I’m very excited about today’s show because our guest deejay is Elliott Sharp!
I told my wife about Elliott and she gave me a blank look. I get it. SOUNDWAVE is a niche show featuring niche musicians. But if you’re into this sort of thing then you’ll be just as thrilled as I am about today’s show.
I was introduced to Elliott’s music back when I was a deejay at WMFO. We broadcast under a freeform format and while I imagined myself as having broad tastes my fellow deejays turned me on to some fantastic experimental music and Elliott Sharp came up again and again.
When I came across Elliott on Instagram I immediately invited him to be a guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE and to my delight he obliged. I was curious what kind of mix he‘d put together and it’s just as expected as I expected and I know you‘ll love it just as much as I do.
Elliott will tell you all about his mix below. I gotta flex because we‘re dropping off a relative in Sacramento.
See you next week when our guest deejay will be Adrian Utley!
A collection of pieces reflecting my mood as we near the end of Summer 2020, the summer of Covid-19, and the eve of a potentially apocalyptic American election.
The electrified mbira ensemble Konono N°1 from Congo Republic plays music that is simultaneously joyous and furious, danceable but stimulating cornersof the mind that reflect on history and colonialism, folk culture and electrified popular music.
With a wave of recent lynchings of African-Americans by uniformed police in the USA, forces that often see themelves as occupying armies, I’m reminded ofthis poignant blues by the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson. While the singer laments that he will be executed for “doing something wrong”, one can’t help imagine that we are witness to a much more primitive form of justice, that of the lynch mob.
Some of my favorite guitar music of all time is vọng cổ music from Vietnam, performed on electric guitars with deeply scalloped fretboards and-built-in electronic effects. This music is deep blues, transnational and cosmic.
With the Linda Music track from what was the Central African Republic, we hear amusic now vanished, played by people extinguished in the civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. Tragic, beautiful music.
At this point, I humbly add my own composition Storm of the Eye performed by thefantastic virtuosi Hilary Hahn on violin and Cory Smythe on piano. Commissioned in 2009 by Hilary for her album In 27 Pieces, the piece makes great demands on the players both in use of extended techniques and in summoning a feeling for the times.
This program closesout with an excerpt from Quatermass by the great Tod Dockstader, a visionary pioneer of music concrete and electro acoustic music. He worked outside of the academy and therefore never received the recognition due him. His music was visceral and powerful, perfect for this moment.
- Konono N°1 “Kule Kule”
- Blind Lemon Jefferson “Hangman’s Blues”
- NS Vanhai “Doc Tau Guitar” (radiorecording)
- Banda Polyphony “Linda Music 1”
- Hilary Hahn & Cory Smythe “Storm of the Eye”
- Tod Dockstader “Quatermass – I. Song and Lament”
Subscribe to SOUNDWAVE on iTunes, Overcast, Castro and Pocketcasts.
Logo by Rik Oostenbroek