Episodes
Saturday Jul 29, 2017
Spiritually and Emotionally Uplifting Properties: Transmission 357, 2017 July 19
Saturday Jul 29, 2017
Saturday Jul 29, 2017
I wonder what my opinion of this program was on the night. It couldn't have been as favorable as it is right now, because upon playback it is AWESOME. But then, it is ten days later--#theorycamp is ended, my mind is finally clearing, and my own greatness is revealed to me at last. Do you want excellence in content and technique? It is all here.
Sadly I do not own this Jazz Butcher compilation on vinyl--if I recall correctly, Friend of Bombast Jeremy does, or did once. I forget whether his copy came with the elusive 7" whose contents did not make it onto this cd (but did land on one of the other umpteen Jazz Butcher anthologies, and on iTunes, so they would not be "Physical Evidence" anyway, I guess). ANYWAY, this release and I go way back. I could probably have done with a similar degree of familiarity with Those Who Walk Away, probably playing that tune because I liked its ambience but finding myself totally unnerved by the "content" and needing to read PSAs over it.
I also have some opinions on record titles. "Oriental Special" is, I'm sure, meant to be ironic, but it's 2017 and that doesn't work. Also, "Madonnawhore?" I will take any random Shit and Shine title over that, seven days a week.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 July 19, 2100-2300:
- "Agrim Agadez" | Etran de L'Air | Agrim Agadez: Musique Guitare De La Republique Du Niger | Sahel Sounds
- "Golden Egg" | The Fire Dept. | L'Oeuf D'Or | M'Lady's
- "Groovin' In The Bus Lane" | The Jazz Butcher | Big Questions | Glass | "Physical Evidence"
- "If I Was With A Woman" | Ian Dury | New Boots And Panties!! [reissue] | Demon
- "Bruma" | Humberto Polar | Anatema | Discos Mono
- "The Pill" | Loretta Lynn | The Definitive Collection | MCA Nashville / Decca | "The Listening Parlour"
- "Sit and Cry" | Pat Kelly | Lonely Man | Burning Sounds
- "Sounds from the Hosseinieh" | Saint Abdullah | The Sounds of Evil - Vol. 1 | Boomarm Nation
- "Conspiracy" | The Jazz Butcher | Big Questions | Glass | "Physical Evidence"
- "Alabaster" | Alberich / Lussuria | Borgia | Hospital Productions
- "She Hacked My Head" | Brian Harris | Washed Up Man | self-released
- "Forever" | The Jazz Butcher | Big Questions | Glass | "Physical Evidence"
- "Who / Blank Pass" | You Still Have Friends | The Never Years | M.I.S.T.
- "Marsoul Alhoub" | Abdou El Omari | Nuits de Printemps avec Abdou El Omari | Radio Martiko
- "People" | Voilaaa | Des promesses | Favorite
- "54-46 Was My Number" | Toots & The Maytals | Monkey Business | Trojan
- "Inner Space" | El Nino & The Southern Oscillations | El Nino & The Southern Oscillations | Innovative Leisure
- "First Partially Recollected Conversation" | Those Who Walk Away | The Infected Mass | Constellation
- "With Your Love - Quarion Remix" | Marbert Rocel | In The Beginning Remixes | Compost
- "Sharon Signs to Cherry Red" | The Kamikaze Pilots | Sharon Signs to Cherry Red [reissue] | Night School
- "Mersey" | The Jazz Butcher | Big Questions | Glass | "Physical Evidence"
- "New Dark Age" / "Hot House" | The Sound | From the Lion's Mouth | Korova
- "El Mundo Sera Feliz" | Tobias | Eyes In The Center | Ostgut Ton
- "Death Dentist" | The Jazz Butcher | Big Questions | Glass | "Physical Evidence"
- "Blackout" | Chalk Outlines | Come On Feel The NoiZe, BraZil Class '17 | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
- "Parsifal" | Toby Driver | Madonnawhore | Flenser
- "The Hairbrush and the Tank" | The Jazz Butcher | Big Questions | Glass | "Physical Evidence"
- "Your House" | Paco Sala | The Silent Season | Denovali
- "My Boy Lollipop" | Sakura & The Quests | Girls in the Garage (Oriental Special Edition) | Past & Present
- "Vortex" | Fred P | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
honest to goodness airwaves
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Saturday Jul 29, 2017
Missing from My Own Head: Transmission 356, 2017 July 16
Saturday Jul 29, 2017
Saturday Jul 29, 2017
I invite you to enjoy another fill-in program that I'm not sure how I stumbled into, except by saying yes. Recently I watched this YouTube video with Henry Rollins (I know), in which he talked about why he basically "said yes" to every "opportunity" because he wanted to work as much as possible to stave off a return to Haagen-Dazs store management, or something like that. The difference between him and me is that he gets paid. (That's the only difference.) Anyway, here I am, spinning tunes and not managing an ice cream store, so hopefully something is accomplished here.
