Tag: techno

SOUNDWAVE : 43 : STEVE SWARTZ

Today’s guest deejay is Steve Swartz.

Some months ago, Jason Engling was a guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE (you can hear his mix here). After Jason’s show I asked who he thought might be interested in contributing to SOUNDWAVE, and he recommended Steve.

I’ve been a fan of Jason’s music since discovering him through my electronic music show, solipsistic NATION. If Jason recommended Steve, then as far as I was concerned, it was a done deal. I’m not disappointed with Steve’s mix, and neither will you. It’s a thing of beauty. It’s also a perfect way to wind down four years of a corrupt and inept presidency and an attempted coup. Whew!

Steve has some words about his mix below.

I want to note that Steve included a lovely track from Brian Eno. That’s not anything remarkable, given that Eno practically invented the ambient genre. What is impressive is that Eno pitch-shifted his voice, creating a vocoder-like effect. I usually hate that sort of thing, but Eno being Eno, the song gave me goosebumps. And when I looked over Steve’s playlist and saw that the track was by Eno, I thought to m myself, “That makes sense.”I thank Steve for introducing me to an Eno track I had not heard before.

Remote Listening: Rag Dun vs Life Garden
W. David Oliphant’s Remote Listening: Rag Dun vs Life Garden album

Before we get to Steve, I want to share with you the latest release from W. David Oliphant, who guest deejayed on SOUNDWAVE in September. The album is called Remote Listening: Rag Dun vs Life Garden. Oliphant describes remote listening as “the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target, purportedly ‘sensing’ with the mind.” Like everything else I’ve heard from Oliphant, his music is stepping into someone’s fever dream.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Ishmael Cormack.

See you then!

Steve Swartz
Steve Swartz

I don’t know anyone who escaped the intense gravity of 2020. In addition to a pandemic, this year also saw the unexpected passing of my father. A loss I’m still trying to process. I’ve spent a great deal of time contemplating death, disease, and division over the last several months. Music has always been my primary outlet of expression. As a result, I made a lot of music in 2020. (Four releases!) But as I land on the other side of them, I find myself increasingly feeling lost and out of place. I am often daydreaming about being somewhere else and unreachable. This sense has carried over into my music listening habits as well. I’ve desired quieter sounds that feel less tethered to a place or time. Fewer words. More feeling. To, perhaps, communicate something words cannot yet find. And that is what I have found in these songs over the last several months. To me, each of these pieces feels like rivers that drift or breeze stirring trees in a geography I would prefer to dwell. So I sit in these songs and let them fill my house throughout the days and evenings until, hopefully, I embody the spirit of their imagined origins.

  1. John Carroll Kirby “Canyon (Waiting Alive In A Canyon)”
  2. Brian Eno “And Then So Clear”
  3. 3617 “Orphans of The Sky”
  4. Dedekind Cut “Tahoe”
  5. Warmth “The Creek”
  6. Toshifumi Hinata “Misldsummer Night”
  7. Johnny Nash & Suzanne Kraft “Time, Being”
  8. The Blue Nile “From A Late Night Train”
  9. Gigi Masin “The Word Love (Original Mix)”
  10. Windy & Carl “Forest Trails”
  11. Arve Henriksen “Sorrow and Its Opposite”

Subscribe to SOUNDWAVE on iTunes, Overcast, Castro and Pocketcasts.

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

SOUNDWAVE : 38 : HARROLD ROELAND

Today’s guest deejay is Harrold Roeland. Harrold is a trained composer, a poet, sound designer and performing musician, specializing in the use of environmental sounds and long attention spans. His works try to invoke the timelessness of the world and its landscapes. He sings medieval and renaissance music with Ensemble Vlechtwerk, and hosts the radio show Sensenta, a musical serial, at the Concertzender every Sunday evening that explores many of these themes.

From the beginning, whenever I’ve had a guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE I’ve asked them who they know personally that they think would be interested in participating in the show with a mix of their own. I do this for several reasons. For one, I like the intimacy of the invitation. While I have no problem contacting people I don't know to be on SOUNDWAVE I prefer this more personal touch. It’s a network built up of likeminded people who actually know each other. Secondly, having guest deejay’s on the show introduces me to wider scope of music. I’d like to think my knowledge of music is fairly deep but I know its really shallow. The guest deejays on SOUNDWAVE open me up to having so much more music in my life. And so many surprises! Today’s show features both Yusef Lateef and John Coltrane.

