Mix: At Home with the Ghosts

I hope everyone has used this gift/curse hybrid of extended home confinement to really get to know the spirits that haunt their dwelling. Mine tend to lurk in the closets and spool up in the corners for most of the day, and they’re not the most congenial of phantoms, but we get along fine in the evening, as long as the thermostat is set just a bit too cold and there’s a baseball game or Poltergeist on.

00:00. Patrick Gallagher – “There Is No Set Process” [excerpt] from Soundtracks (Hot Releases, 2019)

01:59. Marcin Barski – “Conversation with Father” [excerpt] from Wanda’s Dream (self-released, 2018)

08:47. Luis Alvarado – “La fiesta sumergida” from La voz de Jrguu (self-released, 2014)

09:44. Anne Guthrie – “Serious Water” from Brass Orchids (Students of Decay, 2018)

14:40. Paco Rossique – “The Space of a Door” from Collages & Dispersions (Linear Obsessional, 2015)

19:42. Saåad – “Incarnat II (1888)” from Verdaillon (In Paradisum, 2016)

21:41. Climax Golden Twins – “Ward A” from Session 9 (Milan, 2001)

27:22. Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet – “Soap Opera Suite” from The Breadwinner (Erstwhile, 2008)

33:27. Darksmith – “Crash Landing” from Hatred of Sound (Second Sleep, 2018)

Mix: Deep Internet

Obnoxious error noises, flash game improvisations, useless pseudo-remixes, server innards, connection, solitude… these are a few of my favorite things.

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00:00. Hyperlink – “504: gateway time-out” from Web Timeout (Nmesh, 2016)

00:49. RINGEX PLASTER – excerpts from “Let’s play Super Mario Bros to save Mushroom Princess right now!!! The Mushroom Princess is being held captive by the evil Koopa tribe of turtles. Super Mario Bros. NEW! Hot! Pac-man.. Start Game. … Super Mario World: Peach Blast. NEW! Hot! Mario Forever. NEW! Hot! Mario …” from Super Mario Brothers: New Super Mario Flash Online Game (self-released, 2020)

03:36. Youtube: Naliboki Woods – Dial Up (5 Feb 2021)

07:08. Ketchup Johns – “Bejewelled Frisbee” from Life Simulator (self-released, 2017)

08:56. Network Glass – “5.52 [Minecraft]” from Twitch (Salon, 2020)

14:48. food item – “It’s Actually an Energy Drink, but Who Cares.” from Yeah! Food Item Transmission. (7Form, 2020)

15:25. Windows 98の – BLUE SCREEN 002 [excerpt] (Pizza Beast, 2016)

20:23. Youtube: panicking at the wrong disco – “mr. brightside” but you’re crying in a bathroom at a party because your crush brought a date… (18 Nov 2020)

24:10. Ned Paige – A side [excerpt] of Ad Tape (Podunk, 2019)

28:04. XoArK – “ghted Bid Pric8 $26.es Weighted Bid” from CR061-1. 5ThLi cf 3 44lsy. 6/9-Z CY. 230. 30Z- c-,`. 414/5y Scp. IlenOMMIND. SrRvc-l’akt–. 11-5. 5-6 … cLe)( d’AfX1 1/z,ci70 .)(it 40 “/r) 1’1. WhAf. … English. TON. 5/2013 – 5/2014. Unit price quantity breakouts. Unit Price Statistics. Min Quantity. (7Form, 2020)

30:29. ~~~ – “:;:” from ~~:;:~~ (Absolute Trash Media, 2021)

32:42. RINGEX CLASSIC – Live @ Roblox Mall V.6.0 Apr 22nd 2020 (self-released, 2020)

Mix: Based Bass

The double bass was actually the first instrument I ever properly learned how to play. For me it was simply a stepping stone to the electric bass guitar, but I still hold a deep appreciation for those who devote their lives to taming these giant wooden beasts, stretching their physical, tonal, and timbral possibilities to new heights (and nadirs, depending on how you look at it). There are few contexts in which the double bass feels more fully actualized than on its own; stripped to the raw duality of performer and instrument, solo bass playing mines the true potential of the object on either end of the dynamic spectrum—both brutality and delicacy.

