday the sun would die

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You Try To Give Me Your Money, You Better Save It: Transmission 517, 2020 March 11

 

For months I left my page-a-day calendar on March 10, 2020. At first it was genuine shock and refusal. I probably thought in the beginning that it would just be a few weeks. After a while it was a more self-conscious, pretentious gesture, my own Hiroshima clock. God knows what I must have been thinking on the day after society stopped, but this program is a real "twilight" show, the first dispatch from the new world in which we found ourselves, and the final example of the "old way" of doing things.

In a real example of not appreciating what you have while you still have it, I sat in the Kenny Ritter Memorial Studio for the last time, mostly pushing buttons to play music I didn't care much about. "I don’t understand why I play things like Snow Ghosts," my notes say. I must have heard it weeks before and not hated it, which is about as much positivity as I could muster. I don't even like "quiet rituals." I want loud ones. The segues, early on at least, were abysmal; what even was the concept?

To the extent that I mention events in this program, I shouldn't have, because I couldn't be sure they were going to happen, and I'm almost positive that they didn't.

Since this program was broadcast, 411 days ago now, I've gone "on the air" 55 times. I have delivered 54 pre-recorded episodes on account of the pandemic. The future is here. We're soaking in it.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 March 11, 2100-2300:

• "Ajoyio" | Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey & His International Brothers | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Super Mario Bros. X" | Potted Plant | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Polygraph Test" | The Guy Hamper Trio | Punk Rock ist nicht tot | Damaged Goods
• "Lovesong" | Lost Tapes with Haunted Magic | Disintegration Revisited | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "Lady Bird" | Nancy & Lee | Nancy & Lee | Reprise | "The Listening Parlour"
• "Inside The Waves (Radio Edit)" | AICRXG | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Upsy-Daisy" | The Black Watch | Magic Johnson | ATOM
• "Tutorial para besar a una mujer" | Aura en el espejo | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Bisi's Beat" | Soki Ohale's Uzzi | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Whole hole explorer" | elAstrum | Freqmod | Kahvi Collective
• "Surrender" | Snow Ghosts | A Quiet Ritual | Houndstooth
• "Onyame" | Ashanti Afrika Jah | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "She Said" | Karl Hund | Karl Hund | Violette
• "Flesh & Blood" | Beto | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Fire" | The Jimi Hendrix Experience | BBC Sessions [reissue] | Jimi Hendrix Vinyl Collection / Legacy / Sony
• "Vuelve" | Xaman Ek | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Strawberry Wolf" | Wild Yaks | Great Admirer | Ernest Jenning Record Co.
• "Pas Mal" | The Young Gods | L'Eau Rouge / Red Water [reissue] | [PIAS] Le Label
• "Novelty" | Peel Dream Magazine | Up and Up | Tough Love
• "Gobonimada Jira (Choose Freedom)" | Bakaka Band | Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972​-​1991) | Analog Africa
• "Kellin It (feat. Han Litz & Trujillo)" | Inkswel | The Sound | Apparel Tonic
• "Inkling" | Coil | Stolen & Contaminated Songs | Cold Spring
• "Agboju Logun" | Shina Williams & His African Percussionists | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "The Painter" | Levente | Shepherd Drift | Kahvi Collective
• "Baayo (Hey Woman)" | Mukhtar Ramadan Idii | Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972​-​1991) | Analog Africa
• "The Secret of Your Grace" | Margaret | Come On Feel The NoiZe, Vol. 5 - Amour pour la France | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
• "She healed him in her sleep" | XVARR | Echoes of Time | Good Morning Tapes

Progress gives way to a fiction

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No Sex or Records for a Year and a Day: Transmission 516, 2020 March 5

 

A great show awaits you, and in even better news, it's my show! The only element missing is Lady Catharsis, who has arrived by and by at a grudging respect for The Fall, tonight's featured artiste.

Here is yet another posthumous Hall of Legends induction, since I lazily made the band charter members and then for whatever reason never asked to talk to the man himself. I need to start talking to people again.

