I had been waiting a long time for the day when Brooklyn synth duo Blondes would hop on the Arthur Radio shuttle and send us bobbing our heads into far corners of the Milky Way; when they finally did make an appearance last Sunday, we were was there in heart but physically in another time zone. While DJ Harry Painter and I were prancing around in a freezing-cold sandbox in East Austin (Todd P’s SXSX headquarters), DJ Ivy Meadows was busy singlehandedly drawing a line of spiritual continuity between the electronic peripheries of ’70s krautrock and our generation’s very own New New Age. Sam Haar and Zachary Steinman of Blondes joined in with an unusually sprawling and downtempo set, reminding us that their music can take us just as far into the unknown if we undertake it sitting down.
In her image-dripping compte-rendu of the set, DJ Ivy Meadows recommends that you pause to read the following lines from the back of “The LYTE” — an early audiovisualizer from the 1980s — before clicking on “play.” Ivy Meadows says that they capture the way that this unusually retro-futuristic Arthur Radio transmission makes her feel. I couldn’t agree more, though after reading it a second time, I am tempted to say that it hits upon an even greater truth about music –and writing about music — in general.
“The written word cannot fully describe what the eye and ear can perceive. Tone by tone you see an exact, shimmering definition in light of what you hear. Exotic patterns are born, grow, contract and change shape through an infinity of dazzling complexity; each momentary image a precise electronic expression of the sound you hear…”
“Arthur Radio Transmission #10: The Blondes Episode”
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Download the entire episode on Arthur Magazine.
Track list after the jump:
[Ivy Meadows DJ set]
Interkosmos – “Übertragung” / Sensations’ Fix – “Metafel + Mafalac”
Popol Vuh – “Der Grosse Krieger” / Carl Craig & Moritz Von Oswald – “Movement 5″ (Music by Maurice Ravel & Modest Mussorgsky)
Margaret Dygas – “Invisible Circles” (played @ 33 rpm) / White Rainbow – “BUMPER UP RAW” / Ursula Bogner – songs from Recordings 1969-1988
Vidna Obmana – “psb constructions”
Zomes – “Zomes”
Forest Swords – “Miarches”
Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom – “Live November 18th 2005″ / Desmond Leslie – songs from “Music Of The Future” / Stellar Om Source – “Team X”
Tangerine Dream – “Journey through a burning brain” / Karlheinz Stockhausen – Opus 1970 / Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene (side b)
Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom – “Live November 18th 2005″ (continued)
Brian Eno – “Ba-Benzélé” (played @ 33 rpm)
Cluster & Eno – “Schöne Hände”
Arp – “Potentialities”
CFCF – “half dreaming reprise” / Bienvenue Au Conseil D’Administration – “Epreuve No 2″ / Harold Budd – “Bismillahi ‘Rrahman ‘Rrahim”
Jonas Reinhardt – “How To Adjust People”
Harmonia – “sehr kosmisch” / Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene (side a)
Terry Riley – “A Rainbow in Curved Air”
[live jam by BLONDES @ 1:01]
Manuel Göttsching – Die Mulde (live at Mt. Fuji)
Cloud One – Spaced Out