radiobombast

Undaunted I Will Be: Transmission 405, 2018 May 2

We'll brush aside recollections and current-events commentary for this outing and just talk about the mixtape. I did not enjoy this program. Which is to say, I did not enjoy listening to this program after the fact, which I did twice. I thought it might improve on second listen, but as always I was wrong again, as someone once said. In case you didn't know, my listening venue is the gym; I've been having problems at the gym.

My new depression meds make me extremely restless, and I just can't see the point of running myself to death on the cardio machine every day. (What would I be doing instead, with my time? Good question.) "You're just fat and content now," my psychiatrist tells me. Or--counterpoint--I'm dismayed and out of control.

Maybe this is my way of talking myself out of thinking this was a bad program. It certainly didn't feel like it on the night, and it does get "good" in the last 15 minutes or so, if you want to scroll forward that far. June Tabor doesn't really "fit," after all, which is a sign of her greatness, and elsewhere it begins to dawn on me that I might just be into miserable music. It's good that I learned this before it was too late. I think.

BOMBAST playlist, 2018 May 2, 2100-2300:

1. "Tongue Control" | Body-San | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
2. "Last Kiss by the Volga" | Macelleria Mobile di Mezzanotte | Hiver Noir | Subsound
3. "Bass Playa" | Meat Beat Manifesto | Impossible Star | Flexidisc
4. "Desire Lines" | Vibrissae | Lovelife, A Homage To Lush | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
5. "The Banks Of The Sweet Dundee" | June Tabor | The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
6. "Capsule" | Strie | Perpetual Journey | Serein
7. "Contained Within While" | Weirding Module | A Newer Age | Joyful Noise Recordings
8. "If I See You Again (TBTCI Version)" | Early Morning Sky | Fuzzy Feelings Collection | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
9. "Lord Bateman" | June Tabor | The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
10. "XX" | Nyma | XYXX | It's All In You
11. "Mambo Fist Miasma" | Severed Heads | Brave New Waves Session | Artoffact
12. "Drown the Witch" | Brian Harris | 7 Sweet Notions | self-released
13. "Loss" | John Tejada | Dead Start Program | Kompakt
14. "Donal Og" | June Tabor | The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
15. "300 HZ at Whitney Museum" | Simone Gatto | Heaven Inside Your Frequencies - Pt. 1 | Pregnant Void
16. "Wakey Wakey" | B. Fleischmann | Stop Making Fans | Morr Music
17. "Goodnight Children Everywhere" | The Times | This Is London [reissue] | Tapete
18. "Shake Your Body" | Mike Umoh | Duomo Sounds LTD (Nigerian 80s Disco Music to Move Your Soul) | Odion
19. "Tal" | Primer | Signals | Rarefied
20. "Injury Time" | Pete Astor | One for the Ghost | Tapete
21. "Buscando" | Dengue Dengue Dengue | Son de los Diablos | Enchufada
22. "The Fiddle And The Drum" | June Tabor | The Peel Sessions | Strange Fruit | "Physical Evidence"
23. "Bipolaire - Les Noirs" | Baloji | Bipolaire - Les Noirs | Bella Union
24. "Raw Sun" | Ornette Hawkins | The Other Side of What | AGN7
25. "Gimmick Sick" | Eric Random | Two Faced | Klanggalerie
26. "Fix This Thang" | Bibio | Beyond Serious | WARP
27. "Miracle Mind Program" | Mor Elian | Miracle Mind Program | Delft

oh dear, oh dear, oh no, oh no

https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis

Tough Kids Love Sad Songs: Transmission 404, 2018 April 25

Now that I've got my Morrissey rant out of the way, I can settle back into my routine. "This was a solid program," and so on. But sometimes the mundane is the truth. This was a solid program. Segue-wise, I probably lost my way somewhere in the middle, but Superpitcher seemed to settle me. 15-minute songs [or whatever] will do that.

But, you know, I can't escape The Smiths no matter what I do. As I've written elsewhere, they are the reason any of this matters to me. But for a time in the late 80s I must have thought that I'd outgrown them, or they embarrassed me, or I was grieving them, or something. At any rate I "moved on" and where did I go but to Felt and the Cocteau Twins, both represented here on this broadcast.

Cocteau Twins broke my heart, and I have chronicled that, sort of, but it wasn't political. I will never be able to quit them unless I discover that one of them hates black people, or something. [I hope I'm not inviting any revelations here.]

I brought Felt into my life at a crucial time. I had of course heard "Primitive Painters" on the radio plenty of times, and I played it plenty of times, as "trendy Sacramentans" [which I ultimately became] were apparently prone to do. But I bought Poem of the River after a harsh telling-off from someone I thought was a friend, and in that moment of vulnerability it was just right. Lawrence struck me, even then, as a more interesting, less problematic Morrissey. Please god don't let him be a Brexiteer or have a thing for Hitler.