Anyway, I guess this is where the origin story goes but once again there really isn't one. I have a weird memory of being 17, and being driven by my mother to a halloween party (I didn't get a driver's license until age 25), insisting on listening to KDVS in the car, and hearing a very distinctive song that stuck with me for about a decade before I figured out it was "Barmy." In my early days deejaying for that same station I would play "Hey! Luciani" and whatever the U.S. equivalent of Bend Sinister was. Jeremy, Friend of the Program, had a copy of In: Palace of Swords Reversed and we all loved "Marquis Cha-Cha." I had a copy of the Steve Barker compilation Bugs on the Wire and still think the version of "Wings" on that is the best one. In the waning days of the record store at which I worked, I gave myself a very special discount on the 458489 A Sides cd compilation, which tided me over until graduate school, during which time all the Beggars Banquet albums were reissued on cd and my obsession really began. Mark E. Smith used to say that Fall fans were the salt of the earth; as with Coil, there's no great explanation why this cishet black guy with a doctorate is among them; life just bounces!

Recommendations: the two best three-album runs are Perverted By Language > The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... > This Nation's Saving Grace and The Real New Fall L.P. > Fall Heads Roll > Reformation. If for some perverse reason you must own only one thing by this band, make it the Peel Sessions box set. That is the real story, right there.

I feel like I have to address this: by several accounts Mark E. Smith is a first-class asshole and an easily cancellable person. I know this. As a recovering abuser myself I give him a certain forbearance. That is all.

Anyway, "Why Are People Grudgeful" goes crazy on the turntable but winds up sounding alright. Otherwise I think the show is a technical success. It's a perfectly fine but random selection; at least I manage to play things I have not played before, unlike the Coil program from a week ago.

I don’t know why I had to remind people that it was a live show? Was it because I hadn’t spoken for a while? Or because I made some embarrassing error that has been memory-holed by post-production magic? Editing was so long ago.

Since this program was broadcast, 415 days ago now, I've gone "on the air" 56 times. I have delivered 54 pre-recorded episodes on account of the pandemic. "It's a living," I would say, if it were a livelihood and if I were truly living. Maybe someday.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 March 5, 2100-2300:

• "Bombast" | The Fall | This Nation's Saving Grace | Beggars Banquet
• "Totally Wired" | The Fall | Singles 1978 - 2016 | Cherry Red
• "Brillo De Facto" | The Fall | New Facts Emerge | Cherry Red Records
• "Systematic Abuse" | The Fall | Reformation Post T.L.C. | Narnack Records
• "Stepping Out" | The Fall | Short Circuit - Live At The Electric Circus | Virgin
• "Lucifer over Lancashire" | The Fall | Bend Sinister / The Domesday Pay-Off Triad -Plus! | Beggars Banquet
• "Pay Your Rates (Live in Vienna 16/4/88)" | The Fall | Seminal Live | Beggars Banquet
• "Plug Myself In" | D.O.S.E. Feat. Mark E. Smith | A World Bewitched: Best Of 1990-2000 | Artful
• "Why Are People Grudgeful?" | The Fall | Why Are People Grudgeful? | Matador
• "Blindness" | The Fall | Fall Heads Roll | Narnack Records
• "Sing! Harpy" | The Fall | Extricate | Cog Sinister
• "Kurious Oranj (Live)" | The Fall | Cab It Up | Beggars Banquet
• "Arid Al's Dream" | The Fall | Volume Four | Volume
• "Barmy" | The Fall | This Nation's Saving Grace | Beggars Banquet
• "The Rhinohead" | Von Sudenfed | The Rhinohead / Slow Down Ronnie | Domino
• "Theme from Sparta F.C." | The Fall | The Real New Fall LP (Formerly 'Country On The Click') | Action Records
• "Put Away" | The Fall | Mixed Peel | New Musical Express
• "Chicago Now" | The Fall | Extricate | Cog Sinister
• "Cruiser's Creek (Single Version Remastered)" | The Fall | Singles 1978 - 2016 | Cherry Red
• "2x4" | The Fall | The Complete Peel Sessions 1978 - 2004 | Castle Music
• "Pacifying Joint" | The Fall | Fall Heads Roll | Narnack Records
• "(I'm) In Deep" | Coldcut | What's That Noise? | Tommy Boy / Reprise
• "A Day in the Life" | The Fall | Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father | New Musical Express

Winter lives in my heart

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It's the Beginning of the End: Transmission 515, 2020 March 4

 

One week to go before time stops.