Perhaps some platonic ideal of an archive-follower will point out that it's not in fact true that I do better on Sunday nights than other fill-in opportunities, and perhaps even better than the usual Wednesday night thing. But to me it feels like it IS true. Good form is on display here, not to mention a "no fucks given" attitude that really needs to surface more often. Plus I had a useful, friendly interaction with a record label in real time--you'll have to listen to find out the when and what.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 July 16, 2100-2300:
- "Track 1 / Track 2" | Benedict Drew | Crawling Through Tory Slime | Mana
- "Birds of Texas" | Faust | Fresh Air | Bureau B
- "How I Learned To Love The Bomb" | The Dupont Circles | Holding Hands Under a Cloudless Sky: A Tribute to the Television Personalities Volume 4 | The Beautiful Music
- "Broken Pen" | Churrus | Come On Feel The NoiZe, BraZil Class '17 | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
- "Bits of Glass" | Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers | GOTHS!!! | VaVa
- "I Hope He's Everything You Wanted Me To Be..." | The Just Joans | Holding Hands Under a Cloudless Sky: A Tribute to the Television Personalities Volume 4 | The Beautiful Music
- "Golden Boy" | Mind Gamers | Power of Power | Record Makers
- "Someone To Share My Life With" | Todd Shuster | Holding Hands Under a Cloudless Sky: A Tribute to the Television Personalities Volume 4 | The Beautiful Music
- "Pulse Cathedral" | Desto | Immortality | Signal Life
- "Lapsus" | Arce | Lapsus EP | M.I.S.T.
- "They Deserve Death" | Vatican Shadow | Rubbish of the Floodwaters | Ostgut Ton
- "Stop And Smell The Roses" | Robert Scott | Holding Hands Under a Cloudless Sky: A Tribute to the Television Personalities Volume 4 | The Beautiful Music
- "Dua" | Ko Shin Moon | Ko Shin Moon | Akuphone
- "Lower Life" | Robedoor | New Age Sewage | Not Not Fun
- "Dancing Rain" | Gaussian Curve | The Distance | Music From Memory
- "Just Breathe" | Rowan Box | Just Breathe / Muffler | M.I.S.T.
- "Научитесь отпускать" | Bleak Fiction | Late Notes | M.I.S.T.
- "Treijas" | Selffish | He She Them Us | Serein
- "A Sea of Snakes" | A Wire Around Your Neck | One Step Closer to the End / A Sea of Snakes | M.I.S.T.
- "I Face The Wall" | Black Needle Noise with Dr Strangefryer | Before The Tears Came | Black Needle Noise
- "You Are Special And You Always Will Be" | The Puddle | Holding Hands Under a Cloudless Sky: A Tribute to the Television Personalities Volume 4 | The Beautiful Music
- "The Season Is Ours" | Flying Saucer Attack | Flying Saucer Attack [reissue] | VHF
- "Agartha Stories" | Bruscagin & Visnadi | Agartha Stories | Siamese
Time heals all, but what is time
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Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
Get Nowhere Twice As Fast: Transmission 355, 2017 July 13
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
We should get this out of the way first: on this program, which sees Junior and me continuing our "schtick" of playing entire sides, there's a wonderful set of Television Personalities covers. Admittedly, I had never really come across this band's music--except when I did. Its fingerprints are all over the early Creation Records catalog, and not just in the Times (naturally)--tell me that Biff Bang Pow! didn't spend their entire "career," as good as it was, trying to re-create "She's My Yoko." This material is not very typical of what we do here at BOMBAST, but it is simply too good. Does this mean anything?
I am more struck by the juxtaposition (or is it?) of Simon & Garfunkel and Joy Division, to be honest.
Junior has said that Simon & Garfunkel make "the only pop music that [she] can listen to without wanting to vomit," which is not only an endorsement but an attestation that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the other two anchors of her growing collection, are (at times) something other than pop. (She's pretty sharp.) Anyway, I come not to bury or praise Simon & Garfunkel, only to say that I genuinely don't understand them and never have. I can't inhabit these songs--except for "I Am A Rock"--and I can't fathom doing so. Imagine listening to "The 59th Street Bridge Song" and thinking, "this expresses me," or wanting this to be the case. I would run from anyone who did.
I remember this one time in catechism class when our teacher analyzed "The Sound of Silence"--supposedly as a warning against idol worship (?)--so I suppose that's something one can do. I have similar memories of U2 and Howard Jones lyrics going "under the microscope" at this or that Catholic Youth Group function. Good times!
One can be a Simon & Garfunkel person, or a Joy Division person, or neither, but certainly not both. Prove me wrong. Show me a living specimen.
Tag me as a "Joy Division person," which means--I don't really know what. I have a personal history with Closer, certainly, and like a friend it is always different when I come back to it. But I find, upon this listen, that I don't see myself in it, and I'm not sure how I ever did. These songs are too individual, too personal (maybe "The Eternal" transcends this). No doubt you've seen it referred to--callously and tritely--as Ian Curtis's suicide note (it probably isn't), but it certainly couldn't pass as anyone else's. Junior, once again, is right to find this "not that bad"--there is no reason to treat this anguish as yours. It's not.
