radiobombast

What Can We Do To Stop This Insanity? Transmission 500, 2019 December 11

Last night I had another teaching dream. I was in a large, run-down auditorium, lecturing as I once did to a few hundred people who would rather be somewhere else. (I keep having to remind myself this never had much to do with me.) It was a familiar lecture that I actually used to deliver in real life, one that I was good at and refined constantly. But my heart was not in it and I (or the material) was losing people. At some point I decreed a bathroom break; to my surprise it seemed that the auditorium was located in some city centre, next to a bunch of retail spaces. Most of my "audience" trailed off to various stores instead of returning to class, and frankly I think I chose this option too. The dream dissolved as usual into incoherence and I woke up, not wanting to sleep anymore.

This keeps happening, probably because I keep not learning from it. But I already know that I failed at being emotionally and spiritually present in my previous life. Did I always understand this? Funny story...

My academic misadventure is pretty neatly positioned between my two stints as a disc jockey. In January 1993 I did my last KDVS program five days before leaving for graduate school; the Bombast program launched about 16 months after I vacated my last faculty office. It's weird to demarcate things this way, but where is the lie? 

Anyway, at the beginning of my MA program I needed some funds to float me for about a month or so before my graduate assistantship checks started rolling in--to cover niceties like rent, food, and so on. I had nothing worth selling except for records and CDs. It's wild to think about what was possible at that time, and what we valued. You can't make any money doing this today, no matter what Discogs tries telling you, but it absolutely worked for me at this time. AND, five months later, when my apartment was broken into, the thieves took my CDs and left my computer. If you were somehow transported back to that world, you would not recognize it.

So Lady Catharsis (yes, even then she was with me) drove me down to Amoeba in Berkeley and watched me unload about 1/3 of my collection. This wasn't one of those occasional prunings you do, just to make a little room, or because you've moved past certain things. You wouldn't believe the stuff I had to jettison. It felt like cutting off a limb. They'll tell you that commodity fetishism is a poor substitute for having a personality, and "they" are right. But I do have a personality, and this happened to hurt a lot. Sacrifices Had To Be Made, and I Needed To Grow Up. Sometimes I try to bargain with memory and imagine that maybe it was other people who told me these things, but I'm almost positive it was me saying them to myself. Anyway, in the moment you couldn't consider it anything but sensible, so onward and upward I went.

In times of acute stress and despair, during the ensuing years of being variously (and sometimes simultaneously) marginalized, stalked, overlooked, surveilled, bullied, swindled, targeted, and finally discarded, all while incurring tremendous debt and distancing myself geographically and emotionally from loved ones, I would think back to the Faustian bargain that made it all possible.

What if I had just said No, and kept my records?

How much worse would that have been? Is that a silly thing to wonder?

This is probably more than you want from a community radio podcast, sorry.

But when I speak grandly about the show's mission it's as real as it is selfish and mundane and ridiculous. I'm trying to close a circle and conjure a ghost--a lost child, maybe. If it's funny that I think of this as a self-healing ritual then at least I have brought you momentary amusement. That's something. It's amazing (even if behind the scenes I have fucking earned it and then some) that WRFI has let me do this for one thousand hours. Maybe one day I will even have spent as much time in the Kenny Ritter Memorial Studio as I spent standing in front of a resentful audience talking about things that don't matter to anyone.

Trying to rationalize what I did in this 500th ritual, I guess I would say I was a bit more overt about it than I am most of the time. Lady Catharsis told me to be my usual awesome self, and I have to say I was! It was not exactly a smooth blend of present and past, but somehow, magically, it worked.

Cabaret Voltaire actually has a song called "Invocation," but did you know that for me "Bad Self" truly invokes something? I have always loved it more than is healthy but the word "mercenary" has taken on special meaning in my postgrad life. Because I need to have some secrets I will just say that it has worked a kind of magic in my world. So this tune is a kind of theme song now for me, the guy who has no money and is letting you download his mixtapes with no strings attached.

Looking back at my other milestone programs, I don't think they were that remarkable or successful. Transmission 100 was all but a secret, executed late at night (I'm too old for that now!) and without planning or fanfare. I don't feel like hiding my light anymore as I must have felt back then. I tried to fold an acknowledgement of "200" into the usual business of that program, but you can always tell when a thing is forced. Episode 300, looking back, was a kind of Oedipal moment--the patricidal kind, not the incestuous kind--that had to be happening in a downward spiral. At the moment I'm not interested in hearing it again. The 400th show was a disaster--another magic word!--but it is one of many lessons I am learning these days about boundaries. However, this one, right here, makes me proud. It even made me proud in the moment! 

But I must continue to own my negligence. Since this program was broadcast, 71 days ago now, I've gone on the air 12 times. At the gym (always the fucking gym) I am listening back to a transmission from 39 days ago. I've just finished editing a sound file from 22 days ago--5 shows ago. Running through the archive, I note that I have spent an awful lot of time being two months behind here. Maybe I should just embrace that.

