Outside His Circled Limpid World

No.160, aired February 29, 2012 – a double (2-hour episode).

This episode contrasted two texts – a live reading of Sean Bonney’s Happiness: Poems After Rimbaud, and an audiobook of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Wells envisions a class-bassed society polarized to the point of total segregation, as observed from the top down by Wells’ detached, alien narrator. Bonney registers the effects of class society on subjectivity, the tortured imagination of participants in the struggle at street level, in a whirl of sensation – there is no privileged place to look down from.

Part 1

1. The Fifty Minute Hour – Hylozoists
2. Ghosts Of Griffintown – Ripcordz
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. Corrupted – Pericardium
5. Kuilenn – Iannis Xenakis
6. 25th Century Quaker – Captain Beefheart

Part 2

1. Lunchmeatophobia – Funkadelic
2. Tear Ya Down – Motorhead
3. Elementary Particles – Hylozoists
4. Gimme That Harp, Boy – Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
5. Phlegra – Iannis Xenakis

Part 3

1. Everything Pisses Me Off – Sarcastic Mannequins
2. Smiley Smiley – Hylozoists
3. The Opportunist – Pericardium
4. Ittidra – Iannis Xenakis
5. Kandy Korn – Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
6. No Class – Motorhead

Part 4

1. Lashed Out And Gashed - Pericardium
2. Maggot Brain – Funkadelic
3. Charlie Don’t Surf – Sarcastic Mannequins
4. Kai – Iannis Xenakis
5. Punk Nation – Ripcordz
6. Strait Is The Gate – Hylozoists
7. Moanin At Midnight – Howlin Wolf

The Hammer Without A Master

No.134, aired August 17, 2011. This was the fifth installment of the Orgazo-Cozmic Ascension series, featuring Pierre Boulez’s Le marteau sans maître (The Hammer Without a Master). Included a live reading of Comp.II (July 28/06) by Winnipeg’s POORTREE, a performance poetry duo consisting of Christoff Engbrecht and David Albert Streit.

Part 1

1. Before the Furious Craftsmanship – Pierre Boulez
2. Lashed Out & Gashed – Pericardium
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. First Commentary On The Hangman Of Solitude – Pierre Boulez
5. Super Banana – Lungbutter
6. The Furious Craftsmanship – Pierre Boulez
7. Bodies – Pericardium
8. Second Commentary On The Hangman Of Solitude – Pierre Boulez
9. Mother Earth – Lungbutter
10. Stately Building & Presentiments, 1st version – Pierre Boulez

Part 2

1. Lost Cause – Royal Red Brigade
2. The Hangman Of Solitude – Pierre Boulez
3. After the Furious Craftsmanship – Pierre Boulez
4. Sewage Missile – Lungbutter
5. Third Commentary On The Hangman Of Solitude – Pierre Boulez
6. Vampire Prom Queen – Royal Red Brigade
7. Stately Building & Presentiments, Again – Pierre Boulez
8. Exit Plexit – Simply Saucer

Orgazmocosmic Arcanamerican Gunslinger

No.128, aired July 6, 2011, the third in the Cosmo-Orgasmic Ascension series (see No.123 for more info). The featured piece this time was Edgar Varese’s Arcana, accompanied by more bits from Stephen R. Covey’s Seven Habits. The second half featured Varese’s Ameriques, in honour of American Independence day, with readings from Ed Dorn’s American “pop epic” Gunslinger.

Part 1

1. Corrupted - Pericardium
2. I Meditation - Pericardium
3. Arcana – Edgar Varese
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Red Stone Rocks – Tangiers

Part 2

1. Keep The Living Bodies Warm – Tangiers
2. Ameriques – Edgar Varese
3. Here Come The Pieces – Tangiers
4. March Of The Crabs – Anvil

All OUT

No.83, aired August 11, 2010.

Featuring exclusively tracks with the word “Out” in the title, except the opening song, which was supposed to be The Hanson Brothers’ Duke It Out, but my notes were messed up so that song had to wait until the end.

Also featured a live reading of KRYATL, a strange but potent brew of words by one Out To Lunch.

