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"content": "\u003cp>Dear Johnny,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t believe I’m doing this — writing a letter to my dead friends, one year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It feels a bit too obvious, doesn’t it? Artless, even; not my style. And yet, if there is one thing more than any other that I remember you by, it was your willingness — or more like your \u003cem>insistence\u003c/em> — to be vulnerable emotionally, to be sensitive \u003cem>and proud of it\u003c/em>, to accept and embrace the full range of your feelings no matter how overbearing, or awkward, or “uncool” that made you seem. The world desperately needs more men like you. So bear with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”Gq8f9zQ1TyJllc8yhmsYA5l6fDq4mf3K”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I miss you, Johnny. (Or “John,” as your brother calls you. I love the way that sounds; how I wish you were here, so I could try that on for size.) I miss you, and Chelsea, and Barrett, and Amanda, and Cash, and Joey, and Griffin, and Micah, and Kiyomi, and I feel viscerally the absence of everyone else whom I never had the pleasure of knowing personally. Writing this just now, like so many times before, I had to look up a list of the deceased to double-check which of my friends are gone because sometimes I have trouble remembering — or maybe I don’t want to remember? — which of you are no longer with us. That is just one of life’s many new contours; the “new normal.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13816500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz (right) with his brother, Paul, in Nicasio.\" width=\"800\" height=\"560\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13816500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-768x538.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-240x168.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-375x263.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-520x364.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz (right) with his brother, Paul, in Nicasio.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I miss you desperately. I think about you every day. Your laugh: booming, hearty, rich. It bellows in my head out of nowhere, sometimes at the most inopportune times. Your face: the big, dumb, goofy smile, visible from across the room, set against the pair of brilliantly sharp eyes that revealed a wisdom far beyond their years. I see you in strangers, in my friends, at the club, on the street, in my records. Your voice: bassy and deep, like the music we’d ramble on about, elementally playful and always prone to kindness. I hear you talking to me, sometimes: \u003cem>Man, you got this — don’t worry about that shit. Trust.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcr/2017/12/GhostShipIgaz171201.mp3\" title=\" Ghost Ship/Johnny Igaz 2way\" program=”The California Report” image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-800x533.jpg\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news: Your new record sounds and looks phenomenal. If you were here to see it, you’d be over the moon. Your dear friend \u003ca href=\"https://www.pea-be.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bryan Odiamar\u003c/a> did the artwork. You both loved graffiti and had even talked about working on a piece together, so he worked up some classic graff style art with the title you’d chosen, \u003cem>Private Property Created Crime\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bad news: Some days are harder than others. The world is inexorably worse than before you left it, and not the least because you’re no longer here. Categorically, this has not been a good year. Did you ever think “crisis of epistemology” is a phrase we’d use in relation to everyday America instead of entry-level college philosophy? \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13816501\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13816501\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pointedly, the (obvious and inevitable) crackdown on warehouses and underground spaces has hit Oakland — and San Francisco, and Vallejo, and L.A., and Baltimore, and many more — very hard. Which is no surprise, I suppose, but in the fire’s aftermath, the chorus of cries for “safety” and “investigations into what went wrong” rang hollow indeed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was rubbernecking at its worst. Neither the city of Oakland nor the scavenging out-of-town reporters seemed to care much about the \u003cem>why\u003c/em>, as in those structural factors (the cost of Bay Area real estate; underground music’s incapacity to generate meaningful profit) and arcane, outdated local ordinances (zoning laws, cabaret laws, etc.) that collude to make Ghost Ship and places like it not just unsafe but \u003cem>necessary\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t been all bad. The onslaught of media attention (“if it bleeds, it leads”) has made for dozens of opportunities to shove \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/12/01/saving-the-music-of-ghost-ship-victims-helps-loved-ones-heal/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">our freakish music\u003c/a> into people’s faces. Wherever you are right now, Johnny, I know you’re laughing at this irony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13816467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-800x475.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz.\" width=\"800\" height=\"475\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13816467\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-800x475.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-160x95.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-768x456.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-1020x606.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-1180x701.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-960x570.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-240x143.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-375x223.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-520x309.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz. \u003ccite>(Shanna Doherty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So all I can say is that we’ve done our best, and looked after each other. In fact, if there is any silver lining to this hellish cloud, it is to see how people have come together, how they have cared for each other, how much love and genuine camaraderie exists among those of kindred spirit. I don’t need to tell you this. You know it well, which is why you were in that warehouse to begin with. But it has been something truly remarkable to see, and to feel, as it unfolds.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">The enormity of losing all of you, all at once, was beyond comprehension.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>On a personal level, this past year has tried me to the utmost. For some time, I was unable to write; just nothing came out. Then Jenna and I split up. It wasn’t until well after the fact that I realized a hard truth: that if the fire had never happened, our breakup likely never would have, either. That one stuck with me. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally, I’ve been thinking a lot about grief. Does it ever go away? Should it? I often wonder if I am grieving wrong. I poured myself into work as soon as the fire happened; I went from having never written an obituary to writing four, and advising on \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/oakland-warehouse-memorial/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dozens of others\u003c/a> in the span of two weeks. It seemed like the only thing I could do, quite literally, and it helped. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the enormity of losing \u003cem>all of you, all at once\u003c/em> was beyond comprehension. There’s simply no way to make sense of it, and certainly no way to put it into words. I still wonder if I am “doing it wrong.” No ritual, remembrance, moment of silence, or tribute that I could take part in is going to bring you or anyone back. My heart swells in my throat as I write this, but I know you understand. The hardest part — as you well know, as we talked about often — is self-acceptance. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12469097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-800x583.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz, always empowering others to be their best selves.\" width=\"800\" height=\"583\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12469097\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-800x583.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-768x559.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-240x175.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-375x273.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-520x379.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_.jpg 938w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As for myself, I’m holding up. Jenna and I are back together, and our time apart was for the better — funny how that works, isn’t it? And, as you can tell, I’m writing again. The horror of the world knows no bounds, and seems to expand with each passing day, but I stand here and face it — because without you, I am at a loss to do otherwise. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I remember vividly that day we first met. Outside Public Works that afternoon, you approached me and said “You’re Chris, right?” I said yes; you smiled, opened your arms, and said “C’mere, bring it in. I’m a hugger.” Right then and there I knew you were a different kind of guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I miss you, Johnny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With love,\u003cbr>\nChris\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Dear Johnny,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t believe I’m doing this — writing a letter to my dead friends, one year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It feels a bit too obvious, doesn’t it? Artless, even; not my style. And yet, if there is one thing more than any other that I remember you by, it was your willingness — or more like your \u003cem>insistence\u003c/em> — to be vulnerable emotionally, to be sensitive \u003cem>and proud of it\u003c/em>, to accept and embrace the full range of your feelings no matter how overbearing, or awkward, or “uncool” that made you seem. The world desperately needs more men like you. So bear with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I miss you, Johnny. (Or “John,” as your brother calls you. I love the way that sounds; how I wish you were here, so I could try that on for size.) I miss you, and Chelsea, and Barrett, and Amanda, and Cash, and Joey, and Griffin, and Micah, and Kiyomi, and I feel viscerally the absence of everyone else whom I never had the pleasure of knowing personally. Writing this just now, like so many times before, I had to look up a list of the deceased to double-check which of my friends are gone because sometimes I have trouble remembering — or maybe I don’t want to remember? — which of you are no longer with us. That is just one of life’s many new contours; the “new normal.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13816500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz (right) with his brother, Paul, in Nicasio.\" width=\"800\" height=\"560\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13816500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-768x538.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-240x168.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-375x263.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.Brother-520x364.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz (right) with his brother, Paul, in Nicasio.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I miss you desperately. I think about you every day. Your laugh: booming, hearty, rich. It bellows in my head out of nowhere, sometimes at the most inopportune times. Your face: the big, dumb, goofy smile, visible from across the room, set against the pair of brilliantly sharp eyes that revealed a wisdom far beyond their years. I see you in strangers, in my friends, at the club, on the street, in my records. Your voice: bassy and deep, like the music we’d ramble on about, elementally playful and always prone to kindness. I hear you talking to me, sometimes: \u003cem>Man, you got this — don’t worry about that shit. Trust.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news: Your new record sounds and looks phenomenal. If you were here to see it, you’d be over the moon. Your dear friend \u003ca href=\"https://www.pea-be.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bryan Odiamar\u003c/a> did the artwork. You both loved graffiti and had even talked about working on a piece together, so he worked up some classic graff style art with the title you’d chosen, \u003cem>Private Property Created Crime\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bad news: Some days are harder than others. The world is inexorably worse than before you left it, and not the least because you’re no longer here. Categorically, this has not been a good year. Did you ever think “crisis of epistemology” is a phrase we’d use in relation to everyday America instead of entry-level college philosophy? \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13816501\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13816501\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.RedShirt-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pointedly, the (obvious and inevitable) crackdown on warehouses and underground spaces has hit Oakland — and San Francisco, and Vallejo, and L.A., and Baltimore, and many more — very hard. Which is no surprise, I suppose, but in the fire’s aftermath, the chorus of cries for “safety” and “investigations into what went wrong” rang hollow indeed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was rubbernecking at its worst. Neither the city of Oakland nor the scavenging out-of-town reporters seemed to care much about the \u003cem>why\u003c/em>, as in those structural factors (the cost of Bay Area real estate; underground music’s incapacity to generate meaningful profit) and arcane, outdated local ordinances (zoning laws, cabaret laws, etc.) that collude to make Ghost Ship and places like it not just unsafe but \u003cem>necessary\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t been all bad. The onslaught of media attention (“if it bleeds, it leads”) has made for dozens of opportunities to shove \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/12/01/saving-the-music-of-ghost-ship-victims-helps-loved-ones-heal/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">our freakish music\u003c/a> into people’s faces. Wherever you are right now, Johnny, I know you’re laughing at this irony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13816467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-800x475.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz.\" width=\"800\" height=\"475\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13816467\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-800x475.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-160x95.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-768x456.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-1020x606.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-1180x701.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-960x570.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-240x143.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-375x223.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/JohnnyIgaz.ShannaDoherty-520x309.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz. \u003ccite>(Shanna Doherty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So all I can say is that we’ve done our best, and looked after each other. In fact, if there is any silver lining to this hellish cloud, it is to see how people have come together, how they have cared for each other, how much love and genuine camaraderie exists among those of kindred spirit. I don’t need to tell you this. You know it well, which is why you were in that warehouse to begin with. But it has been something truly remarkable to see, and to feel, as it unfolds.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">The enormity of losing all of you, all at once, was beyond comprehension.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>On a personal level, this past year has tried me to the utmost. For some time, I was unable to write; just nothing came out. Then Jenna and I split up. It wasn’t until well after the fact that I realized a hard truth: that if the fire had never happened, our breakup likely never would have, either. That one stuck with me. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally, I’ve been thinking a lot about grief. Does it ever go away? Should it? I often wonder if I am grieving wrong. I poured myself into work as soon as the fire happened; I went from having never written an obituary to writing four, and advising on \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/oakland-warehouse-memorial/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dozens of others\u003c/a> in the span of two weeks. It seemed like the only thing I could do, quite literally, and it helped. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the enormity of losing \u003cem>all of you, all at once\u003c/em> was beyond comprehension. There’s simply no way to make sense of it, and certainly no way to put it into words. I still wonder if I am “doing it wrong.” No ritual, remembrance, moment of silence, or tribute that I could take part in is going to bring you or anyone back. My heart swells in my throat as I write this, but I know you understand. The hardest part — as you well know, as we talked about often — is self-acceptance. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12469097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-800x583.jpg\" alt=\"Johnny Igaz, always empowering others to be their best selves.\" width=\"800\" height=\"583\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12469097\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-800x583.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-768x559.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-240x175.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-375x273.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_-520x379.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/JohnnyIgaz.Trust_.jpg 938w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Igaz.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As for myself, I’m holding up. Jenna and I are back together, and our time apart was for the better — funny how that works, isn’t it? And, as you can tell, I’m writing again. The horror of the world knows no bounds, and seems to expand with each passing day, but I stand here and face it — because without you, I am at a loss to do otherwise. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I remember vividly that day we first met. Outside Public Works that afternoon, you approached me and said “You’re Chris, right?” I said yes; you smiled, opened your arms, and said “C’mere, bring it in. I’m a hugger.” Right then and there I knew you were a different kind of guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I miss you, Johnny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With love,\u003cbr>\nChris\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>“Cassette tape resurgence” — it’s a phrase whose very utterance seems to beg several questions: How? Why? And for whom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subject of numerous thinkpieces, hullabaloo, and general derision, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/3067073/musics-weird-cassette-tape-revival-is-paying-off\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">return of the cassette tape\u003c/a> seems, at first glance, to be little more than \u003ca href=\"https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UIIOE03bff0/WLU3M0XwB2I/AAAAAAAAUtE/KlYL-JkjI-gCzxeDJnUHequMq2xLg9FJQCLcB/s1600/Grandmer.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a bad joke about hipsters made manifest\u003c/a> in corporeal form. For those old enough to remember when cassette tapes were the de facto standard, there doesn’t seem much to celebrate about their return: cueing a particular track involves a good deal of guesswork and repeated mashing of rewind and fast-forward; their artwork (or “J-card,” in the vernacular of the cassette otaku) is small and mostly insignificant; and worst of all, every cassette tape player seems prone to occasional bouts of cannibalism, eating the very tapes they were designed to play, enacting a vicious blood price for the mere enjoyment of music. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649344\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/GN.gif\" alt=\"Jacober's 'The Grey Man,' released on cassette-heavy label Geographic North.\" width=\"500\" height=\"766\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13649344\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacober’s ‘The Grey Man,’ released on cassette-heavy label Geographic North. \u003ccite>(Geographic North)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Regardless, after nearly a decade into their return, they don’t seem to be going anywhere. Why, you ask? The answer was succinctly stated by our dynastic philandering former president William Jefferson Clinton a full quarter-century ago: “It’s the econom[ics,] stupid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, cassettes are a boon to artists, offering a cheap and easy way to release music on a physical medium for an increasingly tight-fisted audience. Some facts and figures, courtesy the Nielsen Music Mid-Year Report for 2017: \u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Total audio consumption, which Nielsen defines as individual album sales plus TEA, or “track equivalent album” (10 song sales = 1 album sale) and SEA, or “streaming equivalent album” (1,500 streams = 1 album sale) is at 235.5 million units, a +8.9% change over 2016. \u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Streaming — that is to say, music consumption which listeners generally do not pay for — is growing at an enormous rate. On-demand audio streams are clocked at 184.3 billion units, a +62.4% change over 2016. Taking both audio and video streams into account, total on-demand streaming is clocked at 284.7 billion units, a +36.4% change over 2016.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Meanwhile, album sales are dropping precipitously. Album and TEA sales were clocked at 112.6 million units, a -19.9% change from 2016. Digital album sales clocked at 35.1 million units, also a -19.9% change from 2016; physical album sales clocked at 46.9 million units, a -17.0% change.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>To wit: More music is produced, released, and consumed than ever before in history, but fewer and fewer people want to pay for it. And while a new record on vinyl commonly costs between $20–$30 these days, cassettes are still often around the $10-or-under range.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649701\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-800x328.jpg\" alt=\"With free streaming on a perpetual rise, listeners are less inclined to pay $20 for an album.\" width=\"800\" height=\"328\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13649701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-800x328.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-768x315.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-240x98.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-375x154.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-520x213.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen.jpg 858w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With free streaming on a perpetual rise, listeners are less inclined to pay $20 for an album. \u003ccite>(via Nielsen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Years ago, I conducted an interview with German electronic musician Uwe Schmidt, best known as Atom Heart or Atom™. Active since the late ’80s, he has released hundreds of records across three decades, and summed up the present-day conundrum: “Today, you either go full commercial or full underground — there’s not really anything in between. In the ’90s and most of the ’00s, until 2008 or so, there was still a middle ground. You could make underground music on an underground label and still sell 5,000 copies, doing something really weird. That doesn’t happen anymore. In the ’90s, it was much easier to to make music and make a living.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Producing vinyl records isn’t cheap. Pressing 500 black vinyl records in four-color shrinkwrapped sleeves at Southern California’s Erika Records (to pick a random example) will cost in the neighborhood of $2,300 shipped to your door, or $4.60 per unit. (This number could swing up or down based on a number of factors, of course.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At U.S. cassette duplicator Cryptic Carousel (another random example), producing 500 tapes with J-cards and cases is roughly $1,275 shipped, or $2.55 per unit — nearly half the cost. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649345\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell.jpg\" alt=\"Low duplication costs for cassettes make the medium attractive for small runs.\" width=\"480\" height=\"312\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13649345\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell.jpg 480w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell-240x156.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell-375x244.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Low duplication costs for cassettes make the medium attractive for small runs. \u003ccite>(Cryptic Carousel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Additionally, because pressing vinyl involves a good deal of up-front, preparatory labor before a single record can be pressed, most pressing plants require a minimum order of 500 units, either ignoring smaller orders altogether or assigning them a surcharge, making smaller runs even less cost-effective. Tape duplicators have no such surcharge, making them well-suited to runs of 100 or 200 units — perfect for unconventional, unusual music. And then, of course, there’s the \u003ca href=\"http://flavorwire.com/514623/what-most-music-fans-dont-realize-about-record-store-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">long wait time from overburdened record pressing plants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Atlanta-based record label Geographic North, who release left-field music of all kinds, tapes provide flexibility to promote untested artists. “Initially, we were drawn to tapes as a cost-effective way to experiment in a format other than vinyl,” says Bobby Power, one of the label’s co-founders. “Tapes let us devote a fraction of the production costs we’d typically need for a vinyl record, which then allowed us to take bigger chances on newer or less well-known artists,” he explains. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, for Geographic North (and dozens of labels in similar positions), cassette releases aren’t treated as lesser productions than vinyl releases simply because they are cheaper to produce. “The artists we work with put everything they have into their music, and we want to put that same level of love and attention into the final product, both in terms of audio quality and packaging,” says Power. “We put just as much time into working each and every release, no matter the format.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649420\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-800x499.jpg\" alt=\"Liquid Asset's 'Inviolate Light Being,' released on Jacktone Records.\" width=\"800\" height=\"499\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13649420\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-800x499.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-768x479.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-960x599.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-240x150.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-375x234.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-520x324.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liquid Asset’s ‘Inviolate Light Being,’ released on Jacktone Records. \u003ccite>(Jacktone Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For bicoastal Detroit-Berlin label Jacktone, which primarily releases tapes and focuses on emerging artists, vinyl is a risky proposition. “If you’re a small label trying to provide a platform for new artists with each release, releasing on vinyl is a hurdle, and you most likely won’t recoup the costs that go into producing the record,” say label proprietors Melissa Maristuen and Darren Cutlip. “In many cases, tape releases pay for themselves — the return on investment is much higher with tapes than with vinyl.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the final analysis, tapes simply offer a listening experience that vinyl doesn’t (and can’t) match — not “better” or “worse,” but noticeably different. “Because the turnaround time on tapes is so much faster than vinyl, you’re hearing an artist’s current vision — what their sound is like right now,” according to Maristuen and Cutlip. For Bobby Power, “tapes are endlessly fascinating: the portability and durability, the small but scrappy format. They fit in your pocket and can hold 90 minutes of music. And as a consumer, you can drop $5 or $6 on a tape at a show or direct from a label, instead of $15, $20, or $25 for an LP. It’s a great way for music to get in the hands of more people.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With accessibility like that, don’t expect listeners to hit “pause” on cassettes anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Why the Cassette Resurgence Isn't Going Away | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“Cassette tape resurgence” — it’s a phrase whose very utterance seems to beg several questions: How? Why? And for whom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subject of numerous thinkpieces, hullabaloo, and general derision, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/3067073/musics-weird-cassette-tape-revival-is-paying-off\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">return of the cassette tape\u003c/a> seems, at first glance, to be little more than \u003ca href=\"https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UIIOE03bff0/WLU3M0XwB2I/AAAAAAAAUtE/KlYL-JkjI-gCzxeDJnUHequMq2xLg9FJQCLcB/s1600/Grandmer.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a bad joke about hipsters made manifest\u003c/a> in corporeal form. For those old enough to remember when cassette tapes were the de facto standard, there doesn’t seem much to celebrate about their return: cueing a particular track involves a good deal of guesswork and repeated mashing of rewind and fast-forward; their artwork (or “J-card,” in the vernacular of the cassette otaku) is small and mostly insignificant; and worst of all, every cassette tape player seems prone to occasional bouts of cannibalism, eating the very tapes they were designed to play, enacting a vicious blood price for the mere enjoyment of music. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649344\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/GN.gif\" alt=\"Jacober's 'The Grey Man,' released on cassette-heavy label Geographic North.\" width=\"500\" height=\"766\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13649344\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacober’s ‘The Grey Man,’ released on cassette-heavy label Geographic North. \u003ccite>(Geographic North)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Regardless, after nearly a decade into their return, they don’t seem to be going anywhere. Why, you ask? The answer was succinctly stated by our dynastic philandering former president William Jefferson Clinton a full quarter-century ago: “It’s the econom[ics,] stupid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, cassettes are a boon to artists, offering a cheap and easy way to release music on a physical medium for an increasingly tight-fisted audience. Some facts and figures, courtesy the Nielsen Music Mid-Year Report for 2017: \u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Total audio consumption, which Nielsen defines as individual album sales plus TEA, or “track equivalent album” (10 song sales = 1 album sale) and SEA, or “streaming equivalent album” (1,500 streams = 1 album sale) is at 235.5 million units, a +8.9% change over 2016. \u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Streaming — that is to say, music consumption which listeners generally do not pay for — is growing at an enormous rate. On-demand audio streams are clocked at 184.3 billion units, a +62.4% change over 2016. Taking both audio and video streams into account, total on-demand streaming is clocked at 284.7 billion units, a +36.4% change over 2016.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Meanwhile, album sales are dropping precipitously. Album and TEA sales were clocked at 112.6 million units, a -19.9% change from 2016. Digital album sales clocked at 35.1 million units, also a -19.9% change from 2016; physical album sales clocked at 46.9 million units, a -17.0% change.