23 February 2014

Duncan Edwards

Albums and Singles

This trio from Tel Aviv has created driving and airy songs suffused with somewhat doom-laden yet inspiring vocals, hollow rhythms, and gauzey guitar, for an album which could easily masquerade as a release from 1980s Manchester or Glasgow.

Burger

Juvall Harring wrote the songs for The World Is Well Lost while in something of an exile. His wife was home in Israel, his grandfather had just passed away, and his friends were protesting in the streets of Tel Aviv. Meanwhile he was alone in Berlin, basically in a somewhat depressed state singing in a room alone and making demos. That state makes for rather ecstatic listening since, through a necessarily slow process of recording to two-track and gradual layering, the finished form of this music has such a strong sense of well-crafted economy and precision.

Harring sings in Hebrew but the effect, either of that language or of his brooding voice, is somehow just right to create this driving, moody, melodic, hollow-toned atmosphere. This is the kind of sound which relies less on lyrics and much more on the voice as an additional instrument of color and shade. Oddly, though, at times some of the words do almost translate into surprisingly apt lines or phrases. At one point Harring appears to sing "showing me the echo" as well as "memory, gets in front of her." Later I could swear I hear "rain, falls, waiting" and "lonely shore" or "love me, sure." There are other such moments which add to an album that he has described as concerned with "End of the world, but at the same time, togetherness. Also retroism as escapism, and escapism as a positive thing, rather than a cop out."

Vaadat Charigim’s influences are pretty open to see, and there is no need for me to name names. On a couple of tracks, though, they sound as if they are falling, if not exactly through space sending a chiming coded message to Earth, then at least down a very big well. The World Is Well Lost may feasibly be too droney and shoegazey for some people and too light for others - it was released at the tail end of 2013 and the group are playing in the US in March 2014.

 

23 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This Brooklyn-based composer's debut release for Students of Decay is quite an unusual effort, placing its emphasis most prominently on frequently untreated field recordings of natural spaces (as well as a few unnatural ones).  Even the instrumentation is atypical, as Guthrie uses violoncello and contrabass to weave a creaking, moaning bed beneath French horn playing that frequently sounds like a very large, very sad bird.  There is seemingly not much happening compositionally (overtly, anyway), but Codiaeum Variegatum's languorous, organic, and unfamiliar soundscapes are a lovely place to linger nonetheless.

Students of Decay

This album takes its name from the croton, a plant type with seemingly infinite leaf forms (and a very enthusiastic following).  In fact, it is probably safe to assume that Guthrie used crotons as the thematic basis for the album's content as well, as each of the six songs is titled with a descriptive phrase that could be used to describe a plant and all seem like (increasingly divergent) variations on a theme.  The opening "Branching Low and Spreading" nicely covers just about everything that Guthrie has to offer on Variegatum: deep, groaning string drones; quavering, animal-like French horn moans; and a backdrop of happily chirping birds near a river or waterfall.

The rest of the album does not initially depart very far from that pleasing template, which is perfectly fine–it just means that Codiaeum feels more like a single ebbing and flowing piece that grows increasingly strange rather than six discrete ones.  Things take a deceptively long time to go off the rails though, as "Strongly Leaning with Irregular Crown" only enhances its droning strings with an unexpected passage of bowed arpeggios and a very spirited squawking solo by a bird who is clearly trying to make the most of his big break.  "Unlike More Slender and Graceful," on the other hand, sounds like a negative image of the previous pieces, as Guthrie's strings sound distant, hollow, and vaguely metallic.  "Long Pendulous" is then even stranger still, sounding like Anne is playing strangled, moaning French horn in a sewer beneath a city, accompanied only by a chorus of angry tea kettles or a swarm of mutant crickets.

