Gradual Brightening, pt 3 (#56)

Source can be found here. Originally broadcast on May 18, 1997. This is Part 3 of a four-part, six-and-a-half hour show that we performed one morning during a gap in the programming between spring and summer schedules at the radio station.

Part 1, Part 2

This segment of this show features a lot of vocalization—mumbled, hollered, gasped, giggled, foamed, and belted. If you've ever pulled a marathon shift, you know that things get loopy after a certain stretch, and hours four and five here are sure showing it. But that was the point, I guess, to go beyond our normal endurance for mixing and test the limits.

It does get tired and fallback upon some late-ninties IDM for a bit, but then there's a great bit where we say "Hello to the universe". The walls of noise and newborn baby reference also play along with the early morning theme, I suppose.

1. Ode to Dinah Shore
2. Extended sleep episode
3. Braying and chimes
4. whatisitwhatisitwhatisitunclecleottototo
5. Round and round-dnuor dna dnuor
6. What's so funny about power electronics?
7. Foul-mouthed open letter
8. They're so cute when they start reading poetry
9. The martial art of jazz-golf
10. Screamix
11. Melodic moans of damned doors
12. Bombast and cheese
13. Yes, records ARE fantastic

Gradual Brightening, pt 2 (#56)

Source can be found here. Originally broadcast on May 18, 1997. This is Part 2 of a four-part, six-and-a-half hour show that we performed one morning during a gap in the programming between spring and summer schedules at the radio station.

Part 1

This one is getting going with full-force (already? Save it up, you still have pts 3-4!) raucousness and mayhem. Featuring a cruise-band record from my parents' Bermuda honeymoon, Lewis Carroll poems, the trusty HAL-9000, and some serious out-there skronk and noise, scattered amongst the drone.

1. On a ship: Lounge act, engine drone
2. A Wonderland revue
3. Anime exclaims with light industrial ditty
4. Primitive scree, rawk overclocked
5. Wait. Who started the self-destruct sequence?
6. This is it. We're going to die.
7. Your life flashes before your eyes—oddly with singing chipmunks
8. Limbo = electronique opera overture
9. Getting the saxophone started on a cold morning
10. Airplane mimicry in shop class
11. The Avant-garde vs. the Vienna Philharmonic
12. Absurd getting ugly, draws in John Williams
13. Twinkling beats. Get it? Beats?

Gradual Brightening, pt 1 (#56)

Source file found here. Originally broadcast on May 18, 1997. This is Part 1 of a four-part, six-and-a-half hour show that we performed one morning during a gap in the programming between spring and summer schedules at the radio station.

The idea was to begin quietly in the dark of early morning and very gradually increase the energy and mixing as the sun rose and morning progressed. Six plus hours is not a recommended amount of time to do anything non-stop with any consistency or high amount of success, but there are some notable bits here and there once we got into the mode.

Part 1 here starts with the station ID "looping" on the phone delay, and we move into a start-stop section until we work it out with some terrible organ music. From the 30 minute mark onward things are solid in a extended drone and animal-sounds way. Definitely worth taking a listen to, especially on a weekend morning on the couch.

1. ID...ID...ID...ID...
2. Is it funny already?
3. Rather Aphex-y so far
4. Anton plays an extended etude
5. Pretty annoying: calliope/R2D2 impression/tinnitus
6. Practicing my squiggles
7. Circular breathing through drainpipes
8. Forest empties of fauna in advance of an approaching menace
9. Fauna return to bliss out
10. Thick pulses surfacing
11. Dulcimer and prepared piano solos
12. Interesting loops, half-musical
13. A crumbly accordion

Drum (#119)

Source here. Originally recorded on July 30, 1998.

The title should be a clear indication of the content, but just in case...

This one is all about drums. Looped, flanged, layered, distorted in various ways. It's in fact one of the most rhythmical shows I've come across. There are sections that are downright danceable, and plenty that is sort of a hypnotic throbbing.