Finally, "Pocket Love" isn't the most "dance party"-worthy tune there is, but it will have to do.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 July 13, 1900-2100:
- "Godstar" | Psychic TV | Godstar | Temple
- "Mrs. Robinson" | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits | Columbia
- "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits | Columbia
- "The Boxer" | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits | Columbia
- "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits | Columbia
- "The Sound Of Silence" | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits | Columbia
- "I Am A Rock" | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits | Columbia
- "Scarborough Fair / Canticle" | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits | Columbia
- "Look Back In Anger" | The Yellow Melodies | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "Silly Things Lovers Do" | Simon Bish & Andy Fonda | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "Jackanory Stories" | Dot Dash | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "Strangely Beautiful" | The Steinbecks | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming" | Skytone | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "A Good and Faithful Servant" | Jeremy | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "How I Learned To Love The Bomb" | Paul Bonin & The Chosen Few | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "Stop and Smell the Roses" | The Penelopes | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "Honey for the Bears" | The Milestone Band | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "She's My Yoko" | Bright Lights, Big Zombie | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "She Lives for the Moment" | Pretty Eyes for Captain America | Holding Hands Under A Cloudless Sky (A Tribute To The Television Personalities Volume 4) | The Beautiful Music
- "Heart and Soul" | Joy Division | Closer [reissue] | Factory
- "Twenty Four Hours" | Joy Division | Closer [reissue] | Factory
- "The Eternal" | Joy Division | Closer [reissue] | Factory
- "Decades" | Joy Division | Closer [reissue] | Factory
- "Pocket Love" | Superpitcher | The Golden Ravedays 3 | Hippie Dance
golden boy
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Monday Jul 24, 2017
Presumably, Supposably: Transmission 354, 2017 July 12
Monday Jul 24, 2017
Monday Jul 24, 2017
This program was the first of a two-night stint, so I needed to make it good, and it was. "Featureless, so plain to see, a loaded gun won't--" what? Where was I? I drifted off there for a second. Ah yes--no "Physical Evidence" here, I was (& am) still under summertime duress, but there is a trip to the "Listening Parlour." Lady Catharsis, by this point, was making a decent recovery from her bump on the head, but she has little to say about Stereolab. I'm realizing that I have never said much about Stereolab. They're gRRReat! Peng! and Switched On were essential parts of the soundtrack to Graduate School for both of us--shout out to House of Records, btw.
Feeling cheery & breezy at the moment, unsure why, but I am rolling with it. Listening to this episode was a bit ambulatory but mostly at the gym. That experience is a bit less self-punishing these days. Again, no idea why; maybe I am progressing, maybe just acquiescing. Maybe the quality of my programs is getting incrementally better and so the "voices in my head" are quieter on that account. "Enjoy(ing) the Silence."
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 July 12, 2100-2300:
- "Mbre Isong (Intro)" | Isadico Dance Band | Calabar-Itu Road: Groovy Sounds from South Eastern Nigeria (1972-1982) | Comb & Razor Sound
- "Purpose Awakening" | Aybee | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Forest Lore" | Black Point | Split, Vol. 2 | Out To Lunch
- "Untitled" | Anto | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Launderette" | Vivien Goldman | Sharon Signs to Cherry Red [reissue] | Night School
- "Effigy" | Verge | Emblematic Ruin | Avian
- "Pork Chop Express" | El Michaels Affair | Return to the 37th Chamber | Big Crown
- "Petite Mort" | Velocette | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "To the Edges" | Mind Over Mirrors | Undying Color | Paradise of Bachelors
- "Perversion" | Stereolab | Peng! | Too Pure | "Listening Parlour"
- "Mahin Nime" | Mamadou Kelly | Politiki | Clermont
- "1984" | Superpitcher | The Golden Ravedays 3 | Hippie Dance
- "7 Hours" | Chymera | Dots and Pearls 4 | Cocoon
- "Let's Talk A Good Story - Map.ache Remix" | Phoebe Killdeer & The Shift | Perception Shift / A | Altin Village & Mine
- "Resistance" | Galaxina | New Dark Age, A Tribute to the Sound | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
- "Ethel I" | Vulgata | Miracle Steps (Music from the Fourth World 1983-2017) | Optimo
- "Waves Form - MEon Rework" | Toydrum | My Eye on You (To Reinvision) | Skint
- "Tell Tony" | Kapote | The Body Move | Toy Tonics
- "Love Potion #9" | Nancy Sit | Girls in the Garage (Oriental Special Edition) | Past & Present
- "Blue River" | David Cunningham | Miracle Steps (Music from the Fourth World 1983-2017) | Optimo
- "Ererimbot Afayung Oko" | Etubom Rex Williams & His Nigerian Artistes | Calabar-Itu Road: Groovy Sounds from South Eastern Nigeria (1972-1982) | Comb & Razor Sound
- "Star Roving" | Slowdive | Slowdive | Dead Oceans
- "Motorway" | The Legends | Nightshift | Labrador
- "White Tigress" | Iona Fortune | Miracle Steps (Music from the Fourth World 1983-2017) | Optimo
- "Gloom" | 1115 | Post Europe | Alien Transistor
- "How Late It Was, How Late" | Argy | Dots and Pearls 4 | Cocoon
what can you do
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Sunday Jul 23, 2017
The Magic Wound: Transmission 353, 2017 July 8
Sunday Jul 23, 2017
Sunday Jul 23, 2017
The first instance having been a decent debut, Junior and I tried to do a program together again. This time we filled in for "The Magic WomB," DJ Kristi being out of town on account of her father. He is fine, by the way. On this occasion Junior brought in a record and insisted on playing an entire side of it. I have decided that this is going to be our thing.
