solipsistic NATION No. 165: Geas
October 30, 2009 | Comments Off
When I put together the mix for last week’s show I realized that I had over two hours worth of music. I decided to break that mix up into two shows.
Last week’s show was dark and concussive and featured the likes of Hindu Pez and King Cannibal. This week’s show is dark and… atmospheric. Which makes it perfect for Halloween. In fact, you might want to play today’s show while kids come to your house to trick or treat.
Everyone has a Halloween memory so let me share one of mine.
Back when I was a kid I worked at a novelty store called Jack ‘N’ Jill’s Joke Shop in Boston. We sold your usual assortment of hand buzzers and fake dog crap but we made our nut during Halloween. All through the month of October we sold Halloween supplies ranging from fake blood to high-end items like latex masks. Each day was busier than the last and culminated in a shopping frenzy on the 31st with customers lined up outside our door.
At the end of one Halloween shopping day our shelves were pretty bare but I grabbed some fake spiders webs, a strobe light or two and a truly frightening Frankenstein’s monster mask. I rushed home to Dorchester to meet my then girlfriend to make our house ready for the trick and treaters in our neighborhood.
There was just one problem.
We had made our house so spooky and combined with my gruesome mask kids were too terrified to come up to our doorstep for candy. They’d scream and wail and despite encouragement from their parents they refused to take a single step near us. In the end I had to take off my mask so the little boys and girls would get over their fear of me and get their candy.
What’s your Halloween memory?
Photo Credit: ©Teri Mills
- Black Light Burns “Ribbons”
- Cdatakill “Respirator”
- Felix Inferious “Vashta Nerada”
- Black Lung “The Regulator Plot”
- Frank Riggio “Inside The Skull” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Pandora’s Black Book “Wavelength”
- Access To Arasaka “Montcalm”
- Lukeing Forward “Lull Before the Storm That Never Comes”
- The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation “The Sexy Midnight Torture Show”
- Ezekiel Honig “Porchside Prologue”
- Kalte “Shallow Approach” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- David Bickley and Tom Green “Possessions” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- BrainSt0rm “Sc0rpi0″
- Lissom “Fallow”
- Evan Bartholomew “Secret Entries Into Darkness”
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1:03:28 | 58.20 MB
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solipsistic NATION No. 164: Dead Pixel
October 23, 2009 | Comments Off
When I was putting together this week’s edition of solipsistic NATION I realized I had over two hours worth of music. What to do? I could either pare down the mix to an hour or break the mix into two separate shows. I decided to go with the latter option.
Originally the mix began with a selection of music that would make your ears bleed and slowly become more and more darkly atmospheric. So let’s talk about the first part.
We begin with Hindu Pez’s “The Blackest Sky” from his forthcoming abUSE EP that will be released Friday, November 13th. Hindu Pez was kind enough to send me an advance copy and “The Blackest Sky” set the tone for the rest of today’s show.
Speaking of Hindu Pez, this is the perfect opportunity for me to talk about how some editions of solipsistic NATION come together. I’m constantly reviewing tracks to play on future shows and some tracks I play immediately and some sit on my hard drive for weeks, months or, sometimes, years before they make it on to the show. I’d love to play all new music that comes my way but my priority is to present you cohesive mixes of great music. If I can work in new music so much the better but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Moving on, we’ve also got some music from The Teknoist, Enduser, Abelcain and Ad·ver·sary, all of whom have appeared on solipsistic NATION before. And for good reason: they all craft mind blowing music.
Another artist that is new to solipsistic NATION is King Cannibal. King Cannibal’s Let the Night Roar is definitely in the dubstep vein but it’s far more darker and heavier than most of the dubstep you’ve heard. Oh, King Cannibal will appear on solipsistic NATION in the next month or two with one of his live sets.
I followed King Cannibal with Somatic Responses who are just as menacing as King Cannibal. It was a no brainer to include them on this week’s show. Somatic Responses’ “Murder Thought” comes from their fantastic Reformation album.
Jega, Access To Arasaka and Pandora’s Black Book also return to solipsistic NATION but Black Mold and Datach’i are new to the show.
Datach’i is an example of what I was talking about earlier. I meant to play Datach’i when I showcased Planet Mu Records on solipsistic NATION but I couldn’t work him into the mix due to time constraints so I’ve very pleased to finally play Datach’i on today’s show.
The final newcomer to solipsistic NATION is Black Mold with the track “Smoking Rat Shit” from the Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz. I confess I know little about Black Mold but they’re on my radar.
That’s the show. Next week will feature the second half of the mix which will be appropriately spooky for Halloween.
Stay stuned!