Harrold’s mix has been my soundtrack to many a late night and I'm thrilled to share it with you. Harrold’s will take you by the hand down darkened paths. It’s the kind of mix I love that seamlessly blends each song into the next and takes me on an emotional journey. I recently had the opportunity to listen to Harrold’s mix while driving through a sun-blasted Arizona highway and all it did was make the shadows cast from Harrold’s mix longer

Special thanks to Kirk Markarian of Neuro… No Neuro who introduced us to Harrold (listen to Kirk’s mix for SOUNDWAVE here). I’m curious to know who Harrold will introduce us to.

Harrold has some word about his mix which you can read below. But first, a few items I wanted to discuss.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I launched SOUNDWAVE to help me cope with the stress and isolation of being stuck in my house due to the stay at home orders brought about by COVID-19. It was a very lonely time in my life: my wife was away at work and our kids were with their dad’s. It was just me, my dog and my music. Here we are in the second wave of the virus and once my wife has been sent out of town and yesterday I dropped off the kids to be with their dad. The difference this time is that instead of waiting months to be with my wife I’m going to see her today's and work remotely for the next few days. As a bonus, I’m going to spend the eight or so hours in my car listening to mixes for upcoming editions of SOUNDWAVE.

Pauline Anne Strom
Pauline Anne Strom

Finally, last week we lost Harold Budd and this week we lost pioneering blind composer and synthesist Pauline Anne Strom. Pauline released music in the 1980s under the name Trans-Mellenia Consort and explored the ambient and new age. Pauline’s last album, Angel Tears in Sunlight, is her first new album in 30 years and is scheduled to be released in January 2021.

Join me next week when our guest deejay will be Applefish.

See you then!

Harrold Roeland
Harrold Roeland

This mix starts with jazz, an album by Yusuf Lateef which has a nicely worn out sound. Biosphere’s wonderful impression of breaking ice quickly enters the scene. As far as worn out and slightly off key sounds go, Denmark’s Øjerum is an expert on that. His works are often soothing and slightly disturbing at the same time, as are Roly Porter’s, entering the mix around the 7 minute mark. We take a step back then for the second third of the mix, combining IA’s “Mater Lacrimosa” with, again, the percussive side of Biosphere. The last third of the mix is a piling of works, as often happens in my radioshow Sensenta on the Dutch Concertzender. IA meets John Coltrane meets Markus Guentner meets the genius of Kaija Saariaho. And finally, since it’s polite to introduce oneself, the last notes of “Glacier Looming,” is an impression of the weight of the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand, a work using birdsong and semi-modular synthesis.

  1. Yusef Lateef “Purple Flower”
  2. Biosphere “Skålbrekka”
  3. Øjerum “The Forest Is Sleeping With The Trees, Part 1”
  4. Roly Porter “Inflation Field”
  5. IA “Mater Lacrimosa”
  6. Biosphere “Bergsbotn III”
  7. John Coltrane “The Drum Thing”
  8. Markus Guentner “Magnetar”
  9. Kaija Saariaho “Six Japanese Gardens IV”
  10. Harrold Roeland “Glacier Looming”

Subscribe to SOUNDWAVE on iTunes, Overcast, Castro and Pocketcasts.

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

Weekly Mix 11: March 19, 2017

This week my girl friend and I started a 30-day juice fast. That’s right, 30 days of drinking vegetable and fruit juice instead of eating meals. I’ve done something like this before when I drank Soylent for a month. But this is different. It’s definitely more of a challenge. For some reason, when I was drinking Soylent for a month I barely missed food. But when I’m drinking juice all I can think about is food. Not that I’m hungry. I just want something with texture in my mouth. Crunchy things like popcorn or potato chips are always on my mind. Or barbeque. Or a wad of hot, gooey cheese. And when I go into a supermarket or a restaurant, I smell everything.

