Synecdoche

One of the things I love about solipsistic NATION is that I can spend an entire show focusing on a specific genre. Electronic music rapidly mutates into ever new genres so that keeps the show fresh. I can also get reacquainted with established genres like dub or grime, which is always fun. But electronic music encompasses a lot of sub-genres and it is easy to overlook some of them. Take today’s show, which features synthpop. It would have never occurred to me to do such a show until Kevin Thrasher emailed a request for an all synthpop edition of solipsistic NATION.

I was a teen during the 80s so synthpop was part of the soundtrack of my life during those years. While I enjoyed the pop stylings of bands like Flock of Seagulls and Depeche Mode the stuff I really enjoyed was a lot darker and definitely more twisted. Wire, for example, twisted the genre beyond recognition with their album, The Ideal Copy. Alice Cooper kept within the boundaries of synthpop but infected it with his madness with Flush the Fashion.

With year two of solipsistic NATION I’ve decided to have more guest DJs on the show. Who better to co-host this week’s synthpop edition of solipsistic NATION than Mikel O.D. of the Most People Are DJs podcast? Mikel plays a great selection of music on his show but he’s got a special love for synthpop. The fact that he did all the hard work while I got to goof off was a bonus!

1. Blaine L. Reininger “Teenage Theatre”
2. Gary Numan “Cars”
3. Gary Numan “Airlane”
4. Thomas Dolby “One Of Our Submarines”
5. i, Synthesist “Red Clouds”
6. Space March “Time Will Make A Fool Out Of Me”
7. Alan Replica “Soul Corruption”
8. Minisystem “Madingley”
9. The Calculators “Dead Is Dead”
10. Any Day In June “Clear”
11. Charlie Slick “I Know You Love My Synthesizers”
12. Idiots! “Spring Is Here”
13. Minisystem “What About Me?”
14. FrankMusik “3 Little Words”
15. Otto Vector “Take It All Off”
16. theSTART “Wartime! (It’s Time 2 Go Now)”

When I began solipsistic NATION I knew that I wanted to include interviews in the show but I didn’t want that to be the focus of the podcast. solipsistic NATION is all about the music, after all. But as the year went by I noticed that solipsistic NATION has had more and more interviews and they’ve been getting longer and longer. I don’t mind that so much as long as the interviews don’t dominate the show and I keep a balance between the music and the interviews. That said, today’s show is chock full of interviews.

We’ll talk with Ronnie Darko about his Scion CD Sampler v. 18: Ninja Tune Mix. D Kay tells us all about his debut release, Individual Soul, a drum and bass album he recorded using real drums and real bass, as well as horns on keyboards. We’ll also talk with Brian about the Oscillation 2007 Electronic Music Festival that takes place in New Mexico this weekend.

If you happen to be in the south west this weekend then get your ass to the Oscillation 2007 Electronic Music Festival. The festival features 16 acts from all different genres of electronic music. They include Cyrkos, Nightmare Noise Machine, Erogenous, The Booty Green, Potential Ghost, Taiji Pole, Diverje, Vertigo Venus, Alan George Ledergerber, Autopoesis, Audio Buddha, Raine Vivian, Dirty Birdies, brian botkiller, Nanocrack and zRAM.

This week solipsistic NATION I’m also giving away a few copies of Darko’s Scion CD Sampler v. 18: Ninja Tune Mix and Brian’s compilation CD of the bands who will appear at Oscillation 2007 Electronic Music Festival. Email me at solipsisticnation@gmail.com or leave a voice mail at 1-619-377-0538 and tell me which CD you’d like and they’re yours to rock out to! Well, until I run out of CDs, that is.

1. Brother Reade “Gimme The Cash”
2. monkeybacon “LNY”
3. Coldcut “True Skool”
4. Mr. Scruff “Get A Move On”
   Spank Rock “What It Look Like”
5. DJ Food “Dark Lady”
6. Amon Tobin “Four Ton Mantis”
   XXXchange “Lady Huh”
7. TTC “(Pas La Peine D’Appeler Je Ne Réponds Pas Au) Telephone”
   XXXchange “Lady Huh” “Clint Instrumental”
8. Interview with Ronnie Darko
9. D Kay “Eternal Love”
10. D Kay “Interlude”
11. Interview with D Kay
12. D Kay “Boiling Point”
13. D Kay “Lullabye”
14. Interview with D Kay
15. D Kay “All That You Are”
16. Potential Ghost “Thousand Few”
17. Bvdub “Goodbye”
18. Interview with Brian of the Oscillation 2007 Electronic Music Festival
19. AudioBuddha “Threshold”

On today’s show we’re joined by special guest, Cheb i Sabbah.

