OUIJATKDF (#98)

Source file is here. Originally broadcast on March 5, 1998.

This was my favorite show score we came up with. Supposedly, the idea came to us that we could give up decision-making during show's performance. Who would decide for us? The spirit world, of course.

There are two production studios involved and each one has its own "map". When an active Ouija board at the station points to the letter "E", for example, TKDF staffer #1 cuts out everything they are doing and plays the first track on turntable one repeatedly, and TKDF staffer #2 turns all active channels up all the way and turns on the FX module. Each letter and number on the board is accounted for this way, and the collage show progresses smoothly and without hiccup or over-thinking.

Actually, in practice this show's plan created unexpected problems as well as some pretty great moments of sound. There was not room in the cramped station to have the Ouija operators in easy "reach" of the Staff, and so there had to be a relay team who took turns running the messages upstairs to the studios. Occasionally this creates awkward pauses and sometimes letters pile up and staff execute commands in quick succession or all at once. Despite making the show difficult in new and interesting ways, the great thing the Ouija board did was create some dynamic events or accidents that we never would have done if left to ourselves.

1. Modems, oscillators, and Einstein, oh my
2. Sudden counting
3. Do you think the spirit likes prog?
4. Indigestion Robot
5. Disco Irv and balky outboard motor
6. All largely propaganda
7. Let me just weld this door shut
8. Theatrical entrances
9. Breakbeat Chinese dog party
10. Push it into the red, don't stop
11. A robot is running the show now
12. And the robot likes Negativland
13. Drums, samples, and quit followin me

Note from Ian F-R: Actually, the tape ends with some personal recordings that were not broadcast. The robot voice, the Negativland tracks, and the drum patterns are my recordings, added after the show. Whoops.

JAPAN (#103)

Source here. Originally recorded on April 9th, 1998.

Part hyperbole, part hubris, part hysteria, part hagiography, part hectoring. I'm sort of torn between the bizarre thought that one could capture all of Japan in a 90 minute tape, and the uneasy suspicion that we captured none of it. This tape is full of interwoven words and music and samples and fiction of what other people think of when they think of Japan. Some of us got in there, too.

1. Chipmunk Geisha
2. Country music melodic lope loop
3. Single String Final Battle
4. I'm afraid we played the Vapors
5. Garbage Percussion
6. Mecha-Elvis has returned
7. A Challenger Appears!
8. Up From the Depths
9. Pearls created by Swine
10. The reluctant warrior awakes
11. So, you think you can defeat me?
12. A perception of no true value
13. Return from whence you came
    

Added by IanF-R:We probably should have titled this show "Naïve Westerners' Japan: A Cultural Mis-mapping Odyssey".

Insanity Sounds (#60)

Source available here. The show was originally broadcast on June 15th, 1997.

This show might have been a planned theme show or just named after the theme appeared spontaneously. It seems to hover around/jab at/scurry under the topic of mental health & illness, and it employs delicate as well as blunt instruments. The overall feel is harried, and you can hear a lot of frantic voices, some heavy effects, and an occasionally violent instability, as well as deja vu à la Catch-22 and excerpts from a psychology radio program.

This is a good example of a long-format show which sticks to the collage-mix with little to no break until the end. It's quite difficult to be so frenzied and confused for a straight 90 minutes. Often times the shows drop into musical interludes, but with this one, you get no such breathers.

1. Fuzz For Junk/Extended Cyborg Death Scene
2. A World Insane
3. A Slide Whistle Sneaks Up & Blows in Your Ear
4. Cheering Man Takes His Date to a John Zorn Show
5. Did He Say Dr. Tiger?
6. Strangled or Strangling
7. It's the Bomb-ardier, & He's Still All Right
8. Recipe: Waco Funk-Rock Puree
9. Happy Place Soundtrack
10. Twinkling Spasms in Turtle Soup
11. Talkin' World War Baby Telephone Call Blues
12. Time Travel in the Seventies/Sound of Blood
13. Black Belt Coming Down

Collage-College Radio, Audio

This is the beginning of a probably soon-to-be-unreleased podcast of archived recordings from 1993-1999 of radio programs designed to annoy, confound, massage, perspicate, and gruntmuggle the listeners' ears. Programming was planned ad hoc in situ and realized three days later in the REM-cycles of the audience as they slept.

In this first episode (Introducing, 2009-03-29):

• what is audio collage?
• the grand gateway to audio collage
• first shows: the experiments, the ranting, the apologies
  
• Steve, Paul, and i
• 3 pairs of hands/lapsang souchong =
  6 turntables*e^(10-x)
• but what does it sound like? "bhwaannnngh"
  
• the roots of audio collage: tubers!
  
• meet the Beatles--again, and Again, & AGAIN
  
• thanks, go back to your room

The file is here.