I know that you people don't read, but for just a moment longer I'm going to pretend that you do, and mention that a few posts ago I promised some statistics. But I've decided to spare you because if you've made it this far you've been through enough. Look, sometimes I flake out and sometimes even I get bored with me. Isn't it time for a bathroom break, or some shopping, or something? Anything?

Sweet dreams.

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 December 11, 2100-2300:

1. "Party at Ground Zero" | Fishbone | Fishbone | Columbia
2. "The Revolution Will Be Televised" | Tupelo Chain Sex | Spot the Difference | Selma
3. "Menebo Nden" | Moussa Doumbia | Sound d'Afrique II - Soukous | Mango
4. "Ooze" | 23 Skidoo | The Gospel Comes to New Guinea | Ronin
5. "No Age Dub" | Lee "Scratch" Perry | Life of the Plants | Stones Throw
6. "Tea Leaf Dancers" | Flying Lotus | Presents INFINITY Infinitum Maida Vale Session | WARP
7. "Metal Banshee (Mad Professor Mix One)" | Massive Attack | Massive Attack V Mad Professor Part II (Mezzanine Remix Tapes '98) | UMC / Virgin
8. "Confession" | Chris & Cosey | Exotika [reissue] | Conspiracy International
9. "For Suzanne" | The Durutti Column | Fidelity [reissue] | Les Disques Du Crépuscule
10. "Stop the Coup (Mikk Stupp - Rocked out Miami Remix)" | Cabinet of Millionaires vs Zion Train | Stop The Coup | Chocolate Fireguard
11. "Privatise the Air" / "Privatise the Air Pt. 2" | Gary Clail & On-U Sound System | End of the Century Party | On-U Sound
12. "Motivation" | The London Underground | Current Affairs Session | On-U Sound
13. "Bad Self (Part One)" | Cabaret Voltaire | James Brown | Virgin / Some Bizarre
14. "Space Dookie / At Last" | Afriqua | Colored | R & S
15. "The Tides" | Jeff Mills | Moon (The Area of Influence) | Axis
16. "March of the Rising Sun" | The Comet Is Coming | Death to the Planet | Leaf
17. "Hum Along And Dance" | The Jackson 5ive | Get It Together | Motown

motivated by hype and avarice

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Cruising Altitude Departure 33, 2019 December 7

[GUEST POST]

Good morning, friends, it's Captain Halcyon, dropping in to provide what I hope is a nice little break from this site's usual content. It's been seven months since I've done this--have you missed me? I have missed these departures, but we have tried the "regularly scheduled appearance" strategy and like most other things it didn't work. Thankfully no one was hurt!

Anyhow, sometime while I was away, I suppose, this "program" celebrated a sixth birthday. That we have only done 33 of these excursions feels more right than wrong. There is no demand whatsoever for these transmissions, and they can't be special if they happen all the time. (Is this what the kids call a "subtweet?") All that said, I feel like our journeys add up to a coherent...something. This one was maybe a bit heavier and choppier than whatever I must have first imagined in the "halcyon" summer of 2013, but living things are bound to change.

Fly with me next time, whenever that is, and we'll see how things are different, and how they are the same.

CRUISING ALTITUDE playlist, 2019 December 7, 1000-1100:

1. "Blue" | Not Waving | Futuro (Music for the Waldorf Project) | Ecstatic
2. "Racimos De Luz" | Federico Durand | Pequeñas Melodías | IIKKI
3. "Mouthless Dub" | Jay Glass Dubs | Plegnic | Ecstatic
4. "ស្ថានីយ៍ដំបូង ｓ ｕ ｎ ｒ ｉ ｓ ｅ ░ ｆ ｉ ｒ ｓ ｔ ｓ ｔ ｏ ｐ ░" | ｓ ｉ ｒ ｏ ｓ ស៊ីរ៉ែន | Sualo Gevor | Virtual Soundsystem
5. "(This Is) Water" | Soap&Skin | From Gas to Solid / you are my friend | Play It Again Sam
6. "Zweitens" | Max Würden Feat. Luis Reichard | Pop Ambient 2019 | Kompakt
7. "Breathe the Snake 1" | UnicaZürn | Transpandorem | Touch
8. "Dekka" | Anton Kubikov | Pop Ambient 2017 | Kompakt
9. "Bright Light" | Fumio Miyashita | Wave Sounds of the Universe | Personal Affair
10. "A" | Trudge | 100 | 1Ø PILLS MATE
11. "Shinkiroh" | Toshifumi Hinata | Broken Belief | Music from Memory

I pretend

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Can You Guess Which One of Us Does Not Give a Toss: Transmission 499, 2019 December 4

Sports radio chuds would call a fixture like this a "trap game." The "birthday episode" was last week. The milestone episode is next week. This is just a low-stakes Wednesday night radio shift, right? Just routine stuff, our usual but always awesome "special time together."