But I like challenges like this because anything that breaks you out of your routine makes you see the world and your life in a different light. For example, until I started this juice fast I didn’t realize how many little rituals I have about food. For example, on Friday nights I’ll usually eat somethingthat’s a little saltier and a little fattier than I normally eat as a reward for making it though the week. I’m sure we all do that, right? Maybe treat ourselves to an ice cream or something? I’m hyperaware about all that stuff now.

And I’ll be honest with you, I’m never excited about drinking a glass of vegetable and fruit juice. It tastes okay but I don’t crave it like I’m currently craving some rolled tacos.

And then there are the side effects: the headaches, the hunger pains, I’m tired, and my tongue is emitting a layer of white gunk. All this stuff is supposed to pass in the first few days and then I’ll start feeling energized and my cravings will change from my normal diet to a healthier, green diet. But I have to get past these first few days. On the plus side, I’ve lost almost six pounds in the first two days, so it’s not all bad.

I’m happy to chat with you about this if you’re interested. Just hit me up on Twitter. But if you want to see the documentary that inspired us to take the plunge to do this 30-day juice fast ,then I suggest going to Netflix or Amazon or whatever and watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. The doc follows this guy Joe Cross on his 60-day juice fast and his trip across America. I’m not being evangelical about this, because believe me, I can’t wait to eat a cheeseburger. But if you’re interested, go watch the flick.

Okay, let’s get to today’s show. I’m sure me talking about my 30-day juice fast is not the most exciting thing in the world.

You can find me online on Twitter at josephaleo or at my website at josephaleo.com While you’re there, click the links to purchase and download any of the songs you like from today’s show. It’s a simple way to show them your love and support. And if you want to support The Weekly Mix, tell a friend about the show. No need to keep The Weekly Mix to yourself, there’s plenty to go around.

You can listen to The Weekly Mix every Sunday on KAOS Radio Austin at 6PM Central and every Friday on Bondfire Radio out of Brooklyn at 11:30 AM Eastern Standard Time.

Time for me to bug out. See you next week!

  1. Walter Martin “Sing to Me”
  2. The Exquisites “Count on Me”
  3. Mateo Katsu “Nag Hammadi 1276”
  4. Pleasurekraft “Rigel (Orginal Mix)”
  5. Kid Cudi “Kitchen”
  6. Lily Allen “Smile”
  7. Keith Hudson “Depth Charge”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

Weekly Mix 6: February 12, 2017

So here’s how we play the game: everday I post a song to Twitter and Facebook (#songoftheday) that I think is so marvelous and so spectacular that I have to share them with you. At the end of the week I gather those songs into The Weekly Mix for your listening pleasure. When possible, I accompany each song with a brief intro by the featured band or musician.

For example, on today’s show we’re going to hear from Eightch and one of the members of Ersatz. Nice, right?

Speaking of Erstaz, we’re going to kick off today’s show with their song, “Regret,” from their album, Hints of… “Regret” comes from their fourth album, which feels like it was recorded in some snowy vale, and I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter listening to this song.

After “Regret” we’ll hear “Midnight” by Monster Rally. I’m not sure how to describe this song, but it’s what I imagine what would be played in someone’s Space-Age bachelor pad during some long midnight of the soul. “Midnight” comes from Monster Rally’s 2016 Pelicans album, available on Gold Robot Records.

From Islam Chipsy we’ll hear “Trinity 2” featuring EEK from Chipsy’s album, The Bullet. Special thanks to Sean Hockings from Metal Postcard Records for tuning me on to this gem.

Following Islam Chipsy we’ll hear “Acceptance, Side 1” from Eightch. James Watson is the man behind Eightch and when I invited him to join us on today’s show we ended up talking for nearly an hour about music, the industry, technology, and about intergity and life and art. Good guy and I’m looking forward to meeting James in person some day in the near future. Anyway, I first heard this track on a rainy drive to work and it was the perfect soundtrack for that morning’s commute.

From Deodato well hear his funky disco cover of Franz Listz’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra.” Deodato’s a prolific guy and has produced or arranged music for more than 500 albums. That’s just crazy. “Also Sprach Zarathustra” comes from Deodato’s 1973 Prelude album on CTI Records.