Luke Stewart (photo by Jake Meginsky)

00:00. Joëlle Léandre – “Hein ! Quoi, Je T’entends Plus” from Sincerely (Plainisphare, 1985)

05:39. Luke Stewart – January 17, 2019 [excerpt] (Fire Over Heaven, 2021)

13:16. Peter Kowald – part 16 of Was Da Ist (FMP, 1995)

15:44. Kent Kessler – “Furthermore” from Bull Fiddle (Okka Disk, 2002)

17:11. Michael Formanek – “Crawlspace” from Am I Bothering You? (Screwgun, 1998)

21:31. Brandon Lopez – “The Full of Good Ideas” from The Church of Plenty Empty (No Rent, 2018)

26:42. Djuna Lee – untitled track from #1 Solo Improvisations V/A compilation (Residence, 2016)

31:13. Otto Willberg – first untitled track from short album (self-released, 2020)

35:01. Félicie Bazelaire – “the night” from Pyramids (self-released, 2020)

Mix: Corporate Humdrum

I think most of us have been away from the office long enough that we can romanticize its soul-sucking essence. There’s plenty of misery, anger, abuse, and above all boredom to be found in any cubicle farm or gaudy corporate park, but this mix is a sustained extension of those fleeting moments of contentment amidst the malaise: an unusually tasty cup of coffee to pair with the breakfast you treated yourself to; an unexpected half-day; an invisible, intangible embrace from the spirits of displaced dreams that lurk within the walls.

Decorative image of office space with blurred human figures

00:00. ░N░E░W░ – “48 N. Los Robles” from Painting of Common Objects (A B S E N T E R R A T U M, 2020)

04:03. Nick Malkin – Waiting in a Vacant Lobby [excerpt] (self-released, 2020)

13:04. Taeha Types – “Kyuu” from Mechanical Keyboard Sounds: Recordings of Bespoke and Customised Mechanical Keyboards (Trunk, 2020)

16:52. Andrew Fogarty & David Lacey – “Perruque” [excerpt] from The Wig (Fort Evil Fruit, 2018)

20:42. Xerophonics – “Minolta EP 6001 CS PRO (Serial # 21742775)” from Copying Machine Music (Seeland, 2003)

24:09. Little Fictions – “Memories and Sounds Collected at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, July 2018, Seoul” [excerpt] from Territory of Light (Small Worm, 2020)

29:15. Guido Gamboa – sixth untitled track [excerpt] from Saturday’s Notes (Pentiments, 2015)

33:16. Stephen Cornford – “Eject Mechanisms & Broken Drives” [excerpt] from Constant Linear Velocity (Consumer Waste, 2019)

36:27. [The User] – untitled track [excerpt] from Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers (Staalplaat, 2002)

Mix: Night Tearers

Been wanting to make this one for a while. If you were to get kicked to death in the pit (if those are even still a thing after all this) and sent to hell, this is what your eternity of suffering would sound like. Could be worse.

00:00. Hayworth – “15 Seconds Alone in the Hot Tub” from I Now Pronounce You Fucked and Depressed (self-released, 2009)

01:10. IDYLLS – “Lied to” from Prayer for Terrene (self-released, 2014)

07:41. Arkan Azid – “ASTRALSUIZID” from ASTRALSUIZID (self-released, 2020)

10:54. Gaza – “I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die” from I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die (Black Market Activities, 2006)

12:13. Unyielding Love – “The Pregnant Hurt” from The Sweat of Augury (various, 2016)

16:44. Irhagar – “- ̢̛҉͠ ̕͟ ̵͟͠ ̵̶̀͘ ҉ ̵̨́́̀ ͏̵ ̴̡͘” from Sutra (self-released, 2020)

18:36. Mahr – “Noctaeon” from Antelux (Amor Fati, 2018)

21:31. Endon – “Etude for Lynching by Family” from Mama (Daymare, 2015)

26:22. Miscarriage – “II” from Imminent Horror (Sentient Ruin, 2019)

33:41. Shora – “To Further Confines” from split with Merzbow (Bisect Bleep, 2002)

Mix: Staring Into Space, Amps on High and Tilted Skyward

The title of this mix comes from the artist description on RST’s Bandcamp page. A slab of heavy, enveloping, rough-hewn drone music: pillars of light exploding from your body and stabbing through the clouds.

