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

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.

A Fate That Must Come To Us All (Death) (#76)

Source is in two files, here and here. Originally broadcast on October 2, 1997.

Perhaps the oldest topic we could have dealt with. Like previously posted shows, the subject is treated less philosophically and more in the juvenile, macabre sense of DEAD BODIES and the grisly details. We are addressing physical death here directly, and there isn't much about grief, mourning, or the afterlife.

Music strewn throughout this killing field varies from jazz and Korean children singing, to Throbbing Gristle and Diamanda Galas. Texts referenced are computer-read horror stories, Monty Python sketches, Princess Diana news coverage, and the two Williams (Shakespeare and Burroughs).

1. Imagine the hell
2. Faint death choirs
3. Crumbling in decay
4. Those are condemned
5. Smooth jazz sacrifice
6. Falling down a well
7. Burier, burner, dumper
8. Mort aux vaches
9. Hypnotic Plague Mass
10. Prospero and Westminster
11. Death needs time
12. Unfair court proceedings
13. Including unfortunate wretches

May Flowers May Day (#53)

Source is found here. Originally broadcast on May 1, 1997.

This is another fun show I remember listening to repeatedly. I think the title here is purely nominal and doesn't relate to any springtime or labor-related content. The energy level starts pretty high and active. There is a prevalance of spastic burbling and garbled chatter, bobbing back and forth between music fragments and blasts of verbal nonsense, and feedback—ranging from a hollow, ringing sheet to a rolling bass shudder—recurs throughout the show.

Featured largely throughout is Atavistic Records' 1996 "State of the Union" compliation, a two-disc set of 146 one-minute tracks of avant musics, spoken word, and collage bits. I am also happy to hear Protoblast's "Ex-Neurosurgeon" again at about the 1 hour 23 minute mark, a great, compact song from the great NC comp "Cognitive Mapping Vol 2" from Friction Media. I will need to pull that CD out again.

1. Saxophone overtakes tape deck
2. Backwards sucking vampire guitar
3. Meta-radio instructions
4. Let's turn on
5. You're the earth
6. The singing stone
7. I know you can
8. Record player won't turn, it's stuck
9. Sounds of being the sky
10. Mr. Price is amused
11. Thriller loop, screams, and static
12. Body bomb with background turntablism
13. Trash can party