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>To wit: More music is produced, released, and consumed than ever before in history, but fewer and fewer people want to pay for it. And while a new record on vinyl commonly costs between $20–$30 these days, cassettes are still often around the $10-or-under range.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649701\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-800x328.jpg\" alt=\"With free streaming on a perpetual rise, listeners are less inclined to pay $20 for an album.\" width=\"800\" height=\"328\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13649701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-800x328.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-768x315.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-240x98.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-375x154.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen-520x213.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Neilsen.jpg 858w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With free streaming on a perpetual rise, listeners are less inclined to pay $20 for an album. \u003ccite>(via Nielsen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Years ago, I conducted an interview with German electronic musician Uwe Schmidt, best known as Atom Heart or Atom™. Active since the late ’80s, he has released hundreds of records across three decades, and summed up the present-day conundrum: “Today, you either go full commercial or full underground — there’s not really anything in between. In the ’90s and most of the ’00s, until 2008 or so, there was still a middle ground. You could make underground music on an underground label and still sell 5,000 copies, doing something really weird. That doesn’t happen anymore. In the ’90s, it was much easier to to make music and make a living.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Producing vinyl records isn’t cheap. Pressing 500 black vinyl records in four-color shrinkwrapped sleeves at Southern California’s Erika Records (to pick a random example) will cost in the neighborhood of $2,300 shipped to your door, or $4.60 per unit. (This number could swing up or down based on a number of factors, of course.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At U.S. cassette duplicator Cryptic Carousel (another random example), producing 500 tapes with J-cards and cases is roughly $1,275 shipped, or $2.55 per unit — nearly half the cost. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649345\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell.jpg\" alt=\"Low duplication costs for cassettes make the medium attractive for small runs.\" width=\"480\" height=\"312\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13649345\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell.jpg 480w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell-240x156.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Maxell-375x244.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Low duplication costs for cassettes make the medium attractive for small runs. \u003ccite>(Cryptic Carousel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Additionally, because pressing vinyl involves a good deal of up-front, preparatory labor before a single record can be pressed, most pressing plants require a minimum order of 500 units, either ignoring smaller orders altogether or assigning them a surcharge, making smaller runs even less cost-effective. Tape duplicators have no such surcharge, making them well-suited to runs of 100 or 200 units — perfect for unconventional, unusual music. And then, of course, there’s the \u003ca href=\"http://flavorwire.com/514623/what-most-music-fans-dont-realize-about-record-store-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">long wait time from overburdened record pressing plants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Atlanta-based record label Geographic North, who release left-field music of all kinds, tapes provide flexibility to promote untested artists. “Initially, we were drawn to tapes as a cost-effective way to experiment in a format other than vinyl,” says Bobby Power, one of the label’s co-founders. “Tapes let us devote a fraction of the production costs we’d typically need for a vinyl record, which then allowed us to take bigger chances on newer or less well-known artists,” he explains. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, for Geographic North (and dozens of labels in similar positions), cassette releases aren’t treated as lesser productions than vinyl releases simply because they are cheaper to produce. “The artists we work with put everything they have into their music, and we want to put that same level of love and attention into the final product, both in terms of audio quality and packaging,” says Power. “We put just as much time into working each and every release, no matter the format.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13649420\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-800x499.jpg\" alt=\"Liquid Asset's 'Inviolate Light Being,' released on Jacktone Records.\" width=\"800\" height=\"499\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13649420\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-800x499.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-768x479.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-960x599.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-240x150.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-375x234.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone-520x324.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Jacktone.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liquid Asset’s ‘Inviolate Light Being,’ released on Jacktone Records. \u003ccite>(Jacktone Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For bicoastal Detroit-Berlin label Jacktone, which primarily releases tapes and focuses on emerging artists, vinyl is a risky proposition. “If you’re a small label trying to provide a platform for new artists with each release, releasing on vinyl is a hurdle, and you most likely won’t recoup the costs that go into producing the record,” say label proprietors Melissa Maristuen and Darren Cutlip. “In many cases, tape releases pay for themselves — the return on investment is much higher with tapes than with vinyl.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the final analysis, tapes simply offer a listening experience that vinyl doesn’t (and can’t) match — not “better” or “worse,” but noticeably different. “Because the turnaround time on tapes is so much faster than vinyl, you’re hearing an artist’s current vision — what their sound is like right now,” according to Maristuen and Cutlip. For Bobby Power, “tapes are endlessly fascinating: the portability and durability, the small but scrappy format. They fit in your pocket and can hold 90 minutes of music. And as a consumer, you can drop $5 or $6 on a tape at a show or direct from a label, instead of $15, $20, or $25 for an LP. It’s a great way for music to get in the hands of more people.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With accessibility like that, don’t expect listeners to hit “pause” on cassettes anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Caught In a Funk: New Local Releases From the Underground",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Signal From Noise is a bimonthly column from DJ, experimental music aficionado and writer Chris Zaldua. This week he brings us a roundup of new and notable records from Bay Area artists. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Marbled Eye, ‘EP II’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Melters Records; Bandcamp\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since discovering \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfweekly.com/music/somethoughtsofacertainsound/top-five-parties-week-plus-notable-local-parties/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their first cassette tape last year\u003c/a>, I have been blathering on about Oakland’s Marbled Eye to anyone and everyone who will listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I may exist in a bubble, musically and otherwise, but it’s difficult for me to imagine anyone hearing Marbled Eye’s music for the first time and not falling in love as quickly as I did. Marbled Eye write post-punk, in the long (and perhaps clichéd) shadow of Joy Division and co., but they do so with such a natural ear for catchy, poppy flair that even listeners who are not heavily tattooed nor clad in black will find themselves enthralled: rarely is post-punk simply so much fun to listen to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of \u003cem>EP II\u003c/em>’s four songs run longer than four minutes, which means it’s over in a flash, just like their cassette. And just like that tape, \u003cem>EP II\u003c/em> works best listened to on repeat. Repetition makes apparent an underlying tension in Marbled Eye’s music, in which the staccato, rigid, almost Germanic rhythms of the bass and drums (punctuated by the delightfully monotone vocals) are set against searing guitar work whose emotional resonance belies the band’s punk roots. Punk as this music is, it’s anything but mindless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Marbled Eye put together a debut album as fine as these two EPs, it’s not hard to imagine this band’s star rising well beyond the Bay Area. If you aren’t already clued in, now is the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2065268537/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=3744247341/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sepehr, ‘Step One’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Black Catalogue\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sepehr Alimagham — or just Sepehr for short, pronounced seh-PAIR — has for many years commandeered San Francisco dancefloors, DJing Detroit techno and raw acid house with zealous, infectious fervor.\u003cem> Step One\u003c/em> is his first vinyl record, courtesy of Detroit label Black Catalogue, and it proves that his years of experience DJing have taught him well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the record’s tunes are comprised of potent, bassy kick drums, a few spare melodic elements, and barely-there vocal samples, just legible enough to register as speech but not so much that they reveal themselves — and little else. (Fine techno can often be reduced to a single maxim: Less is more.) “Caught in a Funk” winds itself around ascending synth chords while its vocal waxes lyrical about the Roland TR-909 and Juno-106, a drum machine and synthesizer indispensable to techno producers; “Step One” features a squirrely acid riff, the kind that gets stuck deep in your head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acid house specialist D’Marc Cantu’s remix of “Step One” amps up the original’s intensity, but loses some of its elemental magic in the process. Nevertheless, Sepehr’s two original works sell this record on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3003167256/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=260321832/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Jim Haynes, ‘Electrical Injuries’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aussenraum; digital edition forthcoming via Bandcamp\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rarely does an artist’s personal statement sum up their work as accurately as Jim Haynes’: “I rust things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Haynes has operated within, and contributed to, the nebula of Bay Area experimental music. True to his statement, his work is bound by entropy, capturing the sound (or the sight, or the feel) of decay across various media. Morbid as that may sound, Haynes discovers creation within destruction, and builds entire worlds within things falling apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> is Haynes’ latest LP, and like all of his musical works, it is entirely built on texture, atmosphere, and the manipulation (and corrosion) of raw sound. (A cursory reading of the album’s press release, and its passage titles, suggest that ice and electricity are primary sound sources.) Unlike many of his previous works, which could understatedly be described as “calm,” \u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> is intense, thrilling, and caustic. But it speaks to Haynes’ maturity as an artist that not once does it suffer the fate which befalls most noise records: a tendency towards juvenility, towards aggression for aggression’s sake, and a complete disregard for subtlety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll find none of that here. \u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> is fierce and uncompromising, but it’s judicious in its furor; Haynes knows precisely when to pull the throttle and when to ease up. In fact, \u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> reminds me of another American artist whose whispered susurrus and blistered drones evoke potent, uncanny sensation: David Lynch, whose soundtrack (or “sound design”) on the rebooted \u003cem>Twin Peaks\u003c/em> is a noise masterwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any listener interested in experimental music, or simply interested in exploring the limits of their own listening, would be wise to seek out this superb record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/325648889″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Only Now, ‘Elements’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>POLAAR\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only Now is the alias of Kush Arora, a Bay Area-based artist and percussionist who explores the intersection between Indo-Caribbean rhythms and experimental music: think dub, dubstep, dancehall, bashment, bhangra, and beyond, all filtered through a techno-industrial lens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Elements \u003c/em>is his latest work, a four-track EP released by French label POLAAR. Like all of Arora’s work, it is a collision of textures, styles, and sounds, operating in an expansive fashion; what’s so compelling is how it makes explicit underlying connections between seemingly disparate scenes, borrowing as much from the sleek techno designs of Detroit and Berlin as it does the tangled polyrhythms of Lagos and Lisbon. The end result feels futuristic in a particularly prescient way, as though Only Now is the soundtrack to a diaspora we do not yet know exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The record’s opener, “Dirt,” is deliriously cacophonous, a percussive hailstorm. Remarkably, it doesn’t sound overcrowded, a testament to Arora’s skill as a sound-weaver. “Factory Ghost” loses no drummed momentum, but sounds relaxed in comparison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flip the record over for \u003cem>Elements\u003c/em>’ eponymous track, my favorite of the bunch. Here, syncopated beats, the cocking of a gun bolt, and ghastly chanting intertwine, sounding like a post-apocalyptic club scene in a William Gibson short story. “Tribute to Detroit,” as its title suggests, is the record’s most overtly “techno” tune, and it’s gorgeous, built around shimmering synth chords.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My only qualm is that it’s over too fast; some of the tunes, as frenetic as they are, could have benefited from room to breathe. No matter: Only Now is building a sonic world of his own, and sounds quite unlike any other Bay Area artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3369073679/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=307325775/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Signal From Noise is a bimonthly column from DJ, experimental music aficionado and writer Chris Zaldua. This week he brings us a roundup of new and notable records from Bay Area artists. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Marbled Eye, ‘EP II’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Melters Records; Bandcamp\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since discovering \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfweekly.com/music/somethoughtsofacertainsound/top-five-parties-week-plus-notable-local-parties/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their first cassette tape last year\u003c/a>, I have been blathering on about Oakland’s Marbled Eye to anyone and everyone who will listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I may exist in a bubble, musically and otherwise, but it’s difficult for me to imagine anyone hearing Marbled Eye’s music for the first time and not falling in love as quickly as I did. Marbled Eye write post-punk, in the long (and perhaps clichéd) shadow of Joy Division and co., but they do so with such a natural ear for catchy, poppy flair that even listeners who are not heavily tattooed nor clad in black will find themselves enthralled: rarely is post-punk simply so much fun to listen to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of \u003cem>EP II\u003c/em>’s four songs run longer than four minutes, which means it’s over in a flash, just like their cassette. And just like that tape, \u003cem>EP II\u003c/em> works best listened to on repeat. Repetition makes apparent an underlying tension in Marbled Eye’s music, in which the staccato, rigid, almost Germanic rhythms of the bass and drums (punctuated by the delightfully monotone vocals) are set against searing guitar work whose emotional resonance belies the band’s punk roots. Punk as this music is, it’s anything but mindless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Marbled Eye put together a debut album as fine as these two EPs, it’s not hard to imagine this band’s star rising well beyond the Bay Area. If you aren’t already clued in, now is the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2065268537/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=3744247341/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Sepehr, ‘Step One’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Black Catalogue\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sepehr Alimagham — or just Sepehr for short, pronounced seh-PAIR — has for many years commandeered San Francisco dancefloors, DJing Detroit techno and raw acid house with zealous, infectious fervor.\u003cem> Step One\u003c/em> is his first vinyl record, courtesy of Detroit label Black Catalogue, and it proves that his years of experience DJing have taught him well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the record’s tunes are comprised of potent, bassy kick drums, a few spare melodic elements, and barely-there vocal samples, just legible enough to register as speech but not so much that they reveal themselves — and little else. (Fine techno can often be reduced to a single maxim: Less is more.) “Caught in a Funk” winds itself around ascending synth chords while its vocal waxes lyrical about the Roland TR-909 and Juno-106, a drum machine and synthesizer indispensable to techno producers; “Step One” features a squirrely acid riff, the kind that gets stuck deep in your head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acid house specialist D’Marc Cantu’s remix of “Step One” amps up the original’s intensity, but loses some of its elemental magic in the process. Nevertheless, Sepehr’s two original works sell this record on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3003167256/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=260321832/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Jim Haynes, ‘Electrical Injuries’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aussenraum; digital edition forthcoming via Bandcamp\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rarely does an artist’s personal statement sum up their work as accurately as Jim Haynes’: “I rust things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Haynes has operated within, and contributed to, the nebula of Bay Area experimental music. True to his statement, his work is bound by entropy, capturing the sound (or the sight, or the feel) of decay across various media. Morbid as that may sound, Haynes discovers creation within destruction, and builds entire worlds within things falling apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> is Haynes’ latest LP, and like all of his musical works, it is entirely built on texture, atmosphere, and the manipulation (and corrosion) of raw sound. (A cursory reading of the album’s press release, and its passage titles, suggest that ice and electricity are primary sound sources.) Unlike many of his previous works, which could understatedly be described as “calm,” \u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> is intense, thrilling, and caustic. But it speaks to Haynes’ maturity as an artist that not once does it suffer the fate which befalls most noise records: a tendency towards juvenility, towards aggression for aggression’s sake, and a complete disregard for subtlety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll find none of that here. \u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> is fierce and uncompromising, but it’s judicious in its furor; Haynes knows precisely when to pull the throttle and when to ease up. In fact, \u003cem>Electrical Injuries\u003c/em> reminds me of another American artist whose whispered susurrus and blistered drones evoke potent, uncanny sensation: David Lynch, whose soundtrack (or “sound design”) on the rebooted \u003cem>Twin Peaks\u003c/em> is a noise masterwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any listener interested in experimental music, or simply interested in exploring the limits of their own listening, would be wise to seek out this superb record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/325648889″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/325648889″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Only Now, ‘Elements’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>POLAAR\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only Now is the alias of Kush Arora, a Bay Area-based artist and percussionist who explores the intersection between Indo-Caribbean rhythms and experimental music: think dub, dubstep, dancehall, bashment, bhangra, and beyond, all filtered through a techno-industrial lens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Elements \u003c/em>is his latest work, a four-track EP released by French label POLAAR. Like all of Arora’s work, it is a collision of textures, styles, and sounds, operating in an expansive fashion; what’s so compelling is how it makes explicit underlying connections between seemingly disparate scenes, borrowing as much from the sleek techno designs of Detroit and Berlin as it does the tangled polyrhythms of Lagos and Lisbon. The end result feels futuristic in a particularly prescient way, as though Only Now is the soundtrack to a diaspora we do not yet know exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The record’s opener, “Dirt,” is deliriously cacophonous, a percussive hailstorm. Remarkably, it doesn’t sound overcrowded, a testament to Arora’s skill as a sound-weaver. “Factory Ghost” loses no drummed momentum, but sounds relaxed in comparison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flip the record over for \u003cem>Elements\u003c/em>’ eponymous track, my favorite of the bunch. Here, syncopated beats, the cocking of a gun bolt, and ghastly chanting intertwine, sounding like a post-apocalyptic club scene in a William Gibson short story. “Tribute to Detroit,” as its title suggests, is the record’s most overtly “techno” tune, and it’s gorgeous, built around shimmering synth chords.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My only qualm is that it’s over too fast; some of the tunes, as frenetic as they are, could have benefited from room to breathe. No matter: Only Now is building a sonic world of his own, and sounds quite unlike any other Bay Area artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3369073679/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=307325775/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "catharsis-in-cacophany-the-necessity-of-a-noise-phase",
"title": "Catharsis in Cacophony: The Necessity of a 'Noise Phase'",
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"headTitle": "Catharsis in Cacophony: The Necessity of a ‘Noise Phase’ | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>It was one of those quick, bite-size conversations with a friend, rendered casually online with no form or purpose other than providing momentary workday distraction. But it left me with a phrase and concept so sticky that I’ve been running it through my head for months now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The noise phase.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t remember the context in which it was uttered: perhaps my friend was describing to me an artist he listened to growing up, or a new album from an old favorite. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is “the noise phase,” you ask?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s our collective childhood obsession with making an ungodly racket for no reason, the proverbial banging together of pots and pans. It’s Lou Reed’s \u003cem>Metal Machine Music\u003c/em>. It’s Jackson Pollock and Abstract Expressionism. It’s Dada. It’s “Twin Peaks” and its influence on contemporary television. It’s William Burroughs’ \u003cem>Naked Lunch\u003c/em>. It was my teenage insistence on collecting records comprised of little else than rumbling sub-bass, piercing treble, and white European men shouting into a microphone run through a distortion pedal. It’s Kanye’s \u003cem>Yeezus\u003c/em>. It’s John Cage’s entire career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-U3wwXx40Q\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, the noise phase is a phase many if not all of us go through, as both consumers and creators of art, in which we begin to question orthodoxy and reject authority. It’s when we start to push ourselves towards extremity for extremity’s sake, in the hope that so doing will reveal certain truths, or make possible certain sensations that are unavailable through conventional means. I’d argue, then, that it’s healthy. Necessary, even.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Noise” and “music,” both aural phenomena, are closely related — but the line separating one from the other is a matter of more debate than one might imagine. \u003ca href=\"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Merriam-Webster defines music\u003c/a> as the “science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” Its second definition, much more straightforward, defines music as “an agreeable sound, euphony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noise is nearly the opposite: it’s a “loud, confused, or senseless shouting or outcry,” or more simply “sound, especially one that lacks agreeable musical quality or is noticeably unpleasant.” (Note the explicit value judgments in the aforementioned definitions.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mV2mxjlXv8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Noise” is a distinctly modern phenomenon. Noises have of course existed since time immemorial; the very first noise was — what else? — the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/a-brief-history-of-noise/422481/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Big Bang\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/a-brief-history-of-noise/422481/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the sound of which scientists have attempted to recreate\u003c/a>. But “noise,” as we conceive of it today, with all of its social and even political implications, coincided with the Industrial Revolution, as machines and amplified sound became facts of daily living, especially in populous cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the Industrial Revolution that paved the way for the Futurists, a \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wide-ranging group of artists and intellectuals\u003c/a> (primarily Italian but also Russian, Belgian, and beyond) active around the turn of the 20th century, whose works unabashedly emphasized motion, speed, dynamism, spectacle, and industry. And it was one Futurist in particular, Luigi Russolo, who wrote a tract (\u003ca href=\"http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/noises.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Art of Noises\u003c/em>\u003c/a>) that laid the foundation for the elision between “noise” and “music.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsflxIkveR0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the Machine, Noise was born,” wrote Russolo. “At first the art of music sought purity, limpidity, and sweetness of sound … Today music, as it becomes continually more complicated, strives to amalgamate the most dissonant, strange, and harsh sounds. In this way we come ever closer to noise-sound.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this tract, more than 100 years old, Russolo encapsulates the philosophy that I here refer to as “the noise phase.” He continues: “Everyone will acknowledge that all musical sound carries with it a development of sensations that are already familiar and exhausted, and which predispose the listener to boredom … For many years Beethoven and Wagner shook our nerves and hearts. Now we are satiated and we find far more enjoyment in the combination of the noises of trams, backfiring motors, carriages and bawling crowds than in rehearsing, for example, the ‘Eroica’ or the ‘Pastoral.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My noise phase began at a relatively young age, spurred by an early interest in electronic and industrial music. With each successive album I discovered and loved, I pushed a little bit further out, testing the limits of my own listening. Without realizing, I was following Russolo, seeking to “continually enlarge and enrich the field of [my own] sounds … [corresponding to] a need in [my] sensibility … [which,] liberated from facile and traditional Rhythm, must find in noises the means of extension and renewal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noise offered to me an extravagance, a purity of feeling and intent, that I could not find elsewhere. Noise was Bartleby’s “I would prefer not to” pantomimed as music. It was my hand over a candle, held for as long as I could. Noise wasn’t “pleasurable” to listen to, but it was unrelenting, unstoppable, and all-encompassing. In its inescapability, I found escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though it lasted for years, it eventually passed. The cloudy angst of my teenage years gave way to the naïve churlishness of young adulthood, and sooner or later I discovered the wonders of pop music. (Thank you, Broken Social Scene.) My own noise phase coincided with some of my most turbulent years, which in hindsight seems by design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwSvrvq9Quo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some, the noise phase is lifelong. Japanese legend Masami Akita, a.k.a. Merzbow, has spent the last 36 years producing\u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/artist/12551-Merzbow?sort=year%2Casc&limit=50&subtype=Albums&filter_anv=0&type=Releases&page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> just shy of 300 albums\u003c/a>, each one a differently hued rumination on noise. And in America — to choose but one example — \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRRecords\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Massachusetts’ RRRecords\u003c/a>, a record store and label led by inveterate weirdo Ron Lessard, has for decades disseminated and propagated works by noise musicians from across the globe to whomever is willing and able to pay their rock-bottom prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you, dear reader, have never had a noise phase of your own, consider what I have written here. Noise, as difficult as it may be, contains infinitudes within it. In closing I leave you with a quote from a veteran purveyor of noise and a philosopher in his own right, the great American artist John Cage:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then 16. Then 32. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It was one of those quick, bite-size conversations with a friend, rendered casually online with no form or purpose other than providing momentary workday distraction. But it left me with a phrase and concept so sticky that I’ve been running it through my head for months now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The noise phase.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t remember the context in which it was uttered: perhaps my friend was describing to me an artist he listened to growing up, or a new album from an old favorite. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is “the noise phase,” you ask?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s our collective childhood obsession with making an ungodly racket for no reason, the proverbial banging together of pots and pans. It’s Lou Reed’s \u003cem>Metal Machine Music\u003c/em>. It’s Jackson Pollock and Abstract Expressionism. It’s Dada. It’s “Twin Peaks” and its influence on contemporary television. It’s William Burroughs’ \u003cem>Naked Lunch\u003c/em>. It was my teenage insistence on collecting records comprised of little else than rumbling sub-bass, piercing treble, and white European men shouting into a microphone run through a distortion pedal. It’s Kanye’s \u003cem>Yeezus\u003c/em>. It’s John Cage’s entire career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/n-U3wwXx40Q'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/n-U3wwXx40Q'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In short, the noise phase is a phase many if not all of us go through, as both consumers and creators of art, in which we begin to question orthodoxy and reject authority. It’s when we start to push ourselves towards extremity for extremity’s sake, in the hope that so doing will reveal certain truths, or make possible certain sensations that are unavailable through conventional means. I’d argue, then, that it’s healthy. Necessary, even.