We’ll also hear “My Hood” by Ray BLK. Ray is recognized as a new and exciting voice in grime and garage but you’d never know it from this soulful tune about her hood. I’m looking forward to hearing more songs from Ray’s 2016 album, Durt.

We’ll close today’ show with “Star Roving” by Slowdive. I was never really a fan of this band back in the 90s. I thought if you wanted to listen to shoegaze the only band worth listening to were My Bloody Valentine. Boy, was I wrong. I’ve spent the last couple months catching up on all the great shoegaze bands I missed. “Star Roving” comes from Slowdive’s forthcoming album, their first in over 20 years, in fact, which will be released later in 2017.

You can listen to The Weekly Mix every Sunday on KAOS Radio Austin at 6PM Central, and every Friday on Bondfire Radio at 11:30 AM Eastern.

You can find me online on Twitter @josephaleo.

See you next week!

  1. Ersatz “Regret”
  2. Monster Rally “Midnight”
  3. Islam Chipsy “Trinity (feat. Eek)”
  4. Eightch “Acceptance Side 1”
  5. Deodato “Also Sprach Zarathustra”
  6. RAY BLK “My Hood”
  7. Slowdive “Star Roving”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

Weekly Mix 4: January 29, 2017

Every day I post a song to Twitter and Facebook (#songoftheday) that I think is so amazing and so great that I am compelled to share them with you. Some of the songs are new, some of the songs are old, but you really, really need to hear them.

At the end of the week I gather those songs into The Weekly Mix. When possible, I accompany each song with a brief introduction by the featured band or musician. Previous shows have included introductions from hip hop recording artist Tall Can, UK country singer Yola Carter, gospel singer Phyliss McKoy Joubert and Dick Valentine from Electric Six.

This week, I’m sad to say, will feature no introductions. I’m not suprised. This is only the fourth episode of The Weekly Mix and I’m still growing my audience and the show’s reputation. Frankly, I’m surprised I got as many people to participate in the show as I have and I’m thankful for their generosity.

If you enjoy the show and you would like to have more bands and musicians joins us each week on The Weekly Mix, you can help. And it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. Just tell a friend or co-worker, or anyone, really, to give The Weekly Mix a listen. The more people who listen to the show the more clout The Weekly Mix will have, which will attract more musical guests.

I’ve done it before. When I was producing my small WORKD talk show I was getting something like 40,000 listeners a month, and when I was producing solipsistic NATION, my electronic music show, I was getting 14 million listeners a month. All I need is your help. So please tell anyone you know who loves music about The Weekly Mix.

See you next week!

  1. Kweku Collins “Ego Killed Romance (feat. Jamila Woods)”
  2. Moses Sumney “Incantation”
  3. Pavel Dovgal “Nibiru”
  4. Max Cooper “Seed”
  5. Call Super “Puppet Scene”
  6. The Bad Plus “The Beautiful Ones”
  7. Cymande “Bra”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

solipsistic NATION No. 310: Mutamassik, Live

Today on solipsistic NATION we’ll hear a live set from Giulia Loli from Mutamassik, which was originally recorded for Fari Bradley‘s Six Pillars radio show on Resonance FM to promote Giulia’s 2012 release, Rekkez, out on Ini.itu Records. In fact, there are quite a few tracks from Rekkez on today’s live set.

We’ll also talk to Giulia about balancing artistry with industry, and her growth as an artist, musician and as a DJ.

Today’s show is eight years in the making.

When I launched solipsistic NATION podcasts were a new thing and most people didn’t know what a podcast actually was, which made it difficult when I would email labels and ask for them to send me promotional CDs for the show. And even if a label knew what a podcast was I didn’t have the audience that I do now, so why mail out music to show that only had a few hundred listeners? I can’t blame them, really.

But one label I did approach was generous enough to send a CD. I had read a review about Mutamassik’s album, Masri Mokkassar: Definitive Works in XLR8R, back when it was still a print magazine. Definitive Works had been released by Sound-Ink Records and they sent me Mutamassik’s LP without questions or hassle.

