Category: Listen

Richard Wagner coined the term gesamtkunstwerk in his 1849 essay, Art and Revolution, to express his concept of a complete artwork. By this he meant an operatic performance that integrated music, theater and the visual arts. Today we call that multimedia.

But as usual with Wagner, gesamtkunstwerk had a multifaceted meaning for him. Gesamtkunstwerk meant more than incorporating various forms of artistic expression. Wagner, like his peer, Friedrich Nietzsche, saw that humanity was becoming a specialized creature. Wagner believed we compartmentalized our capacity for art, religion, philosophy and science and sought to return humanity to a so-called golden age where all those things were unified. The only way Wagner could possibly express this in the framework of opera was through music, theater and the visual arts.

Since Wagner you could argue that even though we now consume and produce vast quantities of media we have become even more specialized. Today we take multimedia for granted. It’s like air. We can watch a music video on our iPhone on the way to work that’s crammed with dancing, singing and special effects. Entertaining for sure, but nothing that combines all that to express and invoke the gestalt Wagner was striving for.

William Morrison and Justin Bennett are currently touring the U.S. with American Memory, an ambitions multimedia project. American Memory tells the story of artists in a far flung future who discover the American Memory Archive on the net. Intrigued but with no historical context to understand what they have found they broadcast their surrealistic impressions back through time.

Justin and William’s gesamtkunstwerk approach of merge and recontextualize music, text, interviews, speeches, photography and film may be the best way to explore the multilayered history of America.

Errata
Justin and William sent the audio files at 24 bit at 48k I played on this week’s show. When I dropped the tracks into Garaband they played at a slower rate. I failed to notice my error until William and Justin brought it to my attention.

My sincere apologies to Justin and William. I hope to have them back on the show when the American Memory DVD is released. I can play more music from American Memory but this time at the correct speed.

1. American Memory “American Memory Trailer”
2. American Memory “Artifacts”
3. American Memory “Dear Mr President”
4. American Memory “Backwards Song”
5. American Memory “Ghost Dance”
6. American Memory “Time Don’t Steal”
7. Interview with William Morrison and Justin Bennett of American Memory
8. Stephan Mathieu “Lux-Scn”
9. Al Margolis “Frog Field”

When I listen to aggrotech, dark elektro or synthpop I sometimes flashback on my days as a young punk in Boston. Like a lot of punks, I was an angry lad full of venom and punk and hardcore perfectly expressed the intensity of my feelings.

The problem was that I wasn’t full of rage 24 hours a day.

I had other emotions that punk simply couldn’t express. A gloomy, overcast day went perfect with The Smiths (and there are a lot of gloomy, overcast days in Boston. When I was up for a night of debauchery James Brown was my kick start for the evening. When I was falling in love Coltrane’s “Naima” would evoke the sublime and if I was heartbroken I could commiserate with Hank Williams “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” And if I was in the mood for some dark, trashy fun I’d throw in some Front 242 or Sleep Chamber.

To admit this to any of the punks I hung out with inevitably led to being labeled a poseur, which is about the worst thing you can call a punk. After a while I started to chafe under all the conservative restrictions of punk: the modes of dress, the limited selection of music, the enforced social punk norms, etc. And like most people who pass through this phase I realized that it was the spirit of punk that’s to be celebrated, not the ridiculous “laws.”

Anyway, it was right about this time that I started hanging out at Manray‘s, which was the place to be if you were into stuff like goth and aggrotech. The music was great and I dug watching the crowd. Goths had their own attires and modes of expression but there seemed to be an sense of playful irony while the punks were so dogmatic about everything.

Since then I’ve always had a love for aggrotech, dark elektro and synthpop Alfa Matrix is one label that releases some of the best aggrotech, dark elektro and synthpop you’ll likely to hear. Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label the was founded in 2001 by Séba Dolimont, Bernard Van Isacker and Benoî t Blanchart. I first became aware of Alfa Matrix when I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast when I came across a release by Zombie Girl on IODA and I’ve been a fan of Zombie Girl and Alfa Matrix ever since!