As always, these engagements don't work out as planned (the question, "why do we never plan differently," has never been answered). The studio computers decided to do a Maximum Overdrive on me, which explains why Slowness magically keeps pausing and why at one point Stereolab is playing from two different sources. (It does not explain why I survived to write about the experience). I cannot say I did much better, talking over Karyyn and messing up The Miller Sisters in every possible way.

Since this program was broadcast, 73 days ago now, I've gone on the air 12 times. At the gym I am listening to a transmission from 38 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 31 days ago--5 shows ago. I've had a lot of time and distraction to buffer this awkward experience, and I have to say it's working!

I did get praise for playing Chris and Cosey, as one should! And the segue from David J to Flying Lotus was a special moment. Truly "I Know Not What I Do" but, like the proverbial monkeys working at typewriters I will arbitrarily produce brilliance if you give me enough time.

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 December 4, 2100-2300:

1. "Sand & Stone" | Slowness | Berths | Schoolkids
2. "Italian Shoes Continuum" | Stereolab | Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in The Milky Night (Expanded Edition) | Duophonic / WARP
3. "I Am the Sweeper (Macerator Remix)" | Diane Marie Kloba | D.M.K vs S.K.1.2.3 | self-released
4. "For the Future" | Elmono | Cooper's Dream EP | Tectonic
5. "SEGMENT & THE LINE" | KARYYN | The Quanta Series | Mute
6. "The 21st Century Is Killing Me" | The Membranes | What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away | Cherry Red
7. "Home Is Where the Music is" | rRoxymore | Face to Phase | Don't Be Afraid
8. "4 Cantos" | Bixiga 70 | Quebra Cabeca | Glitterbeat
9. "We Are Coming Home - 2 Paris Septembre Re-edit" | Pat Thomas | Disco Highlife Reedit Series Vol. 2 | Comet
10. "Penalties of Love" | Sequoyah Murray | Before You Begin | Thrill Jockey
11. "Pictures Of You" | The Royal Landscaping Society | Disintegration Revisited | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
12. "DAY 1" | Islam Chipsy & EEK | Kahraman | 100Copies
13. "whisper" | serpentwithfeet | soil | Secretly Canadian
14. "Talk To Me" | Chris and Cosey | Songs of Love & Lust [reissue] | Conspiracy International
15. "Boganga & sandia" | AMMAR 808 | Maghreb United | Glitterbeat
16. "There's No Right Way To Do Me Wrong" | The Miller Sisters | Hillbilly Fillies & Rockin' Chicks | Charly | "The Listening Parlour"
17. "Closedown" | Os Gambitos ft. Mari Bonanomi | Disintegration Revisited | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
18. "هيلا Hela" | Carl Gari & Abdullah Miniawy | Whities 023 (The Act Of Falling From The 8th Floor) | Whities"
19. "Uneffable" | Creep Show | Uneffable | Bella Union
20. "Vernissage Anticonspiratoria" | Repetentes 2008 | Galaxia Fini | Superconscious
21. "The Auteur (Redux The Starlet's Cut)" | David J | Missive to an Angel from the Halls of Infamy and Allure | Glass Modern
22. "Golden Axe" | Flying Lotus | Presents INFINITY Infinitum Maida Vale Session | WARP
23. "Self Stockholm Syndrome" | Bambounou | Musique Ambiante Française - Vol. 2 | Tigersushi
24. "I Know Not What I Do" | AFRODEUTSCHE | RR001 | River Rapid

We don't have to become anything else

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They Don't Call Me Loverboy for Nothing: Transmission 498, 2019 November 27

"The spirits are with us tonight," I say to my co-pilot, Lady Catharsis. It's true--this was a good program on a festive occasion. Since its inception on Thanksgiving Eve 2012, the Bombastic hullabaloo has claimed the Wednesday of Thanksgiving Week, a "moveable feast," as its birthday. For various reasons we haven't always been able to observe it. We were able to mark it in 2013; I won't link to that one because, reasons. Inexplicably in 2014 the program had moved to Tuesday night, but I was gifted the opportunity to make something special happen.

Years and years ago, I had come to view Thanksgiving as my favorite holiday; about a decade ago it took on some baggage. In 2009 my previous life ended, and the unraveling began in November. Thanksgiving happened a couple of weeks later, and (I like to think) unrelatedly Junior had a meltdown right before dinner. I haven't really been able to tolerate yelling since; is that TMI? Anyway, for a couple of years everything in my life got worse; I was in a really dark place in the time period I describe in this broadcast, when my personal hero Jim Murphy foisted me upon the innocent listeners of the Southern Tier on that fateful night. He saved my life, and he redeemed Thanksgiving--except for the whole genocide thing, I guess, which I am inexcusably bracketing.

There's also the fact that between 2014 and 2018 the Catharsis Family was living in a tiny upstairs apartment, having been chased out of our previous rental by a psychotic landlord who (I'm not kidding) traumatized me and probably the rest of my family as well. A minor inconvenience in all this was that our kitchen was too small to prepare big meals, and we would travel out of state to my brother's house for Thanksgiving each of these years. In 2019 we finally grew up and bought a house, so we stuck around over the break.