BOMBAST playlist, 2018 April 25, 2100-2300:

1. "Der Konig 1-4" | Nackt | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
2. "Online Seance" | The Sprawl | EP 2 | The Death of Rave
3. "Crystal Ball" | Felt | The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories [reissue] | Cherry Red
4. "Ode: Springtime and Summer" | Marsmobil | Fairytales of the Supersurvivor | Compost
5. "Four Faces" | Golden Teacher | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
6. "Taken" | Nyma | XYXX | It's All In You
7. "Julia's Call" | Lake Ruth | Birds of America | Feral Child
8. "The City Looks Beautiful from up Here" | Roche | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
9. "Liquid Lucite" | Johnny Jewel | Digital Rain | Italians Do It Better
10. "Dial up to the Palace" | Gary Safe | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
11. "Skinhead #2" | The Breeders | All Nerve | 4AD
12. "Listen in to the Heart" | Calendar Crowd | Perfect Hideaway | Dark Entries
13. "The City Hangover" | The Cyclist | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
14. "Electric Town" | Benoit B | Japonaiserie | Berceuse Heroique
15. "Happenings" | Weirdest Dream | White Worms | Dopeness Galore
16. "First Day" | Peder Mannerfelt | The 3D Printed Songbook | Peder Mannerfelt Produktion
17. "Micaela" | Leonardo Martelli | Menti Signole, Vol. 2 | Antinote
18. "Worldwide Sunshine (In Yr Heart Not the Sky Dub)" | Coyote Clean Up | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
19. "Duvalierism (u)" | German Army | More Bitter Fruit | Discrepant
20. "Kills v. Lies" | Efrim Manuel Menuck | Pissing Stars | Constellation
21. "Earth Wart" | Sam de la Rosa | Earth Wart | Mannequin
22. "Together" | Jupiter Jax | Silk to Dry the Tears | 100% Silk
23. "Candy In Bed" | Fuzzy Feeling | Fuzzy Feelings Collection | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
24. "Punky Reggae Party" | Superpitcher | The Golden Ravedays 12 | Hippie Dance
25. "My Love Paramour" | Cocteau Twins | Head Over Heels [reissue] | 4AD
26. "Wild Mountain Thyme" | Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band | Adios Señor Pussycat | Violette
27. "The War Against Intelligence (Peel Session)" | The Fall | The Fontana Years | UMC / Fontana
28. "Theta v3 (Repetir)" | Existente | Theta Series | Arctic Dub (Sursumcorda)

heaven inside your frequencies

https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis

We're Probably Not Going To Be This Ambient All Evening: Transmission 403, 2018 April 18

As I say during the broadcast, I was having a hard time deciding whether I wanted to play ambient music or disco. So I played both. I have trouble with decisiveness, with finality.

To force a segue here, I am confident that someone like Morrissey would have hated this program, and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. This was the night after the day we Found Out (I guess?) about Morrissey through that horrible softball interview on his own website. Finally freed from wilful misinterpretation and journalistic malfeasance, he reveals that he...is Douglas Pearce, basically? Truly uncanny. Being an aesthete, I used to think Death in June was ripping off the Smiths' visuals; I didn't realize it was an exchange.

Hero worship will enable and force you to do some mental gymnastics, and to cling to mere possibilities. Saying that reggae is vile might have been a reference to its patriarchy and homophobia. It's possible that the chorus of "Panic" wasn't about lynching black people. There's a chance that "We'll Let You Know" and "National Front Disco" are not endorsements. [In my defense, this is more of a probability. But there I go. Or do I? I can't tell anymore.] And so on. But that's my problem all along. Post-1976 we are not supposed to have heroes, I guess, but I do. I've never "gotten it."

I could write a paragraph about when I got "woke," because part of me had to know, but who cares? I've been wrong.

Was he ever anything but "devious, truculent, and unreliable?" I would like to think that the person who wrote "Well I Wonder" and "I Know It's Over" was a great chronicler of loneliness. Even fascists get lonely! It didn't occur to me at the time that perhaps he was lonely because he'd preemptively ruled out the possibility of companionship with most of humanity. I'm still struggling with this reckoning. Those Smiths songs must have been the work of a different person. Right?! Sigh.

I would have been better off seeing Morrissey from the start as many of my friends did, as a Ridiculous Person. [And I did, sort of, but I just loved him anyway.] Or just being on Team Robert Smith, though I never quite understood that beef. But things didn't happen that way. As I've written elsewhere, the Smiths came along when I needed something to come along.