1. Krystal System “I Love My Chains”
2. I:Scintilla “The Bells”
3. Ayria “The Gun Song”
4. Zombie Girl “Go Zombie”
5. Mentallo & the Fixer “Opening The Bandwidth For The Cosmic Signal (Fine-Tuning And Frequency)”
6. Interview with Séba Dolimont, co-founder of Alfa Matrix
7. Implant “Spanish Fury (Out Out Mix)”
8. Monolith “Transmission”
9. Komor Kommando “Love Your Neighbour”
10. Front 242 “Operating Tracks”
11. Plastic Noise Experience “Monoton Synchron (Remix)”
12. Plastic Noise Experience “Schlafmodus 3”
13. Interview with Séba Dolimont, co-founder of Alfa Matrix

About six months ago the folks at Areal Records were kind enough to send me a couple of promotional CDs. One of them was a live set in Berlin by Basteroid. I’m always on the lookout for new concerts to play on solipsistic NATION so I contacted Sebastian Riedl (aka Basteroid) and asked him to join me on the show.

It took a while to arrange an interview due to our conflicting schedules and the time differences between our countries. After a couple of weeks we finally nailed a date and I found myself up at 4:30 in the morning ready to interview Sebastian. Despite being sleepy I thought it went pretty well. Except for one small thing. In my grogginess I had failed to check the settings on the software I use to record the interviews. When I went to edit the interview there was just a recording of me talking to no one.

Fortunately, Sebastian was a good sport and recorded an intro for today’s show. If you listen carefully you can hear his daughter in the background.

Enjoy today’s show featuring Sebastian’s live set in Berlin and be sure to check out his new project, IRR (International Recordings Records).

Photo Credit: ©dayvidday

1. Basteroid “Live Set (Areal/Berlin, DE)”

Originally I was going to do a Halloween themed show this week but after putting the playlist together I realized that it just sounded cheesy. Now I appreciate a certain amount of cheese in a postmodern ironic way but the mix I had put together was ridiculous. You’ll just have to trust me on this.

I had to put together the show quickly so I was flailing about for ideas for mixes when I decided what playlists I had created for my iPod. I’ve got a couple of smart playlists that contain all the songs in the solipsistic NATION library sorted by year, in current rotation and previously played on the show. I’ve also got a dozen or so playlists grouping songs by genres or labels or themes. One playlist called “Acid Jazz/Trip Hop/Swing/Lounge” had a bunch of dope tracks that I had been accumulating over the last year. All I had to do was pull an hour’s worth of songs for today’s show and bang! Instant show.

Acid Jazz/Trip Hop/Swing/Lounge pretty much sums it up, too.

Mr. Scruff encompasses all those genres and his collaboration with Alice Russell absolutely swings. Paul Malmstrom in the guise of Monkeybacon has got this wonderful 60s retro exotica thing going on in his music and it’s always torture choosing which song to play on solipsistic NATION. And as much as I try and keep things fresh on the show by rarely ever playing more than one track by an artists Suhov and Mothboy have been making their way into my mixes with alarming frequency. They’re that good!

As I’m writing this week’s show notes I’m listening to the mix and it just occurred to me that what would complete the show is a martini. Shaken. Not stirred. Of course.

Photo Credit: ©drjoanne

1. Mr. Scruff “Music Takes Me Up Featuring Alice Russell (Radio Edit)”
2. Parov Stelar “Wanna Get (Dublex Inc. mix)”
3. Robberriff “Stringing Away Revisited”
4. Riovolt “Rakki Deshita”
5. Ed Solo & Skool Of Thought “Sometimes (Featuring Bukue One & Pimpernel Jones)”
6. Monkeybacon “Meatball” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Don Shtone “Drunkable”
8. Luxurious “Chilled”
9. Suhov “Funny” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Pinker Tones “Beyond Nostalgia”
11. CX Kidtronik “Whoopsi Daisy Featuring Ricky Ray”
12. Modaji “Bar Blues” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Coleman “No Strings Attached”
14. Mothboy “Second Spin R.I.P.”
15. Tosca “Chocolate Elvis (Boozoo Bajou Soul Sufferer Version)” [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Sometimes it sure feels like everything is going to hell.We’re simultaneously dealing with an economic meltdown, water shortages, the rising cost of food, peak oil, global warming, the sixth wave of mass extinction, dead zones in the ocean, islands of trash the size of Manhattan floating in the sea, terrorism, sanctioned torture, increased government surveillance and much more. It makes me reel to think of it!