Hey, you know, sorry if this is personal and non-musical and dull but the program is me, I am the program, this is the archive, write me for a refund if you like.

Since this program was broadcast, 78 days ago now, I've gone on the air 13 times. I just finished listening to a transmission from 44 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 29 days ago--5 shows ago. I just did a show last night and am awake in the pre-dawn hours because for some reason I couldn't sleep. Yet somehow my memory is sharpening. I don't even know if that is idiomatically correct but it feels right so I am going with it.

Anyway there were good vibes flying around the studio on this night. The research team was busy, "informing" our listeners about needle time, Jeremy Clarkson, and Two Thousand Maniacs!, among other things. "Records as gifts" was our theme for the evening, and for once a themed program was non-disastrous. I can't speak for Lady Catharsis but as I peruse this playlist I am glad to say that I'm no longer the person I was when I received any of these records, thankful though I was and am. Every day brings new possibilities!

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 November 27, 2100-2300:

1. "Big Sex" | T.A.G. | Big Sex | Sweatbox
2. "Spanish Castle Magic" | The Jimi Hendrix Experience | BBC Sessions | MCA / Experience Hendrix
3. "Fabric" | Toiling Midgets | Son | Matador
4. "May This Be Love" | Thin White Rope | Squatter's Rights | Frontier
5. "Are You Ready To Come? (With Me) Pt.1" | USAries | Personal Space (Electronic Soul 1974 - 1984) | Chocolate Industries
6. "Do You Love Me?" | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Let Love In | BMG / Mute
7. "Do Your Thing" | Isaac Hayes | Shaft (Music From the Soundtrack) | Stax
8. "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad" | Wanda Jackson | Rockin' With Wanda | Wax Love
9. "Hot Doggie" | Colourbox | Colourbox (box set) | 4AD
10. "Fire" | The Buff Medways | Fire | Friends Of The Buff Medway Fanciers Association
11. "Manic Depression" | Throwing Muses | Firepile E.P. (Part One) | 4AD
12. "Winter (John Peel Session 15/9/81)" | The Fall | Hex Enduction Hour [reissue] | Cherry Red
13. "Loverboy" | Wally Lewis | The Other Side of Bakersfield, Vol. 1: 1950s & 60s Boppers and Rockers from "Nashville West" | Bear Family
14. "Get It Together" | James Brown | Star Time | Polydor
15. "Shut Up" | Here Are the Facts You Requested | Shocks + Struts | Elevator Pop Gallery
16. "Time to Go Home" | Otis G. Johnson | Personal Space (Electronic Soul 1974 - 1984) | Chocolate Industries

Done got wise of the way you do it

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People Are Telling You, "Be in the Moment": Transmission 497, 2019 November 20

We made it! But where? The end of the pre-holiday period, of course. Since I write this with the advantage of hindsight, I can share with you my current feeling that maybe the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's is the only part of my radio calendar that matters. But I don't know how to have that period without also grinding out content for the other 47 weeks of the year, so until I figure it out we'll have to make it through programs like this one. Together.

Since this program was broadcast, 83 days ago now, I've gone on the air 13 times. I just finished listening to a transmission from 49 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 31 days ago--5 shows ago. I've come a long way since I began this chronicle of guilt.

Before I finish posting this I want to take a moment to congratulate Special Interest, as their song was number 12,000 in this ongoing radio adventure. Surely the honor means a lot to them, so it's important for them to know. When we reach episode 500 I'll have some other statistics that will also interest no one. Other things did happen on this broadcast. Despite some crazy song choices, it sounded great, and the segue between Flying Lotus and The Comet Is Coming was absolutely out of this world. Who cares if it was obvious?

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 November 20, 2100-2300:

1. "Nasty Boy" | Törsh | Nasty Days | Zissou
2. "Cricket Pit" | 4T Thieves and Pandacetamol | She danced on the sand | Kahvi Collective
3. "Breathe" | Slowness | Berths | Schoolkids
4. "Fall In" | Chikaya | Test of Time | False Idols
5. "Black Precious Colour" | Felixson Ngasia & The Survivals | Nigeria 70: No Wahala: Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987 | Strut
6. "T 3.6" | Carter Tutti Void | Triumvirate | Conspiracy International
7. "Ten Notes On a Summer's Day - Instrumental Mix" | Crass | Ten Notes On a Summer's Day | Caroline
8. "Between Spaces" | Deep Nalström | Naive Melodies | Natural Selection
9. "Mundiya Loju" | M.A. Jaiyesimi & His Crescent Bros Band | Nigeria 70: No Wahala: Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987 | Strut
10. "Hemmingway's Tell" | Kristin Hersh | Spark Meet Gasoline | self-released | "The Listening Parlour"
11. "Engineered Uncertainty" | Moor Mother | Analog Fluids of Solid Black Holes | Don Giovanni
12. "There's a Rainbow" | James Clarke Five | Parloursounds [reissue] | The Beautiful Music
13. "World Leader Pretend" | Corrections | Welcome To The Occupation, A Reverence to R.E.M. | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
14. "Love Break" | DJ Marky | Should I | Innerground
15. "Fluid (Bound 2)" | Special Interest | Spiraling | Anxious
16. "G-Star" | Jeff Mills | SIGHT SOUND AND SPACE | Axis
17. "Come And Play In The Milky Night" | Stereolab | Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in The Milky Night (Expanded Edition) | Duophonic / WARP
18. "Crystal Clear" | Goldie | Saturnz Return (2019 Remaster) | London
19. "Lamuka" | Zazou / Bikaye / CY1 | Noir Et Blanc | Crammed Discs
20. "Meteo Dreams" | elAstrum | Freqmod | Kahvi Collective
21. "Lage - African Acid Is The Future Outerlude" | Edmony Krater | African Acid Is The Future: Ambiance II | The Vinyl Factory
22. "119 Black Key Experiment (Continuation Interlude)" | Fred P | Lush Culture | Perpetual Sound
23. "Resplandor" | John Beltran | Resol | Red Shield
24. "MmmHmm" | Flying Lotus | Presents INFINITY Infinitum Maida Vale Session | WARP
25. "The Softness of the Present" / "The Afterlife" | The Comet Is Coming | The Afterlife | Impulse
26. "Heal You" | TENNIN | Test of Time | False Idols

Come and stay, bring the stars

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You Can't Arrest Me, I Pay Rent Here: Transmission 496, 2019 November 16

This is a type of experience I am increasingly struggling to make sense of as time passes. It's a Saturday night and I have volunteered to do radio, by myself. It seems like I was just basking in solitude, but that was a Wednesday night, which I know will be "me time." Maybe in the olden days this strategy of "filling up free time with radio" was partly a way of keeping myself out of trouble, and maybe it still is, but I really am trying to limit these appearances that don't have a point. At this time I know I was trying to reach Transmission 500 by Christmas, for reasons I no longer understand. 2019 was work.

Since this program was broadcast, 86 days ago now, I've gone on the air 14 times. At the gym I am listening to a transmission from 48 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 30 days ago--5 shows ago. Is it day I'm seeing?

Was I really just saying I'd started doing programs that made me proud again? Yikes. I hope you enjoy the airplay software glitches and random noises from my own laptop that manifest here. Also, I think I played a couple of tracks that in hindsight seem like bad choices, departures from my own taste meant as favors for other people. I need to stop doing this. Let me just make a blanket statement--friends, I love you. But this is my program. Maybe I am just overreacting; I seem to remember being angry on the arc trainer when I listened back to this. I am frequently angry at the gym. "Have a good time," my loved ones tell me. Sure thing!

Okay, let's try this again--things get better from here.

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 November 16, 2000-2200:

1. "Dispossession" | Algiers | Dispossession | Matador
2. "I Wonder" | Sequoyah Murray | Before You Begin | Thrill Jockey
3. "The Warmest Rain" | The Durutti Column | Obey The Time [reissue] | Factory Benelux
4. "Party" | Spontaneous Overthrow | All About Money | Numero Group
5. "Junkyard" | The Legendary Pink Dots | Angel in the Detail | Metropolis
6. "In My Shoes" | Leeroy Thornhill | Test of Time | False Idols
7. "Loathe" | Your 33 Black Angels | Eternities I | self-released
8. "Mars - Won't Save Us" | The Room in the Wood | The Mars E.P. | A Turntable Friend
9. "Joan Of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | Architecture and Morality | Virgin
10. "Wonder Y" | A Certain Ratio | acr:set | Mute
11. "Psychotic Machine" | Loudspeaker | One Little Indian's Greatest Hits Volume One | One Little Indian
12. "Sancho e Pingo" | Gonzo | Ruido(s) | Discrepant
13. "Everybody Needs Dub" | The Aggrovators | Dubbing At King Tubby's | VP
14. "Nights in Helsinki" | Last Nubian | The Reunion EP | Blaq Numbers
15. "Rahjak" | NNYZ? | Automation | Kahvi Collective
16. "Goo Goo Eyes" | Algebra Mothers | A-Moms = Algebra Mothers | Third Man
17. "Anyway" | The Artpress | The Sound of Leamington Spa | Firestation Records
18. "Deep Heart (Macerator Remix)" | Diane Marie Kloba | D.M.K vs S.K.1.2.3 | self-released
19. "Golden Ball" | Stereolab | Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements (Expanded Edition) | Duophonic / WARP
20. "Hidden Track" | The 1865 | Don't Tread On We! | Mass Appeal
21. "Mosaic" | David J | Missive to an Angel from the Halls of Infamy and Allure | Glass Modern
22. "Bookworm" | The Irony Board | Unfinished Business | The Beautiful Music
23. "Rolling" | Michael Kiwanuka | KIWANUKA | Polydor
24. "Save Urself (feat Nubya Garcia)" | Amy True | Oonops Drops Vol. 2 | Agogo
25. "Madea" | Tenesha the Wordsmith | Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts | On the Corner
26. "Without Sense" | Milbentia | Last Days | Virtual Soundsystem
27. "Nothin' Man" | R.L. Burnside | Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down | Fat Possum
28. "It's Not Me" | Stephen Mallinder | Um Dada | Dais
29. "p-string" | Aphex Twin | Peel Session 2 | WARP
30. "Des gouttes" | DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson | Aimez ces airs | Hot Casa

local on-air talent, tonight it's me

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Forget Your Worries, Embrace Abundance: Transmission 495, 2019 November 13