The proceedings continue to occupy very strange territory with the album's longest and arguably best piece, "Rough Above with Uneven Base," as Guthrie unleashes a wonderfully dissonant and undulating bed of hazy drones and horn swells.  I suspect the wobbly, "falling apart" feel of the drones is due to some sort of tape manipulation, but most of the piece is able to sustain the bizarre illusion that it is an untreated underwater field recording of a bunch of melancholy whales lamenting their lot in some foggy, secluded cove.  "Persists into Winter" then closes the album with a radical change in ambiance, dispensing with music almost entirely to approximate a very lo-fi reverb-heavy recording from the depths of a subway tunnel.  Guthrie occasionally bows a string or two, but the piece definitely seems most focused upon providing an unusual sense of place.

"Winter" is admittedly a somewhat weak note to end the album on, but a lot of Guthrie's charm lies in the album's lazily, meandering "aural travelogue" feel and in her restraint, so it is not exactly a wrong note.  The rest of Codiaeum Variegatum's appeal, for me anyway, is mostly due to the natural flow of the early pieces and their relative guilelessness.  In fact, a small part of me was actually disappointed that Anne took the album into increasingly experimental and subterranean places after its strong, but comparatively static, opening.  Ultimately, however, I liked this album quite a bit.  I certainly have not heard much else that sounds like this and Guthrie's confidence in throwing herself wholeheartedly into something so unconventionally musical is impressive, as is her complete avoidance of any clichés or current experimental music trends.  Codiaeum is a refreshingly understated, small-scale gem.

• Branching Low and Spreading
• Unlike More Slender and Graceful
• Rough Above with Uneven Base

 

23 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

The material that makes up Voyeur dates back to 2008, when Celer was at their most prolific as a duo. Intended to be a film score, the sound of this album is in league with the contemporaneous work they were putting out, but there is a distinctly different feel to this album, possibly due to its conceptual framing, or perhaps because of the project’s more conservative release schedule as of late.

Humming Conch

Unlike many of the other Celer releases of this time period, Voyeur consists of smaller, independent pieces rather than long form compositions, or sprawling single-track sequencing of shorter works.This is an asset, because it introduces a consistently shifting mood or flow to the album while still linking each piece together sonically.For example, the shrill, glass shattering tones of "Bitter Light and Anticipating a Day Heat (The Isolated)" are not only sharp, but erratic in their appearance, creating a sense of tension that is never fully released.It is followed by "The Spilling, Romantic Goodbye (The Lovers)," a piece which dulls the aforementioned tones back to a more metallic shimmer and therefore has a looser and less oppressive sense.

As Celer works heavily with quiet passages and hushed moments, the jagged feedback of "Binoculars, a Telephone, and Fear (The Note)" cuts through wonderfully, preventing the album’s more peaceful moments from falling too far into the background.The low frequency malignancy and dissonance of "Bass Puncture (The Pressure Urge)" also does an exemplary job of conveying aggression while not relying on volume surges, and the harsher, spiky second half of "Lofty Swells (An Impending Advance)" is another wonderful example of the album defying expectations.

At this point, Celer was a duo of Will Long and his late wife Danielle Baquet-Long, who contributes vocals to this album.Perhaps it is that fact, along with the thematic nature of the album, that paints everything with a certain intimacy that is at times almost unsettlingly personal.This is most prevalent in the latter moments of the record, with "Impossible Escape (The Amicable Understanding)" and "Finale (After Midnight)" especially.The former has a consistent, constant sound (as opposed to the ebb and flow of many of the other pieces) but seemingly confined or held back by some external force, the source of the forced restraint lurking somewhere in the distance.The latter mirrors the opening, but with what sounds like fragments of an old pipe organ being slowly peeled and disentangled.The album closes with a lighter feel, but a sad undercurrent that tinges the piece.

