Shock World Service #37 - Offset Festival Podcast (1 Viewer)

[Shock]

Shock World Service #37
'Ideal Correspondence' by Jon Averill
Recorded for the Offset Arts Festival

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01 Harry Partch - I'm Going To Start You Off By Giving You Some Sounds
02 Piano Magic - Exit
03 Moondog - Mirimba Mondo 2
04 Luisine - Gravity
05 Akumu Odhiambo - Plus Ogola
06 2562 - Greyscale
07 LV - Turnaway
08 Dubbel Dutch - Fool In You
09 Acid Brass - Lets Get Brutal
10 Lucky Dragons - Open Melody
11 Quincy Jones - Exodus
12 The Pioneers - No Broken Glass
13 Rosa Yemen - Larousse Baron Bic
14 Yamasuki Singers - Yama Yama
15 Raymond Scott - The Paper Work Explosion
16 Top Drawer - Song Of A Sinner

 

[Shock]

01 Harry Partch - I'm Going To Start You Off By Giving You Some Sounds
Harry Partch is an American composer and the first of three of this show's featured musicians who designed and created many of their own instruments. He was was fascinated buy microtonality, creating his own 43-tone scale system. This vocal snippet is taken from the 'Historic Speech Music Recordings' album.

02 Piano Magic - Exit
Just realised the first track proper is called 'Exit', that's not important. Piano Magic have featured previously on the World Service yet they're somehow still criminally ignored. Their most recent album 'Ovations' is most definitely worth a listen. It features contributions by Brendan Perry and Peter Ulrich of Dead Can Dance. Also for some reason this track reminds of the XX, which in turn reminds me of Chris Issak's 'Wicked Games'.

03 Moondog - Mirimba Mondo 2
Another musician with an amazing history. A blind composer, musician, poet and also a inventor of several musical instruments. He chose to remove himself from society and make his home on the streets of New York. He could be found wearing clothes based on his own interpretation of the Norse god Thor. Because of his unconventional outfits he was known for much of his life as 'The Viking of 6th Avenue'.

04 Lusine - Gravity
Lusine is based in Seattle and releases his music through the very decent Ghostly International label. Occasionally I worry he is drifting too far into the arena of the coffee table but his productions are in the main too good to collapse into the placid zone.

05 Akumu Odhiambo - Plus Ogola
I can find very little info about Akumu Odhiambo, so lets make some up… Akumu Odhiambo likes to collect footprints. This is taken from an esoteric compilation album called 'Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts'. That's all I got.

06 2562 - Greyscale
2562 is a Dutch producer who loosely falls into the category of dubstep. I generally despise most of the cliched 'wobble' stuff but if you look a little deeper than you'll find that some of the most exciting electronic music is happening around the fringes of the scene.

07 LV - Turnaway
Another impressively spacious LV track on the Hyperdub label (home to Burial, Kode9, Zomby) mixing dub, reggae and broken beat. The 'Five Years of Hyperdub' compilation is an extensive but accessible entry point.

08 Dubbel Dutch - Fool In You
Again on the fringes different styles, UK funky, garage & broken beat - its looping vocal and blasting synths are also a big nod (& maybe a little wink) to early rave productions which are a big influence on this genre.

09 Acid Brass - Lets Get Brutal
Acid Brass is an album of rave/techno classics conceived by Turner-Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller and executed by the Williams Fairey Brass Band. As with these types of projects some of the tracks fall flat but a scant few of them were worth the toil and serve to enhance the musicality of the originals. This version of Nitro Delux's 'Lets Get Brutal' is the worthiest track from the album.

10 Lucky Dragons - Open Melody
'Art-drone' duo Lucky Dragons have crept up on me to become one of my favourite bands, creating their own inimitable pallet of repeating noises and drones and twisting them into something really beautiful. They've recorded 21 albums since 1999 apparently. This is from their most recent 'Rara Speaks'.

11 Quincy Jones - Exodus
The closest thing to jazz we've had on the Shock World Service comes from Quincy Jones. Quincy is a man who is as near to the status of a god as a mortal can hope for. Now 77 and still very active on the music scene, we could fill 10 pages with a list of his achievements but to reference just few is enough.
He's worked as a trumpet player, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, has 79 Grammy nominations to his name. He's worked with innumerable legendary jazz artists, has arranged for Frank Sinatra and he produced two of the biggest albums of all time; Michael Jackson's 'Off The Wall' and 'Thriller'. His TV production company also brought us 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'. Are you not entertained?

12 The Pioneers - No Broken Glass
From almost jazz to almost country!, 'No Broken Glass' is 1min 22 secs of hardcore rockabilly gospel twanging, yesir.

13 Rosa Yemen - Larousse Baron Bic
Rosa Yemen were a French post-punk/no wave band in the late 70's. The band consisted of Lizzy Mercier Descloux on vocals, and D.J. Barnes on guitar. Their music is difficult to get hold of but some of it has been reissued on ZE Records relatively recently. This is taken from the 'NY No Wave' compilation.

14 Yamasuki Singers - Yama Yama
The booklet for this cd says 'educational-bubblegum-multi-cultural-psycho-rock-opera' & anything I offer beyond that will be valueless.

15 Raymond Scott - The Paper Work Explosion Listen
Raymond Scott is another musician who was decades, perhaps centuries ahead of his time. Initially a composer, band leader, pianist, and engineer, Scott became obsessed by studio technology and electronics, eventually manufacturing his own instruments such as the Clavivox and Electronium as well as pushing studio techniques to a level not yet seen before.

In 1964 he released 'Soothing Sounds for Baby' in collaboration with the Gesell Institute of Child Development. Its original purpose is obvious but its now a long last landmark electronic album, though i'm not sure i'd want to play it to my kids.

in 1971 Berry Gordy hired Scott to serve as director of Motown's electronic music and research department, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's recording techniques have ever been acknowledged.

'The Paper Work Explosion' is an extraordinary piece of music produced to soundtrack a short film for IBM to promote their early word processors. This was one of his many collaborations with Jim Henson. For more on his extraordinary work visit: http://www.raymondscott.com

16 Top Drawer - Song Of A Sinner
We finish this podcast with a redemptive psychedelic triumph from the year 1972. I'd never heard of Top Drawer until his track was made available on a compilation entitled 'Forge Your Own Chains: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads & Dirges', which does exactly what it says on the tin.

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