Much to my relief, I am flying solo on this broadcast. There are no drugged-out (or just oppositional-defiant, or whatever) unwelcome guests in the control booth. We've finally reached the current run of programs I can take pride in. I go through periods where I wonder what the payoff is, but lately I have just been enjoying the two hours of alone time that this program gives me every week, blasting the studio monitors and just basically enjoying stuff. There is a lot to unpack there, not least the literal unboxing that needs to happen in my new crib, so that I can finally blast records there one day (hopefully).

Since this program was broadcast, 88 days ago now, I've gone on the air 15 times. At the gym I am listening to a transmission from 46 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 32 days ago--5 shows ago. It's all coming together, collapsing into vague almost-rememberance.

Recently I'd visited this biannual record fair that comes to Ithaca. Normally it's a sad waste of time, but on this occasion I found a sealed copy of Yello's 1983 album You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess. This is one of many "rosebuds" for me, an album from my youth that I once had, inexplicably discarded, and desperately pined for. (I did actually see Citizen Kane once, in case you're wondering--I know you aren't--but I am not watching it again just to make sure I am deploying this reference correctly.) Anyway, "Salut Mayoumba" makes an appearance on this night, as part of a crazy and sublime triptych. So there's at least one moment to look forward to.

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 November 13, 2100-2300:

1. "Misirlou" | Los Shain's | El Ritmo de los Shain's | Munster
2. "Deep in That *****" | Byron the Aquarius | Astral Traveling | Mutual Intentions
3. "Susanoo" | Philou Louzolo | Shinobi of Wokoundou | Wokoundou
4. "You Ain't The Problem" | Michael Kiwanuka | KIWANUKA | Polydor
5. "Cherie Sherabou" | Saba Lou | Novum Ovum | Ernest Jenning Record Co.
6. "Mizik Bel - Africaine 808 Remix" | Esnard Boisdur | Mizik Bel | Favorite
7. "Last Dance" | Violet Nights & Nax | Disintegration Revisited | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
8. "No One Cares" | Elizabeth The Second | No One Cares | self-released
9. "Attache" | DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson | Aimez ces airs | Hot Casa
10. "That Old Freight Train" | Lee Hazlewood | Love and Other Crimes | LHI | "The Listening Parlour"
11. "Baclashes" / "From a dying universe" / "Inside the Victory" / "Metal Perc" | The Oracle Model | Eventide Tears | Kahvi Collective
12. "Acid" | Slikback | Lasakaneku / Tomo | Hakuna Kulala
13. "Controller" | Russ Gabriel | The Controller | FireScope
14. "Resolve" | Joni Void | Mise En Abyme | Constellation
15. "Happy Anniversary" | Baltic Noise | Out Of The Darkness | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
16. "Rabbouni - Enyang Ha Remix" | Deena Abdelwahed | Khonnar Remixes | Infine
17. "No Investigation" | Zonal | Wrecked | Relapse
18. "Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down" | R.L. Burnside | Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down | Fat Possum
19. "Salut Mayoumba" | Yello | You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess | Elektra
20. "Prophet Paradise" | Cameo Blush | Murky Waters EP | Touch from a Distance
21. "Natural Born Killers (Ride for Me)" | James Massiah | Natural Born Killers (Ride for Me) | Levels
22. "Diagonals" | Stereolab | Dots and Loops (Expanded Edition) | Duophonic / WARP
23. "Dangerous Women" | Tenesha the Wordsmith | Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts | On the Corner
24. "Alba" | Submotile | Ghosts Fade on Skylines | Midsummer Madness
25. "Versix" | Chris Carter | Disobedient | Mute

Live in the trouble

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I Seem To Be Saying Increasingly Dangerous Things: Transmission 494, 2019 November 9

I am just going to come out and say that you can skip the first ten minutes or so of this program. Lady Catharsis and I are joined in the studio by the dj who preceded us, and who just kind of decided to stay. I have a feeling this person may have been chemically enhanced at the time (whomst among us, and so on) and it was kind of unnerving. I did my best "Doctor Hibbert" impersonation, another example of how I always seem to make bad choices in the moment. But, hey, the content is there, for the masochists, if you want it. I try my best to be honest, and to serve by disclosing things fully.

Since this program was broadcast, 90 days ago now, I've gone on the air 16 times. I just finished listening to a transmission from 58 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 37 days ago--6 shows ago. And for reasons that are too boring to describe (even by my standards), I'm rushing to post this so I don't have to listen to this one again.