Photo Credit: Copyright©Lydia Marano
- Hindu Pez “The Blackest Sky”
- The Teknoist “Have You Seen”
- Enduser “Pushing Chaos (Bong-Ra Remix)”
- Abelcain “Faust (Cdatakill Remix)”
- Ad·ver·sary “Number Nine”
- King Cannibal “The Untitled”
- Somatic Responses “Murder Thought”
- Jega “Kyoto”
- Access To Arasaka “Medway”
- Black Mold “Smoking Rat Shit”
- Pandora’s Black Book “Black Brothel”
- Datach’i “Intercoursing”
Download episode.
1:00:00 | 55.03 MB
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solipsistic NATION No. 163: A/V
October 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Today on solipsistic NATION we’ll talk with Amy Grill about her documentary, Speaking in Code. We’ll also talk to Paul Owens, the director of Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet, a documentary about the Chiptunes movement. On the night of the debut of Berlin Calling in Hollywood, director Hannes Stöhr shares his thoughts about his new movie. From the big screen to the pages of Big Up Magazine, we’ll talk to Katyá Guseva about bass driven music, art and culture and Big Up Magazine’s one year anniversary. We’ll also talk to Graham St. John about the newly launched Dancecult journal. Finally, Fernando Fonseca, the founder of the Public Spaces Lab, shares with us his experiences at the Net Audio Festival in Berlin.
Speaking in Code Speaking in Code is an intimate account of people who are completely lost in music and is a heartbreaking and lighthearted documentary, it’s a vérité glimpse into the world of techno. Speaking in Code stars Modeselektor, Wighnomy Brothers, Monolake, Philip Sherburne, David Day and Amy Grill.
Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chiptunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the chiptune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.
Berlin Calling is about electronic music composer Martin (Paul Kalkbrenner), known as DJ Ickarus, is touring with his manager and girlfriend Mathilde (Rita Lengyel) from club to club around the globe and is about to release their biggest album to date. However, all of his plans are thrown out of kilter after Ickarus is submitted to the emergency ward of a psychiatric clinic high on drugs after a gig- A tragicomedy in Berlin of today. Berlin Calling is directed by Hannes Stöhr who has also directed One Day in Europe (Berlinale 2005 in Official Competition) and Berlin is in Germany (Berlinale 2001 Panorama Audience Award).
Big Up Magazine is a magazine dedicated to bass driven music, art, culture and people and celebrates its one year anniversary October 24th at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco with Cyrus/Random Trio, Cluekid featuring Aurorah, Kutz, Samiyam and Darkiside of Get Darker TV.
Dancecult is a peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal for the study of electronic dance music culture and has launched the 1.1 edition 1.1 published and available at http://dj.dancecult.net.
The Net Audio Festival ‘09 took place from the 8th to the 11th of October and gathered the international netaudio community for a four-day music and conference festival in Berlin, under the title “East meets West.” 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. Net Audio Festival ‘09 recalled pictures of hands reaching out to pull people from both sides up onto the Berlin wall. The event will took place at Maria, a venue situated immediately on the former Berlin ‘death strip’ once dividing the city and the world into eastern and western hemispheres.
That’s the show! Join us again next week when we’ll do it all over again. But completely different.
Photo Credit: Mitch Vega
- The Field “Sun and Ice, Excerpt”
- Speaking in Code Trailer
- The Field “The Deal”
- Interview with Amy Grill, director of Speaking in Code
- Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet Trailer
- Starscream “Gravity in Terms of Space-Time” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Interview with Paul Owens, director of Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet
- Paul Kalkbrenner “Gebrünn Gebrünn (Berlin Calling Edit)”
- Interview with Hannes Stöhr, director of Berlin Calling
- Cyrus/Random Trio “Mind Games”
- Interview with Katyá Guseva, editor of Big Up Magazine
- Dubatech aka Cold Form “Windless Dub (Havantepe’s Breeze)” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Interview with Graham St. John, editor of Dancecult
- Zengineers “Passage to India” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Interview with Fernando Fonseca, founder of Public Spaces Lab
- Niteffect “Naked Swords” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Download episode.
1:04:56 | 59.56 MB
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Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet Trailer
solipsistic NATION No. 162: Digital Hardcore Recordings
October 9, 2009 | Comments Off
When I launched solipsistic NATION I had a list of people I wanted to be guests on the show. One was Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto and another was Amon Tobin. I’ve slowly been making my way down the list and today I’m happy to cross Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings off that list!
