Contemporary Obfuscation

Retro Futurism returned to the airwaves RRR 102.7FM Thursday 2 May, 7.00pm Melbourne time with Contemporary Obfuscation:

Despite advances in technology enabling easy manipulation of sonic data in high fidelity audio, a number of contemporary electronic musicians opt to intentionally obscure their music into a dirty, hazy, slowed down moire of low-fi noise. Contemporary Obfuscation looks at the work of a number of contemporary UK artists working in this manner - Burial, Actress, Andy Stott, The Caretaker - tracing their roots back to 1990s glitch. Contemporary Obfuscation examines some of the moods and effects this music evokes and looks at possible motivations behind this approach.

It's kind of an audio version of my discussion on 'Hauntological House: From Sturm to Stott' and will feature them and related artists making murky music.

Here's what was played:

Burial - 'Forgive' Burial (Hyperdub 2006)
Pole - 'Berlin' 1 (Kiff SM 1998)
Andy Stott - 'Intermittent' Passed Me By (Modern Love 2011)
Actress - 'I Can't Forgive You' Hazyville (Werk Discs 2008)
Sturm - 'Untitled' Sturm (Mille Plateaux 1999)
Miles - 'Rejoice' Faint Hearted (Modern Love 2013)
Samuel Kerridge - 'Auditory System' Auris Interna (Horizontal Ground 2012)
Lee Gamble - 'M25 Echo' Diversions 1994-1996 (PAN 2012)
Tuff Sherm - 'Claw Worlds' Canal Cloaking (Reckno 2012)
Rechenzentrum - 'Parabolid' The John Peel Session (Kitty Yo 2001)
Anthony Child - 'The Space Between People and Things Part 2 (excerpt)' The Space Between People and Things (NNA Tapes 2013)
The Caretaker - 'Persistent Repetition of Phrases' Persistent Repetition of Phrases (Install 2008)

It can be streamed here.

Lynchian Psychodrama - Details

Lynchian Psychodrama aired 7pm Valentine's Day. Stream it here and hear the following:

Julee Cruise - Into the Night
Mantovani - Charmaine
Connie Stevens - 16 Reasons
Angelo Badalamenti - Lumberton, USA
Isabella Rossellini - Blue Velvet / Blue Stars
David Bowie - I'm Deranged
Angelo Badalamenti - Silencio (excerpt)
This mortal coil - Song to the Siren
Angelo Badalamenti - I'm Hurt Bad
Olga Mevwirth - Scene 2, Lost Highway
Trent Reznor - Videodrones
Angelo Badalamenti - The Red Room (excerpt)
David Lynch - Ghost of Love
Angelo Badalamenti - Pink Room
David Lynch - In Heaven
Bohren und der Club of Gore - Prowler (excerpt)
V/VM - There was a Fish in the Percolator
Dean Blunt - The Narcissist
Angelo Badalamenti - Nostalgia (excerpt)
Julee Cruise - Rockin' Back Inside My Heart.

Thanks for listening.

Lynchian Psychodrama

Forthcoming radio broadcast on the music of, about and around David Lynch. Airing Thursday 14 February - Valentine's Day - 7-8pm in Max Headroom on Melbourne's 3 Triple R 102.7 FM. Here's the blurb:

Since the cavernous industrial noise of Eraserhead, music has occupied a prominent place in the work of David Lynch. Blue Velvet re-imagined Roy Orbison as an echo-drenched psycho-delic operatic crooner, Twin Peaks introduced the world to Julee Cruise and created an influential version of jazz noir, Inland Empire revealed the horrors lurking amidst the massed strings of Mantovani while Lynch himself has devoted increasingly more of his energies towards pop and rock production.

Featuring music from his TV and films, by influences and influenced, and from Lynch himself, Lynchian Psychodrama presents an hour of bipolar sonic merriment. Let's Rock!

Lynch's use of 1950s music references retro futurist concerns:

Yes, it's a fifties thing. Banal in a way. But it's kind of removed from that also. Misplaced, almost. A fities/nineties combo was what Twin Peaks was all about. We weren't making a period thing.

The guitar and echo in this sequence demonstrates his point:

Episode 8: Recent Australian Music

Retro Futurism Episode 8: Recent Australian Music aired 6pm, Sunday 6 January. Playlist below, stream here and download here and here.

