Tag Archives: Bill Laswell

190. rise

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“In which John Lydon (aka Rotten) conducts a mid-1980s re-imagining of the concern known as Public Image Ltd, engages with the likes of Bill Laswell, Ginger Baker, Stevie Vai etc, and blows more than a few minds. The album is called Album (of course), with Rise the big (almost) hit single. It’s about Apartheid apparently, but to my ears, it’s concerned more with anger itself, and its inherent elemental energy. Like wind or electricity or the stuff of split atoms, the question quickly becomes not, should we have it (fact is, we do and it ain’t going away), but what should we do with it? Get drunk and wail on some guy down at the pub, or maybe get it focused, turn it into a laser beam that destroys an empire, frees slaves, saves children from lives of boredom and futility? Not bad for a punk.” (Philip Random)

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021. The Final Countdown*

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TFC-021

Installment #21. of the Final Countdown aired in November 2018 (c/o CiTR.FM.101.9).

 

The Final Countdown* is Randophonic’s longest and, if we’re doing it right, most relevant countdown yet – the end of result of a rather convoluted process that’s still evolving such is the existential nature of the project question: the 1297 Greatest Records of All Time right now right here. Whatever that means. What it means is dozens of radio programs if all goes to plan, and when has that ever happened?

Installment #21 went like this:

896. Jonsi vs Tiesto – kaleidoscope ne
895. Drugstore – el presidente
894. Boo Radleys – wish I was skinny
893. Wire – I am the fly
892. Magnetic Fields – All My Little Words
891. Dusty Springfield – no easy way down
890. Prince – pop life
889. Grateful Dead – box of rain
888. Age Rings – Caught Up in the Sound
887. Blur – trimm trabb
886. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Spanish Dance Troupe
885. Van Morrison – the way that young lovers do
884. Arno – knowing me knowing you
883. Howlin’ Wolf – moanin’ at midnight
882. Dub Syndicate – stoned immaculate
881. Material – memory serves
880. MGMT – Siberian breaks
879. Sally Oldfield – water bearer
978. National Health – squarer for Maud

Tracks can be found on this Youtube playlist (not entirely accurate).

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.

15. reSEARCH

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Childhood + Steam, installment #15 of The Research Series aired in July-2018 on CiTR.FM.101.9.

The fifteenth of a planned forty-nine movies (without pictures), each forty-nine minutes long, featuring no particular artist, theme or 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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15. childhood + steam

Bob Dylan – if dogs run free
Flying Lizards – in my lifetime
Mo Bama – ijimuge two
Faithless – childhood [deep]
Neu – isi
Can – chain reaction [edit]
Laswell Ambient – aum fragments
King Crimson – the mincer [abbreviated]
David Sylvian – ancient evening
Scaredy Cat – you and I
Brian Eno + Jah Wobble – steam

Further installments of the Research Series will air most Sundays at approximately 1am (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with Mixcloud streams usually available within twenty-four hours.

 

345. upright man

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Speaking of prolific, Bill Laswell‘s discography (whether working with Material or solo or any number of other configurations) goes magnitudes deeper and wider than the combined talents of some entire nations, with 1982’s Baselines being his first official solo effort. In the case of Upright Man, that meant laying down a funky, not too busy groove, then dropping in a few samples from the Old Testament to overall cool and mysterious effect.

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010. The Final Countdown*

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Installment #10 of The Final Countdown aired Saturday-June-2-2018 (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 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.

TFC-010

Installment #10 of The Final Countdown* went like this.

1110. Faze Action – moving cities
1109. Dalis Car – Dalis Car
1108. Tom Jones – help yourself
1107. Steve Miller Band – lucky man + gangster of love
1106. Can – come sta, la Luna [edit]
1105. Sufjan Stephens vs Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass
1104. Curtis Mayfield – keep on trippin’
1103. David Crosby – Orleans
1102. Citywide Vacuum – carbon valence
1101. Medeski Martin & Wood – Strance of the Spirit Red Gator
1100. Sacred System – driftwork
1099. Synergy – terra incognita
1098. Residents – the ultimate disaster [edit]
1097. Jah Wobble + Holger Czukay + Jaki Leibezeit – trench warfare
1096. Guess Who – smoke big factory
1095. Flasket Brinner – Gånglåten
1094. Super Furry Animals – Juxtaposed with U
1093. Band [+Van Morrison] – 4% pantomime

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.

588. memory serves

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“Title track from Material‘s first proper album, which was before main man Bill Laswell had played with EVERYONE on planet earth, become a household name (assuming you lived in a cool household). As a friend put it once, it’s jazz without the annoying indulgence, funk without the sleazy silliness. Not that I really felt that way about funk. But I could agree about the jazz. Always nice to hear the egos reigned in, everyone serving the groove … in a chaotic sort of way. And who better to work all that than a bass player.” (Philip Random)