Cheb represents, in part, the transition when DJs went from spinning music to producing music. Whereas DJ Shadow dug through crates to find the rare vinyl he would use to create his masterpiece album, Entroducing…, Cheb traveled to places like India and North Africa to record traditional music for his albums such as Shri Durga and La Kahena.

This week on solipsistic NATION we’re going to talk with Cheb and listen to a restrospective mix of his musical career so far. I want to thank Six Degrees Records and Cheb i Sabbah for making this week’s show possible.

Photo credit: James A.K.A. “cookiecrook”

1. Cheb i Sabbah “Govinda”
2. Interview with Cheb i Sabbah
3. Cheb i Sabbah “Raja Vedalu”
4. Cheb i Sabbah “Radhe Krishna (The Babu Chandidasa Mix)”
5. Cheb i Sabbah “Ganga Dev (The Prakriti – Purusha Mix River of Mercury)”
6. Cheb i Sabbah “Rupa Tujhe Deva (The Karsh Kale Gopi Girl Mix)”
7. Cheb i Sabbah “Shri Durga (FunDaMental Organic Chill Mix)”
8. Cheb i Sabbah “Jarat Fil Hub (Love’s Chalice)”
9. Cheb i Sabbah “Im Ninalou (The Groovio Deep End Remix)”
10. Cheb i Sabbah “Esh ‘Dani, Alash Mshit (The Rai of Light Club Remix)”
11. Interview with Cheb i Sabbah

A while back I interviewed The Agriculture‘s James Healy for the small WORLD podcast. Shortly afterwards I got a message from a cat named Macedonia telling me that he dug the interview and was fan of The Agriculture label.

Turns out that Macedonia hosted a podcast of his own called Both Sides of the Surface where he spins music, as he says, “from around the world and around the way.” Macedonia plays everything from Afrobeat to Soul but it was immediately clear that his passion was hip hop.  I started tuning into his show and became a fan. That’s saying a lot because I’ve had a love/hate relationship with hip hop for years and years. I love hip hop for it’s freshness and inventiveness and for it’s honesty, even when it’s outright lying to you with a wink. I hate hip hop for crass commercialism  and the coma it’s been in during the gangsta era and I hate hip hop for it’s intolerance and inflexibility. During the last 10 years I’ve had more of a hate relationship with hip hop than a love relationship. But there was Macedonia, a soft spoken deejay, rekindling everything I originally loved about hip hop.

Earlier this year I put together an Exquisite Corpse mix and when I asked Anji Bee, host of the Chillcast, which deejays I should include in the mix she unequivocally said Macedonia. Now that I’m into the second year of solipsistic NATION I plan to have more guest deejays on the show and the first guest I wanted to have on the show was Macedonia.

As I mentioned, while Macedonia’s first love is hip hop he’s not limited to that genre, as you can tell by today’s show. Everything is grist for Macedonia’s musical grill. More than that, Macedonia waxes eloquent on all forms of music for Impose Magazine. Recently he’s written about Amon Tobin‘s latest release, Foley Room and Copperpot‘s WYLA? (What’re You Looking At?) album.

I’ve only known Macedonia for a little over a year but after listening to his voice on BSOTS podcast after show I feel like I’ve always known him. If you’ve never listened to BSOTS, go subscribe to his podcast after listening to this week’s show. Let’s expand the circle of friends.

1. Kraak & Smaak “Real Pain” (K&S Remix)”
2. Someone Else “Generic Atmo”
3. Christian Walt “Still Sleeping?”
4. Simian Mobile Disco “Wooden”
5. Tokyo507 “Body Electric”
6. Jonny Sonic “Medicine”
7. DJ Z-Trip “Rockstar”
8. Think Tank “A Knife & A Fork”
9. DJ Dope “Jimmy Kills Us”
10. Goldlix “Latinozo”
11. Urban Clearway “African Culture”
12. David Last “Where It Falls”
13. Caribou “Lovely Day (Four Tet Remix)”

solipsistic NATION first aired on Free Radio San Diego back in June of 2004 but I don’t think the show really took off until I started doing it as a podcast last September.