What to do now? I wonder if, after a few more similar interviews, Smiths records will become like Death in June records, a kind of eBay contraband. [I'm thinking also of Spotify's new policies regarding hateful speech and hateful behavior.] Probably not, I guess. But they are a kind of emotional contraband. Will I jettison mine? I told you I have trouble with decisiveness and finality.

BOMBAST playlist, 2018 April 18, 2100-2300:

1. "White Worms Intro" | Weirdest Dream | White Worms | Dopeness Galore
2. "Stray" | Degree Absolute | Lovelife, A Homage To Lush | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
3. "Drums Please" | Saine | For The Dreamers | Omena
4. "Black I.C.E." | The Sprawl | EP 2 | The Death of Rave
5. "Poison Fang" | Vast Asteroid | Fuzzy Feelings Collection | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
6. "ONE" | Meat Beat Manifesto | Impossible Star | Flexidisc
7. "Flying" | Superpitcher | The Golden Ravedays 9 | Hippie Dance
8. "Bacchus Theme" | Mirt/Ter | Bacchus Where Are You? | Monotype
9. "Shame" | Mikkel Metal | Pop Ambient 2018 | Kompakt
10. "Disco Connection" | Bindiga | Duomo Sounds LTD (Nigerian 80s Disco Music to Move Your Soul) | Odion
11. "2.4" | Nicklas Sorensen | Solo 2 | El Paraiso
12. "Evidence" | Metro Area | Metro Area (15th Anniversary Edition) | Environ
13. "Hurray For The People" | Pete International Airport | Safer With The Wolves... | A Recordings
14. "Racist Cops On A Jog" | Sam de la Rosa | Earth Wart | Mannequin
15. "When Mama Was Moth" | Cocteau Twins | Head Over Heels [reissue] | 4AD
16. "NorthernLi" | Trinidadian Deep | Organic Frequencies | D3 Elements
17. "All Is Not Lost" | Hodge | Beneath Two Moons | Berceuse Heroique
18. "Improvisation #2 Part 2" | Ulrich Schnauss | Improvisation #2 | Scripted Realities

notebooks out plagiarists

https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis

Looking into the Void, You're Reckoning with a Question: Transmission 402, 2018 April 11

Here is another fine program, perhaps even finer than the last. [Feeling like perhaps I should open every salvo with this sentiment, whether it is true or not.] I actually had that very long Ulrich Schnauss piece going during my workout. And it did not kill the vibe, whatever my workout vibe may be. So I heartily endorse this one.

Wonder of wonders, I even sound up for it on this outing. It must be my performer training kicking in, on some level. Though I have been "checking in" with myself and can assure you that I am still having fun, I am very tired in the moment, which comes from my being old and its being late and my inability to get proper sleep. I have also been battling the most wicked depression this winter [yes, it was still winter at this time], from what cause I do not even really know. So there's a lot going on, shallow affect notwithstanding. Does it get better? I think it must.

BOMBAST playlist, 2018 April 11, 2100-2300:

1. "Nervous Mary" | The Breeders | All Nerve | 4AD
2. "Love Is a Foreign Country" | Dirtmusic | Bu Bir Ruya | Glitterbeat
3. "Compassion and Release" | Benoit B | Japonaiserie | Berceuse Heroique
4. "Monochrome" | Whimsical | Lovelife, A Homage To Lush | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
5. "Besakih's Dragons' Clouds" | Raw M.T. | Trip To The Far East | Distant Hawaii
6. "Improvisation #2 Part 1" | Ulrich Schnauss | Improvisation #2 | Scripted Realities
7. "Dona Nobis Pacem" | Eindkrak | Brullend Staal | Unknown Precept
8. "Virus" | Chafik Chennouf | The Harvest of a Quiet Eye | Opal Tapes
9. "Capsize" | Carl Gari | Shipster | Permanent Vacation
10. "Undertow" | Coloring Electric Like | Lovelife, A Homage To Lush | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
11. "Heart 2 Tape" | Silvia Kastel | Air Lows | Blackest Ever Black
12. "Sweetness And Light" | Vivienne Eastwood | Lovelife, A Homage To Lush | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
13. "Walter and the Taxi" | Lake Ruth | Birds of America | Feral Child
14. "Ocean" | Shoe Shine Six | Fuzzy Feelings Collection | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
15. "Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow" | Felt | The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories [reissue] | Cherry Red
16. "XY" | Nyma | XYXX | It's All In You
17. "Black Pyramid" | Johnny Jewel | Digital Rain | Italians Do It Better
18. "Bird Element" | Etelin | The Harvest of a Quiet Eye | Opal Tapes
19. "Blind Blue" | Masaki Uchida | Xenolinguistics | Loose Lips
20. "You Had" | Peder Mannerfelt | The 3D Printed Songbook | Peder Mannerfelt Produktion
21. "Djoukourou - Auntie Flo Remix" | Oumou Sangare | Djoukourou - Auntie Flo Remix | Highlife Edits
22. "Love Is Like A Violence" | Ted Milton | Ruminant Violence | Optimo
23. "Apokalypso 3" | Prins Thomas | Apokalypso | Rett | Fletta
24. "Come Play the Trees Outro" | Snapped Ankles | Come Play the Trees | Leaf