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Noise” and “music,” both aural phenomena, are closely related — but the line separating one from the other is a matter of more debate than one might imagine. \u003ca href=\"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Merriam-Webster defines music\u003c/a> as the “science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” Its second definition, much more straightforward, defines music as “an agreeable sound, euphony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noise is nearly the opposite: it’s a “loud, confused, or senseless shouting or outcry,” or more simply “sound, especially one that lacks agreeable musical quality or is noticeably unpleasant.” (Note the explicit value judgments in the aforementioned definitions.)\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/6mV2mxjlXv8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/6mV2mxjlXv8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“Noise” is a distinctly modern phenomenon. Noises have of course existed since time immemorial; the very first noise was — what else? — the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/a-brief-history-of-noise/422481/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Big Bang\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/a-brief-history-of-noise/422481/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the sound of which scientists have attempted to recreate\u003c/a>. But “noise,” as we conceive of it today, with all of its social and even political implications, coincided with the Industrial Revolution, as machines and amplified sound became facts of daily living, especially in populous cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the Industrial Revolution that paved the way for the Futurists, a \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wide-ranging group of artists and intellectuals\u003c/a> (primarily Italian but also Russian, Belgian, and beyond) active around the turn of the 20th century, whose works unabashedly emphasized motion, speed, dynamism, spectacle, and industry. And it was one Futurist in particular, Luigi Russolo, who wrote a tract (\u003ca href=\"http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/noises.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Art of Noises\u003c/em>\u003c/a>) that laid the foundation for the elision between “noise” and “music.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wsflxIkveR0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wsflxIkveR0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the Machine, Noise was born,” wrote Russolo. “At first the art of music sought purity, limpidity, and sweetness of sound … Today music, as it becomes continually more complicated, strives to amalgamate the most dissonant, strange, and harsh sounds. In this way we come ever closer to noise-sound.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this tract, more than 100 years old, Russolo encapsulates the philosophy that I here refer to as “the noise phase.” He continues: “Everyone will acknowledge that all musical sound carries with it a development of sensations that are already familiar and exhausted, and which predispose the listener to boredom … For many years Beethoven and Wagner shook our nerves and hearts. Now we are satiated and we find far more enjoyment in the combination of the noises of trams, backfiring motors, carriages and bawling crowds than in rehearsing, for example, the ‘Eroica’ or the ‘Pastoral.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My noise phase began at a relatively young age, spurred by an early interest in electronic and industrial music. With each successive album I discovered and loved, I pushed a little bit further out, testing the limits of my own listening. Without realizing, I was following Russolo, seeking to “continually enlarge and enrich the field of [my own] sounds … [corresponding to] a need in [my] sensibility … [which,] liberated from facile and traditional Rhythm, must find in noises the means of extension and renewal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noise offered to me an extravagance, a purity of feeling and intent, that I could not find elsewhere. Noise was Bartleby’s “I would prefer not to” pantomimed as music. It was my hand over a candle, held for as long as I could. Noise wasn’t “pleasurable” to listen to, but it was unrelenting, unstoppable, and all-encompassing. In its inescapability, I found escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though it lasted for years, it eventually passed. The cloudy angst of my teenage years gave way to the naïve churlishness of young adulthood, and sooner or later I discovered the wonders of pop music. (Thank you, Broken Social Scene.) My own noise phase coincided with some of my most turbulent years, which in hindsight seems by design.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/IwSvrvq9Quo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/IwSvrvq9Quo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>For some, the noise phase is lifelong. Japanese legend Masami Akita, a.k.a. Merzbow, has spent the last 36 years producing\u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/artist/12551-Merzbow?sort=year%2Casc&limit=50&subtype=Albums&filter_anv=0&type=Releases&page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> just shy of 300 albums\u003c/a>, each one a differently hued rumination on noise. And in America — to choose but one example — \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRRecords\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Massachusetts’ RRRecords\u003c/a>, a record store and label led by inveterate weirdo Ron Lessard, has for decades disseminated and propagated works by noise musicians from across the globe to whomever is willing and able to pay their rock-bottom prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you, dear reader, have never had a noise phase of your own, consider what I have written here. Noise, as difficult as it may be, contains infinitudes within it. In closing I leave you with a quote from a veteran purveyor of noise and a philosopher in his own right, the great American artist John Cage:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then 16. Then 32. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "after-ghost-ship-a-music-collective-emerges-from-the-underground",
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"headTitle": "After Ghost Ship, a Music Collective Emerges From the Underground | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>If a thousand freaks gather in the forest to throw a week-long party and there’s no one around to document it, did it really happen?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the essential question being posed by \u003ca href=\"https://katabatik.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Katabatik\u003c/a>: a 17-year-strong collective of artists, electronic musicians, and performers throughout the Pacific Northwest who for many years have produced their own renegade events, shrouded by secrecy and attended only by those in the know. Now, after losing several core members in last year’s tragic Ghost Ship fire, Katabatik are shifting gears, focusing on publicly telling their story and sharing their constituents’ music and art as a record label.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13209349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13209349\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Katabatik insignia.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[Katabatik] all share a commitment to pursuing the esoteric, and to hidden paths of creativity,” says Michael Buchanan, aka \u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/identity-theft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Identity Theft\u003c/a>, one of Katabatik’s co-founders. “Not for the sake of obscurity itself, but for access to certain energies that are perhaps inaccessible and difficult to reach through common means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those energies have their roots in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when large-scale, mostly-outdoor gatherings where DJs played music on enormously powerful speakers (the eponymous “soundsystem”) had migrated from Jamaica and taken root throughout the UK. When that culture mixed with Chicago house music, the result came to be known as the “free party” movement — a scene that centered organizers’ “refusal to abide by the rules of contemporary society, capitalism, and a 9-5 life,” according to \u003ca href=\"http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2016/06/spread-of-uk-soundsystem-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">those who were there.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the free party movement spread across Europe, the culture never made its way to the U.S. mainstream, hampered by a populace low in density and lacking interest in (or awareness of) electronic music. That is, until you scratch beneath the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where Katabatik comes in. Started in Anchorage, AK, in 2000, Katabatik — the name a riff on katabatic wind, a particular weather phenomenon that occurs in glacial environments — migrated south to Oregon, finally settling in the Bay Area in 2002.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/katabatik/identity-theft-bcnu\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We primarily produced our events outdoors in physically remote places, and that rawness and unfettered experience is central to our ethos. Many of us are fairly uninterested in nightclub culture,” says Buchanan. “And we don’t want to depend on bars as the sole venue for our musical expression. There’s a mutual respect [between organizers and attendees] and an innate power that develops when you successfully operate outside of law and commerce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does this actually mean in practice, you might ask?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometime in 2011, I found myself driving solo to a bizarre location in East Oakland, which I would later learn was called “\u003ca href=\"http://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/night-crawler/Content?oid=2135915\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mr. Floppy’s Flophouse\u003c/a>.” Despite the weird majesty of the venue itself — a maze of warrens, attics, basements, and sub-basements — Katabatik’s motley crew of DJs, live electronic musicians, and performance artists left an indelible imprint on me. Equal parts beautiful, harsh, and bizarre, the music sounded simultaneously familiar and unlike anything else I had ever heard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To top it all off, a cavalcade of robed, masked performers enacted a midnight ritual to celebrate the equinox. I left feeling like I had discovered a world I always knew existed, but had never known how to find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/katabatik/scarford-cry-baby\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, things proceeded apace, with Katabatik hosting sporadic out-of-bounds events and occasionally releasing their artists’ productions online. That is, until \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/oakland-warehouse-memorial/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the fire that devastated the Ghost Ship warehouse\u003c/a> on Dec. 2, 2016, killing 36 people — including sound engineer \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/15/barrett-clark/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Barrett Clark\u003c/a>, visual artist \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/16/jonathan-bernbaum/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Bernbaum\u003c/a>, and musician \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/08/joey-casio/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Casio\u003c/a>, all members of the Katabatik community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I met Barrett in 2001, when his group POLAR played on the Katabatik rig,” recounts Buchanan. “Right away we realized his mastery of electronic music, even at an early age. Gradually, as he shifted towards live sound engineering, he became the de facto sound man for Katabatik, and was amazing at it. His career [as an engineer] really took off, but he always remained completely loyal to Katabatik and prioritized our winter and summer solstice events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark was not only one of Katabatik’s most prolific artists; he was instrumental in making their events sound as good as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Barrett was relentless — an irreplaceable human being,” Buchanan says. “Losing him and Jonathan, our main visual artist, was a huge blow, on a personal and a collective level. We’re an extremely tightly knit group, and there weren’t that many of us to begin with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still grieving and processing, Buchanan is determined to do justice to Katabatik’s legacy, even if it means diminishing the group’s mystique. “We have a very real ‘thing’ that has grown organically over the years, and deserves an outlet into the greater spheres of public perception,” he says. “There is a huge body of work that has more or less been hidden in our archives for years — but there are also new works being created [by our artists] that possess the same vibrant energy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/xanopticon/thee-source-none-shall-pass-xanopticon-rmx\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so Buchanan, and Katabatik, look ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, Barrett and I had discussed actualizing our vision for a record label,” he remembers. “Our plans were underway, but the fire made it painfully clear that our old ways of simply throwing endless underground parties were over, and that releasing our music to a wider audience was crucial,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a way to establish in a less ephemeral way the basis for our creative praxis,” he says, “and a way for us to move forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Learn more about Katabatik on their \u003ca href=\"https://katabatik.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://katabatik.bandcamp.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bandcamp\u003c/a>, which collects their digital releases. Live recordings from past Katabatik events are available via \u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/katabatik\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Soundcloud\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If a thousand freaks gather in the forest to throw a week-long party and there’s no one around to document it, did it really happen?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the essential question being posed by \u003ca href=\"https://katabatik.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Katabatik\u003c/a>: a 17-year-strong collective of artists, electronic musicians, and performers throughout the Pacific Northwest who for many years have produced their own renegade events, shrouded by secrecy and attended only by those in the know. Now, after losing several core members in last year’s tragic Ghost Ship fire, Katabatik are shifting gears, focusing on publicly telling their story and sharing their constituents’ music and art as a record label.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13209349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13209349\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/P1040849-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Katabatik insignia.