Back when I was doing pirate radio I did a freeform show but I found that I was playing so much electronic music that I thought it would be best for everyone if I a separate show that just focused on the electronic music and solipsistic NATION was born.

In a sense, solipsistic NATION is still a freeform show and that was a deliberate move on my part. I love breakbeat, for example, but I would get bored very quickly if I had to play an hour of breakbeat week after week.

One of the things I love about electronic music is that it will cannibalize anything that comes across it’s way and then recontextualize it into something new and exciting. So I decided not to not limit myself to just one genre of electronic music. Instead, I wanted to play only the very best from all genres of electronic music.

The only problem is that the software that we were using to spin music on Free Radio San Diego was so crude that it was incredibly difficult to do the kind of show that I had in mind. Once I started doing solipsistic NATION as a podcast the kid gloves came off and I got very ambitious about the scope of the show.

In the last year I’ve done documentaries on Nerdcore and Chiptunes. I’ve featured live performances from Deru and Robert Rich. I’ve had guest DJs on the show such as Wayz and Eve Falcon, I’ve also interviewed people from record labels such as Nacional Records and Extreme Records and more recently I interviewed Vivian Host, the editor of XLR8R magazine.

Here’s what’s coming down the feed in the next few months…

I’m working on a documentary on Digital Hardcore that I’m very excited about. The documentary will feature interviews with Alec Empire, members of Lolita Storm and Shizou and many more as well as some music that’s going to destroy your speakers or melt your headphones. I’m also working on a documentary about the Illbient movement that come about in the mid 90s and that show will feature music and interviews from folks like Ben Neill and DJ Wally and many others. Another documentary I’m putting together will focus on electroclash. You can expect to hear interviews and music from Spray, Electrosexual, Noblesse Oblige and much, much more!

I’m also going to continue to have guest DJs on the show. In October, Mikel OD from the Most People Are DJs podcast will be spinning a mix of synthpop. I also plan to have Anji Bee from the Chillcast come on the show with a mix of her own.

I’ve got a very special show coming up in a few months that will feature an Exquisite Corpse mix put together by a dozen DJs.

I’m also going to do more shows that feature electronic music from records labels such as Accretions, Elektrotribe and Ultimae Records.

I’m also going to continue to feature recordings of live performances and the next one coming up is a set by Hol Baumann that I can promise will absolutely rock your world.

In two weeks I’m going to have Cheb I Sabbah on the show for a chat as well as a retrospective mix of his musical career.

That’s quite a list and I’ve got much, much, much more in store for you but that’s just the stuff I can tell you about!

1. Ministry “Yellow Cake (Heaflouride)”
2. Alec Empire “Gotta Get Out”
3. Interview with Lolita Storm
4. Lolita Storm “Hot Lips, Wet Pants”
5. Null Object “South South West”
6. Peanut Butter Disco “Technopluck!”
7. DJ Mutiny “Soulrunner (Superstyle Deluxe Remix) (Botchit Breaks)”
8. Interview with Kraddy
9. Kraddy “I Gotcha – Lupe Fiasco [Kraddy Remix]”
10. Tyson “Freedom Roc”
11. Richie Hawtin “The Tunnel – Consists Of:”
12. Xc-N “Syllabus”
13. Ignatius “Trappings”
14. Interview with Mick Harris of Scorn
15. Scorn “Soon Come”
16. Interview with Kush Arora
17. Kush Arora “Surf’s Up”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, house is one of my least favorite kinds of electronic music. But you know what? When I was gathering songs to play on today’s show I ended up with over 10 hours of house music. All of it good!

I could of done a mix of traditional house music or a mix of tech house or even a mix of Latin flavored house. I’ll play those mixes on future editions of solipsistic NATION but I decided to go with a more eclectic mix for today’s show.

I have a favor to ask. Next week is the one year anniversary of solipsistic NATION. I’d like you to call my voice mail at 1-619-377-0538 and tell me what your favorite edition of solipsistic NATION has been and if there’s any direction you’d like the show to go in. I’ll play your message on next week’s podcast.

Now go bust a groove!

