Sine Languages

One of my BSR colleagues started a new show entitled 'Sine Languages', which I am quite enjoying. So, I figured it would be a good idea to pass on the link to you all. Make sure to subscribe/follow, if you like!

Starting this fall, Sine Languages will be in the BSRlive schedule, on Sundays at 6pm.

Sine Languages

London Riots

There's a lot of horrible things going on in the world today. Pointless wars, famines, recessions, murders, and religious fanaticism, just to name a few. I'm sure by now you've also heard of the many riots blanketing the city of London. Not saying I have my priorities straight on this post, but as I think about music a lot, I've been thinking a lot about the Sony warehouse that contained stock for many, many independent record labels. You can see a list of the labels here.

This is a rare post, a call for action----please get off of rapidshare, torrent sites, etc, and buy an album, digitally. There are a lot of great artists on a lot of great labels who really could use our support right now, and it does not take much from each of us.

Boomkat has a tidy page that explains things, and provides a list of affected labels.

Audio Entropy (with dl!)

Same post from the other day, now with a download link :)

filling in tonight on BSRlive

Although I am sorry to report I don't have any mixes in the works for the blog at this moment, I am filling in tonight for a radio show on Brown Student and Community Radio, at 7pm EST.

Tune in for lots of new, exciting stuff from the wide world of non-popular music!

Fest

Tune in tonight from 8-9pm for a sampling of musicians that I would hire, if I ran my own music festival. Enjoy from the comfort of your own home, without encountering overflowing porto-potties, tripping hippies, $8 water bottles, and that sketchy guy offering "free hugs".

Archive here.

Baby Boots / The Anti Grammys

Tune in tonight, 8-9pm for the maiden voyage show from Misterboots. Serving up sound combinations so dense and fresh you'll wish you had an extra set of ears to take it all in. Good thing for the archives!

Unshow

Tomorrow (saturday) night from 11-12midnight I’ll be DJ’ing on Brown University Radio, playing a set of unique, quirky-woozy-thumpy-funky-fresh electronic music from mainly the unfoundsound/Foundsound crew , via Berlin, Philly, Argentina, The Canary Islands, Japan, and Baltimore. Streaming at www.bsrlive.com, or listenable in the Providence area on 88.1 FM.

Aesthetically, it sounds like music that steelyard/scrap metal sculpture-people would dance to, if they could dance.

Lucky Dragons

Lucky Dragons are a duo, originally from the great city of Providence. Their music is best described (by me at least) as a wide tapestry of digitally manipulated sound, with a heavy component of social and musical experimentation. There's hard science behind the processes involved in making the final sound, which you can learn about in the video (and other videos online, if you choose to search them out), but if you want this layman's simple synopsis, it's great music made by people conducting electricity through touching one another. Instruments, digital/audio converters, and skin are used to create otherworldly sonic textures. Their music is very appealing to me, not only because of the raw sounds created (which may be very beautiful), but because of the process used to make the music. It's been some time since I've seen the crossroad of man and computer represented as well as with Lucky Dragons.

Music for the desert

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Continuing on the loose theme of podcasts for specific times or locations, here is music for the desert. This one is best cued up upon departure from the last town in civilization. While its duration probably wont last through the entire desert trip, the structure of the mix is designed to emulate three segments of a trip into the desert; departure from civilization, penetration into and through the desert, and (hopefully) exodus from the desert.

This mix is for Wootie and Birdie, and our trip out to Black Rock Desert for Burningman. Just like the scenes in our drive from Reno to the playa, this mix will start off with a touch of western, heading into an uneasy period (caused by dehydration and that nasty left turn around the mountain, no doubt), followed by some straight out craziness. The last part we'll get on the way back, as it returns to more serene, civilized sounds----exodus deserves such.