Part 1

1. It’s A Secret – Hanson Brothers
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Jerk It Out – Caesars
4. Get Out Of My Life – D.O.A.
5. I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore – Ugly Ducklings
6. Extension Out – Sun Ra –- KRYATL – Out To Lunch
7. Outta Harm`s Way – King Khan & The Shrines
8. Lashed Out And Gashed – Pericardium
9. Sort It Out – Caesars

Part 2

1. Check It Out Dude, Get Ready, Cuz We're Rock 'N' Roll Rebels Cruisin' for Chicks in Our Metal Machine, Baby, All Night Long, Alright, Oh Yeah! (A Rock Anthem) Dude. (We Really Know How to Rock.) – Lungbutter
2. Demons Out! – Art Brut
3. Out To Lunch – Eric Dolphy -- KRYATL – Out To Lunch
4. (I`m Gonna) Kick You Out – Caesars
5. Looking Outward – Sun Ra -- KRYATL – Out To Lunch
6. Duke It Out – Hanson Brothers
7. Noise [#] [Outtake] – Diodes

Wrong versus Right

Episode no.74, aired May 26, 2010.

Featured “right” & “wrong” songs, plus select chapters [18-24] from Leviticus, the Old Testament book of law and priestly ritual, which provided hilarious moral commentary as various sexual taboos & severe punishments were described to a backing of Charles Mingus’s Hearts' Beat and Shades in Physical Embraces from The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

Leviticus 21:9 provided some rather scary (and unintentional!) congruence as the text ordered the burning of promiscuous daughters of priests to the tune of Queen’s Of The Stone Age’s Burn The Witch.

Part 1

1. Two Lips, Two Lungs And One Tongue – Nomeansno
2. Naval Aviation in Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Absolutely Right – Five Man Electrical Band
4. I’m Right, You’re Wrong – D.O.A.
5. Beat and Shades in Physical Embraces – Charles Mingus
6. Not Right – The Stooges
7. Burn The Witch – Queens Of The Stone Age
8. III Meditation – Pericardium
9. I Am Wrong – Nomeansno

Part 2

1. Corrupted - Pericardium
2. I Meditation – Pericardium
3. Ain’t No Right – Jane’s Addiction
4. From The Eastern Gate I – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp)
5. Ultimate Everything – Monster Magnet
6. II Meditation – Pericardium
7. You Were Right – Built To Spill
8. The Right Stuff – Monster Magnet

Talking to Death

Aired June 3, 2009. Featured text was Edgar Cayce: Channeling Your Higher Self: A Practical Method to Tap into Higher Wisdom and Creativity, an Audio Renaissance production written by Stanley Ralph Ross & read by Mark Thurston

Part 1:
1. Repons (Section 1) - Pierre Boulez / Ensemble InterComporain
2. It's All Over - Headstones
3. Naval Aviation in Art? - Frank Zappa
4. Death Was Too Kind - Subhumans
5. Oh My God! - Headstones
6. III Meditation - Pericardium
7. The Dead Speak From Beyond - Pericardium
8. The Walking Dead - Eugene Chadbourne
9. Losing Control - Headstones

Part 2:
1. Repons (Section 1) - Pierre Boulez / Ensemble InterComporain
2. Cut - Headstones
3. I Talked To Death In Stereo - Eugene Chadbourne
4. Death To The Sickoids - Subhumans
5. Cemetery - Headstones
6. Anime Eyes - The Awkward Stage

De Re Metallica

Episode 17 concerned metal. Georgius Agricola's founding work of metallurgy, De Re Metallica (on the Nature of Metals) was read with various keyboard works by J.S. Bach & alongside metal bands Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden & Pericardium, whose Anthems of Anger pummeled my eardrums & incited me to frenzied dancing in Regina's live music clubs in the late 1990s.

Part 1
1. The Art of Fugue - Johann Sebastian Bach / Christopher Hogwood & Chrisophe Rousset (harpsichords)
2. Corrupted - Pericardium
3. Naval Aviation in Art? - Frank Zappa
4. The Wizard - Black Sabbath
5. I Meditation - Pericardium
6. Deceiver - Judas Priest
7. The Opportunist - Pericardium
8. Inventio IV - Johann Sebastian Bach / Bernard Lagace (organ)
9. Judas Rising - Judas Priest
10. II Meditation - Pericardium
11. The Ides of March - Iron Maiden

Part 2
1. Fughetta super Wir glauben all an einen - Johann Sebastian Bach / Bernard Lagace (organ)
2. Wrathchild - Iron Maiden
3. Lashed Out and Gashed - Pericardium
4. Sinfonia XV - Johann Sebastian Bach / Bernard Lagace (organ)
5. Bodies - Pericardium
6. III Meditation - Pericardium
7. The Dead Speak From Beyon - Pericardium
8. Ram it Down - Judas Priest
9. The Art of Fugue - Johann Sebastian Bach / Christopher Hogwood & Chrisophe Rousset (harpsichords)
10. Eat Steal - GWAR
11. The Metal - Tenacious D