Background Noise : The Splinter Orchestra

First broadcast 14.8.7. Details to follow.

The link is here.

our very special guest for this morning Jim Denley, one of Sydney’s finest improvising musicians and founding member of The Splinter Orchestra .  Good morning Jim and thank you for coming in .  It is a very special occasion.  The radio launch of the first CD by The Splinter Orchestra. We Started with?  We will be playing tracks on the CD with our discussion about the Orchestra.  And later Jim will introduce some pieces from his beautiful recent solo CD. 

Background Noise : A Smegma Feature

First broadcast 1.8.7. Details to follow.

The link is here.

Morning this morning a feature on Smegma, underground noise/improv/free jazz/ audio collage/weirdness group from Portland, Oregon , USA.  They have a 30 year history and have been involved with the Los Angeles Free Music Society. Their New CD is called 33 1/3 and is a kind of anniversary tribute.Smegma formed in Pasadena, California in 1973 and currently based in Portland, Oregon. Smegma is one of the few music collectives of that era still active today.^[1] Author Richard Meltzer became their vocalist in the late 1990s.^[1] The group was included in the Nurse with Wound list and more recently was featured on the cover of the August 2006 edition of The Wire.^[2]We Started out with the smegma side from the 1979 single on mute which was shared with Non on the other side .The Original Members Are Oblivia, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Burned Mind, Conroy, Dr. Id.

Now tracks from Nattering Naybobs of Negativity released earlier this year on Harbinger sound.  Beautifully messy conglom of cruddy tape manips, out-Beefheart, goofball near-rock, etc. 1/2 of a cassette from ‘88 & all of the ‘87 lp of the same name, Negativland meets improv.  A beautiful meeting.Tracks:
happy birthday rhumba,

freakish high

turn me loose

lymp dynamics

innermost cravings

porky section

en vout

project 22

grammer

hairlip diary

jungle ride

now it’s dark

sanctum

nall scarred hand

Now the New CD 33 1/3 on important records. 33 1/3 is Smegma’s tribute to their 20th century avant-garde and out-jazz influences. The title is one part reference to the happy revival of passionate vinyl listening in the 21st century and one part celebration of their long hard slog of 33 1/3 years of being one of the most free thinking and original American underground groups.Tracks:
world of plugs

the door

  

 

Background Noise : Recent European CD releases 18th July 07

First broadcast 18.7.7. Details to follow.
The link is here.

Richard Fielding And  John Blades back for another feast of sounds. This Morning recent and new European experimental electronic music releases.  First full-length collaborative CD by Christian Fennesz from Austria and Ruichi Sakamoto from Japan –Cendre , Mika Vainio solo CD Revitty (torn )  and to begin with Alva-Noto (Carsten Nicolai) from Berlin, Xerox, on his own raster noton label, a statement about the work  “Xerox is intended to be released in five parts during the next years. On Xerrox, Alva Noto works with samples from muzak, advertising, soundtracks and entertainment programs. These sounds we hear randomly in everyday life and thereby they become an always present and available public domain. With Xerrox Alva Noto manipulates these recognizable melodic (micro) structures by the process of copying. He alienates them beyond recognition so the results manifest their connection to the original only suggestively. In this respect: the original is copied to the original. Alva Noto used several samples from these sources: Narita airport Tokyo, in-flight program Air France, telephone wait-loop Lufthansa, hotel Apollo Paris, Suizanso hotel Yamaguchi, Seven-Eleven Tokyo, Forma London” .  We live in a world of constant reproduction and Xerox is about that phenomenon . These Pieces have three beautiful elements — loops, layers and texture.(www.raster-noton.net).Tracks:

38 Astoria

Haliod Xerox Copy 4

Haliod Xerox Copy 2(Airfrance)

Haliod Xerox Copy 1

19 Astoria

CD2 Mika Vainio, Revitty (torn) the wavetrap label Mika Vainio is from Finland and one half of Pan Sonic whose new mini CD has just been released. Revitty is as subtle as it is merciless, while remaining deeply musical in vainio’s own unique sense.Tracks:
Hampaat 1

Raatelu

CD3 And Finally Cendre by Christian Fennesz, laptop and guitar maestro from Austria and composer and musician Ruichi Sakamoto from Japan.  Their first full-length CD following on from the previous  EP and again On Touch.Tracks:
Aware

Mono

Tace

Cendre