I don’t think about that stuff all the time. I’d go crazy if I did. This is what goes through my head on the odd day when it’s two in morning and I can’t get to sleep. I take all that stuff seriously but at the same time I’m somewhat cynical. Just last century we were all concerned that the world would end by the atom bomb, then later ICBMs and then overpopulation, killer bees from South America, AIDs, crack, holes in the ozone, etc. Seems like there’s always something to be afraid about but in the end we’re still here and most of that stuff we didn’t have to be afraid about in the first place. But in our society it’s difficult to maintain that kind of insight because we’re constantly bombarded by the media with horrific stories and images.

Bruce Sterling once said that we’re all on the Titanic. The ship is sinking but hey, the music’s great! I put together this week’s show in that spirit. Maybe everything we’re hearing in the news is overblown, maybe we really are at the end of the world, but I got some tunes to kick out the jams!

Photo Credit: ©greenwood100

1. Sebastian “Dog”
2. Black Light Burns “Forkboy”
3. Saul Williams “List of Demands (Reparations)”
4. Tricky “Council Estate”
5. CX Kidtronik “Council Estate”
6. Mothboy “Moth F.M.”
7. Mothboy “Given Away”
8. Bassnectar “Amorphous Form (Featuring Souleye & E Note)”
9. The Bug “Warning (featuring Flowdan)”
10. Roots Manuva “Witness (1 Hope)”
11. Meat Beat Manifesto “Young Cassius”
12. Scorn “The Palomar”
13. Enduser “An Apology”
14. Burial “Ghost Hardware” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Bass Science “Transmission from Planet Dub”
16. OP11 “Feu”

Here some useless trivia you didn’t need to know about me.

I use the iTunes-LAME encoder to convert each edition of solipsistic NATION to MP3. I could use the iTunes built-in MP3 encoder but I want to give your ears the best sounding show possible. Compressing a track to MP3 means sacrificing quite a bit of fidelity for the convenience of listening to the show on your computer, iPhone, Zune or whatever you use to listen to tunes. If I’m going to convert music to MP3 then I might as well use the best encoder available. The downside of getting the best sounding MP3 I can that means twirling my thumbs for 25 minutes or so while I encode each podcast to MP3.

So what do I do during those 25 minutes?

I usually catch up with people on Twitter or checking email. Maybe read.

Today I blew the dust off my PlayStation and played Street Fighter Alpha 3 for 30 minutes. Because I haven’t played in so long my super combos were pretty rusty (I play Rolento, by the way) and I overcompensated by mashing the buttons on my controller. By the time this week’s show was converted to a MP3 my left thumb and forearm were throbbing.

Anyway…

This week’s show goes out to Sean, who wants less interviews and more music, and Michael, who is my own personal Ganesh.

Got some cool tunes on today’s show.

Can you believe it?! Ninja Tune‘s Hip Hop London imprint, Big Dada, has been putting out great music for over 10 years. Their recently released double CD, Well Deep, Ten Years Of Big Dada Recordings has so much great stuff on it that it was difficult to choose which artists I would feature on this week’s show. More and more music from netlabels have been working their way into solipsistic NATION and this week is no exception. Natalie Walker makes two appearances on this weeks show. Once as a solo artist and once with her new project, Dive Index.

Enjoy the show!

Photo Credit: Liberoliber

1. Diplo “Diplo Rhythm”
2. Goldfrapp “Train”
3. Tiny Stikz “Watching You (Vocal Mix)” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Lokua “Coupe Deville” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Suhov “Clear” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. DJ Internet & Kid Kool A.K.A.Pella “Games” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Nobody Presents Blank Blue “All The Shallow Deep”
8. Cornelius “Music”
9. Dive Index “Between Sky and Sea”
10. susumu yokota “My Energy”
11. Aunt Jessica “Thin Air”
12. Bitstream Dream (featuring Jenna Ferone) “Rising Sun”
13. Tricky “Past Mistake”
14. Natalie Walker “Quicksand (Thievery Corporation Remix)”

I have a love/hate relationship with House and Psytrance.

See, House is kind of like the glam rock of electronic music and Psytrance is the electronic equivalent of prog rock. House, glam rock, Psytrance and prog rock are all over dramatic genres of music. House and glam for its melodrama and Psytrance and prog rock for its pomposity, which I really have to be in the mood to listen to because I usually find that kind of stuff a little overbearing.