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[Katabatik] all share a commitment to pursuing the esoteric, and to hidden paths of creativity,” says Michael Buchanan, aka \u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/identity-theft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Identity Theft\u003c/a>, one of Katabatik’s co-founders. “Not for the sake of obscurity itself, but for access to certain energies that are perhaps inaccessible and difficult to reach through common means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those energies have their roots in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when large-scale, mostly-outdoor gatherings where DJs played music on enormously powerful speakers (the eponymous “soundsystem”) had migrated from Jamaica and taken root throughout the UK. When that culture mixed with Chicago house music, the result came to be known as the “free party” movement — a scene that centered organizers’ “refusal to abide by the rules of contemporary society, capitalism, and a 9-5 life,” according to \u003ca href=\"http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2016/06/spread-of-uk-soundsystem-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">those who were there.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the free party movement spread across Europe, the culture never made its way to the U.S. mainstream, hampered by a populace low in density and lacking interest in (or awareness of) electronic music. That is, until you scratch beneath the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where Katabatik comes in. Started in Anchorage, AK, in 2000, Katabatik — the name a riff on katabatic wind, a particular weather phenomenon that occurs in glacial environments — migrated south to Oregon, finally settling in the Bay Area in 2002.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/katabatik/identity-theft-bcnu\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We primarily produced our events outdoors in physically remote places, and that rawness and unfettered experience is central to our ethos. Many of us are fairly uninterested in nightclub culture,” says Buchanan. “And we don’t want to depend on bars as the sole venue for our musical expression. There’s a mutual respect [between organizers and attendees] and an innate power that develops when you successfully operate outside of law and commerce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does this actually mean in practice, you might ask?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometime in 2011, I found myself driving solo to a bizarre location in East Oakland, which I would later learn was called “\u003ca href=\"http://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/night-crawler/Content?oid=2135915\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mr. Floppy’s Flophouse\u003c/a>.” Despite the weird majesty of the venue itself — a maze of warrens, attics, basements, and sub-basements — Katabatik’s motley crew of DJs, live electronic musicians, and performance artists left an indelible imprint on me. Equal parts beautiful, harsh, and bizarre, the music sounded simultaneously familiar and unlike anything else I had ever heard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To top it all off, a cavalcade of robed, masked performers enacted a midnight ritual to celebrate the equinox. I left feeling like I had discovered a world I always knew existed, but had never known how to find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/katabatik/scarford-cry-baby\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, things proceeded apace, with Katabatik hosting sporadic out-of-bounds events and occasionally releasing their artists’ productions online. That is, until \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/oakland-warehouse-memorial/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the fire that devastated the Ghost Ship warehouse\u003c/a> on Dec. 2, 2016, killing 36 people — including sound engineer \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/15/barrett-clark/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Barrett Clark\u003c/a>, visual artist \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/16/jonathan-bernbaum/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Bernbaum\u003c/a>, and musician \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/08/joey-casio/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Casio\u003c/a>, all members of the Katabatik community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I met Barrett in 2001, when his group POLAR played on the Katabatik rig,” recounts Buchanan. “Right away we realized his mastery of electronic music, even at an early age. Gradually, as he shifted towards live sound engineering, he became the de facto sound man for Katabatik, and was amazing at it. His career [as an engineer] really took off, but he always remained completely loyal to Katabatik and prioritized our winter and summer solstice events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark was not only one of Katabatik’s most prolific artists; he was instrumental in making their events sound as good as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Barrett was relentless — an irreplaceable human being,” Buchanan says. “Losing him and Jonathan, our main visual artist, was a huge blow, on a personal and a collective level. We’re an extremely tightly knit group, and there weren’t that many of us to begin with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still grieving and processing, Buchanan is determined to do justice to Katabatik’s legacy, even if it means diminishing the group’s mystique. “We have a very real ‘thing’ that has grown organically over the years, and deserves an outlet into the greater spheres of public perception,” he says. “There is a huge body of work that has more or less been hidden in our archives for years — but there are also new works being created [by our artists] that possess the same vibrant energy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/xanopticon/thee-source-none-shall-pass-xanopticon-rmx\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so Buchanan, and Katabatik, look ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, Barrett and I had discussed actualizing our vision for a record label,” he remembers. “Our plans were underway, but the fire made it painfully clear that our old ways of simply throwing endless underground parties were over, and that releasing our music to a wider audience was crucial,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a way to establish in a less ephemeral way the basis for our creative praxis,” he says, “and a way for us to move forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Learn more about Katabatik on their \u003ca href=\"https://katabatik.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://katabatik.bandcamp.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bandcamp\u003c/a>, which collects their digital releases. Live recordings from past Katabatik events are available via \u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/katabatik\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Soundcloud\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Through Blips and Beeps, Visionary Synth Engineer Don Buchla Lives On",
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"content": "\u003cp>Don Buchla isn’t exactly a household name, but that’s changing, slowly but surely. Buchla, who was born outside Los Angeles and spent the majority of his life in Berkeley until his death in September 2016, was an engineer and inventor whose pioneering synthesizer designs and electronic instruments made an indelible mark on contemporary music-making, the extent and depth of which we’re only beginning to understand fully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To celebrate his life and legacy, the longstanding San Francisco-based audio research organization Recombinant Media Labs (aka RML) joins forces with Obscura Digital, the Associates of Don Buchla, and local nonprofit Gray Area to host the Don Buchla Memorial Concerts on Saturday, April 22 and Sunday, April 23. The two days and nights of electronic and synthesizer music, performed at Gray Area’s theater in San Francisco, will be helmed by none other than grandfather of Buchla-based electronic music himself, Morton Subotnick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subotnick and Buchla are inextricable; in fact, it was at Subotnick’s behest during the early days of the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Tape_Music_Center\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco Tape Music Center \u003c/a>(which Subotnick co-founded) that Buchla designed his first synthesizer, the Buchla 100 series, which Subotnick used to record his first electronic composition, \u003cem>Silver Apples of the Moon.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1hRNLlYpg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike Moog synthesizers, developed contemporaneously with Buchla’s on the opposite end of the country, Buchla’s instruments were designed to be obtuse — they lacked a keyboard, notably. \u003ca href=\"http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2016/10/instrumental-instruments-buchla\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Recounts Subotnick\u003c/a>: “[Buchla] wanted to make a musical instrument. I said, ‘This is not a musical instrument. This is, at best, an instrument to make instruments. It’s to paint.’ … I didn’t want to reproduce the old way to make music, which was pitch-based orientation. I wanted it to be gesturally based.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This in-built obtuseness was a blessing — and a curse, because the difficulty of using Buchla’s instruments meant they were commercial failures. If we consider Don Buchla and Robert Moog to have waged a war of design philosophy (“esoteric” vs. “accessible,” reductively), Moog was the clear winner: “Moog” is practically synonymous with “synthesizer” the way, say, Kleenex is with tissue. His products dominated the market — and, summarily, the way electronic music sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13073902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 799px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13073902\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull.jpg\" alt=\"Morton Subotnick\" width=\"799\" height=\"424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull.jpg 799w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-160x85.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-768x408.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-240x127.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-375x199.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-520x276.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morton Subotnick \u003ccite>(Misha Vladimirsky)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it proved a blessing for those artists and musicians willing to do the work necessary to learn how to wrangle Buchla’s instruments. Electronic music innovator Suzanne Ciani used a Buchla synthesizer to create one of the most recognizable jingles ever made, the Coca Cola “Pop ‘n Pour,” which is simply the magic of Buchla at work — no cans of Coke were cracked open in its recording.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT5qTY83aMI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Buchla Memorial Concerts feature a staggering number of renowned electronic musicians, including rare appearances by both Subotnick and Ciani, and feature day-into-evening schedules on both Saturday and Sunday. For this author, Sunday is the standout, featuring headlining performances from Ciani and two of electronic music’s most thrilling contemporaries, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Alessandro Cortini, both of whom manage to coax sounds out of their synthesizers that sound truly like nothing else on this Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrpJJdH9xfQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Above all, these concerts pay homage to the Bay Area’s numerous electronic music pioneers, who pushed boundaries and realized their visions to the fullest possible extent. Let us celebrate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Don Buchla Memorial Concerts are ongoing from Saturday, April 22 through Sunday, April 23. \u003ca href=\"http://grayarea.org/event/don-buchla-memorial-concerts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Specific performance times, tickets ($25 and up) and more info here. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Don Buchla isn’t exactly a household name, but that’s changing, slowly but surely. Buchla, who was born outside Los Angeles and spent the majority of his life in Berkeley until his death in September 2016, was an engineer and inventor whose pioneering synthesizer designs and electronic instruments made an indelible mark on contemporary music-making, the extent and depth of which we’re only beginning to understand fully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To celebrate his life and legacy, the longstanding San Francisco-based audio research organization Recombinant Media Labs (aka RML) joins forces with Obscura Digital, the Associates of Don Buchla, and local nonprofit Gray Area to host the Don Buchla Memorial Concerts on Saturday, April 22 and Sunday, April 23. The two days and nights of electronic and synthesizer music, performed at Gray Area’s theater in San Francisco, will be helmed by none other than grandfather of Buchla-based electronic music himself, Morton Subotnick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subotnick and Buchla are inextricable; in fact, it was at Subotnick’s behest during the early days of the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Tape_Music_Center\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco Tape Music Center \u003c/a>(which Subotnick co-founded) that Buchla designed his first synthesizer, the Buchla 100 series, which Subotnick used to record his first electronic composition, \u003cem>Silver Apples of the Moon.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/3G1hRNLlYpg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/3G1hRNLlYpg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Unlike Moog synthesizers, developed contemporaneously with Buchla’s on the opposite end of the country, Buchla’s instruments were designed to be obtuse — they lacked a keyboard, notably. \u003ca href=\"http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2016/10/instrumental-instruments-buchla\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Recounts Subotnick\u003c/a>: “[Buchla] wanted to make a musical instrument. I said, ‘This is not a musical instrument. This is, at best, an instrument to make instruments. It’s to paint.’ … I didn’t want to reproduce the old way to make music, which was pitch-based orientation. I wanted it to be gesturally based.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This in-built obtuseness was a blessing — and a curse, because the difficulty of using Buchla’s instruments meant they were commercial failures. If we consider Don Buchla and Robert Moog to have waged a war of design philosophy (“esoteric” vs. “accessible,” reductively), Moog was the clear winner: “Moog” is practically synonymous with “synthesizer” the way, say, Kleenex is with tissue. His products dominated the market — and, summarily, the way electronic music sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13073902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 799px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13073902\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull.jpg\" alt=\"Morton Subotnick\" width=\"799\" height=\"424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull.jpg 799w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-160x85.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-768x408.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-240x127.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-375x199.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/subotnick-on-buchla-courtesy-red-bull-520x276.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morton Subotnick \u003ccite>(Misha Vladimirsky)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it proved a blessing for those artists and musicians willing to do the work necessary to learn how to wrangle Buchla’s instruments. Electronic music innovator Suzanne Ciani used a Buchla synthesizer to create one of the most recognizable jingles ever made, the Coca Cola “Pop ‘n Pour,” which is simply the magic of Buchla at work — no cans of Coke were cracked open in its recording.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/bT5qTY83aMI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/bT5qTY83aMI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The Buchla Memorial Concerts feature a staggering number of renowned electronic musicians, including rare appearances by both Subotnick and Ciani, and feature day-into-evening schedules on both Saturday and Sunday. For this author, Sunday is the standout, featuring headlining performances from Ciani and two of electronic music’s most thrilling contemporaries, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Alessandro Cortini, both of whom manage to coax sounds out of their synthesizers that sound truly like nothing else on this Earth.