Here at last, the two Broadcast reissues and the album of officially released radio sessions. I already had much of the music so these purchases are mostly for reasons of cult completism and the Julian House cover designs. Mr House had already designed the rest of the Broadcast discography, as well as collaborating with them in his Focus Group guise, so this continuity was essential.
Also essential, music-wise, is the Mother Is The Milky Way EP even though it’s only 20 minutes long. This was originally limited to 750 copies sold during the 2009 tour so it’s always been hard to find. Musically, it’s of a piece with the Witch Cults Of The Radio Age album, and just as beguiling, a dreamy mélange of song fragments and sound samples—Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate colliding with Jonathan Miller’s Alice in Wonderland—that’s more genuinely “psychedelic” than many attempts to conjure these qualities by mimicing old musical styles. The overlaid images on the cover may be alluding to the layered sounds…and are those magic mushrooms in one of the squares? Answers on a lysergic sugarcube.
The two Microtronics EPs were intended to be functional works rather than entertainments, “Music for links and bridges”, although I don’t know if they’ve ever been used as such outside Broadcast mixes. These were also sold on separate tours as mini CDs but they now come packaged together, including a first-time release on vinyl which will keep the fetishists happy despite the format seeming like overkill for a collection of 21 very short squawks and drum loops.
Maida Vale Sessions will also be essential for some listeners, comprising the group’s three sessions for John Peel’s show (1996, 2000, 2003) plus one from 1997 for Steve Lamacq’s Evening Session, 54 minutes in total. Being a collector of Broadcast bootlegs I already had most of these but they sound so much better coming from the original recordings. The final session, which I hadn’t heard before, is a fantastic set, and includes one of their few covers, a version of Sixty Forty by Nico. John Peel was an enthusiast, unsurprisingly, who may be heard on a bootleg of a Birmingham concert introducing the group as “one of the nation’s great bands”.
And if any of the above has stimulated your interest, Warp Records wisely commissioned The Gaslamp Killer to create an hour-long mix from the new records which may be heard here.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Esoterica 49
• Peter Strickland’s Stone Tape
• Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
• The Ghost Box Study Series
Apologies for my comment not being relevant to this post, but I thought you might be interested in this Jon Hassell memorial concert held four days ago in Oslo. It features a starry cast of wonderful Norwegian musicians and I found the music moving in its love of the great Tennesseean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccREbTWbhXw
And, on a separate note, you might also find this amusing: https://youtu.be/RtA79lg2VuY
Thanks, that’s good of them. Although it also seems like a rather late acknowledgement when I’ve waited for years for any admission of Hassell’s influence on those trumpet timbres, even though we all know the origin.
And that’s some serious dedication to Philip Glass. Wow!
Oh really? I thought JH’s influence was absolutely palpable on Molvaer and Henriksen. When I corresponded with him, he seemed to be aware of the Norwegian scene, but had had little contact as far as I could discern. He was of course later invited and contributed to Punkt as well as recruiting Jan Bang and Eivind Aarset for his Last Night The Moon group.
Yeah, I can’t say they’ve ever actually denied any influence on their playing but I’ve yet to see a public comment from either Molvaer or Henriksen that Hassell was the source of their sound. It feels unfair to be accusatory since I’ve not read every interview they’ve ever done, yet I own records by both of them so I used to look out for their names.
It always seemed odd: here was a clear example of a muscian inventing a new way of playing a common instrument after which a generation of younger players emerges producing the same sound. And yet no mention of the originator.