Gates of Delirium

Dear Everyone,

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Tonight we journeyed through the gates of delirium into outer space, traveling alongside the likes of Science Fiction Corporation, Sun Ra and His Arkestra (Space is the place: “I am Sun Ra, ambassador from the intergalactic regions of the council of outer space.”), Chrome, Disco Inferno, and on and on. Further! Further!

Love,
Gates of Delirium

p.s.
Don’t forget, you can email us with questions about space travel or the show at delirium@wuog.org!

Dear Everyone,

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Love,
Gates of Delirium

Dear Everyone,

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Love,
Gates of Delirium

p.s.
Our apologies for the delay.

We’ll warm you up! Just come with us on a journey to the Gates of H…,uh, umm, oh yeah Delirium. Thats it. Toast your tootsies by the eternal fire, roast some shmellers, and let the music save your soul. The hypnotic narration of Ken Nordine, sounding much like the rantings of a schizophrenic, will open the Gates on this chilly Wednesday eve. Learn the jive with John Brent and Del Close, Introduction from their incredible hipster parody called “How To Speak Hip” released in 1959. More from this album to come in later weeks, because I know how you all need these lessons to get by in Athens…I know I do.

Learn from the best.

Experimental visceral composer Maryanne Amacher leads us into her world of acoustic phenomenon. Often including accompanying multimedia installations, Amacher’s performances and recordings have been said to create psychoacoustic illusions. Here is an example of the music, unfortunately could not find any decent performance videos. The young man in the video having his brain completely blown by this strange old lady is none other than Thurston Moore, songwriter and guitarist for Sonic Youth. Really awesome.

And speaking of interesting artist interactions, the last spotlight today is on Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, guitarist for the Mars Volta, and Lydia Lunch, product of punk actress, singer, and spoken word composer. Their collaboration, aptly titled Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Lydia Lunch features Omar’s crazed guitar overlaid with eery utterances from Lydia urging a return to the goddess, a spiritual reformation. Its pretty heavy-deep, check out the album for the full story.

Stay tuned for more insane auditory rapture!

From 1968 to1993 we are traveling through musical time and space during Gates of Delirium. One of the focuses this week was on some excellent artists from the 90’s. Mike Patton of  90’s experimental band Faith No More continued his career to write avant garde music and produce recordings not even what most people would call music, check out his album Adult Theme’s for Voice if you don’t believe me. Weirdness just emanates from his work, its awesome.

On a different note, Gates also played a composition by french composer Edgar Varese called Poeme Electronique. This work was commissioned by the Philips corporation for the 1958 World’s Fair. The presentation included a huge enclosed stomach-shaped viewing tent in which was projected a film of black and white photographs synchronized with Varese’s composition. Audiences went buck-wild for this new fangled crazy electronic noise music.  This video is quite informative about the ambitious project.

Its interesting because this was a work of art done for purely capitalistic reasons: the phillips corporation wanted to showcase their technology at the World’s Fair. But nevertheless the it yielded a very innovative and artistic creation.

Bringing it back to the 90’s at the end we explored prog-metal bands and guitarists pushing musical boundaries with sheer profeciency with their instruments. Examples: Buckethead, John Petrucci, and John 5.  Shrreeeddd!

Dear Everyone,

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Tonight, whilst the nation watched President Obama wrap up his State of the Union address, we here at Gates of Delirium celebrated America on our own: Keith Emerson with The Nice covering Leonard Bernstein’s “America”, called “the first instrumental protest song” (see the live performance here, in which Emerson plays his organ backwards, with the occasional throwing knife); the funky David Byrne-Brian Eno collaboration “America Is Waiting”; and Eno’s “China My China”. Also: Snakefinger, Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky“, Funkadelic, Samla Mammas Manna, Rick Wakeman, and Etron Fou Leloublan (translated “Mad Shit the White Wolf“). Oh, and more.

Love,
Gates of Delirium

Some exciting musical combinations are being whipped up by yours truly dj J-masta and dj X-Marks-the-Spot. We crooned to the sweet falsetto of Tiny Tim, comedic performer from the late 60’s who accompanies him self with a ukulele. Check out the video of his most well known song, Tip Toe Through the Tulips. His mannerisms are hilarious.

Another highlight was the ethereal musical performance by Clara Rockmore, one of the first (and of the very few) virtuoso theremin players. Classically trained on violin and possessing absolute pitch, Clara worked with the inventor of this electronic instrument to improve its musical precision and timbre. It is some bizzare stuff, if you haven’t even seen a theremin before, check this out. Great for parties.  This video is of Clara in her later years, but its interesting to see how she physically manipulates the sound on a seemingly invisible plane. She was born in 1911.

In more recent musical chronology, the driving modern progressive sounds of San Diego California-based band Atlas of ID are sweeeeet to thine ears.

Peace and love, we appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

Dear Everyone,

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There were:
proto-electronic advertisements by Raymond Scott, also known for his jazz compositions famously featured in many of the early Warner Bros. Looney Tunes  — such as “Powerhouse” (especially recognizable about 1:25 in); space psychedelic from Silver Apples, Fairport Convention and Hawkwind; slow-building, progressive rock jams from Zheul-founder Magma, Renaldo and the Loaf, and Atlas of ID; and more! and more!

Love,
Gates of Delirium

Dear Everyone,

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It’s the very first Gates of Delirium with new deejays Jessica and Mark. Inside: The Small Faces’ five-song suite, describing the magical voyage of Happiness Stan; the proto-electronic music of Bruce Haack; the modern mathematics and post-psychedelic experimentation of Zechs Marquise and Ephel Duath; the collage stylings of Negativeland; and an introduction to the progressive Canterbury Scene of early ’70s England.

Love,
Gates of Delirium

P.S.
Apologies for the opening news bulletin.

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Just go, okay?

Heather McIntosh joined me to spin some Faust. But first we heard from Robert Wyatt.

The happy couple.