organic frequencies

https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis

All of Us Do It, Each Time Asleep: Transmission 401, 2018 April 4

We got close to the Platonic Ideal of a Bombast on this night. Here is a program that has a bit of everything: a bit of shoegaze, a bit of 4AD delicacy, a bit of Creation, some African music, some electro, and some of whatever my current aesthetic is. (I don't know how to classify it and don't care.) Why "close to," then? Because I didn't feel at the time, and don't feel on repeated listening, that this was "great." But don't pay attention to me. According to one listener, mediated through Felix, our GM, I was "killin' it" on this night. So there you have it, maybe.

Two things I have never mastered in this life are "aligning my perceptions and tastes with those of other people" and "absorbing affirmation." I am good at taking it in and decent at acknowledging it but I can't seem to let it flow through me and touch every part of my being, as I need it to. I'm thinking of the time in Hamlet when Rosencrantz says, "take you me for a sponge, my lord?" and I'm, like, "THAT IS MY HIGHEST ASPIRATION."

BOMBAST playlist, 2018 April 4, 2100-2300:

1. "Woa" | Zazou / Bikaye / CY1 | Noir Et Blanc | Crammed Discs
2. "Still Walking" | Throbbing Gristle | 20 Jazz Funk Greats [reissue] | Mute
3. "Ad Hoc Principle" | Barreca | Leimer | Dual Mono | Palace of Lights
4. "Inti" | The Cyclist | Sapa Inca Delirium | Hypercolour
5. "So Quero Um Xodo" | Os Mulheres Negras | Outro Tempo | Music from Memory
6. "Dounignamou" | Amadou Balake | Bar Konon Moussou Bar | Kindred Spirits | "Physical Evidence"
7. "Raincoat" | Flite | Sick Music 2018 | Hospital
8. "Cellophane" | Johnny Jewel | Digital Rain | Italians Do It Better
9. "No Hard Feelings" | The Times | Go! With The Times [reissue] | Tapete
10. "Advise" | Christy Ogbah | Duomo Sounds LTD (Nigerian 80s Disco Music to Move Your Soul) | Odion
11. "Fugazi (feat. Elif Dikec)" | Gantz | Dying on Acid | Deep Medi Musik
12. "Les pays exterieurs" | Benoit B | Japonaiserie | Berceuse Heroique
13. "Place for Me" | Red Rack'Em | Place for Me / Exhalt | Bergerac
14. "Nabacouboury" | Amadou Balake | Bar Konon Moussou Bar | Kindred Spirits | "Physical Evidence"
15. "Opium" | Vicious Blossom | Fuzzy Feelings Collection | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
16. "Look at Me" | Mike Umoh | Duomo Sounds LTD (Nigerian 80s Disco Music to Move Your Soul) | Odion
17. "Runs Reprise" | Klein | Tommy EP | Hyperdub
18. "Tondibama" | Amadou Balake | Bar Konon Moussou Bar | Kindred Spirits | "Physical Evidence"
19. "Drexel Street - Interlude" | Submorphics | Detroit Haze | The North Quarter
20. "Hands Return" | Circuit Breaker | Hands Return to Shake | Harbinger Sound
21. "Willow (Mehmet Aslan Remix)" | Yor Kultura | Lotus EP | The Magic Movement
22. "Balake Ya Marlama" | Amadou Balake | Bar Konon Moussou Bar | Kindred Spirits | "Physical Evidence"
23. "Oil Drowning Portrait" | Basic House | The Harvest of a Quiet Eye | Opal Tapes
24. "Fantasy" | Omega Vague feat. Dani Mari | Lovelife, A Homage To Lush | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
25. "Strange Love" | Ghost Music | I Was Hoping You'd Pass By Here | Arlen
26. "Danse Macabre" | Dean McPhee | Four Stones | Hood Faire
27. "Beatrix" | Cocteau Twins | Treasure [reissue] | 4AD
28. "Nth" | Portal | Ion | Profound Lore
29. "End" | JAGUWAR | Ringthing | Tapete

you end up fooling yourself

https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis