Buffer (#128)

Source file found here. Originally broadcast on October 1st, 1998.

"Buffer" because the number 128 reminded me of old computer systems? An aural dumping ground, the shows built up around whatever got picked up, following patterns and relationships not discernible to the distant listener. Some pieces are wholly random and unrelated, lying clumsily against each other like discarded cutouts and leftovers. This could be some run-up-to-Halloween material resting awkwardly between editing experiments, random loops, and effects overloading. Tape manipulations, reversals, and forced-skipping records figure largely in this episode.

1. Water drips on piano keys
2. Pressure release valve
3. Mob scene, Haunted Village, 1952
4. Hot cats and wobbly bolero
5. Lecture and gunfire in drainpipe
6. Yule fawn
7. DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF
8. Atari Teenage Blabbermouth
9. Jody is losing reality
10. Self-destroying suspicion
11. Windy city loop
12. Out-of-range 80s electro
13. Windchimes & PVC bass

Panic Movement (#122)

Source file found here. Originally broadcast on August, 20, 1998.

I'm not sure how we came up with this variant on the "scored" shows, but I think the idea was build slowly from a calm passage with more and more "panicked" outbursts at opportune times. Kind of the sonic equivalent of climbing an inclined plane of intensity for the length of the show. This resulting show feels like a creepier, dirtier Halloween show imitation. We peak early, but it does end with a large quantity of loud banging. Some of the sources--e.g. Naked City's Absinthe, F.M. Einheit & Caspar Brotzmann's Merry Christmas--also fit well in a playlist of psychological horror and violence soundtracks. Maybe not gradual panic so much as gradual alienation!

1. Whispers and heartbeats
2. Soothing sounds of nature
3. Down in the speech lab
4. Horrible, nameless dread emerges
5. Tension strings and children amok
6. Ask them to be quiet sir
7. A promise of cannibalism
8. Hall running, analysis and static
9. Various sirens, but a balmy ambience
10. Irradiating the beachgoers
11. Oh God it's eating my EYES
12. We've gotten good at "bludgeoning", haven't we?
13. That city-sized vacuum cleaner is back

TKDF Vampires (#114)

Source file here. Originally broadcast on June 25th, 1998.

Ah, vampires. They get a lot of attention, as ghouls go. Why did we never do a show about yeti or Frankenstein's monster? They don't generate the raw material in media that vampires do. Also, zombies.

Among the movies heard here are the dryly humorous Nadja, Tony Scott's chilly The Hunger, Polanski's goofball Fearless Vampire Killers, Abel Ferrara's academic and brutal The Addiction, and the ones everyone knows. The dialogue heavy movies like Nadja and The Addiction make the show somewhat philosophical and Nietzschean, while others variably add creepy dread, campy horror, and short spurts of bloody gore—or at least the sounds of it. All in all, a rather verbose, thinking-vampire's production.

1. Europe is a village
2. Aspects of determinism
3. How old am I?
4. I have lost a day
5. Like this, in one go
6. Why all these garlic flowers?
7. Vampire Rules
8. I'm not bleeding all over myself
9. They fall like flies, don't they
10. Demons suffer Hell
11. All these years running uphill
12. Face it Jim, she's a zombie
13. Why all these people dead?

They're Here (#80) Halloween #1

Source here. Originally recorded on October 30th, 1997.

I suppose I could spin a yarn about trying to wait until Halloween and simply NOT HAVING THE PATIENCE, but in reality I've been a little slack. I'll place the blame squarely where it belongs: the awesome weather.

This is one of the first Halloween shows I did with TKDF, and I think it's in fact one of the first ones recorded, if not the FIRST ACTUAL HALLOWEEN SHOW EVER. There's plenty of spooky fun to be had here, so download and play in the background when the little ones come to visit and ensure you always have a wealth of candy leftover forever and ever again.

1. Someone's at the door
2. Cackling and moaning
3. A Dismemberment Plan
4. That Piano Music
5. INFERNAL MACHINES
6. There's something about an 80's horror movie analog synthesizer
7. Singing around the campfire, hopefully
   
8. Vincent Price grooving with the pict's small furry animals
9. In the bowels of the gypsy calliope
   
10. The chanting the chanting the chanting the chanting
11. GET OUT
12. I can hear the traffic just above the sewer grate
13. Love theme from Halloween #1
    

Added by Ian F-r:
Flowsheet here.

How to Produce Triskaidekaphobia (#43)

This show's manic first half is laced with squeals and voices which sometimes creep out into the foreground. It then settles a bit into some spatial studies and musical interludes before returning to a whirling vortex noise finale. It makes me wonder whether the show title referred to generating superstitions or simulating them. Overall, it is an entropic exposition, with a reverb-y, dubby feel throughout, meandering through several dark or stormy dub-places before emerging--fairly gently--in the dub-Andes where it began.

1. Eno's Machu Picchu Summer Breeze
2. We Medical Men Call It Paranoia
3. Parrot Fear Dub
4. Fidgeting, Flailing
5. Ricky Nelson's Fav-o-rite Fade-out
6. Negative Space / Celtic Interluding
7. Down in The Hole, Gleaming Edges Visible
8. The Saxophone Debacle
9. Dong Reverb
10. "Light Fuse, Get Away"
11. Spirit Animal Petting Zoo
12. Out of the Lawnmower & Into the Singularity
13. Gentle Flautro Dub

This show's flowsheet. Originally broadcast and recorded on February 20, 1997. Show also available to stream or download here.