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/hrpJJdH9xfQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/hrpJJdH9xfQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Above all, these concerts pay homage to the Bay Area’s numerous electronic music pioneers, who pushed boundaries and realized their visions to the fullest possible extent. Let us celebrate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Don Buchla Memorial Concerts are ongoing from Saturday, April 22 through Sunday, April 23. \u003ca href=\"http://grayarea.org/event/don-buchla-memorial-concerts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Specific performance times, tickets ($25 and up) and more info here. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Signal From Noise is a bimonthly column from DJ, underground music aficionado and writer Chris Zaldua. This week he brings us a roundup of notable new releases. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Happy Valley Band, ‘Organvm Perceptvs’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>(Indexical)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After listening to The Happy Valley Band’s \u003cem>Organvm Perceptvs\u003c/em> in its entirety, I can’t help but wonder: if someone bought this record sound unheard, took it home, and listened to it — how would their face look afterward?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In truth, I’m not sure if I’ve ever wondered that about any other record before. And I’m not sure I’ve ever heard another record quite like it, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://vimeo.com/170204430\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is it, then? According to its press release,\u003cem> Organvm Perceptvs\u003c/em> is “a virtuosic decomposition and reconstruction of the Great American Songbook performed by a core quintet augmented by New York’s best freelance contemporary classical musicians.” In other words: Great musicians playing great songs — badly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a slightly uncharitable reading. The actual process involved in the construction of this record is a great deal more complicated — so much so, in fact, that it is accompanied by a 12-page suite of liner notes detailing the whole process. To make a long story short: David Kant, the Happy Valley Band’s “bandleader” or “composer,” designed his own home-grown computer software which algorithmically reduces pop music to its constituent parts, then transcribes those constituent parts as sheet music — so human musicians can play them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disjointedness and losses of translation inherent in this process are what make \u003cem>Organvm Perceptvs\u003c/em> such a — “unique,” let’s say — listen. The process is a good deal more complicated than I let on here, and entails some interesting, valuable philosophical conundrums, particularly with respect to notions of authorship, authenticity, and the role of computers in music-making as music-making becomes increasingly more technologically esoteric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://indexical.bandcamp.com/track/its-a-mans-mans-mans-world\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet: The resultant music is bad. Quite bad. To this listener, it is like nails on a chalkboard. (Actually, nails on a chalkboard sounds much better to me; what does it mean that I prefer pure cacophony to off-time, off-kilter pop music?) I cannot in good conscience say I will ever listen to this record again, except to play as a parlor trick or to quickly put an end to a party that’s gone on for too long. That seems its chief accomplishment; this record is awful, even exquisitely so. It is long (and rich) in ideas but woefully short in execution — by design. Whether or not that makes it worth owning — well, your mileage may vary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Happy Valley Band performs live with Wobbly on Wednesday, April 26 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"http://centerfornewmusic.com/calendar/indexical-presents-happy-valley-band-and-wobbly/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets ($10 – $15) and more info here. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-800x60.jpg\" alt=\"Turntable.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11687704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>KNXVES, “Civilized” / “Reasons Pt. 2”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>(Self-released)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, I received some new music in my inbox that stood out from all the rest: it was catchy, dissonant, and soulful at once, tied together by a chunky, corroded breakbeat. Called “Reasons Pt. 2,” it came courtesy of young Oakland-by-way-of-LA artist KNXVES, and it’s been bouncing around various parts of my brain since I first heard it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/knxves/reasons-pt2\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward many months later, and a new email from KNXVES lands in my inbox: he’s released a new tune, “Civilized.” It sounds different from “Reasons Pt. 2” — it’s milder, more introspective, and less concerned with rhythm — but it’s clearly the work of the same talented artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KNXVES describes his music as “post-soul,” which in this world — where everything bleeds into each other and commingles without end — seems as fine a description as any. The “post-” is key: KNXVES’ music is rooted in soul, particularly apparent in the rich emotional tenor of his vocals, but he’s clearly concerned with a whole lot more. “Reasons Pt. 2” is steeped in trip-hop, the chunky breakbeat calling back to the golden days of Mo’ Wax. “Civilized” pushes farther out, all but abandoning beats altogether and incorporating glitchy vocal effects that makes the whole thing sound not unlike Oval playing with soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnWVwuKquE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the face of it, it seems silly to review these tunes — their combined runtime lasts hardly more than five minutes. But a YouTube video and a SoundCloud upload are the contemporary equivalent of a 7″ single, and more importantly, both of these songs are superb and leave me aching to hear more. And that, in today’s age of bombardment and profusion, is a rare feeling indeed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-800x60.jpg\" alt=\"Turntable.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11687704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Rays, \u003cem>Rays\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>(Trouble In Mind)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As someone who consumes an inordinate amount of high-falutin’, high-concept music designed to tickle the brain-stem, a certain part of me craves raw, direct, straight-to-the-vein records that make no bones about what they are or what sound they’re after: records without pretension or shame. Which is precisely what the new self-titled debut LP from Oakland-based band Rays is, and precisely why I like it so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/troubleinmind/rays-theatre-of-lunacy-trouble-in-mind-records\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rays is a rock band, or a punk band, or a post-punk band. More accurately, that doesn’t really matter and isn’t the point anyway — Rays do not strike me as a band particularly concerned with identity. Across 11 songs and about 30 minutes, Rays strum guitars, slam drum skins, and sing along — sometimes out of key, sometimes not — with an energy and exuberance that few besides the adolescent, the blithe, and the blessed can match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vocals, dissonant as they are, were a sticking point for me at first. It’s easy to read them as lazy or careless; on my first listen-through, I was taken aback, in fact. But on my second, third, and subsequent listens, my uncertainty became acceptance and then endearment. I allowed myself to accept the rock. And this album rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/troubleinmind/rays-lost\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Impressively, Rays manage to flit through a suite of styles on such a short, sweet record. The opening salvo, “Attic,” is pure, unfiltered West Coast garage rock. “Lost in a Cage” is playful, even a bit surf-y. “Pain and Sorrow” is plaintive as its name. And “Theatre of Lunacy,” my favorite tune on the record, is post-punk bliss, taking pages from the European playbook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no bullshit on this record. What you hear is what you get. Sometimes, that’s exactly what you need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rays performs Monday, April 17 at El Rio in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"http://www.elriosf.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets ($5) and more info here. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is it, then? According to its press release,\u003cem> Organvm Perceptvs\u003c/em> is “a virtuosic decomposition and reconstruction of the Great American Songbook performed by a core quintet augmented by New York’s best freelance contemporary classical musicians.” In other words: Great musicians playing great songs — badly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a slightly uncharitable reading. The actual process involved in the construction of this record is a great deal more complicated — so much so, in fact, that it is accompanied by a 12-page suite of liner notes detailing the whole process. To make a long story short: David Kant, the Happy Valley Band’s “bandleader” or “composer,” designed his own home-grown computer software which algorithmically reduces pop music to its constituent parts, then transcribes those constituent parts as sheet music — so human musicians can play them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disjointedness and losses of translation inherent in this process are what make \u003cem>Organvm Perceptvs\u003c/em> such a — “unique,” let’s say — listen. The process is a good deal more complicated than I let on here, and entails some interesting, valuable philosophical conundrums, particularly with respect to notions of authorship, authenticity, and the role of computers in music-making as music-making becomes increasingly more technologically esoteric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://indexical.bandcamp.com/track/its-a-mans-mans-mans-world\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet: The resultant music is bad. Quite bad. To this listener, it is like nails on a chalkboard. (Actually, nails on a chalkboard sounds much better to me; what does it mean that I prefer pure cacophony to off-time, off-kilter pop music?) I cannot in good conscience say I will ever listen to this record again, except to play as a parlor trick or to quickly put an end to a party that’s gone on for too long. That seems its chief accomplishment; this record is awful, even exquisitely so. It is long (and rich) in ideas but woefully short in execution — by design. Whether or not that makes it worth owning — well, your mileage may vary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Happy Valley Band performs live with Wobbly on Wednesday, April 26 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"http://centerfornewmusic.com/calendar/indexical-presents-happy-valley-band-and-wobbly/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets ($10 – $15) and more info here. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-800x60.jpg\" alt=\"Turntable.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11687704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>KNXVES, “Civilized” / “Reasons Pt. 2”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>(Self-released)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, I received some new music in my inbox that stood out from all the rest: it was catchy, dissonant, and soulful at once, tied together by a chunky, corroded breakbeat. Called “Reasons Pt. 2,” it came courtesy of young Oakland-by-way-of-LA artist KNXVES, and it’s been bouncing around various parts of my brain since I first heard it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/knxves/reasons-pt2\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward many months later, and a new email from KNXVES lands in my inbox: he’s released a new tune, “Civilized.” It sounds different from “Reasons Pt. 2” — it’s milder, more introspective, and less concerned with rhythm — but it’s clearly the work of the same talented artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KNXVES describes his music as “post-soul,” which in this world — where everything bleeds into each other and commingles without end — seems as fine a description as any. The “post-” is key: KNXVES’ music is rooted in soul, particularly apparent in the rich emotional tenor of his vocals, but he’s clearly concerned with a whole lot more. “Reasons Pt. 2” is steeped in trip-hop, the chunky breakbeat calling back to the golden days of Mo’ Wax. “Civilized” pushes farther out, all but abandoning beats altogether and incorporating glitchy vocal effects that makes the whole thing sound not unlike Oval playing with soul.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/8HnWVwuKquE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/8HnWVwuKquE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>On the face of it, it seems silly to review these tunes — their combined runtime lasts hardly more than five minutes. But a YouTube video and a SoundCloud upload are the contemporary equivalent of a 7″ single, and more importantly, both of these songs are superb and leave me aching to hear more. And that, in today’s age of bombardment and profusion, is a rare feeling indeed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-800x60.jpg\" alt=\"Turntable.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11687704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Rays, \u003cem>Rays\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>(Trouble In Mind)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As someone who consumes an inordinate amount of high-falutin’, high-concept music designed to tickle the brain-stem, a certain part of me craves raw, direct, straight-to-the-vein records that make no bones about what they are or what sound they’re after: records without pretension or shame. Which is precisely what the new self-titled debut LP from Oakland-based band Rays is, and precisely why I like it so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/troubleinmind/rays-theatre-of-lunacy-trouble-in-mind-records\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rays is a rock band, or a punk band, or a post-punk band. More accurately, that doesn’t really matter and isn’t the point anyway — Rays do not strike me as a band particularly concerned with identity. Across 11 songs and about 30 minutes, Rays strum guitars, slam drum skins, and sing along — sometimes out of key, sometimes not — with an energy and exuberance that few besides the adolescent, the blithe, and the blessed can match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vocals, dissonant as they are, were a sticking point for me at first. It’s easy to read them as lazy or careless; on my first listen-through, I was taken aback, in fact. But on my second, third, and subsequent listens, my uncertainty became acceptance and then endearment. I allowed myself to accept the rock. And this album rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://soundcloud.com/troubleinmind/rays-lost\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Impressively, Rays manage to flit through a suite of styles on such a short, sweet record. The opening salvo, “Attic,” is pure, unfiltered West Coast garage rock. “Lost in a Cage” is playful, even a bit surf-y. “Pain and Sorrow” is plaintive as its name. And “Theatre of Lunacy,” my favorite tune on the record, is post-punk bliss, taking pages from the European playbook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no bullshit on this record. What you hear is what you get. Sometimes, that’s exactly what you need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rays performs Monday, April 17 at El Rio in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"http://www.elriosf.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tickets ($5) and more info here. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Chris Zaldua is a writer and DJ living in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"mailto:czaldua@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Email him here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>“Vocal ensembles” and “forward-thinking” aren’t often spoken together in the same sentence. But then, most vocal ensembles aren’t Conspiracy of Venus — a 30-strong all-women’s vocal ensemble who perform (mostly) a cappella renditions of unconventional modern pop standards from relentlessly singular artists (think Björk, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and David Bowie), plus original compositions by the ensemble’s director, Joyce Todd McBride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The end result makes the new feel old and the old feel new, a delightful bit of cognitive dissonance which proves there’s much more to the vocal ensemble than one might associate with college a cappella groups and barbershop quartets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1856373161/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=909773819/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conspiracy of Venus was founded in 2007, a sister group to the all-male \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/11/22/conspiracy-of-beards-leonard-cohen/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Conspiracy of Beards\u003c/a>, a vocal ensemble with a similar schtick. (The Beards, it should be noted, perform the works of Leonard Cohen exclusively.) After several years performing in and around the Bay Area, Venus released their debut album, \u003ca href=\"https://conspiracyofvenus.bandcamp.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Muse Ecology\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in February 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arranged by McBride, and including a number of her own original compositions, \u003cem>Muse Ecology\u003c/em> shatters expectations about what vocal ensembles sound like. For one, the album isn’t strictly a cappella — interlocking vocal harmonies obviously account for the majority of its musical content, but jazzy flourishes (upright bass, marimba, drums) abound. Here, instrumentation buoys the singers’ voices, never overwhelming them; its inclusion feels like just another rule that Conspiracy of Venus are happy to break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1856373161/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2235697669/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, Venus’s rulebreaking wouldn’t matter much if the music wasn’t up to snuff — it is, in spades. Thanks to McBride’s smart, tight arrangements and the lush, full range of the ensemble’s 30 vocalists, Conspiracy of Venus’s renderings of modern favorites, like Björk’s “Possibly Maybe,” will make you hear the originals in a whole new way. And realize, perhaps, that vocal ensembles are cooler than you thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Conspiracy of Venus perform at 7pm on Friday, Jan. 13, at The Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco; \u003ca href=\"http://redpoppyarthouse.org/event/conspiracy-of-venus-20170113/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets ($10-$20 sliding scale) and more info here\u003c/a>. (N.B.: The Red Poppy Art House is a small, cozy venue, and this show is expected to fill up fast. Early arrival is strongly recommended.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“Vocal ensembles” and “forward-thinking” aren’t often spoken together in the same sentence. But then, most vocal ensembles aren’t Conspiracy of Venus — a 30-strong all-women’s vocal ensemble who perform (mostly) a cappella renditions of unconventional modern pop standards from relentlessly singular artists (think Björk, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and David Bowie), plus original compositions by the ensemble’s director, Joyce Todd McBride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The end result makes the new feel old and the old feel new, a delightful bit of cognitive dissonance which proves there’s much more to the vocal ensemble than one might associate with college a cappella groups and barbershop quartets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1856373161/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=909773819/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conspiracy of Venus was founded in 2007, a sister group to the all-male \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/11/22/conspiracy-of-beards-leonard-cohen/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Conspiracy of Beards\u003c/a>, a vocal ensemble with a similar schtick. (The Beards, it should be noted, perform the works of Leonard Cohen exclusively.) After several years performing in and around the Bay Area, Venus released their debut album, \u003ca href=\"https://conspiracyofvenus.bandcamp.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Muse Ecology\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in February 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arranged by McBride, and including a number of her own original compositions, \u003cem>Muse Ecology\u003c/em> shatters expectations about what vocal ensembles sound like. For one, the album isn’t strictly a cappella — interlocking vocal harmonies obviously account for the majority of its musical content, but jazzy flourishes (upright bass, marimba, drums) abound. Here, instrumentation buoys the singers’ voices, never overwhelming them; its inclusion feels like just another rule that Conspiracy of Venus are happy to break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1856373161/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2235697669/transparent=true/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, Venus’s rulebreaking wouldn’t matter much if the music wasn’t up to snuff — it is, in spades. Thanks to McBride’s smart, tight arrangements and the lush, full range of the ensemble’s 30 vocalists, Conspiracy of Venus’s renderings of modern favorites, like Björk’s “Possibly Maybe,” will make you hear the originals in a whole new way. And realize, perhaps, that vocal ensembles are cooler than you thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Conspiracy of Venus perform at 7pm on Friday, Jan. 13, at The Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco; \u003ca href=\"http://redpoppyarthouse.org/event/conspiracy-of-venus-20170113/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets ($10-$20 sliding scale) and more info here\u003c/a>. (N.B.: The Red Poppy Art House is a small, cozy venue, and this show is expected to fill up fast. Early arrival is strongly recommended.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The 10 Best Bay Area Albums of 2016: David Last and Cherushii, 'Plasma Plex'",
"headTitle": "The 10 Best Bay Area Albums of 2016: David Last and Cherushii, ‘Plasma Plex’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>I remember vividly the first time I played a video game. I was young enough (4 or 5) to be so impressionable that “imprintable” seems more accurate, and I visited a friend’s house, where he revealed to me the wonder that was Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instantly I was hooked, enthralled by the promise of a virtual world whose rules could be easily understood and manipulated for gain, where the myriad limitations of my physical body were meaningless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12518133\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG.jpg\" alt=\"cs3146570-02a-big\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG.jpg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward several decades and video games, once considered the exclusive domain of nerds and social outcasts (this author included humbly therein), have become a multi-billion dollar business whose philosophical trappings can be traced back from Neal Stephenson to William Gibson to the Italian Futurists. \u003cem>Meow Wolf’s Arcade Soundtracks: Wiggy’s Plasma Plex\u003c/em>, from San Francisco producers David Last and Chelsea Faith (aka Cherushii), is a musical love letter to (and from) virtual worlds — and one of 2016’s best records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As its title suggests, \u003cem>Plasma Plex\u003c/em> is a soundtrack — to a video arcade inside Meow Wolf, a multi-disciplinary \u003ca href=\"https://meowwolf.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">semi-permanent art installation\u003c/a> in Santa Fe, NM. (If that sounds confusing, it is, but no matter — this record stands perfectly well enough alone, intended functionality notwithstanding.) Spread across two discs, Plasma Plex is a kaleidoscopic listen, jumping from funky electro-pop to hard-driving techno to nostalgic moody grooves from one song to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw5uK_4rOEw&feature=youtu.be\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, it’s hard to imagine a better record to introduce someone to the wonders of electronic music: \u003cem>Plasma Plex\u003c/em> flows over with hyperreal sound design and production, but it’s anchored by brilliant songwriting and catchy pop hooks. This record may sound cybernetic, but it’s got real human heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be remiss to end without mentioning that Chelsea Faith (who appears here under a number of monikers — solo as Cherushii and Yvette Sheurich, and in collaboration with David Last as Pleasure Corporation, Tristan Zero, and Soft Crash Crew) was but \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/oakland-warehouse-memorial/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one of the many otherworldly talents lost to us in the Oakland fire on Dec. 2\u003c/a>. My selection of \u003cem>Plasma Plex\u003c/em> is not intended as an end-of-life tribute, but a simple recognition of her enormous, seemingly boundless talent. Her spirit lives on in her beautiful music, adding poignant overtones to what was already a remarkable listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Previously:\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/21/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-kamaiyah-a-good-night-in-the-ghetto/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Kamaiyah, ‘A Good Night in the Ghetto’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/20/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-musk-musk-2-the-second-skumming/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Musk, ‘Musk 2: The Second Skumming’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/19/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-ccr-headcleaners-tear-down-the-wall/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>CCR Headcleaner, ‘Tear Down the Wall’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/16/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-caleborate-1993/\">Caleborate, ‘1993’\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/15/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-e-40-the-d-boy-diaries-books-1-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>E-40, ‘The D-Boy Diaries Books 1 &2’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/14/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-fantastic-negrito-the-last-days-of-oakland/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Fantastic Negrito, ‘The Last Days of Oakland’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/13/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-thao-the-get-down-stay-down-a-man-alive/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, ‘A Man Alive’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/12/the-10-best-local-records-of-2016-jay-som-turn-into/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Jay Som, ‘Turn Into’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A soundtrack to a video game arcade inside an art installation might sound a bit inaccessible -- but this collaboration between gifted electronic musicians overflows with personality and heart.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I remember vividly the first time I played a video game. I was young enough (4 or 5) to be so impressionable that “imprintable” seems more accurate, and I visited a friend’s house, where he revealed to me the wonder that was Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instantly I was hooked, enthralled by the promise of a virtual world whose rules could be easily understood and manipulated for gain, where the myriad limitations of my physical body were meaningless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12518133\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG.jpg\" alt=\"cs3146570-02a-big\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG.jpg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/CS3146570-02A-BIG-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward several decades and video games, once considered the exclusive domain of nerds and social outcasts (this author included humbly therein), have become a multi-billion dollar business whose philosophical trappings can be traced back from Neal Stephenson to William Gibson to the Italian Futurists. \u003cem>Meow Wolf’s Arcade Soundtracks: Wiggy’s Plasma Plex\u003c/em>, from San Francisco producers David Last and Chelsea Faith (aka Cherushii), is a musical love letter to (and from) virtual worlds — and one of 2016’s best records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As its title suggests, \u003cem>Plasma Plex\u003c/em> is a soundtrack — to a video arcade inside Meow Wolf, a multi-disciplinary \u003ca href=\"https://meowwolf.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">semi-permanent art installation\u003c/a> in Santa Fe, NM. (If that sounds confusing, it is, but no matter — this record stands perfectly well enough alone, intended functionality notwithstanding.) Spread across two discs, Plasma Plex is a kaleidoscopic listen, jumping from funky electro-pop to hard-driving techno to nostalgic moody grooves from one song to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/rw5uK_4rOEw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/rw5uK_4rOEw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In fact, it’s hard to imagine a better record to introduce someone to the wonders of electronic music: \u003cem>Plasma Plex\u003c/em> flows over with hyperreal sound design and production, but it’s anchored by brilliant songwriting and catchy pop hooks. This record may sound cybernetic, but it’s got real human heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be remiss to end without mentioning that Chelsea Faith (who appears here under a number of monikers — solo as Cherushii and Yvette Sheurich, and in collaboration with David Last as Pleasure Corporation, Tristan Zero, and Soft Crash Crew) was but \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/oakland-warehouse-memorial/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one of the many otherworldly talents lost to us in the Oakland fire on Dec. 2\u003c/a>. My selection of \u003cem>Plasma Plex\u003c/em> is not intended as an end-of-life tribute, but a simple recognition of her enormous, seemingly boundless talent. Her spirit lives on in her beautiful music, adding poignant overtones to what was already a remarkable listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"Q.Logo.Break\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Previously:\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/21/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-kamaiyah-a-good-night-in-the-ghetto/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Kamaiyah, ‘A Good Night in the Ghetto’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/20/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-musk-musk-2-the-second-skumming/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Musk, ‘Musk 2: The Second Skumming’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/19/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-ccr-headcleaners-tear-down-the-wall/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>CCR Headcleaner, ‘Tear Down the Wall’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/16/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-caleborate-1993/\">Caleborate, ‘1993’\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/15/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-e-40-the-d-boy-diaries-books-1-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>E-40, ‘The D-Boy Diaries Books 1 &2’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/14/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-fantastic-negrito-the-last-days-of-oakland/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Fantastic Negrito, ‘The Last Days of Oakland’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/13/the-10-best-bay-area-albums-of-2016-thao-the-get-down-stay-down-a-man-alive/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, ‘A Man Alive’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/12/the-10-best-local-records-of-2016-jay-som-turn-into/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Jay Som, ‘Turn Into’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
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