Using the label of Voyeur, and the references made throughout the titles of these pieces, there is a representation of the more sinister, disturbing aspect of the term, but by no means is it that one sided.The gentler moments, especially on the closing "Finale," instead come across more like an intimate look inside someone’s life and all of the personal details that would come with such an observation, rather than a lurking act of creepiness.In a culture so focused on other people’s personal lives, Will and Danielle Baquet-Long have created a work that shows the personal, emotional side of such voyeurism.

samples:

• Binoculars, a Telephone, and Fear (The Note)
• Bass Punctures (The Pressure Urge)
• Impossible Escape (The Amicable Understanding)

 

23 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

The single piece that makes up this album began life three years ago as part of Szczepanik's hand-made, subscription based Ante Algo Azul series. Expanded from its original 18 minute duration to a full 53 minute length, it maintains the identity of the original work while building upon it dramatically. This new version in some ways feels like simply more, and in this case that is a perfectly good way to rework the piece.

Desire Path Recordings

The aforementioned subscription series of 3" CDRs that Szczepanik released in 2011 seemed to, at the time, represent him taking different approaches and techniques with his art.In some cases, experiments such as these run the risk of delving into self-indulgence, but these 12 pieces never did such a thing.As evidenced, those experiments did make for jumping off points into longer, more developed works such as this, and while the sketch of Not Knowing previously released stood powerfully on its own, Szczepanik expands on it in every way while keeping the emotional core of the piece the same.

Like the early version, Not Knowing begins with a hushed, surging low end pulse that seems to go on a bit longer, exhibiting small, microtonal changes in sound that slowly build up the sound.This initial passage has a cold, detached feel to it that soon turns lighter, bringing in soaring tones and uplifting bits that capture the sun's warmth on a cold winter's day.While uplifting, there is a subtle, dramatic flair to it that leads to grandiose, dramatic highs of beauty.

What sets the long-form version of this apart is that the piece then drifts into a pensive, melancholic space, conjuring memories ghosts of the past.Simultaneously nostalgic and chilling, it reaches further into emotional directions that were only hinted at in the original piece.Concluding in the manner that it began, Not Knowing comes full circle, both sonically and emotionally, back to that more isolated, frigid feeling that started it all.

Nicholas keeps the changes and alterations to a tasteful minimum while adding a significant amount of new content.Like a short film that is expanded to a full length feature, Not Knowing is a completely realized work based upon one that stood strongly by itself.Its changes are done by the hand of an already accomplished young composer that deserves to be recognized as one of the current masters of the genre, and is an extremely fitting tribute to Eliane Radigue.

samples:

• Not Knowing (Excerpt 1)
• Not Knowing (Excerpt 2)
• Not Knowing (Excerpt 3)

 

18 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Pre-Release of the Double Vinyl album Parade by Nurse With Wound and Graham Bowers.

ART EDITION

This pre-release is limited to 18 copies and is a special ART EDITION of the double vinyl album of  Parade.

Each album contains a totally superb, unique, original artwork by Steven Stapleton aka Babs Santini, all specifically created for this art edition, numbered and signed by Steven.

The Red Wharf website currently has photographs of three of the artworks, illustrating the quality of Steven's artwork, all are mounted on the reverse face of a 8.26" x 8.26" (210mm x 210mm) full colour folded Art Print, and each one is individually signed and numbered by Steven and Graham and is enclosed in a special presentation envelope.

LIMITED EDITION

This pre-release is a LIMITED EDITION of 185, each containing a 8.26" x 8.26" (210mm x 210mm) full colour folded Art Print.

Each one individually brush-marked by Steven and numbered and signed by Steven and Graham.

.

Please visit the Red Wharf Shop for further details www.red-wharf.com/shop.htm

The format and track list of the double album is as follows:

Side One:

OFF TO HELL ON A HANDCART

APES AND PEACOCKS

BELLS OF HELL GO TING A'LING A'LING

Side Two:

RING A'RING O'ROSES

A TISSUE OF DECEIT

Side Three:

RATS, CATS AND DOGS

BEYOND THE PALISADE

THE BITTER END

Side Four:

DIPLOID (PARADE ~ EPILOGUE)

--------------------------

UPDATE

Release of the double vinyl album Parade by Nurse With Wound and Graham Bowers.