This broadcast is full of hard truths and glimpses behind the curtain. It begins badly when I play the Fall "record" on spotify (I didn't own it yet--I swear I used to have some previous iteration of this album--how did it walk out of my collection?) but my app was set to "shuffle." If you can't handle me at my sausage-making worst, you're just not ready for me in general. We also learn that I think Junior is a better person than I am (a low bar that she had better clear) and that I have a chorus of unkind voices in my head. We should probably have saved Ian Dury for a later hour when children were less likely to be present, but Junior, at least, has heard worse. Any parent who does not play The Comet Is Coming for their child, though, should be charged with neglect.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 July 8, 1900-2100:
- "Eat Y'Self Fitter" | The Fall | Perverted By Language | Superior Viaduct
- "Neighborhood of Infinity" | The Fall | Perverted By Language | Superior Viaduct
- "Garden" | The Fall | Perverted By Language | Superior Viaduct
- "Hotel Bloedel" | The Fall | Perverted By Language | Superior Viaduct
- "What To Do" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "Money" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "Come On" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "Fortune Teller" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "Poison Ivy" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "Bye Bye Johnnie" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "I Can't Be Satisfied" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "Long Long While" | The Rolling Stones | More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) | London
- "Beachfires" | Burial | Subtemple / Beachfires | Hyperdub
- "Starship Africa Section 1" | Creation Rebel | Starship Africa [reissue] | On-U Sound
- "Starship Africa Section 2" | Creation Rebel | Starship Africa [reissue] | On-U Sound
- "Starship Africa Section 3" | Creation Rebel | Starship Africa [reissue] | On-U Sound
- "Starship Africa Section 4" | Creation Rebel | Starship Africa [reissue] | On-U Sound
- "Starship Africa Section 5" | Creation Rebel | Starship Africa [reissue] | On-U Sound
- "Wake Up and Make Love with Me" | Ian Dury | New Boots And Panties!! [reissue] | Demon
- "Sweet Gene Vincent" | Ian Dury | New Boots And Panties!! [reissue] | Demon
- "I'm Partial to Your Abracadabra" | Ian Dury | New Boots And Panties!! [reissue] | Demon
- "My Old Man" | Ian Dury | New Boots And Panties!! [reissue] | Demon
- "Billericay Dickie" | Ian Dury | New Boots And Panties!! [reissue] | Demon
- "Start Running" | The Comet Is Coming | Death to the Planet | Leaf
- "Final Eclipse (Full Version)" | The Comet Is Coming | Death to the Planet | Leaf
- "Ooh What a Life - Gerd Janson & Shan Edit" | Gibson Brothers | Ooh What a Life / Heaven | Running Back
more precisely
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Friday Jul 21, 2017
Real-Time Critique Mode: Transmission 352, 2017 July 5
Friday Jul 21, 2017
Friday Jul 21, 2017
After the previous program, it felt nice to do a show without observances or baggage. I even manage to sound upbeat here. There's a chance that I actually was, although that allusion to "wrath" at the opening of the program must have significance. Here I confront the usual problem of trying to capture the atmosphere of something that happened weeks ago, without the aid of an actual diary (what you're reading is a fake one). But on this night we were basically halfway through the period of my work life that I call "theory camp," and things were going smoothly, so I must have been feeling breezy.
I think that, had the program's recurring features not occurred to me, this is fairly close to the Platonic Ideal of what I would be Doing With Radio. Good segues, not too much incompetence, a raft of artists I hadn't played before, and the absence of nostalgia--it's all happening. I even manage to play a tune called "July 5th" ON JULY 5TH. What spirit could have occupied my body and made such entertainment happen. It couldn't have been mere "Gas," could it?
