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.

Week 8

Week 7

Week 6

This week Worship the Glitch featured a couple artists from the 12k record label. 12k was founded in 1997 by minimal electronic ambiance artist, graphic designer, and photographer Taylor Deupree. Check out the website here for more information and some nice videos. Be sure to tune to the show next week on Monday from 9 PM - 10 PM for a really special giveaway. For more information about Worship the Glitch and KCPR go here.

Week 5

A great series of albums that I believe are often over looked in Sonic Youth's discography are the four SYR releases that came out right around the millennium. These albums, all released in different languages were numbered SYR1 - SYR6 and were highly experimental. SYR4 entitled Goodbye 20th Century was a series of reinterpretations of select 20th century avant-garde composer's pieces including John Cage, Yoko Ono, and Cornelius Cardew. Like Cage, Cornelius Cardew experimented with graphic notation as means of communicating musical ideas. His testament to this study is the 193-page Treatise which was completed in 1967. Treatise marks a great shift in the relationship between the composer and the musician. Rather than reading a series of definite notes, the undefined diagrams and unfamiliar symbols that make up Treatise, the musician responds to the texts rather than reads them. These compositions are made to interpreted into any medium. More importantly Treatise shift the focus from music as an object to music as a process; a shift that is especially relevant with the advent of new technologies such as the computer which let us create, experience, and distribute music in completely new ways.

Week 4

I started this week off playing two tracks from Arve Henriksen and Thomas Stronen, two artists from the excellent Norwegian label Rune Grammofon. Arve Henriksen is a Norwegian Trumpetist and his latest album Strjon is a delicately minimal series of arrangements for trumpet with additional guitar and piano. Thomas Stronen's Pohlitz is filled with highly crafted electronic beats and additional "beatable" instruments. All the songs were done in one take with no overdubs which is pretty amazing considering the how nuanced each sound is and the layering of the arrangements. Check out the Rune Grammofon website for free downloads and their most recent releases.