The ART EDITION of 18 have all been sold.

LIMITED EDITION

A LIMITED EDITION of 185, each containing a 8.26" x 8.26" (210mm x 210mm) full colour folded Art Print.

Each one individually brush-marked by Steven and numbered and signed by Steven and Graham.

These are now available at the Red Wharf Shop for further details http://www.red-wharf.com/shop.htm

10 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Andria Degens' first record in five years as Pantaleimon coasts along in a haunting lull, halfway between coherence and a nonsensical haze. A luxury of psychedelic drone and lush orchestration, the narcotic quality of this record is endearing even if it is not fully satisfying. I return often to a few beautifully performed songs buried among a number of other simply competent ones, but I have to admire how engrossing Degens' style is when absorbed at an album's dose.

Grass Girl Music

The Butterfly Ate The Pearl has an impressive cast of contributors on board with Andria, ranging from Steve Finnerty (of Alabama 3) and Jay Darlington (of Oasis and Kula Shaker) to James Blackshaw and even Will Oldham. But honestly, their input is totally backgrounded by Degens' dominating voice. The sole element tethering this music to the conscious world, the lyrics of Pantaleimon are fluid and lush without seeming forced. Scarcely rhyming, Andria's poetic prose is uplifting by a bevy of strings and treated guitars and synthesizers and plentiful reverb. In the better points of the album, such as on early standouts "Diamond River Run" and the title track, there is a timeless comfort to how her voice dances around the pacing of the songs, in a way indebted to alternative rock with its distant blasé and listless delivery.

She is irreverent, perhaps; psychedelia is difficult to deliver with sincerity and I get the feeling Andria has found a safe middle ground to attempt proselytizing for the natural world or to share deep secrets while avoiding the traps of overly earnest purple prose. On the most upbeat song of the album, "Elevation of a Dream," Degens approaches something very familiar to fans of great dream pop, a rattling ride cymbal and a synth buzzing along in a two-part movement of repeated passages and little golden moments. It is the finest moment on the album, a tender crushing refrain of "we are starlight" fading out in unaccompanied sadness. It is succeeded by "Ember," its psuedo-religious organ trills, sparse choral accompaniments and sturdy percussion embodying the confidence of the album's lead single.

The energy tapers off a bit at that point, concluding in a fairly underwhelming two song suite to end it all. "Morning Star" and "Summer Reigns" both aim for a kind of miraculous summation of moods and timbres that are not fully realized but are still fairly pleasant. The album is slow in peak and comedown, with a stellar middle, a feat which in my mind seems rare. Pantaleimon never attempts to make much of an impression with her music through its soft strokes and gently ethereal tones. Still, it is at times impactful; at times stunningly so.

Samples:

• The Butterfly Ate The Pearl
• Elevation of a Dream
• Ember

 

10 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Lay-by Lullaby is at its core a companion piece to Schaefer's installation work Asleep at the Wheel, which functioned as a call to social awareness that can be lost through the constant movement of modern life symbolized by the repetitive act of automobile travel. This album, however, emphasizes the opposite sensibility. It results in a muted, almost hallucinogenic series of calm compositions that revel in the repetition.

12k

This lengthy album trades mostly in sparse, pensive tones and light, crackling passages of static and blurred radio transmissions. "Radio 101 FM" and "Radio 102 FM," for example, stick with bare arrangements of expansive tones mixed up with the occasional sound of a passing motor vehicle. The latter has a simple two-note progression that makes for a slightly more melodic, musical feel throughout.

On "Radio 105 FM" and "Radio 106 FM," Schaefer employs some excellent crackling static that does an exceptional job of replicating the sound of tires on asphalt, and both pieces strip the overall mix down to an infrequent, low register tone as opposed to the album’s other, more relaxed elements. The automobile symbolism also appears distinctively on "Radio 111 FM," where the analog electronics hum away like an idling car engine.