Unfields02 - Field Recordings 
Tin Hat Trio - Bill 
Bill Frisell - Wildwood flower
 Ikue Mori with Robert Quine and Mark Ribot - Cheyenne 
Badawi - Arrival Shackleton - The Rope Tightens (Badawi remix) 
Nettle - Duende 
Fred Frith And Marc Ribot -  Second Nature 
John Zorn - Koryojang (end credits) 
John Zorn - Once Apon a Time In the West (Morricone) 
David Shea - Prisoner (part #1) 
Sub Dub - 19.5 
DJ Spooky - Giancinto Scelsi "Suite number 11" / Bill Laswell with Trilok Gurtu "Nothing" 
Marina Rosenfeld vs. Badawi- Badawileaf 
Unfields03 - Allumette 
Ikue Mori with Robert Quine and Mark Ribot - Medicine Man 
Klimek - for Michael Gira & Vladimir Ivanovich 
Wayne Horvitz & Zony Mash - 9 to 4 
Tim Hecker - Blue Ember Breeze

An(other) Unmix!

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Yea, back so soon with another unfoundsound mix! Enjoy these rippin, funky ditties made with some sounds from our small world.

• Roberto Clementi -Valencia
• Alex Medina - 2 Bailes Con Martini Sisters
• Kriss - Jazz Club
• Roberto Clementi - 1939
• Alex Medina - Dinner in Jakarta
• Ben Parris - Chris Needs a Nickname (seph mix)
• Mike Uzzi and Ben Recht - A Fitness Counterrevolution (Ben Parris rmx)
• David Last - Where it Falls (suz rip up the rug rmx)
• Miskate - Strange String

It's Spring Again!

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The winter chill is gone for good, with (it better be) our last frost behind us. This springtime mix is just like a New England spring----lots of variability. With that in mind, here are some songs that have about as much in common as snow and baseball.

• John Zorn - Opening Credits/Hawaiian Postcard
• Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
• Pamelia Kurstin - Copingheaven
• Frivolous - The Long Way
• Tito Puente - Tito on Timbale
• Miskate - Hear the Ahhh
• So Inagawa - Batai
• Los Mirios - La Danza de Los Mirios
• Secret Chiefs 3 - Sheburiel
• Nettle - Duende (version 2)
• Sabu Martinez and Sahib Shihab - Nus
• Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou - Se We Non Nan
• Santos Resiak - Timba
• HAR-YOU Percussion Group - Barrett's Bag

Beat Circus on WERS

A bit late notice, buttomorrow one of my favorite bands in the world, Beat Circus, are going to play a live set on Emerson College radio, WERS. Sad to say, I found myself never tuning in once the station went to their new programming a few years ago, but I am happy to say I'll be tuning in at 1pm tomorrow (4/1/09) for a live set from Beat Circus!

So, please, have a listen at 1pm on Wednesday, 4/1/09! On the FM dial, it's frequency 88.9. To stream go here and look in the top left for your favorite method. And if you like, go see them at TT the Bear's on the 29th of April.

From www.beatcircus.net
Beat Circus was formed in 2002 in Boston, Massachusetts by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter, who has been its only constant member since its inception. In 2005 Carpenter began a radical shift in direction resulting in the recording of Dreamland, the first part of Carpenter's Weird American Gothic trilogy, with legendary NY producer Martin Bisi. Filled with dark narrative songs and loosely based on historical events associated with turn-of-the-century New York, Dreamland was the culmination of a two-year effort by Beat Circus. In Summer 2007 Brian Carpenter debuted the third incarnation of Beat Circus with a new concept and sound to develop the second part of the trilogy, Boy From Black Mountain, personal songs about family and fatherhood in the tradition of Southern Gospel songwriters and Southern Gothic literature.

Unfoundsound: An Unmix

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Somewhat vaguely similar to my appreciation of art welded from junk, I am fascinated by the capture, tweaking, and collaging of raw sounds in order to make music. Beauty can come from lots of things- even discarded metal, or random noise waves propogating through the air.

That's why I've got lots of love for Unfoundsound! A netlabel out of Philly, they release quirky, dj friendly dance music that is made with (among other things) found sounds and field recordings from natural or unnatural environments. Besides releasing great music under creative commons licensing, they also have a series of field recordings which make for great fun in making your own music.

From their site:

through monthly releases, unfoundsound offers worldwide exposure to promising new artists as well as established artists from around the globe. in addition, unfoundsound provides a series of free downloadable field recordings (the unfields) available to everyone for creative sampling, musical composition and whatever your fuzzy, little heart desires. enjoy!

Damn Skippy! Thanks to Unfoundsound for their really solid, interesting releases. I hope everyone enjoys this little collection of songs which I put together rather roughly. Also check out their sister label Foundsound for more great music.