I guess this particular outing is a "grower." It seems forced early on; Kristin Hersh and Mogadisco don’t really go together nicely, for example, nor does Vanitas
follow smoothly. The overall vibe smacks of the insincerity and LARPing that, I feel, characterizes many of these programs from the "before" time. "I like this Africa 70 collection a lot," I say, but I don’t own it. So what is it, other than something to fill airtime in which I may not need to squat, and why should anyone else care?

I may not be the 20-year old idiot who used to play the same handful of Cocteau Twins records every week, but "growth" is overrated. I have settled into a different kind of groove . It’s feeling kind of pointless.

But it could always be worse--there’s a strange urgency to this program that I can hear in the recording. I swear it’s not memory playing tricks on me, because at a baseline level I can barely tell one current show from another at this point. I can only attribute the urgency to this show’s unfolding in real time, with a fiery crash always just around the corner. There is something more than content to these experiences—it’s the capture of a live singularity that’s important, not *what* I play per se.

Or maybe it's just because the records can skip, like the Legendary Pink Dots disc that I play here. "Thanks for sticking with us," indeed.

Since this program was broadcast, 413 days ago now, I've gone "on the air" 56 times. I have delivered 53 pre-recorded episodes on account of the pandemic. Only two more episodes "like this" to go--one to treasure, and one about which you can definitely say, "that happened."

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 March 4, 2100-2300:

• "Tempus Fugit" | Closed Loop | Shepherd Drift | Kahvi Collective
• "Snake Oil" / "Pearl" | Kristin Hersh | Cats and Mice | Kitten Charmer | "The Listening Parlour"
• "Hab Isii" | Omar Shooli | Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972​-​1991) | Analog Africa
• "新しい時代, YES!" | VANITAS命死 | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Wasting My Time" | Hannah Cohen | Wasting My Time | Bella Union
• "Tramsystem Battle" | Terror of Evil | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Pretty Nice" | Chicago Odense Ensemble | Chicago Odense Ensemble | El Paraiso
• "Down where it's wetter" | Pandacetamol | Driftwood | Kahvi Collective
• "Allah Wakbarr" | Ofo The Black Company | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Melfuf" | Rizan Said | Saz Û Dilan | Akuphone
• "Kinringjingbin" | Dr Victor Olaiya's International All-Stars | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Gruppe Erdheim" | Fehler Kuti | Schland Is The Place For Me | Alien Transistor
• "Yabis" | Sir Shina Peters And His International Stars | Nigeria 70: Box Set | Strut
• "Carnaval Soca - Antal Edit" | Daniel Dimbas | La Differencia - Antal & Palms Trax Edits | No Label
• "Koladi-Ola" | Yello | Stella | Mercury
• "Moon Two" | Chris Carter | Chemistry Lessons Volume 1 | Mute
• "Laugh/Joy/Happiness" | Diego Esnaurrizar | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Waiting for the Cloud" | The Legendary Pink Dots | Any Day Now [reissue] | Metropolis
• "NORTH" | Evaporated | New Era : 2020 | Virtual Soundsystem
• "Flowers" | Galaxie 500 | Today [reissue] | 20|20|20
• "Tiamat" | Marco Paul | Adonai | Forbidden Colours
• "A Strange Perfume" | The Membranes | What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away | Cherry Red
• "Triptophan" | Curious Inversions | Shepherd Drift | Kahvi Collective
• "Outro - Wisdom" | Lee "Scratch" Perry | Heavy Rain | On-U Sound
• "Divine Dub (Alpha & Omega Remix)" | Dubzoic feat. Livio Roaring Bass | "Divine" Featuring Fikir Amlak | Steppas
• "Blurry Youth - Elise Reshape" | François X | Irregular Passion Reshaped | Dement3d
• "Dub Conscious" | Digital | Shadows | Function

Now you know our truth

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Pay Your Respects to the Vultures, For They Are Your Future: Transmission 514, 2020 February 27

 

The pandemic has made me extra-fond of this episode, because it's one of the last "specials" I did before the lockdown, but I think this episode might be suitable for the pantheon in any timeline. I had of course already inducted Coil into the Bombast Hall of Legends, in four stages, to go along with their "equinox" / "solstice" series. Early days! But here I wind up with airtime on what would be Peter Christopherson's birthday, so it's a "proper" chance to devote the full two hours to their music (and other things, with apologies to Jhonn Balance).

