Animal Farm (#78)

Source is here. Originally recorded on October 16, 1997.

Still buried deep in the heat of the summer (at least right now), I arrive at a fall recording from 1997. Fall around here means the State Fair, and while rides and deep fryers and sham-wows are pretty good, the State Fair is an agricultural event, full of living examples of edible critters from around the state. I was fairly certain that was the intent of this show, until I heard the dog barking.

It's probably still the intent of this show. This show is thick with animal sounds of all shapes, sizes, and demeanors. A cacophony from start to finish, with touches of appropriate music in various places.

1. We fall fubftitute the f for the s
2. I heard the best dogs of my generation baying at the moon
3. Cats, big and small
4. Monkey Business
5. Robot cow flyby unsettles the dogs
6. The scientists converse about birdcalls
7. Grotto
8. Grotto to Beerhall transition
9. Beerhall or Farmhouse Hoedown?
10. Hyenas and Cows
11. Cows and Elephants
12. Birds in the Night
13. The Steel Guitar Carries Me Home

Added by Ian F-r:
This show's flowsheet.

Much To Do / Mush TuTu (#71)

Source also here. Recorded on August 28th, 1997.

This one's a shorty, so I should have done long before this. Oh well.

There are fewer elements in a shorter time in this, so the descriptions while accurate, are a little repetitive (heh). I don't know why "Baby Driver" was so popular with us, I can only plead inebriation. I have two favorite loops in this track, and they should be pretty obvious. Some good points happen in the middle and near the end, with the school-house-rocky kind of loops.

1. Hello, this is Ricardo Montalban
2. Bumping the Electric Orchestra
3. Carsick Guitar Tuning
4. Low Rent Counterpoint
5. Ricardo Returns
6. Secret Arpeggio
7. One Car Traffic Jam
8. We might - in fact - take it, after all
9. A fine mess, indeed
10. Cartesian Duality Refuted
11. Ziddy Bop
12. Classic Computer Music Sound Collection
13. Everything we wanted to do crowded in at the end

Added by IanF-r:
Flowsheet? Here.

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

Purty (#65)

Source here. Original airdate July 17, 1997.

The "pretty sounds" show. This post has the unusual and perhaps unimportant distinction of having the airdate (aside from the year) closest to the posting date. One measly day off. This show, far from our usually relentless grating cacophony, is an honest attempt at smoothness, harmony, and a mellow vibe. One thing that really stands out about this track is how much we tried to slow things down and let them develop in a more unforced way.

You are free to come hunt me down for using the phrase "mellow vibe".

1. Bass loving fungus
2. Zen gong pong
3. World's largest glass organ
4. At the car wash
5. Car wash, windows rolled down
6. A brief, rocking interlude
7. Stereo Separation Blues
8. Double time
9. Hork
10. MASTER OF THE PAN FLUTE
11. Ken Nordine loves you
12. Serious violins
13. Who wants the hip-hop?

Added by Ian F-r:
This show's flowsheet.

Moods of TKDF (#63)

Source available here, and the show was originally broadcast on July 3rd, 1997 (thirteen years ago today).

Mood music? Aside from the Space Invaders disco near the beginning of the show, most of the sounds in this episode fall on a mood scale between "Zen-like/Lethargic/Asleep" and "Spacey/Dreamy/Artificially Stimulated". A quiet, or at least sitting/lying down show, for most.

An orchestral record of the smooth, mood music type seems to linger throughout the show in various echo and flange-effect chambers, which to me gives the whole show a happy-sappy feel. Other recognizable sounds are yours truly trying in vain to put a caller on the air, clipped phone messages, and a recording of fireworks mailed to us from another radio show in Minnesota of *their* Fourth of July show.

1. Kosmische Orkester
2. Vague Difficulties
3. Sardonic Warfare
4. Crumbly Snow
5. Blue Flowers
6. Limping Acid
7. Swooping Absence
8. Speedtape Burbles
9. Reverbed Cowbell
10. Misirlou Jazz
11. Gymnasium Pianos
12. Kosmische Kindergarten
13. Churchill's Funeral

Added by Ian F-r:
This show's flowsheet.