Other pieces focus much more on the conventional, electronic parts of Schaefer's art."Radio 103 FM" has a more conventional synthesizer sound, and one with a 1980s digital keyboard sheen to it."Radio 110 FM" features effective string-like electronic flourishes that open it in a more clearly dramatic fashion, although the closing minutes are more meditative textures than film-score intensity.

Mixed in with the light tones and melodies is a collection of field recordings taken from London's M3 motorway, the occasional revving engine or passing vehicle making for a slightly jarring interruption that adds dynamics, but does not at all distract from the sound as a whole.

This fits with the disc's aesthetic perfectly: Schaefer's gentle gliding melodies and hushed bits of static emulating the hypnotic feel of late night driving with the only illumination coming from an occasional street light or the moon in the night's sky.Just as things become too peaceful, a passing vehicle shakes the driver awake to begin the cycle once again.

It is this interjection of the motorway recordings that gives Lay-by Lullaby its distinct personality.That is not to say that Janek Schaefer's ambient electronic work is not effective on its own, quite the contrary.His tastefully understated melodies and textures are brilliant on their own.But here, the way they mimic the hypnotizing repetition of night driving with the interrupting recordings of passing cars is what makes this a brilliantly effective album.

samples:

• Radio 102 FM
• Radio 106 FM
• Radio 110 FM

 

10 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Pierre Jolivet (Pacific 231) and Philippe Blanchard (Lieutenant Caramel) have both been active in experimental music since the mid 1980s, and this is not their first collaboration. However, Aunt Sally is one of those albums that, even after sitting with it for a while and a number of repeated listenings, I still have mixed feelings about. Some moments come across as brilliantly absurdist pairings of cut up music and junk noise. Then there are moments that feel simply like random bits of sound slapped together haphazardly, justifying hat often leveled complaint against this sort of challenging art.

Alone at Last

The pieces that open and close the album are the most impressive, largely because both are live performances.Album opener "Yellow House in Beirut," recorded in Lebanon in 2012, mixes in some French spoken word pieces with dissonant noises and fragmented sounds into a chaotic, clattering mass."L'Autre Massacre," a performance from Dublin in 2011, is a bit harsher with violent stabs and outbursts of sonic junk amidst a world of echoes and sound fragments.

Between these performances are a series of studio recordings that, due to the fact they were subject to overdubs and replications, often seem too unfocused and random for their own good.The low frequency rumble and guitar feedback of "Bagliore" helps it to stand out, but the overuse of random cut-up bits end up seeming more like filler than anything with deliberate artistic intent.

"Angela Palnep Chu" features a selection of sampled musical elements that are identifiable within the chaos, but with the heavy processing it becomes hard to fully discern.Mixed in with the other messy detritus and spoken word, it has a sense feel to it, but also drifts into directionless knob twiddling that drones on for a bit too long.The looped, violent sounds and harsh outbursts of "Birolo" also are a plus, but within the vacuum cleaner din of white noise, its power is somewhat diluted.

There are some captivating moments to be heard on Aunt Sally, and these moments are what motivated me to return to this album on multiple occasions.The problem is that between these high points are passages that seem directionless and too random, and I caught my attention drifting away from the album.There are some excellent segments of this album interspersed throughout.Without the editing though, the disc just sounds bloated and, like an overly long film, it diminishes the impact of the highlights.

samples:

• Yellow House in Beirut
• Bagliore
• Angela Palnep Chu

 

09 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Originally attributed to The Units, this cryptic, haunting, and otherworldly 1978 debut is the album that began over three decades of myth, legend, and speculation regarding the man behind Corwood Industries.  While both the band name and cover art aesthetic proved to be quickly discarded false starts, Sterling Smith's uncompromising musical vision was fully formed from the very beginning...or at least as close to being fully formed as it would ever get.

Corwood Industries

I have historically had a somewhat complex relationship with Jandek's music, as I was definitely drawn more to the sheer mystery and otherness of his persona than to the actual songs.  While I excitedly bought Jandek on Corwood as soon as it came out and fell all over myself to frantically buy tickets to see him when he first started playing live, I never actually thought of Jandek's music as "good."  In fact, finally seeing him live was kind of a "the emperor has no clothes" moment for me–I definitely walked away from that gig thinking that Smith was at best a fascinating charlatan.  Despite that, Jandek's music never quite stopped nagging at me and I finally had the revelation a few years ago that I actually liked some of Sterling's songs quite a lot.

My primary stumbling block was, of course, the same one that most people have: Smith seems to be an improbably terrible guitarist.  However, many have made the counter-argument that Sterling is actually a brilliant guitarist, as he has rejected the entirety of Western civilization's accumulated wisdom regarding tuning, harmony, chords, song structure, and rhythm to make music every bit as broken-sounding and disturbed as his vocals.  I have no idea if that was Smith's full intent, but I will concede that his stark, unremittingly dissonant guitar aesthetic was indeed an absolutely visionary idea.  Unfortunately, having a great idea does not necessarily mean that it will be executed with similar brilliance, which Ready For The House bluntly illustrates again and again: the first 8 songs all seem to be played on an out-of-tune/experimentally tuned acoustic guitar without fretting a single note; just a series of variations upon the same jarring open chord.  Sometimes it is plucked, sometimes it is strummed, but it always sounds like the same six notes.

That makes for a spectacularly one-dimensional album, as well as an unintentionally hilarious ending, as Sterling unexpectedly plays some rather spirited barre chords on an amplified electric guitar for the closing "European Jewel (Incomplete)."  Unlike the other songs on the album, it actually sounds like the guitar is in some (slightly off) variation of standard tuning.  This leads me to conclude that Sterling had just bought it and had merrily skipped home with a smile on his face and a song in his heart, then excitedly started recording mere seconds after he got back to the house.  Though it ends on a singularly creepy note (it abruptly stops mid-sentence after Smith sings "there's bugs in my brain, i can't feel any pain, just a shaking shaaaa-"), it is by far the least compelling/unique song on the album (it basically sounds like a mentally ill beat poet fronting a shitty one-man avant-rock band).  Maybe he was onto something with his otherwise categorical refusal to use his left hand at all.  Curiously, "Jewel" is revisited several more times over the next few years for unknown reasons (Sterling either loved it or absolutely hated this particular version, I guess).

Objectively, Ready For The House is a spectacular failure by almost every single criterion by which music is traditionally judged: the guitars are aimlessly strummed and badly out-of-tune, the singing is awkward and tuneless, the lyrics often sound like drug-fueled stream-of-consciousness, the mood is monochromatically forlorn, there is no melodic or harmonic progression, and there is virtually no textural or dynamic variation.  Somehow, however, Smith manages to turn all of those seemingly fatal shortcomings to his benefit, which is a feat that seems far too brilliant to be completely intentional.

With the exception of "European Jewel," every single song on House sounds like the most perfect and direct distillation of the blues imaginable.  Sterling has stripped literally away every bit of artifice, leaving only his chilling, lonely voice projecting his feelings of extreme alienation into the void and his one-handed, one-chord guitar playing adds a layer of obsessiveness that only makes the whole thing more unnerving.  Smith is unquestionably a man who meant exactly what he is sang and wrote these songs because he absolutely needed to–House feels like a hushed, dead-of-night, confession first and an album second.  Also, it helps that some Jandek lyrics are heartbreakingly poetic ("The sky is black in a blue night") or existentially poignant ("I curse the day I found my freedom").  And that sometimes Smith finds a way to make even the simplest lines seem like the most menacing thing he could possibly say, like the repeated "I'm crazy about you" in "They Told Me About You" (my personal favorite).