Like I said, podcasts were an unknown quantity back then, so it meant a lot to me that Sound-Ink took me seriously enough to send me Mutamassik’s album. And it was a great album! I played it on the show and I played it on my iPod constantly. Someday, I told myself, I’m going to have Mutamassik on the show as a guest so I could get to know the person behind all this fantastic music!

That day is today. It took months of planning and aligning our schedules but it finally happened.

Join us again next week. I’m still getting my ducks in a row but I think our guests will be Known Rebel‘s Germán Escandell and Jaime Irles.

See you then!

  1. Mutamassik “Babomb”
  2. Interview with Giulia Loli of Mutamassik
  3. Mutamassik “Live”

solipsistic NATION No. 2: End of Summer

Ah, summer comes to an end.

I’ve been living in San Diego for the last five years and to be honest, it’s always been summer to me. Natives and long time residents of San Diego can tell the differences between seasons but I’m only vaguely aware of them. As a consequence, all the months and years I’ve live in San Diego have blurred together. There’s only an endless “now.”

While today’s show is a celebration of the passing of the summer it’s more of a salute to my summers in Boston, where the days are hot, humid and lazy and the nights are sultry. I wouldn’t trade the weather in San Diego for anything but I do on occasion miss those New England days where the heat would bake into your bones.

Another thing I do miss about living in Boston are my seasonal libations. In the fall and winter my drinks were whiskey and scotch and in the spring and summer my drinks were gin & tonic and rum & coke. As I said, it always feels like it is summer in San Diego so I have to go out of my way to drink my whiskey or scotch.

That said, I raise a gin & tonic in honor of the summer of ’06!

Photo credit: sk8master

  1. Steelzawheelz “Discotron”
  2. Effecctive “Tulsa Riots Pt. 3”
  3. Vinroc “Wine Country”
  4. Sure Shot “Sleepy Strings”
  5. Shad “Last Cigarette”
  6. Madrid De Los Austrias “Buscando (Karuan vs. Circus Remix)”
  7. Mark de Clive-Lowe “State of the Mental”
  8. Wintermute “Chillstorm”
  9. Autolect & His Meltdown Movement “Open Road”
  10. Urbs “So Weit”
  11. Cj_Harder “Mothra”
  12. Cling “Slipping Away (Of The Darkness Remix)”
  13. Chimp Beams “Menina”
  14. Bombay Dub Orchestra “Mumtaz”

solipsistic NATION No. 1: Relaunch!

I had always intended to bring solipsistic NATION out of retirement but there was always some sort of technical problem that prevented me from relaunching the podcast.

Originally I was going to use Macromedia‘s SoundEdit which came bundled with Director. Unfortunately, when I mixed down a set the track would be in mono and distorted. I tried doing the show using DJ-1800 and recording the set with WireTap Pro or Audio Hijack Pro but there was a touch of distortion in the recording I could never eliminate.

Last month the connection to the hard drive in my ancient G4 tower died. I didn’t have the cash to buy a new tower so I purchased a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini was much more powerful than my G4 and as an added bonus, it came pre-installed with GarageBand. Suddenly all my problems were resolved in one fell swoop.

There are some deejays who like to do everything live without a net and on the fly. I was never one of those deejays. Oh, I’m fine at improvising live sets but my preference has always been to map out my shows in advance, meticulously plotting the segues and overall flow of a mix. Given my anal retentiveness for planning shows GarageBand is perfect with how I like to work.

I hope you enjoy today’s first show in the relaunching of solipsistic NATION!

Photo credit: dro!d

  1. Thomas Feijk “Leak”
  2. Butcherd Beats “Butcherd Beats”
  3. DP-6 “Vital Force”
  4. Wade Robson “Battlewalk”
  5. OPGave “Hiroshima”
  6. Jerry Mane “Magnificent Growlla”
  7. African Express “Overtime & In The Zone”
  8. Oculus “Lo Ki”
  9. Chloe Day “Kingpin”
  10. Autolect & His Meltdown Movement “Calm”
  11. Acoustic Ladyland “Something Beautiful”
  12. Jel “WMD”
  13. Circuit Breaker “Left Hook”