* Ditch - Yack
* David Last - Halitosis Rockers
* Kriss - Undersun
* Mike Uzzi and Ben Recht - Slack Talk Space Dub
* So Inagawa - Kada
* Ben Parris - Desktop Willage
* Theilaxu - Highlite (Marc Ashken remix)
* Roberto Clementi - Real Fun
*Ben Parris - Breakfast with Thorialanus (Seth Troxler rmx)
*Alex Medina - Too Much Botox
*Roberto Clementi - Exigent

The Commute, Part 2: To Work

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In the third installment of The Commute Series, here are some more tunes deemed appropriate for the pre-dawn commute to work. Keep your eyes out for soft purple skys coming, as well an occasional morning star. But, most importantly, when you finally get to work, don't sweat the smalls.

• Sawako - Purple Sky Coming
• Klimek - For Jim Hall & Kurt Kirkwood
• Andrew Thomas - A Dream of a Spider
• Bill Frisell - Outlaw
• Ekekiel Honig & Morgan Packard - Balm
• Bobby Previte - Morning Star
• Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet - A Remembrance...An Afterthought...
• Ezekiel Honig - Material Instrument 2
• Mint - Hindemith
• Marc Ribot - Noise #2
• John Zorn - Yellow
• Ches Smith - Don't Sweat the Smalls

Zony Mash

A lover of the Hammond b-3, Wurlitzer, I was instantly hooked when I first heard the middle of 'Meet the Zony Mash'. I was already a Wayne Horvitz fan from his playing in Naked City, and hearing him play this completely different (and often funky) music was a thrill. Just like all of his other projects, Zony Mash was a super versatile band, and could cover lots of ground--all of it with a ton of soul and edge. You can find that in any projects that Wayne Horvitz has lead.

A few burners up front, with some softer tunes at back, with an acoustic tune to end.

Frivolous

Frivolous! I first heard his music a few years ago on Andy Vaz's Background Records label. He's a former math teacher (I think) from Canada who left that vocation for a career in homegrown electronic music, aka DIY electronic music. He's special, as he is one of the handful of artists that both my wife and I love.

Given the extremely homemade instruments he uses (for images check out his cool site ) , his music is extremely polished, funky, and fun. He’s released a lot of music over the years…. You can check some of it out at:
Background Records
Minibar Music

This post brought to you by the letter F, an electromagnetic knife, and Canada.

Reilly is here!

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The MA crew is very excited about the arrival of Reilly, and here's a children's mix to celebrate his arrival. I have included songs that are fun, happy, and light---a challenging task, given my collection of disturbing music. All of the tunes are made by adults for adults-- but I think you'll find them all made with lots of children's soul. You'll hear some cartoon music, Cosby funk, movie soundtrack music, doggy blues, extra-terrestrial batman blues, Cuban music, music made from old cut-up 45's and PSA's, a rap from a lil tyke, electronic music, and even some trippy circus music! Best of all, I've included a short snack break in the middle of the mix. Have fun with the lil one!

The Commute, Part 2: The Ride Home

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Continuing on the theme of electronic music made with field recordings and found sounds, here are some more upbeat, funky ditties for the fun ride home.

The Suffragettes: "Rikson", Gunsi EP. Goosehound
Nicholas Sauser and Ditch: "Very Vrey Whales", Minlove 06
Socks & Sandals: "Spaced", Rishi Saturn EP, Microcosm Music
Someone Else: "Happiness for Our Time", Happiness for Our Time. Microcosm Music
Pocket Pet: "Noctiluca Falls", Minlove 06

The Commute, Part 1: To Work

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Compiled with the pre-sunrise, groggy commuter in mind. In sequence, this podcast includes:
Ezekiel Honig "Going Sailing Refrain 1" from Scattered Practices, Microcosm Records
Ezekiel Honig "Oceans and Living Rooms" from Scattered Practices, Microcosm Records
Antiguo Automata Mexicano "Extirpe" from Kraut Slut, Static Disco
DB "December 75" from Background Records [mnlv07]
Dave Miller "Down the Line From Harvey" from Mitchells Raccolta, Background Records
Ezekiel Honig, "The Breeze of Hibernation" from It's Getting Cold Outside, Unfoundsound
Morgan Packard "Dappled" from Airships Fill the Sky, Anticipate Records