Phoning It In is BSR/88.1FM’s (Providence, RI) quaint live performance call-in radio program — broadcasting for nearly three and a half years.  The programs’s 345 shows have featured an exhausting lineup of artists, from resptected genre luminaries like John Darnielle – The Mountain Goat’s affinity for lo-fidelity music (ala Nine Black Poppies or the The Coroner’s Gambit) is the allegedly the impetus for the program’s very existence — to microrelease cd and cassette experimental artists like (VxPxC) and Steven R. Smith.

“lo-fi is the right fi: dj talksonthephone calls up all your favorite musicians for live over-the-phone performances and awkward conversation.”

Phoning It In is a radio program whose flagship show is broadcast on 88.1fm BSR in Providence, RI (where it’s hosted by Gabe) and whose satellite show is broadcast on 88.1fm WMBR in Cambridge, MA (where it’s hosted by Nadav). You can listen to every single past show from both stations in the Archives. — about it

More interesting than the actual music performed, in many cases, are the awkward exchanges between host and guest.  For obvious reasons, the artist is in a difficult situation, juggling the phone for performances and scrambling after a set into playful banter.  Phone conversations between strangers are often awkward to begin with, but the circumstances magnify that effect. It’s this unexpected element that really captures the spirit of the lo-fidelity aesthetic, better than simple phone crackle or chopped sound-levels ever could.  Diane Cluck (myspace), the show’s latest guest, is the best example of that unexpected, disarming nature of the concept.
Download audio file (pin_cluck_excerpt.mp3)

Cluck’s performance is also notable for the new, developing material she shared.  Since her releases on Important Records (Oh Vanille/Ova Nil and Macy’s Day Bird / Black With Green Leaves), and 2006’s Monarcana, we’ve heard nothing new from Cluck.  I’ve only had a chance to listen to a few other shows, but have been throughly impressed thusfar.

Considering the show’s longevity, I expect plenty of my peers have been enjoying this show for some time.  Still, there may be people out there who don’t know about this show yet, and would could managed to get excited about Diane Cluck or Avarus exclusives.

recommendations – Diane Cluck, Micah Blue Smaldone, (VxPxC), Ilya Monosov, Turner Cody, Mudboy & Yomul Yuk, Caethua, Larkin Grimm, Natural Snow Buildings, Dialing In, Matt Valentine & Erika Elder, Marissa Nadler, Tara Jane ONeil, Excepter, Jana Hunter, Daniel Higgs (Lungfish), Avarus, Elephant Micah, Jacob Smigel, Fursaxa, Davenport, Mike Tamburo, Castanets, Steven R. Smith (Hala Strana), Daniel Johnston, Thanksgiving (Adrian Orange), Mount Eerie, The Mountain Goats

Oddly enough, this FMU performance sounds unlike most of what I’ve heard from Ignatz.  Last year’s album, II, released on Kraak, is the best example of the sound Bram Devens developed for Ignatz (stream II & Ignatz @ last.fm).  Steven R. Smith and Stefan Neville/Pumice obsessives like myself likely found themselves instantly enamored with the dingy lo-fi Ignatz ditties.  This latest recording, completely instrumental, sounds to be a bit of a departure.  The long, speculative drone piece sounds more like a Peter Wright recording than what I expect from Ignatz.  Devens’ rubbery lo-fi vocals were always a highlight of his work, but are completely absent on this FMU session.

Of course, there’s no better place to experiment and modify your sound than on the road and during radio live sessions.  Svarte Greiner, Elegi and Peter Wright are the best comparisons to this live recording I can conjure at the moment.  Ambient leanings, and creepy atmospherics could be an exciting addition to Devens formula.  I look forward to seeing whether his experimentation here is featured on a future proper release.

WFMU’s Brian Turner from 6/10/2008 (popup/8min)

photo courtesy of flickr user wsogmm, used under CC license

(h/t kraak)

For Barry Ray’s John Chantler has been utilizing last.fm’s streaming tools and label pages to great effect.  While their handmade tour cdr, ‘Gabriella Says‘, was limited to only 42 copies and has long since sold out, John was thoughtful enough to upload the entire recording for streaming through last.fm.  As if that wasn’t enough, it seems FBR’s latest gorgeous ambient full length, ‘New Days‘, is also available in its entirety streaming on last.fm, included alongside the bulk of Room40’s recent catalog.

Several other smaller artists appear to be following Room40’s splendid example, offering large portions of their newest releases for streaming at the site.  Wouter van Veldhoven’s latest, a playful, creaking, spindle of sunny, ambient sound entitled ‘four simple songs for five dead bumblebees‘, is another recent addition to a swelling catalog of albums already available for preview at last.fm.