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 July 5, 2100-2300:
- "Gli Ragazzi Di Baia Di Puolo" | Move D | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Panes" | Module One | Hometown | Fauxpas
- "Candle Power II" | Rat Columns | Candle Power | Upset the Rhythm
- "Slow Grind" | The Veldt | Symmetry | Schoolkids
- "Asa" | Julien Villa | Away | Sodasound
- "Virtuous Circle" | Slugabed | Inherit The Earth | Anticon
- "Gold Toot Style" | Errol Brown | Orthodox Dub | Dub Store
- "Narkopop 4" | GAS | Narkopop | Kompakt
- "Miel" | Arca | Arca | XL
- "Haole" | Totes Preesh | Head Shop Boys | Love On The Rocks
- "Only Confusion" | Pankow | Times | Artoffact
- "Glade Runner" | Wolf Muller & Cass. | The Sound of Glades | International Feel
- "When My Mind Became Obsolete" | Derek Hunter Wilson | Travelogue | Beacon Sound
- "The Trip" | Boom Bip | Sun Choke | Lex
- "July 5th" | Horse Jumper of Love | Horse Jumper of Love | Joy Void
- "Little Hypocrite" | Alice Bag | Alice Bag | Don Giovanni
- "I Got Cut" | Superchunk | "I Got Cut" b/w "Up Against the Wall" | Merge
- "Tell Me - Joe Goddard Remix" | Tuff City Kids | Tell Me / R-Mancer Remixes | Permanent Vacation
- "Emile" | Mark Barrott | Music for Presence | International Feel
- "Madar komakam kon" | Saint Abdullah | The Sounds of Evil - Vol. 1 | Boomarm Nation
- "Future Song" | Akis | Space, Time And Beyond (Selected Works 1986-2016) | Into the Light
- "Narrow Creek" | mymk | Pastorales | Tiny Gods
- "Permafrost" | AB2088 | Sagittarius | Computer Club
- "Howl" | Superpitcher | The Golden Ravedays 4 | Hippie Dance
- "Lelek" | Sunshine Jones | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Gone Against the Wind" | LAKE | Forever or Never | Tapete
- "Twenty Bars" | Juju & Jordash | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
Portly and with Good Grace
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Wednesday Jul 19, 2017
Lonely Is As Lonely Does: Transmission 351, 2017 June 28
Wednesday Jul 19, 2017
Wednesday Jul 19, 2017
I must write a letter to you. I must make myself clear. But just as I do many of these broadcasts "under duress" of some kind, I often write these commentaries, or remembrances, or whatever they are, on short deadlines, self-imposed (out of guilt, usually) or perceived. Occasionally I am reminded that this matters to someone, but for the most part it's an imagined, impatient reader/listener or a voice in my head cracking the whip.
ANYWAY, yes, I gave over a program, basically, to Lonely Is An Eyesore, which I describe herein as a "life-altering record" and a "gateway," and which was "enjoying" its 30th birthday "on the day" of broadcast (if you account for time zone difference). Surely in a hopeless case like mine, you will have guessed that the Senior Catharses are regular listeners--I hope I make them proud, occasionally; my mother texted me after the show to ask me what the big deal was, since I didn't explain. I PLAY RECORDS SO I *DON'T* HAVE TO TALK. But I'll try to "talk" here.
THE GATEWAY: this description is not exactly true. In spring 1987 I was playing new EP releases by Throwing Muses and The (legendary) Wolfgang Press at my old station. So I "knew" who they were. I was already familiar with Cocteau Twins (hard not to be) and This Mortal Coil. (And, "of course," the long-departed Bauhaus.) Once, during the fall term of 1986, I had binged on Hershey's Kisses while blasting Xmal Deutschland at full volume in one of the station's listening rooms and given myself a blinding headache; I would do it again! I would guess that someone had tipped me off to Dead Can Dance; "The Fatal Impact" seems like something Early Me would have played on the radio. Colourbox were also "on my radar" but I hadn't really embraced them yet.
These were merely data points, bands and records I happened to like. Though I did read record covers, it hadn't occurred to me to think about patterns. Labelthink, as I call it, hadn't overtaken me. I recall, as an adolescent, noting that Prince, The B-52's, and Devo were all on Warner Bros. records, so someone there must have had decent taste. New Order and my beloved Durutti Column records were released by something called Factory Communications Ltd., and that was a cool coincidence. I knew that I had to have Smiths records on Rough Trade, not Sire, because I wanted nothing to do with those garish yellow-and-orange labels (also that I seemed not to like anything on MCA or Arista, or the stupid rainbow / mountainscape labels; aesthetics mattered, if only vaguely). Just babbling self-musings, a baby struggling to form words it didn't understand yet.