00:00. Bügsküll – “Intro” from Phantasies and Senseitions (Road Cone, 1994)

00:16. Pelt – “Ashes of a Photograph” [excerpt] from Effigy (MIE, 2012)

08:41. Natural Snow Buildings – “Black Pastures” [excerpt] from Daughter of Darkness (Blackest Rainbow, 2009)

16:28. My Cat Is an Alien – section I [excerpt] of Cosmic Light of the Third Millennium (Important, 2006)

20:09. Alex Cunningham – “Faith” [excerpt] from Rivaled (Void Castle, 2021)

28:05. K-Group – “Carrier” from K-Group (Corpus Hermeticum, 1997)

33:14. Jim O’Rourke – Happy Days [excerpt] (Revenant, 1997)

40:17. RST – “Transform” from Warm Planes (Corpus Hermeticum, 1999)

49:37. Axolotl – “Way Blank” from Way Blank (Psych-o-Path, 2005)

55:46. Bada – “Roj Friberg” from Bada (Pomperipossa, 2020)

Mix: The Spindly Insect Legs of Love and Loss

“The tender gesture says: ask me anything that can put your body to sleep, but also do not forget that I desire you—a little, lightly, without trying to seize anything right away.” —Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments

The microscopic unutterables of a doomed love: first the curious, tentative, beautiful pirouettes of fingertips tracing new territory for the first time; next the invisible buildup of stagnancy, doubt, uncertainty, fear, sabotage, still with fleeting spots of light; then the loneliness, despair, longing touches meeting only empty air; and finally the idealistic but ultimately futile look toward something new. Never let go.

Fireball painting by Helen Frankenthaler — Helen Frankenthaler, “Fireball” (1981)

00:00. soft tissue – “glass master” from soft tissue (Penultimate Press, 2019)

02:28. Nathaniel Young – “exploit_01” from Stringed Exploits (_phinery, 2016)

04:32. Ivan Palacký – Sanctuary [excerpt] (piece for Amplify 2020 festival)

06:29. Peter Lenaerts – fourth part [excerpt] of Serbian Orthodox Church of the Prophet Elijah (Very Quiet, 2013)

09:16. Kim Cascone & Scanner – “Behavioural Sink” [excerpt] from The Crystalline Address (Sub Rosa, 2002)

10:33. Porcje Rosołowe – “Metua Tympanis” from Insects 4-7 (Crónica, 2015)

13:00. Klaysstar – “Right” from More No Place (Outlet Archival, 2020)

14:52. Sachiko M – Salon de Sachiko [excerpt] (Hitorri, 2007)

20:14. Takamitsu Ohta – “cqicx,qikcco.cqqico,,” from Three Ways to Output from a Recorder (Careful Catalog, 2019)

24:35. Dominique Vaccaro – “05” from Close Distances (Dinzu Artefacts, 2018)

26:09. Massimo Toniutti – “Scraps upon Tempered Fields” [excerpt] from antidocument/groundwork (Vitrine, 2016)

28:54. Shirt Trax – “crtL” from Good News About Space (OR, 1999)

31:49. Climax Golden Twins – fifth untitled track from Dream Cut Short in the Mysterious Clouds (Anomalous, 2000)

35:24. Daphne X – “Yoga” from NaCl (self-released, 2018)

Mix: Lifeless Electronics

No humans allowed. Screaming terminals with corroded circuits, samplers and toy keyboards caught in merciless error cycles, malfunctioning alarm systems and tactile glitch maelstroms and mind-numbing trash-frequencies. Do we really deserve anything else?

Decorative picture of discarded circuit boards

00:00. Su Sous Toulouge en Rouge – “Of Course We Play Basements, We’re the Underground… Duh” [excerpt] from Byte 0FX0 (Poor Little Music, 2016)

03:44. Chris Fratesi – “247” from Red Lead (Anathema Archive, 2020)

05:57. Archival Frequencie – Death of a Tax Collector [excerpt] (7Form, 2020)

09:52. Ashcircle – “Delusion” from Off the Cliff Edge (Fractal Meat, 2020)

14:37. Network Glass & Christian Mirande – B side [excerpt] of Arbuckle 7/28 (A R C H I V E, 2018)

17:40. Wetkoff – “Nuke Ranks” from He Is Lying (self-released, 2020)

22:59. Hardworking Families – “A Frog in September” from A Room and a Frog (Invisible City, 2020)

25:25. Glia – “gaderffii-i_ii” from Totokia (Dasa Tapes, 2021)

