Kill Ugly Radio Presents: Stranger Than Fiction II: Equinox

This is the follow-up to my personal nostalgic romp from February. As tag-team partner to Mr. B., the other half of the so-called Octave Doctors, Equinox would take over the board at 3:30 AM or so and would play a mix of space-rock, ambient and prog-rock until the sun came up. His mostly-instrumental mix made a great soundtrack for my all-night drawing binges. It made it easier for me to visualize some of the bizarre, otherwordly stuff I’d dream up in the trance-like state that type of music was capable of. It was also the first time I was aware of the power of mixing music together to form a new composition. Eno would blend into Van Der Graaf Generator, which would morph into Peter Gabriel. Whoever the mysterious Equinox was, he certainly knew how to warp space and time with his musical selections.

Here’s an iTunes mix that I’ve been listening to for a while that is very evocative of the kind of music he would play. For the complete effect, I like to listen to this immediately after the previous STF mix when I’m desk-bound in long projects (now you know why part one ends with an intermission bit).

Playlist:

1. Kraftwerk - Nachrichten
2. Gong - Magick Mother Invocation
3. Steve Hillage - Activation Meditation/The Glorious OM Riff
4. Arthur Brown - 2024
5. Kraftwerk - It’s More Fun To Compute
6. Brian Eno - Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch/Baby’s on Fire
7. Godley and Creme - Flood
8. Peter Gabriel - At the Powerstation
9. Robert Fripp - Watermusic I
10. Peter Gabriel - Here Comes the Flood
11. Robert Fripp - Watermusic II
12. Eno and Cluster - The Belldog
13. Vangelis - To The Unknown Man
14. Jean Michel Jarre - Equinoxe Part 1
15. OMD - Architecture and Morality
16. Godley & Creme - Art School Canteen
17. King Crimson - The Sheltering Sky
18. XTC - Jason and the Argonauts
19. Talking Heads - Drugs

Download ( 90 mins. 80 megs.)

Kill Ugly Radio Presents: Stranger Than Fiction

Around 1980 I discovered that, late Thursday nights, some DJ was playing strange, alien music. My appetite was whetted by Devo, Pink Floyd and strange bands I had read about in Heavy Metal magazine (having nothing to do with the genre of music that would later take its name) and I wanted more. The discovery of KBOO’s Stranger than Fiction completely opened the door to new, exciting music for me, and I’ve never looked back. The hosts of STF - the enigmatic Mr. B and Equinox - played a combination of New Wave, skinny-tie pop, novelty music (Barnes and Barnes, Bonzo Dog Band, etc.) and lots of acts that straddled Prog and Post-Punk (Gabriel, Fripp, Hammill). Thier show was like a complete education in alternative music and it really saved me in those lost years of being a weird, alien-feeling teenager, even if it meant that my friends would never let me play my mix-tapes at parties.

Eventually, Mr. B and Equinox expanded the program to handle early and late shifts, Mr. B starting at 1:00 AM, playing mostly newly released import singles and Equinox taking over duties at 3:00, playing lots of ambient music, prog and space rock until morning. I used to go home from school on Thursdays and go right to sleep so that I could stay up all night drawing comics while the show was on. I even taped a lot of it, but the tapes sound horrid now. As the eighties gave way to rock video, STF’s programming went a little too mainstream for my tastes and I was getting into hardcore punk by then. I don’t even recall when they finally went off the air.

the tracks I chose for this mix were songs that were either played often on their show, or played once and really made an impression on me.

I dedicate this mix to all late night DJs out there, playing new, weird music for alienated kids.

Playlist:

1. Godley & Creme - Freeze Frame
2. XTC - Senses Working Overtime
3. Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
4. The Normal - tvod
5. Robert Fripp - Disengage
6. Fad Gadget - Ricky’s Hand
7. Karel Fialka - The Eyes Have It
8. The Fabulous Poodles - Mirror Star
9. Gary Numan - I Dream Of Wires
10. Robert Palmer - I Dream Of Wires
11. The The - This is the Day
12. Peter Hammill - Now More Than Ever
13. The Silicone Teens - Memphis Tennessee
14. Fred Frith - Dancing In The Street
15. Hawaiian Pups - Baby Judy
16. Midnight Oil - Tin Legs and Tin Mines
17. Public Image Ltd. - Pied Piper
18. M - Pop Muzik
19. Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
20. Boomtown Rats - Whitehall 1212
21. The Psychedelic Furs - Pulse
22. Laurie Anderson - Sharkey`s Day
23. Morgan Fisher, et. al. - Excerpt from Miniatures

Download (90 mins. 82 megs.)

The Fall

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
Beggar’s Banquet

What can I say about this album that hasn’t been said a million times over? It’s the classic, most stable lineup of this band, featuring Brix on guitar, dual drummers, Steven Hadley’s propulsive bass playing and some of Mark E. Smith’s best lyrical creations. There’s not a single weak song on this album in my humble opinion, from the scorching Lay of the Land to the domestic complaint of No Bulbs. There’s even a guest in the form of Gavin Friday (from The Virgin Prunes) on two songs. This is the first Fall album that I remember hearing as it got lots of airplay round these parts when it first came out. I could say that this is the Fall at their peak, but that’s always somewhat contentious as they’ve had many ups and downs in their long, illustrious career. If you can get your fingers on it, I really recommend watching the BBC doc The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith for the full story.

Tracks:

1. Lay Of The Land
2. 2 x 4
3. Copped It
4. Elves
5. Oh! Brother
6. Draygo’s Guilt
7. God-Box
8. Clear Off
9. C.R.E.E.P.
10. Pat-Trip Dispenser
11. Slang King
12. Bug Day
13. Stephen Song
14. Craigness
15. Disney’s Dream Debased
16. No Bulbs

Ripped @320kbps

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall pt. 1

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall pt. 2