AIRWAVES FROM TAN-----PSYCH2: SLEEP0VER

This mix is about teenagers. For me it evokes spending a bunch of nights in a row at your best friend's house and lying in bed all day eating pop tarts and watching the SciFi channel, getting phone calls on the landline from guys in your class and maybe trying to get permission to meet them at the movies. I remember once my 8th-grade bestie's chainsmoking parents asked me to please wear more clothes around their house and I felt really weird about it. But there were great parts too, like feeling so comfortable in someone else's home that you could sit and read Stephen King's The Moving Finger for the tenth time while your bff painted her toenails without feeling like you were being a rude guest. Not to mention getting to know another family's objects and smells and pets, and how to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night without stubbing your toes.

(All this sounds a little desperate in retrospect. I JUST REALLY WANTED A SISTER, YOU GUYS.)

In this mix is UB40; a long clip of Angela Chase, because she is forever The teenager; a moment of Bach's "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor"; Cassie a few times; a clip of some chicks murmuring soothing nothings (probably somethings) from MRC051; Eroc; Mulder & Scully; Kurt Cobain on locating other Cobains the world over; Bartok's "Roman Kolinda Dallamok" (all those piano lessons our parents paid for); Jodie Foster seducing a lesbian couple in 1980's Carny; 2009's smash "Hyph Mngo" by electro-dub DJ Joy Orbison; and obviously Kate Bush on weird mom-daughter dynamics.

AIRWAVES FROM TAN-----PSYCH2: HOLY GHOST PEOPLE

These little sound pastiches are a side project of mine that I'm not really sure what to do with. A kind friend used to play them on her radio show when she wanted to take long cigarette breaks, but the rate at which they're getting weirder isn't directly correlating with my technical skill and little rough patches glare harder through the airwaves, I've been told.  So here's a recent one for just you.

I usually work from a film or a story that interests me. This one comes out of a strong interest I've had recently in Appalachian culture and extreme spiritual practices. The spoken portions are moments from the startling 1967 documentary Holy Ghost People, which reveals the world of a West Virginia Pentecostal community that practiced faith healing and snake handling. It's been called "one of the best ethnographic films ever made."

Later on you'll hear Lonnie Mackley speaking in tongues (I'm forgetting what track it's paired with, but I'll get back to you). Off the top of my head there's also some Brian Eno, a moment from the original Wicker Man, "Yellow" by Miles Davis from Aura, a cut of Vic Chesnutt introducing himself, "Murdergong" by Jib Kidder, a bit from MRC051, and Joe Meek - "I Hear a New World," which appears in the original film, and no doubt confirms the sense of humor of the directors. Last up are a few lines from "Bright Morning Stars," an old Appalachian folk song about death.

Most of the music I've known of for a long time, but it's really nice the way that a familiar song will take on surprising meaning when it fits easily into a new context or narrative.

I hope you enjoy it.

PETER MURPHY - DEEP

Thanks to JRW for getting me hooked on Peter Murphy's solo work. Astoundingly beautiful, with the same meticulous construction as his Bauhaus sound. Retains the Victorian richness of classic goth culture, but slips a few industrial razors between folds of velvet.


Every track on Deep, 1989 from Rebel Rec/RCA Records, is a gem but Marlene Dietrich's Favorite Poem gives me little heart tremors. Playlist here.

CYBOTRON - CLEAR

Early electro classic out of Detroit. This recording, released 1983 by Fantasy Records, is now a staple of the genre and w0w 0:28, you are the sample from Lose Control.

EXUMA - EXUMA

Exuma is a district of the Bahamas and the stage name of Macfarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey, born 1942 on Cat Island. At 17, in 1959, Mackey moved to NYC to study architecture and played an active role in the '60s Greenwich Village folk scene. This is Exuma's first album, released 1970. His backing band is known as the Junk Band & had a rotating roster between work on The Obeah Man and their last album, Rude Boy, released 1986 by ROIR Records. Exuma toured with everyone from Patti LaBelle to Peter Tosh to Black Flag, and was awarded a British Empire Medal in 1978 for significant contributions to Bahamian culture (though Queen Elizabeth II as the monitor of Bahamian culture's enrichment is problematic at best).



Regardless, the man is obviously a mystic. His music showcases a rich variety of styles and media forms, including folklore, the saw-based rake & scrape, calypso, ballad, and junkanoo. A few posts of his better-known singles TK.

THE THE - GIANT

From the classic Soul Mining, 1983. Some synth-noir for this, the year that Michael Alig reenters the world, having never used a cell phone or a computer.

LOOSE JOINTS - POP YOUR FUNK

This song feels very NSFW. Sort of like the Whisper Song. Part III of Loose Joints' three recordings, 1983. That cello at the start is the inimitable Arthur Russell doing something like a cello's nod to slap bass. Slap cello.

LOOSE JOINTS - TELL YOU (TODAY) (Original 12" Vocal)

What a sexy little voice that is ~ like an Aaliyah sample. Part II of Loose Joints' three recordings, 1983. Wanna fall in love in a city to that piano solo. GET DOWN

SUPER DJATA BAND DE BAMAKO - BIMOKO MAGNIN

Tangential Psychedelico says Happy Valentine's Day to you. Earth angel sounds from Super Djata Band de Bamako, via the impeccably curated Ghost Capital via worldservice. Worldservice has dedicated six posts to this band, which is from Mali but increasingly difficult to find recordings of in its home country, and nearly impossible in the rest of the world. This volume was released in the early 80s by Musique Mondiale. The guitar sounds like dripping tea and sun.

Don't miss Worldservice's meticulous collection of this band's work and his moving commentary, here.

LOOSE JOINTS - IS IT ALL OVER MY FACE (ORIGINAL MALE VERSION)

Happy Tuesday from Loose Joints and their mission to create the disco White Album. Comprised of Arthur Russell, NYC DJ Steve D’Aquisto, Columbia undergrad Steven Hall, three singers picked up at David Mancuso’s by-invite-only parties at The Loft, and the Ingram Brothers' rhythm section (who later backed Patti LaBelle), Loose Joints only released 3 songs out of hours of recordings. I’ll post all three, starting with “Is It All Over My Face” (1980) because that’s something to be thinking about first thing in the morning.

CHIEF BOIMA - AFRICAN IN NEW YORK EP

My favorite work on this album is with Sorie Kondi; the rest I'm sort of over but the African In New York intro is great.

SORIE KONDI - SORIE THOGOLOBEA

"Sorie Thogolobea" from the full-length Thogolobea, released by Dutty Artz in March 2013.

SORIE KONDI - WITHOUT MONEY, NO FAMILY

First things first: he's singing in English, so lissenup. He took part of his name from the instrument he's playing, a kondi; it's crafted from found objects - hardwood resonators made from native African trees, industrial scraps. Sorie Kondi was trapped in Freetown during the 1990s civil war in Sierra Leone and has been blind since birth. He commissions the wood bodies of his instruments from a carpenter, and puts the rest together himself. He is self-trained and has a highly functional understanding of the materials he uses in his instruments.


The first time I heard Sorie Kondi was in 2009, in a Ghetto Palms mix from the Fader. Kondi gained notoriety after he was featured in a documentary and in the Chief Boima remix that the Fader used. Chief Boima is a NYC DJ but a Sierra Leone native; the collaboration between the two has also included Boima's work on Kondi's latest album Thogolobea, produced by Fadie Conteh. The original Chief Boima remix at The Fader; great footage of Sorie Kondi speaking and playing at The Stranger.