Arthur Radio Voyage #15: Supermercado de Sueños

This week we arrived at Newtown Radio as sunset was descending over Bushwick, and a mysterious blue and purple mist had started to fill the neighborhood. Feeling inexplicably sleepy, we stuck a little mugwort under the studio’s couch cushions, sprawled out on the floor, and immediately began to dream our way into Arthur Radio Voyage #15. We found ourselves in a lucid haze, lost in some kind of other-worldly superstore. Dancing our way down endless aisles of multicolored light bulbs, muffled music blaring happily over a faraway PA system, we reveled in the realization that dream worlds can feel every bit as real as waking life…


Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Arthur-Radio-Voyage-15-4-25-2010.mp3%5D
Download: Arthur Radio Voyage #15 4-25-2010

Artists played this week…
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Arthur Radio Transmission #14: Cave Crawling

Double-click for fullscreen + scroll.

Arthur Radio is moving from daytime into nighttime, now broadcasting live every Sunday from 9-11pm EST on Newtown Radio. This past Sunday we spelunked our way into the new slot, feeling our way blindly through the cavernous darkness until our purple-hued blacklights hit upon a a sparkling formation of phosphorescent rocks. We decided to sit for awhile and rest in their glow, listening as intermittent drops of water fell from nearby stalactites, echoing endlessly along the ancient limestone corridors from which we came…

Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Arthur-Radio-Transmission-14-4-17-2010.mp3%5D
Download: Arthur Radio Transmission #14 4-17-2010

Songs played this week…
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Arthur Radio Transmission #10 with live jam by Blondes

(Above: This episode’s collage — double-click to view fullscreen + scroll)

For Transmission #10 of Arthur Radio, we started by visualizing ourselves in a black void, lost in time somewhere between the 1970s and today. Using LED-powered building blocks, we constructed a musical pathway in order to make sense of our surroundings. Brick by colorful brick, we bridged the gap between the oily rainbow pools of German psychedelic krautrock jazziness all the way to the shimmering mists of other-worldly electronic noise being produced by the likes of contemporaries Jonas Reinhardt, Arp, Stellar Om Source, and our very special time-traveling guests, Blondes.

Standing on the other side of the bridge in the murky “now,” we found that transversing between the two realms was easier than we thought. In fact, it seemed that they were always connected by an invisible passage, for the electronic explorers of today were born of very same primordial space sludge that spawned krautrock pioneers Dorothea Raukes, Jean Michel Jarre, Manuel Göttsching and friends, some 40 years ago.

The following description was taken from the back of “The LYTE,” one of the very first audiovisualizers of its kind made in the 1980s. Its sentiment echoes how listening to Transmission #10 makes us feel, and we recommend that you meditate on it for a second before you take that irrevocable plunge, hit “play,” and start time-traveling on your own:

The written word cannot fully describe what the eye and ear can perceive. Tone by tone you see an exact, shimmering definition in light of what you hear. Exotic patterns are born, grow, contract and change shape through an infinity of dazzling complexity; each momentary image a precise electronic expression of the sound you hear…


Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Arthur-Radio-Transmission-10-with-live-jam-by-Blondes-3-21-2010.mp3%5D

Download: Arthur Radio #10 with live jam by Blondes 3-21-2010

Songs played this week…
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Arthur Radio Voyage #8 with Bobby Bouzouki

Last Sunday Arthur Radio embarked on its eighth voyage, this time to the wind-swept deserts of Greece, Morocco, Arizona and beyond… Special guest Robert Damore (aka Bobby Bouzouki) graced the Newtown Radio studio with the warm, nostalgia-inducing sounds of his bouzouki, and even took the time to tell us some of the narratives behind the rebetika (Greek folk songs) that he played during his set.

Before your journey begins, dear listeners, we have the following message to deliver from ye olde writing desk of DJ Hairy Painter…

The sun is here and opens the curtains slowly! It brings the slow glowing dust! It springs the earth out of polar jail, the winds blow the desert sand to make for better traction. If you sit, it will make your hair look sexier! The tectonic plates are shifting all around us, their quakes make the planet spin faster, and change the pitch! If you jump, you can land in buttes, the plateaus, or the Isle of Cyros! Through our earth’s muzak, the winds blow Bobby Bouzouki up to the Arthur radio treehouse for a jaunt upon rebetika mountain. Happy trials!


Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Arthur-Radio-Voyage-8-with-Bobby-Bouzouki-03-07-2010.mp3%5D

Download: Arthur Radio Voyage #8 with Bobby Bouzouki

This week’s playlist…
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Excepter on Arthur Radio, Transmission #6

Sunday was a very special day for Arthur Radio. We never thought that co-host Hairy Painter would return to Brooklyn after spending a month building Mardi Gras floats and dancing to “sissy bounce” music in Nola, but he surprised us at the station door — out of breath, suitcase in hand — right when we were about to go on. And we never thought we would be able to cram one sound engineer, one baby, five DJs, half a dozen synthesizers, and all six members of Excepter inside the Newtown Radio studio, but somehow we pulled the whole production off without a hitch. Following the release of their new double album Presidence on Paw Tracks last Tuesday, (“Presidence Day observed”), Excepter graced the Arthur airwaves with a set so on point it caused unnoticed seismic shifts beneath a 24-hour techno-rave in Istanbul. Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites) engaged Jon Fell Ryan in a wobbly Q&A, and Ivy Meadows and Hairy Painter piled on layer upon layer of elliptical wax to set the scene…


Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/EXCEPTER-on-Arthur-Radio-2-21-2010.mp3%5D

Download: Excepter on Arthur Radio 2-21-2010

This week’s playlist…
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Sunday, February 21st – live set by Excepter on Arthur Radio

John Fell Ryan (otherwise known as “JFR” of Excepter) on his ink drawings (shown above – click on view fullscreen to enlarge):

These are all from the Spring of 1998. I was living alone on the corner of Metropolitan and Driggs in Williamsburg, trying to merge cartooning and abstract design with concepts of American Folk mythology and Jungian sex magick. No real art world aim in mind; these were done for reasons of personal development.

Last week on Presidents’ Day, Excepter dropped their new album, “Presidence.” Two days later, a show of drawings by band member JFR came to a close at Fingered Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. In light of these seemingly aligned (and undeniably cosmic) events, Arthur Radio is excited to announce that Excepter will be performing an unbridled freeform transmission, including a live interview session with Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites), this Sunday from 4-6pm EST on newtownradio.com. Hairy Painter and Ivy Meadows will be there, and we’re all invited to come along for the ride…


Excepter – “Teleportation: KAL” (Presidence) [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/excepter_presidence.mp3%5D

ARTHUR RADIO VOYAGE No. 4

Arthur Radio Voyage No. 4: SOUNDSCAPES. Ivy Meadows and Gustav Ernst meditate in the zen-like interior of the new Newtown Radio studio. Hairy Painter joins telepathically whilst building a float in New Orleans. We invite you to climb aboard the sonic airship…

Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ARTHUR-RADIO-4_-SOUNDSCAPES-2-07-2010.mp3%5D

Download: Arthur Radio Voyage No. 4 SOUNDSCAPES 2-07-2010

Arthur Radio Voyage #3: Live set by The Holy Experiment

This past weekend Newtown Radio shut down in order to prepare for its big move into a more spacious studio (with improved recording facilities) within the same warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Since we weren’t able to broadcast live, Hairy Painter and I decided to set up a makeshift recording studio in my living room. We invited musician Brooke Gillespie of The Holy Experiment (who also happens to be my neighbor) to join us there as our very first guest to do a live session. We are now happy to share this performance with you, in all its warmth and beauty…

Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/THE-HOLY-EXPERIMENT-LIVE-ON-ARTHUR-RADIO-1-31-20101.mp3%5D

Download: The Holy Experiment live on Arthur Radio 1-31-2010

Arthur Radio Transmission #2: The Retro-Future Episode

Psychic happenings appear to be abundant on Arthur Radio…this week we focused our psychic energies on a matter that is very pressing for all of us: the future. Friends Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites) and McGregor (Chocolate Bobka) joined Ivy Meadows and Hairy Painter to discuss Chocolate Bobka’s forthcoming music publication The Report (which will include contributions from Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance, among and many other musician-writers). After a space-time bending hour of churchy-psych strangeness, we gathered together to play some retro-futuristic songs, dance very slowly, and attempt to visualize other realities that could have come about in 2010 if things had gone a little differently in the 80s and 90s…

Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ARTHUR-RADIO-1-24-2010.mp3%5D

Download: Arthur Radio 1-24-2010

New in 2010! ARTHUR RADIO: Episode One

Arthur is excited to present ARTHUR RADIO, an all-new Arthur-sponsored radio show broadcasting over the internet via Newtown Radio out of Bushwick, Brooklyn. Tune in live every Sunday from 4-6PM EST, or listen to the podcast at any time, from anywhere in the world. Arthur Radio will feature an uninterrupted music hour followed by interviews, live performances and other special guest segments. Anything and everything is possible…

Listen to the first episode below, hosted by DJs Hairy Painter and Ivy Meadows with special guest Tyler McWilliams from the Naturalismo blog…

Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ARTHUR-RADIO-INTRO-1-17-2010.mp3%5D

Download: Arthur Radio Intro 1-17-2010