Image via WikipediaDid you know that there is a jolly giant that lives inside of you? This is a powerful and friendly force that can work for you to make your life better. Would you like to get your jolly giant working for you? Well then, listen to this radio program of media ecology and tape clip hits mixed with some raw big beats for an exciting learning experience. Caution, you may develop more than just a jolly giant.
Image by aaron schmidt via FlickrVideodrome and related media paeans made me put together this salute to late 1980's television. There is some really nice stuff here jammed into a rather dissimilar pastiche. I do like taking things from television, then songs from television programs, sounds from movies about television and various types of more or less modern songs about television, and then to weave it alltoether into a mildly toxic gruel for your edification. I liked it quite a bit.
![Recording a radio play. The Netherlands, [1949].](http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Opname_van_een_hoorspel_Recording_a_radio_play.jpg)
Image via WikipediaThis is a delightful mix of all sorts of things -- music, spoken word, sound effects, noise collage, media ecology and a lot of other stuff. The month is June, the juices are flowing, and in my case they are creative juices, trying to find interesting sounds and put them together into a whole that says something more than the parts. Sitting here 18 years later, I am not sure what that whole is, but listening to it brought me a lot of smiles. Almost a swoon.
Image via WikipediaThis is a long and involved critique of television. Sound and voice are put together with a random plan that becomes an incredible audio vengeance that may change your ideas and feelings later. You may or may not be aware of it. This kind of thing is a new construct for me, and I hope you enjoy it. After all of the noxious noise, there is a normal sport of ending that even make you feel OK about the world. The last song is way simple but it always makes me feel better. It still took me a few years to follow through on this message and purge my life of television. See, it took the program a while to sink in. Try it!
Image by Sune Rievers via FlickrSorry for the long introduction, skip it if you can, but it is always nice to hear Sister Susan's Astronautica again.
Image via WikipediaMusic, movie clips, voice clips and who knows what else goes together to produce this sound collage. In the previous weekend I had hosted a 40 hour unusual movie marathon and it had a profound impact on my brain. I tried to work some of this out through this radio program. 
Image via WikipediaDoctor Who? Doctor Benway? Are you a real Doctor? Can you help me beat the Reaper? Perhaps Doctor Tuna? Listen and find out. No matter how confusing, you must remember that you fully understood each and every bit of this program, or at least some portion of your brain did.
Cover of Test Dept.Today I am featuring a few things. First Graeme Revell's release Insect Musicians, an album where all sounds are taken from samples of natural insect noises. Then, they are put together as songs. Other music is inserted, like Frank Chickens (from Japan), Voice of Authority, and Acoustic Iatrogenesis. Then, we will hear almost the entire new release by the band Test Department. Test Dept's formation in 1981 in the decaying docklands of South London, was an urgent reaction to the materialistic drift and reactionary conservatism of the prevailing musical and political culture. TD rejected the conventional and developed a style that reflected the decay of their surroundings scavenging the unregenerated wastelands for raw materials, and transforming found industrial items into designed, sculptural instruments. Suitably armed they forged a hard rhythmic sonic battery, fusing found sound samples and cutting edge electronics in the construction of a dynamic physical totality. Their infamous sonic assaults were challenging and demanding for audience and performers alike, a test of physical endurance that journeyed through the sonic pain threshold and into a cathartic energy release. The 'Stakhanovite Sound' was a furnace that forged an attitude of total collective commitment, embracing the spirit of punk with an avant revolutionary sensibility that sought to challenge the status quo. It was the antithesis of commercial record industry values. http://testdept.org.uk/td/history.1.htmlMusic included:
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Image by Redheadwalking via FlickrThe deepest throb of electronics pulse and waver beneath six scraped strings. The acid sear of 3rd-eye-aimed lead guitar strikes out: destination - elsewhere. The car-start buzz, the treated feedback trill, the paradigm blast of Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella. In the 18 years since this Nurse With Wound debut LP, they remain unequalled in terms of sheer outsider invention.Housed in a Dada-spewed sleeve of sado-slave imagery and eye-popping surrealist collage, Chance Meeting... (Lautreamont's famous reply to "What is Surrealism?") single-handedly created and defined an aesthetic and was blamed for plenty more. Inside was the near-mythical Nurse 'list' - an A to Z of avant-whup and visionary excess, name-checking the likes of Group 1850, Brainticket, This Heat, Yoko Ono, Cromagnon, Faust, John Cage..."Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden", reads the text, "Step out of the space provided." http://brainwashed.com/nww/words/wire1997.htmlHere is the bio from wikiland:
Nurse with Wound (or shortened as NWW) is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak.[1][2] The band ranges in many genres such as avant-garde, industrial, noise, dark ambient, and drone. Their early recordings, all made quickly, were heavily influenced by free improvisation and Krautrock and were generally considered industrial music, despite the objections of the group.[edit]By 1981, only Stapleton was left from the original trio and he now regards 1982's Homotopy to Marie, as being the first proper Nurse with Wound release[citation needed]. There are now over 40 full length NWW titles. Stapleton's fondness for dada, surrealism and absurdist humor are demonstrated in much of NWW's output, which, though it draws directly on a wide assortment of genres (including cabaret music, nursery rhymes, John Cage, The Beach Boys, krautrock,[3] ambient music,[4] and easy listening[5]) retains a distinctive and recognizable aura. Musique concrète may be the most prominent touchstone, due to Stapleton's frequent, and often humorous, use of creative tape loops and editing. This aesthetic is fully represented in the artwork on the album covers, virtually all of which is created by Stapleton, mostly under the pseudonym "Babs Santini".[6]
RALPH RECORDS (1972- )Ralph was officially launched by The Residents in 1972 with the release of the "Santa Dog" double 7-inch. At that time, the newly formed The Cryptic Corpration took over the label with visions of running it as a legit record company and not just a vehicle for Residents recordings. During the following years Ralph Records became the home of Snakefinger, Tuxedomoon, Fred Frith, Renaldo & the Loaf, MX-80 Sound, Yello, Art Bears, Rhythm & Noise, Hajime Tachibana, Nash the Slash, Clubfoot Orchestra and, of course, The Residents.In 1986, The Cryptic Corporation, having undergone management shakeup, felt the label business was no longer working as a business model and that it was important to find better distribution for their star act, The Residents. So all artists were released from their contracts and the label was shut down. The Residents were moved onto the higher profile RYKO label for the USA, Torso for Europe, and Wave for Japan.So the Ralph Records office was permanently closed.Music included:
Or so The Cryptic Corporation thought.
In 2010, the interest in physical product had become very weak in a culture now obsessed with the availability of music via download. Instant gratification was a difficult monster to fight. But The Cryptic Corporation felt there was still a reason to have items that one could hold in sweaty hands. In the fall of 2010 they unlocked the long bolted door of RALPH RECORDS with the resolve of once again making vinyl LP's with 12" covers one can hold. CD / DVD and downloads would also be available.
Late in the summer of 2010, Ralph Records was again launched as a record company. http://www.residents.com/historical/page85/page90/page91/page91.html