1. Like a train on the ocean
2. A moment in a Buddhist temple during a funk concert
3. The native village gets its first washing machine and it is already unbalanced
4. My heart has been replaced with superior robot parts
5. Romanian hip-hop includes castinets
6. Steel drum band in the next warehouse
   
7. CLASH OF THE CARNIVALE AND CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADES
8. We were going to play basketball but the floor was made of awesome
9. Martin Denny joins in
10. Working industrial funk plant
11. Nothing like home-made toys
12. We are cleaning the paint off with hammers
13. A good sanding is what it really needed
    

Mysterious Beeping and Static (#105)

Source here. Originally recorded on April 23rd, 1998.

One of the more minimalist versions of the show, this one features an almost ethereal avoidance of anything resembling music. The 10 second delay is looped into the main feed, giving a deep deep deep layered background of the previous few minutes.

1. Morse code test
2. Frequency sweep
3. Most people prefer touch-tone
4. Sonar Tube
5. A murmur of voices is barely distinguishable
6. Whispers in the plenum
7. Ping pong ping pong ping pong
8. Telegrammatic Feedback
9. Very low background radiation
10. Radar dish singing bowl
11. A chorus of chaos
12. A little light grinding
13. Finally, a stringed instrument
    

Night of the Vacuum Cleaners (#95)

Source here. Originally recorded on February 12, 1998.

This is one of my favorite episodes. Like, my most favorite of all, possibly.

We had a herd of vacuum cleaners, microphones of all sorts, and (of course) earplugs. We made a din that was never equaled. We tested the limits of sanity and the WXDU carpet. We alienated the last two people who listened on a regular basis.

God, it was fun. What's amazing (to me) is that it still sounds fun after over ten years.

This sounds like a solid hour of (prepared) vacuum cleaners, with incidental music.

1. Vacuumaquatsi
2. Howling Reverb
3. Stick the Microphone ALL THE WAY IN
4. The Layers Get Pretty Deep
5. Sort of a Solo
6. Not the Chamber Music I'd Imagined
7. We stop Sucking
8. More Air and Strings
9. Flowbee?
10. Analog Synth Counterpoint
11. Spin Down
12. Silence
13. Final Metal Action

Of course, you might as well just say:

1. Vacuum Cleaners
2. Vacuum Cleaners
3. Vacuum Cleaners
4. Vacuum Cleaners
5. Vacuum Cleaners
6. Vacuum Cleaners
7. Vacuum Cleaners
8. Vacuum Cleaners
9. Vacuum Cleaners
10. Vacuum Cleaners
11. Vacuum Cleaners
12. Vacuum Cleaners (reprise)
13. Vacuum Cleaners

added by IanF-r: FWIW, here's an image of the show's abbreviated playlist.

Back to ASCIIs (#86)

Source here. Originally recorded on December 11th, 1997.

I'm not sure why ASCII is pluralized here, but that's what was on the tape. I'm not sure what it means in this context (and I know I've said that many times before). There's nothing remotely computer related on this track, although there's a lot of interweaving vocal and speech parts. Tight loops, and crafty hooks. There's a certain constant throb to the thing that sort of oozes and jostles you all the way.

1. Honk and Clank
2. Churn Churn Churn Churn Churn
3. THX
4. Hiccup Carnival
5. Tuvan Hiccup
6. A moment to groove
7. Diving mask
8. For His Coming
9. One Long Raspberry
10. Sharpen
11. The tiniest whale
12. Bad horror and worse music
13. Hand-cranked piano

Added by IanF-R:

Okay, I give. I thought I was being clever by making a half-pun on "Basics", as in "Back-to-Basics", "Back-to-BASIC (computer language)", etc. Obviously, it was too far-fetched to translate beyond the day I wrote it down.
But really it doesn't make sense with that explanation, either. I had an infatuation in my early computer-years (circa 1984-1987) with ASCII art like you'd find on the BBS art galleries (didn't we all), and my ignorance of the details behind ASCII/ANSI/etc led me to mythologize its importance to everyday life to some extent, that well, still lurks in my memory, I suppose, being I can talk about it today. Grr. Here's the playlist