I pronounce PC's surname like "Kristofferson" although I don't really know if that's correct--I become wistful about the Dif Juz HoL induction, triggered by that very question. How lucky I was that at least two of them are alive to answer the question. But not in this case. This program is for the spirits, and for the fans, and for the uninitiated.

There is no cool or interesting origin story for me and my Coil records. I'm sure that Jeremy, Friend of the Program, used to encourage me to play Scatology late at night on the radio, many years ago. And there was a kind docent at the local record store, Alex, who insisted I take home The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser 10-inch. I'm not a pagan, I'm not into male-only onanistic rituals or anything, I'm just a black cishet guy who loves music that is unusual and good and unusually good. My tastes are probably almost as boring as I am.

I guess I stuck with Coil over the years because they were prolific and restless, building a catalog that is almost self-sufficient--not merely a "desert island disc" but a desert island body of work. In that ridiculous hypothetical, you'd hardly need anyone else's records. Also, there are only a handful of “industrial “ artists who (to me) are unproblematic. It’s a depressingly short list--Coil, Cabaret Voltaire, Chris & Cosey, Test Dept., Bourbonese Qualk, Einsturzende Neubauten, Nocturnal Emissions, Zoviet France, I'm not sure whom I'm forgetting...Everyone else seems too close to Alain Jourgensen, too close to Douglas Pearce, or is actually Genesis. This last bit is less trivial than it sounds--Coil's presence on a compilation is a really good indicator of quantity. I've "discovered" a lot of good sounds just picking up the various "various artists" records on which Coil appeared. And I take the willingness to do comps as an indicator of niceness in a person--easygoing, plays well with others, etc.

So I guess that's it.

It was a lovely evening sitting in the studio and letting the music flow through me, loudly, though I couldn’t seem to say anything correctly when it was time to speak. There is a certain magic(k) in the air whether you listen to this in blinding sunlight or at nighttime as intended.

Since this program was broadcast, 418 days ago now, I've gone "on the air" 57 times. I have delivered 53 pre-recorded episodes on account of the pandemic. I am most definitely biased but I have to say that none of those episodes are better than this one.

BOMBAST playlist, 2020 February 27, 2100-2300:

• "First Dark Ride" | Coil | Unnatural History III | Threshold House
• "Who'll Fall" | Coil | Stolen & Contaminated Songs | Cold Spring
• "20 Jazz Funk Greats" | Throbbing Gristle | 20 Jazz Funk Greats | Mute
• "Red Skeletons" | Coil Presents Black Light District | A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room | Eskaton
• "Homage To Sewage" | Coil | Life At The Top | Third Mind / Abstract
• "Futhur" | Coil | Stolen & Contaminated Songs | Cold Spring
• "Princess Margaret's Man In the D'jamalfna" | Coil | The New Backwards | Important Records
• "Amethyst Deceivers" | Coil | Autumn Equinox: Amethyst Deceivers | Eskaton
• "Distant Dreams (Part Two)" | Throbbing Gristle | The Industrial Records Story | Illuminated
• "Love's Secret Domain" | Coil | Stolen & Contaminated Songs | Cold Spring
• "Feeder" | CTI With Coil | Core - A Conspiracy International Project | Conspiracy International
• "Panic" | Coil | Unnatural History III | Threshold House
• "Cowboys In Bangkok 1995 (Coil vs Elph Mix)" | Chris & Cosey | Twist | T & B Vinyl
• "The Snow" | Coil | Love's Secret Domain | Threshold House
• "In My Head A Crystal Sphere Of Heavy Fluid" | Peter Christopherson | Foxtrot | Chalice
• "The Last Amethyst Deceiver" | Coil | The Ape of Naples | Important Records
• "Neither His Nor Yours" | Coil | A Diamond Hidden In The Mouth Of A Corpse | Giorno Poetry Systems
• "Dark River" | Coil | Love's Secret Domain | Threshold House
• "The Lost Rivers of London" | Coil | Unnatural History III | Threshold House

Everything is good and divine

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