PsyBooty Records pulls off the neat trick of combining what I love most about House and PsyTrance.

Continuing with the whole House/glam rock analogy, what I love about those two genres is that they’re incredibly sexy. And what I love in Psytrance and prog rock is their ability to sonically transport you to other realms. PsyBooty Records has the knack of picking artists who craft music that is at once very sensual and psychedelic.

I first found out about PsyBooty Records while listening to their music on the Fake Science podcast and instantly became a fan of the label. I’ve wanted to do a show all about PsyBooty since launching solipsistic NATION and I’m amazed that it’s taken this long to finally get David Justin, the label’s manager, on the show. On the other hand, it’s a perfect example of how many music labels are putting out such great music that it’s taken me this long to have David as a guest on solipsistic NATION.

This week’s show is longer than usual because David gave me two CDs of music he wanted me to play. He knows that solipsistic NATION typically runs an hour, plus or minus a few minutes, and told me to feel free to delete tracks from his mix. But in the end, I said to hell with it. I figured that since David went through all that trouble and since all the music is fantastic it would be worth it to go long this week. Besides, since solipsistic NATION is a podcast I don’t always have to be locked in to clocking the shows in at around 60 minutes. Enjoy!

1. Biotone “The Rhythm”
2. Psytrip “d3skoh”
3. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
4. Bluetech “Cerulean Funk”
5. Equisol “Mokoko”
6. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
7. Prosect “In Styled”
8. Sound Field “Passion Session”
9. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
10. Evan Marc “Silver”
11. Evan Marc “Ekoshok”
12. M-Field “Foundation”
13. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
14. M-Field “Progressive Evolution”
15. M-Field “Worldsoul”
16. Init String “Watching The Rain”
17. Init String “Bacon Shake”

On today’s show I’m going to follow up on last week’s all dub set by playing live tracks from Dubmatix and talk to the man behind Dubmatix, Jesse King.

Dub is a tricky genre. While the basic elements of dub are understood, but it’s difficult to do good dub well. I’ve wasted hours that must surely equal to weeks of sifting through some truly uninspired dub to find the true gems. The sort of stuff that’s flat, unimaginative and, worse, ungroovable. And Dubmatix’s Jesse makes some great dub.

Dubmatix has charted both in Canada and internationally and tours domestically and abroad. Jess has also collaborated with reggae greats like Sugar Minott, Michael Rose and Alton Ellis.

I’ve been a fan of Dubmatix since first playing “War, Peace & Dub” on one of dub sets. When I recently realized for all the live shows on solipsistic NATION and with all the different genres of electronic music those shows offered I hadn’t gotten around to featuring dub. I immediately thought of Jesse and asked him if he’d come on solipsistic NATION and share some music from some of Dubmatix concerts.

Oh, and I have a retraction from Bruno Natal, the director of the Dub Echoes documentary, who was my guest on last week’s show. When Bruno was talking about Joe Gibbs he really meant Errol Thompson.

1. Dubmatix feat. Kulcha Ites “Burn Out The Rich”
2. Dubmatix Soundsystem “My Selecta”
3. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix
4. Dubmatix Soundsystem “War, Peace & Dub”
5. Dubmatix Soundsystem “Sensi”
6. Dubmatix Soundsystem “Dub Phanatique”
7. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix
8. Dubmatix “Soul Dread Dub”
9. Dubmatix Soundsystem “Pirate Dub”
10. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix
11. Dubmatix & Howie Smart “Heavy Living”
12. Dubmatix feat. Treson “Praise Jah”
13. Dubmatix Soundsystem feat. Ranking Joe “Tornado”
14. Dubmatix Soundsystem “Jump & Twist”
15. Dubmatix Soundsystem “Champion Sound”
16. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix

It sometimes comes up in conversation what my criteria is for the electronic music that is featured on solipsistic NATION. You might think my answer would be fairtly straight forward. “Why, electronic music, of course!” But what are we talking about when we’re talking about electronic music?

Take music made with synths and a drum machine. That’s clearly electronic music. But what happens when you add vocals? Is it still electronic music? See? Things immediately become murky. Take Depeche Mode. They used a lot of electronic gear so did they make electronic music? I would say no. They were a pop band that happened to make songs with electronic instruments. The Normal, on the other hand, were clearly an electronic music band.