Photo credit: Renato

1. Zeroleen “All Good (Kraak & Smaak Remix)”
2. Chuck Love “Giveitupsista”
3. White Lotus Society “Got It (Chuck Love Remix)”
4. Think Tank “Primordial Cocktail”
5. Kolo “Patterns Of Sound”
6. Bitter:Sweet “Moving Forward (Atjazz Remix)”
7. THEE-O “Girls Like Robots (Richard Earnshaw Main Mix)”
8. Phunindustries “Sumatra”
9. Absynthesis “Trekkin (Live)”
10. Menphis “In Da Jungle (Instrumental Mix)”
11. Keister “Sexy Thing”

One of the wonderful things about solipsistic NATION is all the people the show has put me in touch with. I’ve met listeners online from Antarctica to the UK. I’ve got to talk to people who run labels such as Nacional Records and Woodson Lateral Records. I’ve also become friends with some of the artists who have been featured on solipsistic NATION.

Back in March I played Royal Sapien‘s “Triple Nine (Royal Sapien Body Shot Remix)” on the show and since I’ve been in touch with Royal Sapien’s Ben Mautner. Ben is one of those guy’s who always busy with a creative project of some kind. If he isn’t creating songs under the name of Royal Sapien he’s remixing songs from other artists or bands or running his label, Olaris Records, with Ryan Crane or mixing sets for John Digweed‘s radio show, Transitions.

Last month I asked Ben to put together a mix for solipsistic NATION and Ben did not disappoint. For your listening pleasure, I present to you a mix of wonderful music that Ben has produced that he considers his personal favorites!

1. Royal Sapien “Where’s The Bar? (Royal Sapien More Mix)”
2. Interview with Ben Mautner, AKA, Royal Sapien
3. Royal Sapien “Akimbo”
4. Royal Sapien “Do It Now (Main Mix)”
5. Royal Sapien “Everyone (Loved By You)”
6. Royal Sapien “San Francisco Love”
7. Royal Sapien “Broad Styles”
8. Royal Sapien “Tits”
9. No Context “Anti-Skate”
10. Royal Sapien “Love”

On today’s show we’re going to focus on tech house. We’ll also talk with Vivian Host, the editor of XLR8R Magazine.

Every week I get hit with a tidal wave of new releases that I listen to in order to deliver to you a mix of the very best of all genres of electronic music. One way I keep from drowning in all this music is reading XLR8R Magazine. XLR8R covers the latest in electronic music, culture, style and technology. XLR8R also releases a weekly podcast and videocast which you should definitely subscribe to.

As a DJ and as a someone who loves electronic music in all its myriad forms and as a graphic designer, XLR8R Magazine seems like it’s published just for me!

Photo credit: Graham ‘the-G-man’

1. Evan Marc “Silver”
2. Interview with Vivian Host, editor of XLR8R Magazine
3. Digital Filth “Issues”
4. Alexis Tyrel “No Way Back”
5. Voodoo J “Electric Shock”
6. Interview with Vivian Host, editor of XLR8R Magazine
7. Lucio & Pep “Na Bir E Nu Spniel”
8. Brasswork Agency “Crushed and Shaken”
9. Interview with Vivian Host, editor of XLR8R Magazine
10. Coderock “Poke”
11. Christoph Schindling “Alert”
12. Ilario Naples “Psychotropic Drugs”
13. Interview with Vivian Host, editor of XLR8R Magazine
14. Dejan Galic “Coup De Coeur”

On solipsistic NATION I play for you the absolute best of all genres of electronic music. From time to time I do shows that feature documentaries on a specific genre of electronic music such as Nerdcore or Chiptunes. I’ve also interviewed bands and musicians and record labels and played music from live performances.

Unfortunately, during the last year of solipsistic NATION the live performances have been left behind. I had forgotten about that aspect of the show until a month ago I went back and listened to the live Glitch set from Deru that appeared on the show back in October. Listening to Deru’s performance brought back all the magic and excitement a live show can evoke.

I wanted to bring back recordings from concerts as a feature on the show. I also wanted to do something special for the 50th edition of solipsistic NATION.

Recently ambient/electronic musician Robert Rich released recordings of his performances of his shows at Fort Mason and the Morrison Planetarium in San Francisco on Fake Science. I’ve been a fan of Robert’s music since I first heard his song “Liquid Air” on the From Here To Tranquility Ambient Compilation back in 1993. I knew that the playing select tracks from live performances from Robert Rich is exactly what I wanted to feature on the 50th edition of solipsistic NATION.

Today’s show features select live tracks from the following releases by Robert Rich:

1. Live at Fort Mason [Set 1]
2. Live at Fort Mason [Set 2]
3. Live at Morrison Planetarium