Startling Moniker

Update 2: Here’s the recording of this week’s broadcast. It begins with a little over a minute of silence, which I left in, because I didn’t feel like editing it at the moment. As always, I encourage you to seek out the labels and artists linked in the playlist– this recording is for curiosity only, it’s low-fi nature means it’s a poor substitute for the actual recordings. If you require further assistance locating a recording, be sure to get in touch with me! Thanks for listening. –DaveX

Feeling a little tired tonight, but I’m going to do my best to have a good broadcast for everyone this week. I started out playing some Ahleuchatistas, from their latest album “Even in the Midst,” on the Cuneiform Records label. I wasn’t able to get up to St. Louis for their recent show at Lemp Arts, but I’m not going to miss them next time around! I don’t listen to a whole lot of the post-rock/math-rock stuff– like any genre, it has become bloated with sound-alikes– but Ahleuchatistas do what they do very well, and manage to convey the human emotion that so often eludes the speedier guitarists…

To begin the show proper, I’ve got a disc from John Bennett, Jack Wright, and Ben Bennett spinning— this being “Rotty What,” a title in search of a question mark. Like anything Mr. Wright is involved with, it’s a difficult listen, throwing his sax well past any recognized boundaries of the instrument. Meanwhile, John M. calls to the sax, encouraging it onward with his word-drunk rambling. Like much of Paul Dutton’s sound poetry, John Bennett revels in language, seemingly choosing words as much for their meaning as for their shape and feel in the mouth. Listening to this album is like watching a dog roll around in a dead animal’s remains– definitely a foreign experience, but obviously enjoyable to the performers. Naturally, I’m giving it a big thumbs-up!

More difficult improv work, but this time, from Nagaoag’s “Yama Labam A” album, on Eh? Records, a sub-label of Public Eyesore. Eh? has some new stuff on the way, including a Brekekekoaxkoax disc I’ll be jonesing for… and P.E. is keeping up their punishing release schedule with a Courtis/Yamamoto/Yoshimi disc “Live at Kanadian,” among others. As always, Public Eyesore is releasing a handful of discs from artists I’ve never heard of, yet again causing me to wonder if they have access to some inverted dimension outside out own where freaks are the norm… you never know!

I finally got a serious chunk of Glenn Weyant’s amazing “Anta Project” on the show. The Anta Project, which boils down masses of Weyant’s recording of his performances at (and ON) the US/Mexico border, will probably be the last straw for Homeland Security who are growing tired of ripping open all the weird packages you people send me. In my defense, please send more– it is my theory that if we keep them busy examining my mail, that they’ll leave Glenn alone to continue his incredible work. After you mail off your goodies, bop over to the SonicAnta site, and check out some of the recordings for yourself. Good stuff!

Well, it’s 5:30 a.m., and I’m drifting off into “Blue” Gene Tyranny-land… the disc is “Take Your Time,” from Lovely Music. It’s wonderful, but probably not the best choice for leaden-lidded DJs a day behind the Zzzz-ball.

Here’s some recording from Mike Tamburo, one of the friendliest people I ever met. Both songs are taken from the “Don’t Leave Your Bones in my Back Yard” disc of his must-own boxset “Language of Birds and Other Fantasies,” on the New American Folk Hero label. I still find it sad to occasionally run into recordings made by Malachi Ritscher, two of which are on this disc alone.

In less depressing news, I just picked up a new listener, whose computer headphones somehow began picking up my broadcast as he worked this morning. I just got a call from this fellow, who started receiving the accidental transmission sometime during Glenn Weyant’s “Anta Project” recordings, and was surprised to hear my voice tell him about the Sonoran Desert. Yeah, that might freak me out a little too! Anyhow, he wisely followed what the voices in his head told him, and called in to find our spot on the radio. What a terrific introduction to “It’s Too Damn Early!”

Because I cannot read Korean, I’m not certain which two of the four Korean improvisors shared trio duty with Grkzgl on the last track in the playlist. Although their names are listed in English in the general credits, they are written in Korean in the track name. Sorry! If anyone knows this information, get in touch.

Thanks for listening! –DaveX

Ahleuchatistas — The Bears of Cantabria Shall Sleep No More
Ahleuchatistas — Prosthetic God
Ahleuchatistas — Elegant Proof
Jack Wright, John M. Bennett, Ben Bennett — Conquista
Jack Wright, John M. Bennett, Ben Bennett — Ah Ant Erior
Jack Wright, John M. Bennett, Ben Bennett — Foamy Table
Jack Wright, John M. Bennett, Ben Bennett — Trouble Sugar
Jack Wright, John M. Bennett, Ben Bennett — Drips an Dips
Nagaoag — Yama Labam A (a good-sized chunk of it)
Glenn Weyant — The Anta Project (another large chunk)
“Blue” Gene Tyranny — The Drifter
“Blue” Gene Tyranny — A Letter from Home
Mike Tamburo — I Will Never Tell You What Happened in Virginia Beach
Mike Tamburo — Horselover Fat
Choi Jooyong, Ryu Hangil, Jin Sang Tae, Park Seung Joon, Grkzgl — Untitled, from “We Are Never Right”