With any luck, last.fm’s splendid streaming tools should end the myspace monopoly over those small labels & bands looking for free bandwidth and easy access to fans.  Hopefully, last.fm’s developers will recognize the site’s potential for artists and labels, and start providing RSS feeds of some sort for new album offerings, updates, and tour information.  The sooner I can swear off the rotting corpse that is myspace — along with its bloated, laggy design, its eye-bleeding ugliness, its dependable tackiness — the better.
For Barry Ray – Gabriella Says

Beyond FBR, Wouter and Room40, there’s a veritable abundance of brilliant material already available on last.fm, though it’s not entirely clear whether these streaming offerings were added by the artists as a generous offering to potential consumers, or unauthorized files uploaded by devious/overzealous fans.  Hopefully, it’s the former.  Whatever the case, I’ve foraged some familiar artist pages for a bit, and compiled the following list of artists with substantial material already available, and I’m certain there’s plenty more to be found…Machinefabriek — Belong — Tim Hecker — Eluvium — Growing — Charalambides –  Wouter van Veldhoven — Hala Strana — James Blackshaw — Grouper — Peter Wright — Richard Youngs — Loren Connors — Pumice — Sir Richard Bishop

No matter how much of my time I sink into musical explorations, no matter how exhaustive my searches, I always stumble across new musical territory on occasion that reminds me just how much wonderful music I’m regularly missing. Thanks to a brief, but stupendously helpful posting at the K-RAA-K blog a few weeks ago, I’ve sailed straight into some new territory, an impressive expanse of previously unexplored musical terra icognita called Blaastaal. Blaastaal is Belgian duo Mik Prims and Bert Lezy’s monthly experimental, tape-fueled, kitchy radio broadcast/podcast. Generally (and it’s difficult to generalize), blaastaal sounds like surrealist musical painting in pointillism. From a distance, the show takes the impression of a colorful cacophonous mess, contradictory elements residing comfortably side-by-side. Up close, the layers of sound gain more clarity, drones, found sound, samples and analog burrs festooning a colorful and consistently mysterious core playlist (I hardly recognize a handful of names from each show). It’s difficult, usually impossible, to say with any certainty whether you’re experiencing a musician’s offering untouched, or soaked, stained and tainted in layers of tape-manipulated reinvention.

Describing music is usually as constructive as blowing on a cup of steaming lava, so I’ve thrown together a quick mp3 mix highlighting some favorite moments from recent shows. The static you’ll hear periodically divides the selections, serving as a sort of audio ellipsis. I assure you I’m doing little justice to the show, and it could only really be fully appreciated as originally presented, but alas, here is the sample nonetheless:

more below…

Prior to the kraak posting, I hadn’t heard of either of the mentioned gentlemen, nor of the Belgian experimental/avant Radio Centraal, so the discovery has been doubly delightful. Like any good independent radio, free, multi-format streaming is available of the live broadcast.

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From blaastaal’s podomatic page, I was led naturally to Radio Centraal (106.7fm), Antwerp’s WFMU style, experimental radio and terrestrial home base for the program. Unfortunately, Google Translate’s weak command of dutch has made the site difficult to navigate for a monolinguist like myself, but I have managed to uncover their generous, multi-platform live stream (it was hard to miss). Haven’t yet had much time to listen in, but I’m excited to spend some time with the station if blaastaal is any indication of the schedule’s merits.

A separate Kraak posting claims the pair are performing together as Lap!, and appearing together in the very near future at the label’s own Pauze Festival (Gent, Belgium 29nov-1dec 2007).

Lap! the circuit bending-electro acoustic-tape experiment duo of Mik Prims and Bert Lezy also form and make Blaastaal! Blaastaal is radio art on Radio Centraal (Antwerp). In Blaastaal they take Radio as the Focal point. Prims and Lezy are Pauze Festival’s field recorders and will present their radio collage art on Friday and Saturday night, after the gigs. Where Bohman Brothers, Urbanus and John Cage meet, that’s where Blaastaal comes in.

While I haven’t found much Lap! material online (besides this noisy live show), Bert Lezy has a generous offering of his related work posted on youtube, including a spastic, alluring solo performance by Jad Fair, yet another artist I’ll have to explore further when time permits.

I’ll have some more podcast and radio recommendations in the weeks ahead. I tend to uncover this sort of unexplored territory fairly often, and do enjoy dipping my toes into the new material. The submersible is a neat place to recount these little explorations, and provide a decent excuse to keep digging. I’ve uncovered a few other spectacular podcasts along with some other older offerings over the years, and hope to continue these features as I move forward. Finally, I’ve got a couple new podcasts of my own almost finished up, including a show delving into the first round of Digitalis Arroyo releases, and a show dipping into my WFMU Record Fair haul, among a couple other less developed ideas.