It's a shame because for the remaining 110 minutes this was a really good night, though it's not a good sign that Lady Catharsis doesn't bring any of her own records. She gets me talking, though. My therapist tells me I need to "show up" more in life, and here I am! Somewhere in here there's a nice little dig at pre-recorded programs and the people behind them. Look, the thing I have going for me is that despite taking up a lot of airtime I am always live and always real, except maybe when I am humoring narcotized people who won't leave the room.

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 November 9, 2000-2200:

1. "No Age" | Lee "Scratch" Perry | Life of the Plants | Stones Throw
2. "Group Four (Security Forces Dub)" | Massive Attack | Massive Attack V Mad Professor Part II (Mezzanine Remix Tapes '98) | UMC / Virgin
3. "Easing" | George & Glen Miller | Easing | Soundway
4. "Movin'" | Brass Construction | The Best Of Brass Construction - Movin' & Changin' | EMI
5. "Iyereghe" | Odomore Osarenren And Ẹwaẹn Ọsẹtin Stars | Ọyọetigbe - The Birth Of A Child | Dig This Way
6. "Galaxia Fini" | Repetentes 2008 | Galaxia Fini | Superconscious
7. "Our Future" | Miles Atmospheric | SkyHealer | FireScope
8. "Vengeance" | Chris & Cosey | Exotika [reissue] | Conspiracy International
9. "Electric Boogie" | Trinidadian Deep | Natty Dread | Visions Inc.
10. "Sociodelic" | Afriqua | Colored | R & S
11. "Pink Lady Lemonade (Astral Disco Queen - Coda)" | Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. | Hallelujah Mystic Garden Part Two | Important

I'm just going to say, it's a personality type

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All You've Got To Lose Is Your Mind: Transmission 493, 2019 November 6

Somewhere I lost touch with what other people think about things and how other people perceive the world. Or is it losing commonality? Anyway, I started noticing this maybe 12, 13 years ago. There will be this event, or cultural phenomenon, and I will have a completely different impression of it than everyone around me. That seems too serious for "mere" depression, and yet I've managed to be a functional, working adult for most of that time. Unless I'm mistaken about that too--maybe none of this is actually happening. 

I'm bringing this up because I felt that this show was full of mistakes and bad choices, but station general manager Felix told me that I was "killing it" on this night. I think someone else complimented me too. So I don't know how to assess this broadcast, and I don't have any way of recapturing whatever made it special. Sorry about this!

Since this program was broadcast, 91 days ago now, I've gone on the air 16 times. I just finished listening to a transmission from 63 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 36 days ago--6 shows ago. And I am scheduled to do a program tonight! What's going to happen? Who knows? It's so mysterious, so magical.

Honestly, looking at the playlist, it strikes me as an "overflow" type of program, a throwback, even though it was definitely a regular Wednesday night mothership occasion. I know that around this time I was a bit shaken at work and in life, having to deal with some heavy stuff. How did I do with it? You'll have to ask someone else.

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 November 6, 2100-2300:

1. "Kompass" | Conny Frischauf | Affekt & Tradition | Kame House
2. "Noir State Beach - The Modernist Mix" | Xu Xu Fang | Velvet Desert Music Vol. 1 | Kompakt
3. "Reagan Youth" | Superchunk | What a Time to Be Alive | Merge
4. "Vino della casa bianco" | The Durutti Column | Obey The Time [reissue] | Factory Benelux
5. "The City Is An Animal (Nature is its Slave)" | The Membranes | What Nature Gives...Nature Takes Away | Cherry Red
6. "White Out" | Kriegshög | Paint It Black / White Out | La Vida Es Un Mus
7. "Radio Babylon" | Meat Beat Manifesto | Dancing In Darkness | PIAS
8. "Sogio" | Julie Coker | A Life in the Limelight: Lagos Disco & Itsekiri Highlife, 1976-1981 | Kalita
9. "Shilungu" | Penny Penny | Shilungu | Soundway
10. "Love Cuts" | Chris and Cosey | Songs of Love & Lust [reissue] | Conspiracy International
11. "Strictly DNB - Sight Unseen Remix" | Digital | Digital Remixes | Function
12. "Electric Energy" | Lee Scratch Perry & Mr. Green | Super Ape Vs. 緑 "Open Door" | Tuff Kong
13. "Ghost Heart" | Denise Sherwood | Pay It All Back Vol. 7 | On-U Sound
14. "Parsec" | Stereolab | Dots and Loops (Expanded Edition) | Duophonic / WARP
15. "Mondo Segreto" | Simone De Kunovich | Mondo Nuovo Vol. 1 | Superconscious
16. "Shattered Stars" | The Sorry Shop | Out Of The Darkness | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
17. "Ababab - Ital Tek Remix" | Deena Abdelwahed | Khonnar Remixes | Infine
18. "One of Those Mornings" | John Beltran | Hallo Androiden | Blue Arts Music
19. "Missing You" | Fa Le Brou | Penrose | Kahvi Collective
20. "Hinde - Julien Dyne Rework" | African Vibration | Hinde | Soundway
21. "Urban Constellations" | Ivan Black | Modern City Scapes | vanguardista
22. "La Danza de los Diablos" | Sonido Gallo Negro | Mambo Cosmico | Glitterbeat
23. "Spazzing Out (4U)" | Byron the Aquarius | Astral Traveling | Mutual Intentions
24. "For the dinner" | Hardwired | Liminal | Kahvi Collectiv
25. "Prize Arm" | Mecca Normal | Brand New Waves Session | Artoffact
26. "Dansation - Unreleased Extended Version" | Steel City Connection | Steel City Disco | Kalita
27. "Mango Habernero Wings" | Brian | Red Rover | self-released
28. "Midnite" | Simon Bassline Smith | Girls / Midnite / Oh Yeah | Deep Jungle