LIFE-ALTERING: Something flipped when--sitting in my parents' house, listening to some other DJ at my station--I heard (Clan of) Xymox's "Muscoviet Musquito" and, not knowing who or what it was, decided I had to hear and own the record. But, not having caught the back-announce (I'm sure it was because one of my siblings insisted on talking to me or something), I couldn't attribute the tune. The next time I visited the station, either because I had a show to do or because I was bored, I rummaged through the "current" bins. We had received a vinyl copy of Lonely Is An Eyesore--but I had no idea what it was. It just "looked cool." Maybe I thought it looked something like a This Mortal Coil or Throwing Muses record; maybe it was just serendipity. Serendipity was strong in those days. But anyway, here was the song, and everything else: an aesthetic, a catalog, a history, what seemed, stupidly, like a way of being. I was sad and lonely (ha ha) and impressionable; records meant so, so much to me at that time.
I became a 4AD devotee, overnight, it seemed; I wasn't de-programmed until about 5 years later, and only through what must have been a long series of disappointments. It just so happens that my memories of those years are quite repressed--certainly for non-4AD reasons! This is the cause of many of my problems now, I feel. All I know is the initial rush, a blazing summer of limerance, if you will; that labelthink was upon me, that I had to have everything, and that I've never really been the same.
In my (hasty and improvised) defense--objectively I wasn't that far gone. My band did send demo tapes--universally rejected, btw--to other labels. I was not the guy at the Pixies gig who had spray-painted the 4AD logo on the back of his leather jacket. (Counterpoint--but there I was, nevertheless, at two Pixies gigs, and my leather jacket was spray-painted with something else.) I'm not the guy in the facebook fangroup who thinks he's going to blow people's minds by posting some YouTubed Cocteau Twins song we have all heard half a million times. I know, based on the remaining evidence, that there were other things happening, that I had a previous identity (musical and otherwise) that was perfectly fine, and maybe even halfway cool. But there is no denying that I was smitten, dangerously obsessed. I wanted to be this.
Had I understood at the time I first heard this record that I was seeing "light from a dead star," that this was actually, by a plausible reckoning, the end of 4AD as it presents itself here, I might not have to work so hard to recover Young, Unbroken Me. But who knew at the time?
What remains? Three of the bands on this record are in the Hall of Legends, and I can't say for certain that there won't be more. At least a couple of other Legends have had brushes with 4AD, and maybe are people whose music I might have missed had there not been some connection. Despite the fact that I've since concluded that I like the Natures Mortes and Presage(s) compilations better (and am embarrassed by how shy I sound about this when I allude to it in the program!), LIAE is a singular achievement--there are a bajillion great Creation comps, for example, but not one conceptually similiar to this--and it still "sounds good loud," as I said to Friend of Bombast Mr. D when we were texting each other during this broadcast. I'm hopeful that one of these days I'll be able to hear it again with innocent wonder.
Oh yeah, there's about an hour and eighteen minutes' worth of other music here, too. Hopefully it will mean something to someone, maybe even me, in 2047.
Pretty sure I failed to clarify anything here, but as the kids say "it is what it is." Obscene, obscure.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 June 28, 2100-2300:
- "Stairfoot Lane Bunker - Minor Science Remix" | Special Request | Stairfoot Lane Bunker | Houndstooth
- "The Seven Armed Drummer" | Autre | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Your Neighbour" | Boy Robot | Final Transmission EP | City Centre Offices
- "Reza's Final Battle" | Saint Abdullah | The Sounds of Evil - Vol. 1 | Boomarm Nation
- "Roger Wilco's Night Out" | Marius Circus | Roger Wilco's Night Out | In The Garden
- "Huit" | Sky H1 | Mono No Aware | PAN
- "Saunter" | Arca | Arca | XL
- "My Eye on You (feat. Gavin Clark)" | Toydrum | My Eye on You (To Reinvision) | Skint
- "The Same River Once" | Rapoon | Miracle Steps (Music from the Fourth World 1983-2017) | Optimo
- "Primitive Methods" | El Mahdy Jr. | Time to Sell the Golden Teeth | Boomarm Nation
- "Hot Doggie" | Colourbox | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Acid, Bitter and Sad" | This Mortal Coil | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Cut the Tree" | The Wolfgang Press | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Fish" | Throwing Muses | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Frontier" | Dead Can Dance | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Hold Me Tender - feat. Urour" | Khan of Finland | Nicht nur Sex | Shitkatapult
- "Stratos" | Julien Villa | Away | Sodasound
- "Fukui Morning" | Claude Young | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Don't Know Why" | Slowdive | Slowdive | Dead Oceans
- "Definizione dell'impossibile" | Tale of Us | Endless | Deutsche Grammophon
- "The Cotton And The Organ" | Gl. Harlev Organ Orchestra | Organ Sessions | Jahtari
- "Crushed" | Cocteau Twins | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "No Motion" | Dif Juz | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Muscoviet Musquito" | Clan of Xymox | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "The Protagonist" | Dead Can Dance | Lonely Is An Eyesore | 4AD
- "Neckless Dub" | Jay Glass Dubs | New Teeth for an Old Country | Bokeh Versions
music for presence
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Monday Jul 17, 2017
It's a Fact that I Live With: Transmission 350, 2017 June 24
Monday Jul 17, 2017
Monday Jul 17, 2017
Did you know that I am scared of round numbers? I have a basic problem with implied symmetry in my playlists, e.g. I would rather play 29 or 31 songs in my broadcast than 30. (I have long felt this way about LPs--except for classic New Order, and all the 4AD eps from the 80s, I'm not a big fan of "the same number of tracks on each side of the record," finding the 10-song album particularly distasteful. Weird, huh.) Not too long ago, I was okay with milestones, at least--100th program, 200th program, etc. Now anything that ends in zero seems like a convenient place to call time on this adventure, or for someone else to do so.
So it was fairly cool that #350 popped up randomly as a fill-in opportunity on which Junior wanted to begin a co-hosting escapade. Not only "no meaning" but "decent co-host": I will take that. Junior had not really found her confidence or her voice, though it starts to come on near the end of this broadcast, when she begins making Gayle references. There is really not much talking on this episode; not sure what is going on with me. Maybe just chilling in the studio with a good person, and/or low-key scrambling to throw up some decent segues. Either way, good process = good results.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 June 24, 1700-1900:
- "Intro" | Gentleman's Dub Club | Dubtopia | Easy Star
- "The Hoima Witch and the Songye Mask" | Visions Congo | Mulago Sound Studio | Discrepant
- "Xiao Youmei Corridor" | Soundwalk Collective | Before Music There Is Blood | Apollo
- "Don't Turn Me Away" | Rexy | Sharon Signs to Cherry Red [reissue] | Night School
- "Hanky Panky" | Rita Chao & The Quests | Girls in the Garage (Oriental Special Edition) | Past & Present
- "Shooting Above The Garbage" | Carsickness | 1979-1982 | Get Hip
- "Koko Says" | WaqWaq Kingdom | Shinsekai | Jahtari
- "Space Movement Section 3" | Creation Rebel | Starship Africa [reissue] | On-U Sound
- "Flux" | Spacetime Continuum | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Top Eyop Odo" | Emmanual Ntia | Calabar-Itu Road: Groovy Sounds from South Eastern Nigeria (1972-1982) | Comb & Razor Sound
- "Level 5" | Al Lover meets Cairo Liberation Front | Nymphaea Caerulea | Hoga Nord
- "Bare Feet" | El Mahdy Jr. | Time to Sell the Golden Teeth | Boomarm Nation
- "Mille Voix" | Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma | Miracle Steps (Music from the Fourth World 1983-2017) | Optimo
- "FALLING RIZLAS" | Actress | AZD | Ninja Tune
- "Spring But Dark" | Clark | Death Peak | WARP
- "Placebo - Byron the Aquarius Reinterpretation" | Parker Madicine | Voices & Drums EP | Heist
- "To the Well" | Secret Shine | There Is Only Now | Saint Marie
- "Revel" | I:Cube | Air Texture Volume V | Air Texture
- "Dead Soul" | Hunter/Game | Dead Soul | Just This
- "Golden Thread" | Fabian Dikof | Who | Best Works
- "Welt 7" | Cologne Tape | Welt | Magazine
- "You in the Horizon" | Ensemble Economique | In Silhouette | Denovali
- "Blood & Berry" | Superpitcher | The Golden Ravedays 4 | Hippie Dance
What I like to think of as the sound of good
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Sunday Jul 16, 2017
Do the 'Ahhs' and Do Them Later: Transmission 349, 2017 June 21
Sunday Jul 16, 2017
Sunday Jul 16, 2017
This is more or less how I remember the dark months of May and June. It's possible that I have taken my frustration with this particular broadcast and spread it, like butter, over everything else I did in these two months, whether it warranted opprobrium or not. Ill-conceived, lazy, inattentive segues? Come get them. A featured record that skips on 3 out of 5 tracks? This is the place, fren.
Side note: I even manage to feel frustrated with Augustus Pablo, which is not a good look. But explain to me why it's a good thing that the drums are panned hard right in "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown," like some third-rate Big Youth record. It's not even the best tune on the album that bears its name, but it fit.
This was the first program in the season of the year that I like to call #theorycamp, where work for me is best imagined as a 170-tentacled squid. You may break free of some of them, but never all of them--and even if you were to manage it, you couldn't get the experience out of your head, even on dry land. "Scuba Death," indeed! Pretty sure that during the second hour of this program I was doing work emails trying to manage some crisis or other. Apologies--send me snail mail if you want a refund for this mixtape.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 June 21, 2100-2300:
- "Lai" | Hatti Vatti | SZUM | Most
- "Anarcoide" | Schilling | Hella | Apparel Tonic
- "Persistent Prick" | Serb | Qui Vive | Fizic
- "Octopus Web" | CTM | Love Means Taking Action Remixes | Posh Isolation
- "Autobody" | FIN | Ice Pix | Hausu Mountain
- "Don't Lose Yourself" | Desto | Immortality | Signal Life
- "Rosetta Stone" | Throwing Muses | Red Heaven | 4AD / Sire | "Listening Parlour"
- "Fractions" | Phon.o | Fractions | BPitch Control
- "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown" | Augustus Pablo | King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown | Shanachie
- "Better Recognize" | Illbilly Hitec | One Thing Leads to Another | Echo Beach
- "Cosmic Carrot (Parts 1+2)" | Timeshard | Planet Dog - Peel Your Head: The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
- "Senescence" | Scuba Death | The Worm at the Core | Further
- "Gernkraftwerk" | Kalipo | Stiff Little Spinners, Vol. 8 | Audiolith
- "Dog" | The Bug / Earth | Concrete Desert | Ninja Tune
- "Ride - Kittin's Remix" | Dubfire / Miss Kittin | Ride (Remixes) | SCI & TEC Vinyl Audio
- "Black Market" | Byul.org | Selected Tracks for Nacht Damonen | Alien Transistor
- "Bioforms" | Eat Static | Planet Dog - Peel Your Head: The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
- "FSG" | Daniel Brandt | Eternal Something | Erased Tapes
- "Azzurra" | Kyo | I Musik | Posh Isolation
- "God Says No To Tomorrow" | Timeshard | Planet Dog - Peel Your Head: The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
- "Star Dust - Adesse Versions Remix" | Nathan Surreal | Star Dust EP | Biologic
- "Sunspot" | Banco de Gaia | Planet Dog - Peel Your Head: The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
- "65 BPM" | Leibniz | Online | Hundert
- "Internal affairs" | Saint Abdullah | The Sounds of Evil - Vol. 1 | Boomarm Nation
what the leopard was seeking at that altitude
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Friday Jul 14, 2017
Astral Injuries: Transmission 348, 2017 June 14
Friday Jul 14, 2017
Friday Jul 14, 2017
What a week this was. Six days prior to this broadcast, Lady Catharsis fell on the sidewalk and concussed herself. That was an exciting night! She had recovered just enough to do a voice-over for "The Listening Parlour" here, but really not much more than that. The darkness of "brain rest" was her prescription, and I was doing two grownups' worth of stuff. I maybe should not have done this program, but honestly there was not much else to do at this time of night. (Even more honestly, it was more like "one-and-a-half grownups' worth of stuff," since I am at best good for half of a grownup's worth of stuff on my own.)
My karmic reward for carrying on this week was to have not a single computer at the radio station working properly, and needing to resort (gasp) to playing actual records, which wasn't this week's plan. This is what I mean by "under duress." It did work out non-catastrophically--at least I think so. As usual the biggest disaster was me--referring to David Thomas as "the big man" because at the moment his name slipped my mind! (I actually did see him live once, in 1991; I did not enjoy it much, but that's beside the point.) And, of course, "Astral Injuries," which SHOULD be the name of a record label.
BOMBAST playlist, 2017 June 14, 2100-2300:
- "Now I'm a Man" | The Funkees | Now I'm A Man | PMG
- "Tropopause" | Lusine | Sensorimotor | Ghostly International
- "Fallen Columns" | Ø [Phase] | Submerged Metropolitan | Token
- "Rædslernes Grønne Ø" | Videodrones | Mondo Ferox | El Paraiso
- "Glare" | Teengirl Fantasy | 8AM | Planet Mu
- "Space Jam 2017" | thatmanmonkz | Shade Throw EP | Dirt Crew
- "Key Women" | The Analog Roland Orchestra | 303 and Chill | Step Recordings
- "We Are a Mirror (feat. Douglas J McCarthy)" | ADULT | Detroit House Guests | Mute
- "Karevaneh Karbala" | Saint Abdullah | The Sounds of Evil - Vol. 1 | Boomarm Nation
- "Exalted Dub" | The Aggrovators | Dubbing At King Tubby's | VP
- "Non-Alignment Pact" | Pere Ubu | Beyond Punk! | Mojo Magazine
- "National Drone" | Hills | Alive at Roadburn | Rocket
- "Greater Grand Crossing" | Anjou | Epithymia | kranky
- "Night Falls on Chillicothe" | Brokeback | Illinois River Valley Blues | Thrill Jockey
- "Love" | Jacaszek | KWIATY | Ghostly International
- "Skagerrak" | Thomas Atzmann | Stiff Little Spinners, Vol. 8 | Audiolith
- "Amadou" | Acid Pauli | BLD | Ouie
- "Remote View Pt. 1" | Natan H | Atmosphere | Acid Camp
- "Exasthrus (Pane)" | M.E.S.H. | Mono No Aware | PAN
- "Wait For Me" | Ulrich Schnauss | No Further Ahead Than Today | Scripted Realities
- "Never Say Never" | Romeo Void | Never Say Never | 415 / Columbia | "Listening Parlour"
- "Part One" | The Chi Factory | The Kallikatsou Recordings | Astral Industries
You ain't hiding, you can't see
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