Library Music

Last week I played a track recorded a song by Delia Derbyshire under the name Episonic. In the late 50s and early 60s BBC opened an advanced sound effects studio, the Radiophonic Workshop, to record jingles, theme songs, and commercials for programming. While the studio was intended for commercial purposes, it was frequently used for tape loop and music concrete experiments. Delia Derbyshire’s pioneering work in the studio would become very influential for contemporary artists such as Stereolab and Broadcast. The artists on the UK record label Ghostbox look to Derbyshire’s work as precedent for their b-movie science fiction electronic aesthetic. Sampling lost pieces of popular culture allows memories to be transplanted into new contexts through different media, creating new connections between space and time. Drawing inspiration from library music: old movie and television soundtrack recordings, the songs of Belbury Poly, Advisory Circle, and Broadcast are drenched in grain and haze of electronic music’s memories. Listen to the show here.

Finding Errors

The term "glitch" to describe a genre of music started to appear around 1995, after Oval's releases Systemisch and 94 Diskont, and the ELpH vs. Coil album Worship the Glitch (where this show gets its name from). These two albums arguably started the modern day electronic movement most often referred to as "glitch." It is interesting how these three influential records were made and how they established ideas about this particular aesthetic. Oval, using scratched and written over compact discs, sampled the skipping and reorganized them. In effect they "harvested" the glitches - the errors, deconstructing the materiality of the media. Coil on the other hand had been collecting malfunctioning equipment over time and compiled these "natural" glitches to make Worship the Glitch. These two methodologies are the basis of music movement which celebrates the imperfection, error, and malfunction of the mechanized and digital.

There are varied analysis' of Glitch music, and keep in mind that is only to serve as a brief introduction. Check out Vague Terrain, a great resource to find more information about digital media culture as well exclusive songs and videos and photos. On their site is a download of a great writing by Kim Cascone, which goes into greater detail about this type of electronic music.

And last but not least Worship the Glitch is now officially podcasting! Check it out and subscribe! Also be sure to check out 91.3 KCPR San Luis Obispo for a schedule of some of the best music college radio has to offer.

14 April 2008

7 April 2008

Welcome back to another quarter of Worship the Glitch. By next week I'll have started podcasting episodes, so you can listen anything you want! As for the stuff played this week, I seem to love everything that gets put out on the German label Raster-Noton. Founded in part by Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), and Olaf Bender, who along with Frank Bretschneider, make up Signal. Rater-Noton is not so much a traditional record label, but rather conceived as a platform where the intersections between pop, science, and art can be explored. One way this mindset is shown is through Raster-Noton's exquisite packaging. Well weighted, buttery smooth cardstock makes up the digipacks in which most of their releases are packaged in. Fine attention to detail are noticeable not only in the typography and design, but fabrication of the cases themselves. For example, the two discs that make up COH's Strings are housed in what at first appears to be complex folded paper casing. However, upon unfolding the object its simplicity is beautifully exposed. A single piece of cardstock with slits cut in to hold each disc is then folded over itself twice to make a package that is not only artful, but also efficient to mass produce and distribute.