Let's draw a map to the stars

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OK Sister, You Have a Jezebel Spirit Within You: Transmission 492, 2019 October 31

True confession: my first attempt at recounting this episode was such a dull, sausage-making drone that I bored even myself. So I'm trying again, this time with atmosphere, and maybe some mental sausage. 

A couple of hours before the program, it rained. A lot. There was flooding in the area! And I think of the poor children and their parents, especially in our old hipster neighborhood, a Halloween wonderland, getting soaked in their heroic effort to keep the candy industry afloat.

I was working in the opposite direction, trying to get to the gym, probably for the first time in several days--my new job was exhausting me mentally and physically, and I had dived deeply into comfort food (and am still diving)--and taking my life into my own hands.

Rain is my least favorite weather to begin with, but particularly in Ithaca--usually if it's raining it's just the right temperature for our car to fog up uncontrollably. I could easily have mowed down some young family on my way to torture myself, and to be honest I probably felt nothing in particular about either part of this equation.

Feels like I just talked about how much I hate fundraising programs, and here I was in the control room again the next day. Like a goddamn salmon I keep returning, with tremendous effort, and I don't even get it.

Since this program was broadcast, 95 days ago now, I've gone on the air 17 times. I am listening to a transmission from 61 days ago. I'm currently editing a sound file from 41 days ago--7 shows ago. What does it amount to, this enormous task? And what will I even do when I am caught up? Anyway, October's finished, unless you count that unfortunate area of space-time where it is always still happening, forever.

Fittingly, I played a bunch of 4AD-adjacent stuff on this evening of "songs about ghosts and songs about dead people." It haunts me, or at least it haunts the person I have been, whom I carry around with me at all times. It is more "me" to stray from the "best available" in favor of the weird, personal, disturbing. And of course we made less money on this night than the last one. Sometimes I know what I'm talking about.

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 October 31, 2100-2300:

1. "Ghost Lights" | The Children | Ghost Lights | Division 68
2. "I Fell In Love With a Ghost" | Rowland S. Howard / Lydia Lunch | Some Velvet Morning | 4AD
3. "Your Ghost" | Kristin Hersh | The 13 Year Itch | 4AD
4. "Halloween" | The Dream Syndicate | The Days of Wine and Roses | Fire America
5. "56B" | The Legendary Pink Dots | Legendary Pink Dots' Hallowe'en Special 2019 | self-released
6. "Keleya" | Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band | Siri Ba Kele | Sublime Frequencies
7. "Ghosts" | Japan | Exorcising Ghosts | Virgin
8. "Fache Ainik Ant" | Moulay Ahmed El Hassani | Atlas Electric | Hive Mind
9. "Zawal" | Tinariwen | Amadjar | Wedge
10. "The Jezebel Spirit" | Brian Eno - David Byrne | My Life in the Bush of Ghosts | Sire
11. "City of the Dead" | The Clash | Black Market Clash | Epic
12. "Death From Above" | Crispy Ambulance | The Plateau Phase + Live On A Hot August Night + Peel | Factory Benelux
13. "Ghosts" | Nancy Babich | Time Adds Up | self-released
14. "Nachtschatten" | Xmal Deutschland | Tocsin | 4AD
15. "White Sunlight" | Hunter Complex | Open Sea | Death Waltz
16. "KURT KOBAIN" | Velvet Negroni | NEON BROWN | 4AD
17. "Jazz Sega" | Jeanot Rabeson Et Son Orchestre | Alefa Madagascar ! Salegy, Soukous & Soul From The Red Island 1974-1984 | Strut
18. "All The People I Like Are Those That Are Dead" | Felt | Forever Breathes the Lonely Word | Creation
19. "The Double-Switch" | King Salami and the Cumberland Three | Kiss My Ring | Damaged Goods
20. "Halloween" | Brian | Because It's Mine! | self-released
21. "Sleep-Wake Cycles" | Jeff Mills | Moon (The Area of Influence) | Axis
22. "Celine's Surprise" | The Legendary Pink Dots | Legendary Pink Dots' Hallowe'en Special 2019 | self-released

existing in the shadows of dreams

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