27:17. UVC – first untitled track from Mixed-Control Interpretations (Born Physical Form, 2020)

32:02. C. R. Odette – second untitled track [excerpt] from Castle Two (Chocolate Monk, 2017)

33:44. Rich Teenager – “Sardanapalus” [excerpt] from Sardanapalus (self-released, 2020)

35:56. Cabrita – “OIESHI” from 1 (self-released, 2018)

37:17. Mindload – first untitled track [excerpt] from Different Plug (Scumbag Relations, 2009)

38:38. Peea – “My Acl0nium” [excerpt] from Ins0lemnia (self-released, 2021)

Mix: Sublime Delirium

A sequel of sorts to Cooped Up, this collection of tracks traces the acceptance of profound absurdity and incoherence with regard to one’s existence, as well as the fragile and queasy yet undeniably peaceful state of mind that arises once the platitudinal farces of meaning, pleasure, and purpose are finally set aside for good—or it’s just something to relax/fall asleep to, if you’re in a particularly strange mood. Take your pick.

Artwork by Nancy Andrews — Piece by Nancy Andrews for her blog ‘Art and Science of Delirium’

00:00. Black Dice – “Head Like a Door” [excerpt] from Lost Valley (Tigerbeat 6, 2002)

03:59. Michael Barthel – “Verbündete” from Ververbüntede (Coherent States, 2019)

08:26. Sister Iodine – “Les Île” from Helle (Textile, 2007)

16:40. Breeze – “Comfortably Dumb” from Car Masters (Music for People, 2020)

19:47. Pumice – “Murupara” [excerpt] from Land (Soft Abuse, 2014)

25:58. Spectral Park & Kot Kot – “Tuman” [excerpt] from Spectral Park & Kot Kot (Goaty Tapes, 2018)

27:21. Weyes Blood – “Many Voices in the Sand (Transversal Desert Contact)” from Strange Chalices of Seeing (self-released, 2007)

31:32. 1/3 Octave Band – “The System Likes You” [excerpt] from The System Likes You and Wants to Be Your Friend (PseudoArcana, 2005)

35:08. Karnites – “Search” [excerpt] from Pop After Birds (self-released, 2020)

37:05. Mosquitoes – “VS” from Vortex Veering Back to Venus (Feeding Tube, 2019)

Mix: The Noise Not Music Comfort Robots Present a Lullaby for Those Too Scared to Sleep

The last mix was already quite calm and reserved, and usually I try to switch things up, but the description I wrote for that one was bleak as hell anyway and frankly my knotted-up brain needs all the cozy music it can get. I’ve realized that if I’m given curatorial control of any kind of mix I’ll inevitably turn it into the platform for some disturbing, mood-killing existential treatise, so the board and I have made the mutual decision to hand the reins to our in-house Comfort Robots. The cost of getting them fully programmed was pretty damn steep, so we didn’t do that, but they have had the concept of beauty verbally explained to them, which we feel is sufficient. If you find any errors in the content they’ve produced (available below) don’t hesitate to reach out; to be honest I really need a reason to turn these annoying little fuckers into scrap. They keep trying to hug me.

Cartoon of a confused robot — This is what CR-008b (“MOMO”) looks like when it asks me if it can use the botroom

00:00. Axolotl – “Telesma” [excerpt] from Telesma (Spooky Action, 2006)

06:22. Wim Dehaen – “Ústí OST” [excerpt] from 12 Elegies for Pierre Boulez / Ústí OST (ACR, 2018)

07:07. Désormais – “Brief Lights, Broken Compass” from Iambrokenandremadeiambroken… (Intr_version, 2003)
[title comes from another song on this album, and no, don’t worry, your headphones are not broken]

13:12. Biographs – “ground felt softer today” from must dissolve (Reckno, 2014)

18:03. Belong – “I’m Too Sleepy… Shall We Swim?” from October Language (Carpark, 2006)

23:04. Pure & Ultra Milkmaids – first untitled track [excerpt] from s[e]nd (Vacuum, 2000)

25:16. Open Marriage – “Domestic Science” from Destiny USA (self-released, 2014)

33:23. The Hers – “How Night Works on the World” from Tough C~~t (Sex Lies Magnetic Tape, 2012)

35:09. Erik Levander – “Under timmerstockarnas stilla flykt” [excerpt] from Couesnon (Katuktu, 2018)