Lawrence English - Jansia Borneensis
Peter Knight & Dung Nguyen - Minky Star
Anton Webern - Six Pieces for Orchestra
Austin Bucket - Palais
Kane Ikin - A Synthetic Setting
John Chantler - Untitled #6
Ben frost & Daniel Bjarnasson - Simulacra
Edouard Artemiev - Le Tourbillon De L'histoire
Warren Burt - Scrapbook
Anthony Pateras & Robin Fox - You're All Answers
Inverto - More Than a Heartache
Tornado Wallace - Some Kinda Man
Roland Tings - The Milky Way
Dennis Garcia - Door To Dimension 4
Bauhaus - Dive
Tuff Sherm - Litho
Dro Carey - Lowdope
Advance Human - Planetary Grid System
Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi - Still unable to throw off...
Cat Hope (pictured) - Longing
The Caretaker - As If Sinking Into Sand

I'm back in another guise on Valentine's Day, details here.

Episode 7: Best of 2012

Retro Futurism Episode 7: Best of 2012 aired 6pm, Sunday 30 December. Playlist below and download here and here.

William Basinski: Disintegration Loop 1.2
John Cage: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) (excerpt)
Sun Ra: On Jupiter
Laurie Spiegel (pictured): Clockworks
Oneohtrix Point Never: Time Decanted
Kevin Gorman: Frequency Phase Parts 1 & 2
Bernard Parmegiani: Passage d'Insectes
Bernard Parmegiani: Transition
Bee Mask: Pink Drinq
James Ferraro: Jumpshot Earth
Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury: Scope the Block
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth: This is Not a Dream
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth: Prince of Darkness End Titles
Disco Inferno: The Atheist's Burden
Felix Kubin: I'm Still Calling You My Brain
DJ Spinn: 4 A $5 Bag
DJ Sprinkles and Mark Fell: Say It Slowly (N.U.M. Mix)
Mark Fell: SOA-7
Starship Commander Woo Woo: Master Ship (excerpt)
Octo Octa: I Can Feel You (Dub Version)
US: Born in the North
Mannheim Rocket: Eora Part 1
Lee Gamble: ExpRand Trace
Actress: Ascending
Lorenzo Senni: Digital Tsunami
Yvonne Archer: 'Aint Nobody

Thanks for listening. Next Sunday 6 January will be Episode 8: Recent Australian Music, featuring music mostly by Australian artists.

Episode 6: Dubs, Versions, Copies and Covers

Retro Futurism Episode 6: Dubs, Versions, Copies and Covers aired at the new summer time of 6pm, Sunday 23 December. Playlist below, and the program should still be listenable via the stream at the Under The Sun page (who I'm covering for) and downloadable here and here.

Sex Pistols: Holiday in the Sun
Alton Ellis: It's a Shame
King Tubby: Fat Thing Version
Pulshar: Golden Brown
Fennesz: Don't Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)
Claude Debussy: Gymnopedie #1 (Satie)
Akira Rabelais: Gnossienne #3 (Satie)
Wendy Carlos: Two Part Invention in D Minor (Bach)
Ekkehard Ehlers: Spaten
Blood Sisters: Ring My Bell
Jennifer Lara: I'm In Love
Carl Craig: Angola
Lee Perry: Chim Chim Cherie
Pauline Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly
Christian Marclay: Maria Callas
Michael Mayer: Frost
Dean Blunt feat. Inga Copeland (pictured): The Narcissist
Sonic Youth: Piece Enfantine (Slominsky)
Sun Ra: UFO (Mike Huckaby's Reel to Reel Edit)
Charlie Parker: Loverman
Derek Bailey: What's New
The Dirtbombs: Jaguar
The Field: Action
Felix Kubin: Hello
Oneohtrix Point Never: Adagio in G Minor (Albinoni)
V/VM: The Lady in Red (Is Dancing with Meat)
Oneohtrix Point Never: Nobody Here
John Fahey: What Child Is This

Next Sunday 30 December will feature Episode 7: Best of 2012. Unoriginal, but plenty of reissued futurist and new retro gold worth hearing again.

More Retro Futurism

Retro Futurism will return to Triple R 102.7FM 6.00pm this Sunday 23 December. I'll be filling in for Jonathan Alley's Under The Sun for three weeks while he's on summer vacation.

Episode 6: Dubs, Versions, Copies and Covers will celebrate my role as 'cover' by playing 'covers'. Stream it here.