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

Tape Loop Marxist (#67)

Should be “Tape Loop Archaeologist”. What the hell were we doing here? It's as if the tape's been buried thirteen years in damp peat. There's certainly no Marxism present, except perhaps the reduction of all sounds to an equal level of recognizance, which is kind of the aural equivalent of blurry.

I vaguely remember attempting twice to make an entire show out of one long tape loop which was jury-rigged to stretch off of the station's reel-to-reel tape machine, and I think that's what this is. It's a shorter show, a mere 37-odd minutes of unintelligible swamp and blowing air. I've listed notes for imaginary sources, as I've no clue what was actually used to make these sounds.

Direct link to file here. Originally heaved into the airwaves on July 31, 1997. Unhelpful playlist sheet here.

1. Ross ice shelf cracking apart under the weight of tourists
2. Thousands of timbered trees floating past over slow rapids on their way to the port of Gdańsk
3. Static on an analog telephone line as you listen to the asthmatic breathing of a tubercular wooly mammoth
4. Dream you had once of an out-of-control party where the host unexpectedly turned into a werewolf
5. Rummaging in your pocket for the perfect styrofoam peanut
6. Hiccuping belt sander in its last few minutes of functional life
7. Dragging a small tree over twelve lattice fences piled flat on top of each other
8. World’s largest thunder sheet, 400 yards long but only 1/8 inch thick
9. Furious drum circle in a hurricane, heard from inside a quonset hut filled with chainsaw sculptures
10. Being hit in the face with a wave of mud on a riverbank in the Amazon
11. Riding inside a aluminum-sided bus being driven sideways in gale force winds
12. Killing flies on a hardwood floor with a pennyloafer while vacuuming the drapes
13. 5-minute re-enactment of The Matrix on an enormous moving walkway which is slipping its bearings

Loopy Lupi Loops (#22) Alcohol May Have Been A Factor

Original source here. Recorded October 19, 1996.

Drinking is strictly verboten while on the air, but when I'm going over a show that's been recorded in the past, it might happen. I blame brunch, and yes I know it's almost eight in the evening.

This particular show was all about the looping; something which we were able to achieve in a billion different ways: One could put tape on a record, causing the needle to skip. An audio tape could be looped on a reel-to-reel or even inside of a cassette. We had a 10 second delay that was used more than once as a really really long loop. Eventually, there were these computers that came in and did all of it. Always, though, the loop (whether beat-matched funk or simply repetitive non-groove) reigned supreme.

1. 1812 Ukelele Overture
2. Vague Led Zeppelin Wannabee
3. Alien Flyby
4. Orchestral Maneuvers, etc.
5. Swoopy Groove Thing
6. Incessant Ringing
7. Statics and Sermons
8. Koo Koo Koo Koo
9. Hidden Metal Ghost
10. Prog Rock with Mallets
11. Meet the Folkers
12. Attack of the Funk Lords
13. Mmm Bop, except not (It's just a thriller)
    

Added by IanF-R:
Link to this show's flowsheet.

This show is quite a murky one, owing probably to poor tape handling during recording process. I think it adds nicely to the atmospheric miasma-tone.
Update:
Actually, I think this was a show where we utilized the reel-to-reel tape loop (see purple/orange photo in sidebar), and (some of) the grain comes from the oxide being slowly ground off the loop of tape as it gets played and recorded and played over and over again.