Author Archives: Randophonic

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About Randophonic

For now, I'm best thought of as a radio program. Sometimes it may seem I'm all the work of one person, other times many. What matters is the program.

472. Horsell Common + the heat ray

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Just because punk rock hit in 1976-77 and changed EVERYTHING in its nasty, ugly-beautiful, inarticulate way, doesn’t mean it all happened overnight. Which meant that even as we were all cutting our hair, shredding our t-shirts, learning to dance pogo, there was still time to light up an occasional doob, put on the headphones and trip out to various big deal concepts. Jeff Wayne‘s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds would have been one of the last of these worth paying attention to, a rock opera interpretation of H.G. Welles’ sci-fi epic, featuring the incongruous talents of David Essex, Phil Lynott, Justin Hayward, Chris Spedding, and oh yeah, Richard Burton. The mostly instrumental Horsell Common + The Heat Ray shows up about half-way through side one and deliciously marks that point that the Martians officially turn nasty.

JeffWayne-HorsellCommon

473. intruder

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“Peter Gabriel’s first three solo albums were all called Peter Gabriel, so we fans (and I was definitely a fan) tended to refer to them as The Weird Eyes (the first), Nails On The Blackboard (the second), and Melting Face (the third). Melting Face was the one that mattered most, both then and now, the one where Gabriel finally figured out how to refine the best of his so-called prog-rock tendencies, fuse them with punk and new wave’s rawer, sharper edges, and thus kick things way into the future. And it all started with Intruder, a creepy hit of atonal menace that really was like nothing anybody had ever heard. Still is.” (Philip Random)

PeterGabriel-1980-live

06. reSEARCH – pulse + return

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Installment #6 of The Research Series aired April-22-2018 on CiTR.FM.101.9.

The sixth of a planned forty-nine movies, each forty-nine minutes long, featuring no particular artist, working no particular theme, pursuing no particular agenda beyond boldly going … who knows? Or as Werner Von Braun once put it, “Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” And we definitely have no idea where all this will take us.

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06. Pulse + Return

Bobby Blue Bland – I’ll take care of you
Air – alone in Kyoto
Can – I’m too leise
Agitation Free – pulse
Beastie Boys – Eugene’s Lament
Guru Guru – oxymoron [immer middle]
Can – return to BB City
My Bloody Valentine – loomer
CloudDead – rifle eyes
Groove Armada vs Tears for Fears – Pharaohs

Further installments of the Research Series will air most Sundays at approximately 1am (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and download options usually available within twenty-four hours via our Facebook page.

006. The Final Countdown*

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Installment #56 of The Final Countdown aired Saturday-April-21-2018 (c/o CiTR.FM.101.9).

Tracks available on this Youtube playlist (somewhat inaccurate).

The Final Countdown* is Randophonic’s longest, most random and (if we’re doing it right) relevant countdown yet – the end of result of a long and convoluted process that finally evolved into something halfway tangible in early 2018. The 1297 Greatest Records of All Time right now right here, if that makes sense. And even if it doesn’t, we’re doing it anyway for as long as it takes, and it will take a while.

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Installment #6 of The Final Countdown* went like this.

1191. Malcolm McLaren – do you like scratchin’
1190. Neil Young – Mr Soul [trans]
1189. Stranglers – just like nothing on earth
1188. Uberzone vs Martin Denny – hypnotique
1187. Stone Roses – one love [the jam part]
1186. Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook
1185. Pentangle – Light Flight
1184. Dali’s Car – his box
1183. Negativland – cara mia
1182. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Raleigh-Durham reel
1181. Salvador Santana – Under The Sun
1180. Screaming Eagles – doodoodoodoo
1179. Gabor Csupo – Hungarian Dance #1 (Pozsony)
1178. Grateful Dead – new speedway boogie
1177. Ultravox – Mr X
1176. Todd Rundgren – the spark of life
1175. Egg Head – I hate fluorescent lights
1174. Booker T & the MGs – she’s so heavy
1173. Eugene Chadbourne – wild horses
1172. Rolling Stones – let’s sing this all together [see what happens]
1171. Massive Professor Attack etc – bumper ball dub

Randophonic airs pretty much every Saturday night, starting 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and/or download options usually available within twenty-four hours via our Facebook page.

474. here comes the night

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Pin-Ups, the last of the Ziggy-era Bowie albums, was an all covers affair, in which the thin, strange alien paid tribute to the musical heroes of his youth. As a whole, the album’s not his greatest, feeling pretty tossed off overall. But the take on Here Comes The Night is superb. Loud and brash, a full-on show-stopper that at least matches the original. Which is pretty amazing when you consider Van Morrison sang that. How often has he been equaled?

DavidBowie-73-pinups

475. editions of you

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“Tight, hard, fast, and looking very good – nobody else sounded or looked or felt remotely like Roxy Music in 1973. That would have to wait five years or so. Then all kinds of people were sounding, looking, feeling like Roxy Music (in 1973).  Unfortunately, Roxy weren’t anymore. They’d gone all white-boy soulful, a creature I could never love. But that was okay. I was really just discovering 1973 anyway, and it was all for my pleasure.” (Philip Random)

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