One of my favorite memories of Digital Hardcore Recordings was when I was working alongside a kid who played Korn constantly. I think he was on a mission to assault my ears with what he considered the heaviest and angriest music he knew. I put up with it for a while but after a couple of days I got fed up with it and when it was my turn to play some music I dialed up some Atari Teenage Riot. I couldn’t have wished fro a better reaction from him: he fell off his chair in shock. He was simultaneously stunned and laughing hysterically at the intensity of the music that was bludgeoning his ears! Ah, the simple pleasures in life.
I have to be honest, though, my initial reaction to Atari Teenage Riot was pretty much the same. Back in the 90’s there was really nothing else like them out there and while I liked it I couldn’t make sense of it at first. But like it I did and I started digging up everything I could find that was released on Digital Hardcore Recordings. Atari Teenage Riot will always have a special place in my heart but I also became a big fan of The Curse of the Golden Vampire, Hanin Elias and pretty much anything Alec Empire puts out.
While most of the stuff on Digital Hardcore Recordings sounds as fresh now as it did when it was first released, time, and Alec Empire have moved on so this week’s show serves as a kind of a document of the history Digital Hardcore Recordings: how the label and Atari Teenage Riot began, how people reacted to the band and the label and Alec’s new label, Eat Your Heart Out.
I’d like to thank Alec for being so generous with his time. I figured I would count myself lucky if I was able to interview Alec for 15 minutes but instead Alec gave me 90 minutes and the opportunity to answer any question I asked him. Thanks, Alec!
- Atari Teenage Riot “Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture”
- Alec Empire “We All Die”
- Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
- Ec80r “We Need A Change!”
- Christoph De Babalon “My Confession”
- Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
- Hanin Elias “Nizza”
- The Curse Of The Golden Vampire “Ultrasonic Meltdown”
- Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
- Bomb 20 “You Killed Me First”
- Alec Empire “1000 Eyes (Radio Edit)”
- Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
- Killout Trash “Straight Outta Berlin”
- Patric C “Snuff Out”
- Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
- Sonic Subjunkies “Central Industrial”
- DJ Bleed “Deaf Dumb And Blind”
- Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
- Shizuo “Sweat”
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1:22:17 | 75.41 MB
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Atari Teenage Riot - Destroy 2000 Years of Culture
solipsistic NATION No. 161: Eskmo, Live
October 2, 2009 | Comments Off
If you’ve listened to solipsistic NATION for a while then you know the first Friday of each month I feature a live set from an electronic musician. It’s a lot of fun and recently we’ve had some great performances from KiloWatts, Iambic and Exillon. What began as a one time segment has become a regular feature on solipsistic NATION.
And that takes us to today’s show which caused a minor dilemma for me.
A few months I asked Brendan Angelides, who records and performs under the names Eskmo and Welder, if he’d like to be a guest on the show. Brendan was kind enough to send me a link to one of his mind blowing mixes. I couldn’t wait to play it on the show!
When I arranged my interview with Brendan I discovered his set is… kind of live. Live in the sense that his mixed the set in his studio. By this point I had already promoted his show on solipsistic NATION and didn’t have enough time to set up an interview with another musician and feature one of their live sets. That aside, I decided it didn’t matter because Eskmo’s music is just so great. Plus, in a couple of months Brendan will be back on the show with, this time, one of his Welder live sets!
Speaking of live sets, next month we’ll have two live sets on one show, one from Masmöd and one from Terminal 11. Oh, and next week our special guest will be Alec Empire. We’ll talk with Alec and hear select tracks from his label, Digital hardcore Recordings.
Stay stuned!
Eskmo The Ancestor Mix [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Animal Collective “Daily Routine (Intro)”
- Eskmo “Harmony”
- Eskmo “Trudge”
- Interview with Eskmo
- Eskmo “Hypercolor”
- Eskmo “Process”
- J. Rodgers “Mediation Point (Eskmo Remix)”
- DJ Quest & Eskmo “Speakers Corner (Antiserum Remix)”
- Eskmo “Ocean Lazer”
- Coalition of the Killing “We Are the Glitch (Eskmo Remix)”
- Interview with Eskmo
- Sub Swara “Constructing the Abscence (Eskmo Remix)”
- Eskmo & Antiserum “Monstahs”
- Jason Sparks “One Eyed Man (Eskmo Remix)”
- Bar9 “Murda Sound (Eskmo Remix)”
- Primus “My Name is Mud (Eskmo Remix)”
- Eskmo “Agnus Dei”
- Afghan Headspin “MSG (Eskmo Remix)”
- DJ Quest & Mutiny “? (Eskmo Remix)”
- Interview with Eskmo
- Eskmo “San Francisco”
- Animal Collective “Daily Routine (Outro)”
Download episode.
1:02:25 | 57.23 MB
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