Jandek, of course, continued to get better and better after this album (for a good long stretch, anyway), but Ready For The House definitely stands as one of the most staggeringly alien debuts in history.  Even though I think "European Jewel" is terrible, I would not change a single thing about this release, as such a wrong-footing, enigmatically truncated curve ball turned out to be absolutely ideal for luring hapless listeners into a lifetime of speculation and (mostly) unsatiated curiosity.  Anyone in search of just a single Jandek album might be better served by a later album like Six And Six or Chair Beside The Window, but I prefer to see Jandek's oeuvre more like a novel: this is quite a gripping opening chapter and the best policy is probably to just keep moving forward sequentially until you either go mad, become completely obsessed, or lose interest (which often occurs with the dawning of Sterling's a capella era).

• They Told Me About You
• Know Thy Self
• European Jewel (Incomplete)

 

09 February 2014

Administrator

Albums and Singles

While there are many fine reasons to love Sublime Frequencies, their latest album highlights a personal favorite: their unwavering willingness to release superficially absurd, financially doomed, or utterly uncategorizable projects solely because they are interesting and unique.  Also, the fact that they are an established label means that something like this (a random-seeming collage of radio snippets recorded almost a decade ago) needs to be treated with considerably more critical thought and openness than it normally would be.  It certainly still sounds like a random collage of radio snippets, mind you, but the intent is deeper and more noble than that.

Sublime Frequencies

As it happens, the idea of hanging around in a distant country aimlessly spinning a radio dial to hear what sort of unfamiliar things come out actually sounds quite appealing to me.  If I did it, however, I would never in a million years think of releasing those recordings as an album.  The primary reason for that is simple: literally anyone could have done this, as Hisham Mayet's recordings are deliberately artless.  He was not harvesting strange sounds for some planned surrealist collage nor is this any sort of ethnographic sonic travelogue, unless he was trying to replicate a cab ride with an easily bored driver.  Secondly, I would feel like any Nigériens that I told about the project would look at me like I was an utter fool, while Westerners would probably pillory me for shameless cultural voyeurism ("Check it out–I went somewhere foreign and made a tape of all the foreign people talking all foreign!  Aren't they crazy-sounding?").

Fortunately, Mayet's liner notes do an excellent job of explaining the purpose, context, and content of this release.  Essentially, Radio Niger is a snapshot of what radio should and could be: a vibrant, unpredictable medium that gives a meaningful voice to all kinds of disparate communities and facets of the artistic spectrum.  While there are admittedly a handful of similar bastions remaining in the US (such as WFMU), American terrestrial radio has generally been a joyless, soulless, and irrelevant wasteland of homogeneity for a very long time.  Also, American free-form radio is largely the province of the very hip, whereas Radio Niger is a far more broad-reaching and inclusive phenomenon where many different languages, cultures, and socio-economic strata happily collide.  The sheer scope of content covered on this album is staggering–once I had a more complete idea of what I was hearing, anyway.  There are probably not many other places on earth where "avant-collage cutups" coexist with BBC news broadcasts, disposable Auto-Tuned contemporary pop, Taureg blues, drunken storytellers, Koranic transmissions, and animist folk songs.

Unfortunately, I do not speak fluent Hausa, Zarma, Tamajeq, or even French, which leads to one of Radio Niger's few regrettable, but inherent, flaws: few will understand the actual content of this album, so it unavoidably still sounds like someone scanning through a radio.  Some of the snatches of songs are quite good, certainly, but they are always incomplete and there is seemingly no way to find out anything about them.  My other issue is that–contentwise, at least–this seems like it should be a free or inexpensive download rather than a full-priced CD.  However, releasing this as a context-free sound file would completely defeat its purpose.  Also, treating Radio Niger like a "real album" gives it the sense of significance that it deserves.  My sole real caveat then is this: this is not the place to go for anyone looking to be turned onto some cool Nigérien bands.  It is, however, a thoughtfully assembled love letter to free-form radio that also happens to double as a fun and enjoyable collage

Samples:

• Radio Tenere: Goudel Mollo Swagger
• Death on the Back of the Neck
• Hauka Possession Splendor