What happens when you start adding guitars, bass and drums into the mix? Again, it depends. Kid Rock is a rock act that utilizes electronic equipment while Ministry is an electronic band that plays rock.

Ah, you say, but all music these days is played with instruments that are electronically amplified, and recorded digitally. And you are right. But I ultimately take the position that electronic music is whatever I point to and say “That’s electronic music.” It’s my show, after all, and I can make my own rules. I just ry and make the rules consistent.

And that brings us to today’s show, which is all about dub.

Dub is one of those grey areas because even in the earliest days of dub all the instruments were traditional instruments like guitars, bass and drums. And being reggae influenced that hardly qualifies as dub, right? But the difference is how a dub producer manipulates those instruments in a recording studio by dropping track in and out and adding reverb and echo. The studio itself becomes an instrument and, to my mind, makes it electronic music.

On this week’s show we’re joined by Bruno Natal, the director of the Dub Echoes. Dub Echoes is a documentary on the history of dub and its effect on music, from pop to punk and, of course, electronic music. Dub Echoes is full of great interviews and features legendary greats such as Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mad Professor and Sly & Robbie and many, many, many more!

If Dub Echoes is screening in your area, I highly recommend that you see it. If not, no worries, you soon will be able to purchase it on DVD from Soul Jazz Records.

Photo Credit: Federico Bebber

1. Dub Echoes (Trailer)
2. Dubmatix “Ain’t Got No Love Dub” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
4. Nucleus Roots “Meditation Dub” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Bloik “Lazy Dub” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
7. Random “Dubmage”
8. Spiral System “Different Light” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Bluetech “Diaspora Dub”
10. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
11. Suns of Arqa “All You Need is Dub” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. Sympath “Zero Sum”
13. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
14. Dubosmium “All You Need is Dub” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Adham Shaikh “Micro Dreams”

Have you heard of Bruce Sterling‘s Spime concept? No? Let me quote Cory Doctorow, one of Sterling’s peers, who can sum up the idea of Spime better than I can.

“A Spime is a location-aware, environment-aware, self-logging, self-documenting, uniquely identified object that flings off data about itself and its environment in great quantities. A universe of Spimes is an informational universe, and it is the use of this information that informs the most exciting part of Sterling’s argument.”

As the web becomes ever more interconnected and self-referential I’ve been thinking Spime more and more. But where, I think, Sterling refers to Spime as a physical object that, from cradle to grave, generates all sorts of tagged meta data, I think of Spime in terms of a podcasts.

Take solipsistic NATION, for example.

Nearly all the songs featured on solipsistic NATION were either emailed to me or I downloaded from various web sites and many of those songs were collaborations between many people done across the internet. Each show I select which songs to feature on solipsistic NATION and then release it as a podcast and at a later date, as a radio program.

The podcast is encoded as a MP3 and is tagged with various meta data. There’s the show’s artwork (often generously provided by folks who diplay their photography at Flickr). The MP3 also tells you the name of the show, when it was released, how large the file size is and how long the show is. In addition to the MP3, I also update my RSS feed which notifies various blogs, vendors, services and search engines whenever I release a new show.

Spime doesn’t actually exist. Yet. But if it did, I find myself wondering what a Spime-like show might be like? I imagine it would be a lot like solipsistic NATION, only more so.

Today’s show is kind of Spime-like. Here’s the data:

We’ll be talking with Bioradio about this year’s Oscillation Electronic Music Festival taking place in Albuquerque, New Mexico in Ocotber. Next, we’ll jump to Portugal to talk with Bruno Miguel to talk about his band, :papercutz. We’ll also talk with Ian White of Blip.fm, a new social media music service you really need to try. Finally, we’ll travel to San Diego and talk to Miller Puckette, author of The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music.

Speaking of social media, you can find me online on some of these social media services.

1. Distraub “Article 73”
2. Bioradio “Enter End” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Interview with Brian Botkiller of the Oscillation Electronic Music Festival
4. Vertigo Venus “Vampire Hunter C”
5. :papercutz “Ultravioleta (Signer Remix)”
6. Interview with Bruno Miguel of :papercutz
7. :papercutz “Ultravioleta”
8. Roland M. Dill “The 8th Day”
9. Interview with Ian White of Blip.fm
10. Demons “Grey Lady”
11. Interview with Miller Puckette, author of the The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music
12. Yimino “Miagranov”