The music on today's show comes to us by our guest DJ, Marie Craven, know to many as Pixieguts. Pixieguts is a member of the bands Cwtch and PIXSID. She is also the founder of the Palace Network and co-produces the Pixicast with Dave Almgren, also know as Voide. Pixicast is a show that focuses entirely on music that comes from indie and netlabels.

Pixieguts was also kind enough to provide the show notes for today's show.

GreenGender's track, "Recondite Loss" is full of delicate emotion, irony, political comment and simply good to hear.

Dementio13 has been making electronic music since the 1980s and "Disappeared (The Ballad Of Milton Friedman)" is from his 2009 EP release, The Ballad of Milton Friedman. The range of Dementio13's music mixes up and travels around various genres like post-rock, ambient, drum and bass, trip-hop, idm and alternative.

I've chosen Humeka's "The Sound" because I just particularly love this one. It's from the Discuss album which is available for free download from many sites like Internet Archive and Jamendo.

HipGnosis' "Underground Looms" is a deep instrumental, abstract, experimental, glitch-hop track and also has occult influences in his music including the conscious deployment of binaural sounds.

Ugress ( which means "weed" in Norwegian) is in Bergen, Norway and is sensationally eclectic and prolific electronic artist who has a number of side projects in various styles and genres as well as the main Ugress act. There's a strong popular culture influence in his music and a fair bit of quotational genre references in it.

Crimson Death is a music project that Pixieguts frequently collaborates with. Crimson Death often has a death metal and goth influence in his music and he performs live as a black metal/drum and bass DJ (maybe the only artist doing this particular combo).

Gurdonark is Robert Nunnally and hails from Texas. Robert mixes experimental, ambient and minimal music and is a Creative Commons champion and all his music is available for free.

Reconsiderate is a really unusual rapper from Wisconsin. His lyrics tend to reflect a kind of 21st white guy angst expressed with a great deal of unique wit and verve and his music has a raw experimental edge unusual melodic qualities.

SK123's "Ankylosing Spondylitis" is a track from the 2008 album, Skizm, and is one I play over and over. I love it and so much more of SK123's music. SK123 plays exquisite and energetic minimal music, a kind of music you'd call minimal techno if that genre term hadn't come to be so associated so strongly with club dance music (which is often not all that minimal really).

The Incognito Traveller is an incognito artist who is listed on the label page as 'unidentified.' "Marguerite" is currently the top track in the large 'Pixies Palace' group tag radio at Last.fm (for which over 5000 artist, albums and tracks have been tagged to date).

1. GreenGender "Recondite Loss" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Dementio13 "Disappeared (The Ballad Of Milton Friedman)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Interview with Pixieguts, co-producer of Pixicast
4. Humeka "The Sound" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. HipGnosis "Underground Looms"
6. Ugress "Robot Army" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Crimson Death "Koka Kola"
8. Gurdonark "Hope" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Reconsiderate "Hey, Thanks!" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. SK123 "Ankylosing Spondylitis" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. The Incognito Traveller "Marguerite" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Hello, people, how are you? Me? Frankly, I'm relieved.

Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Earlier this week I announced on Twitter that this edition of Solipsistic Nation would feature minimal techno. The only problem is mixing minimal techno is more difficult than you'd expect. Minimal techno can be surprisingly subtle and the segues just weren't coming together.

I ditched the minimal techno mix and worked on an ambient mix but that sounded like crap, too. And so was the electro mix. And darkwave mix. You get the idea.

I was floundering but as I was pulling tracks all willy nilly a show emerged. And one that, to me, at least, captures the feel of a fall evening. I hope you like it.

Come back again next week and I'll see if I can get that minimal techno mix together.

1. Odd Nosdam "We Bad Apples"
2. Yppah "Bobbie Joe Wilson"
3. The Gaslamp Killer "Turk Mex"
4. Telling on Trixie feat. DJ Brodii "Your Silence (Vocals Up Remix)"
5. Sketches For Albinos "Tanzen als Gabe es Kein Morgen"
6. Lymbyc Systym "Contemporary Art"
7. Small Color "Daisy"
8. Skytree "1000 Miles from Everywhere" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Broken Spindles "We All Want to Fit In"
10. Jogger "Napping Captain"
11. Hol Baumann "Handwritten Notes"
12. 5-40 am "Alone In the Day My Dear Kristine" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. January "Careful What You Tell The Sky (Album Version)"

Once a month on solipsistic NATION I showcase a record label that is putting out amazing releases that you absolutely need to know about. On today's show we'll talk with Lawrence English, the founder of founder of Room40, and play select tracks from his label.

I first discovered Room40 a few years back when I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast. I head head about Room40's compilation album, On Isolation, and Lawrence was kind enough to send a copy of the CD my way as well as a copy of Airport Symphony. I was immediately taken with On Isolation because those albums transported me to different places in my imagination, On Isolation with its experimental music and Airport Symphony with it field recordings.

Since then I've anticipated each release from Room40 because I've always been surprised by each release. Some albums feature field recordings, others explore the realm of experimental music, and others features quite, beautiful music. Today's show is a perfect example of the diversity of music offered by Room40.

I've wanted to have Lawrence on solipsistic NATION for a long time so it's a pleasure to finally have him on today's show. Not only do we get to hear some fantastic music from Room40 but we also get to learn how Lawrence launched his label. In addition, we'll learn how Lawrence approaches making music for art installation and the many music festivals he is involved in!

1. Tujiko Noriko "Make Me Your Private Party"
2. Tenniscoats "10.rasen6.4.7"
3. Erik Griswold "Imperfect Memories"
4. DNE "Track 47"
5. Chris Abrahams "Can of Faces"
6. Interview with Lawrence English, founder of Room40
7. Steinbrüchel "Interlude 3"
8. Interview with Lawrence English, founder of Room40
9. Taylor Deupree "Untitled"
10. Leighton Craig "Circle of Thoughts"
11. Scanner "Mountain Cabin"
12. Interview with Lawrence English, founder of Room40
13. John Chantler "Slow Closure"
14. Interview with Lawrence English, founder of Room40
15. Keith Fullerton Whitman "2nd Early Monolith"
16. Robin Fox & Clayton Thomas "Direct Couriers"
17. Interview with Lawrence English, founder of Room40
18. eRikm "Fraq 424"
19. Eric La Casa "Dundee Law"
20. Interview with Lawrence English, founder of Room40
21. Sébastien Roux "Interlude"

New to solipsistic NATION? Okay, here's how it works: the first Friday of each month I interview an electronic musician and accompany it with one of their live performances. It's a kind of cool way to kick of each month.

This month our live set comes from Ezekiel Honig's performance at the 2009 MUTEK Festival.

MUTEK was founded in 200o and is an international festival organization that is dedicated to the promotion of electronic music and the digital arts. The MUTEK festival is an annual five-day event in Montreal that takes place in late May and early June. Each year, more than 100 artists, panelists, and industry professionals participate and has become a leading event of its kind in North America.

I first came across Ezekiel back when solipsistic NATION was broadcast on Free Radio San Diego when I asked Ezekiel to send some music from his label, Microcosm Music (Ezekiel is also now the label manager of Anticipate Recordings). I believe that was around the time that Ezekiel was transitioning from drum and bass to experimental electronic music. I later interviewed Ezekiel for the Small World podcast and since then I've wanted to Ezekiel to be a guest on solipsistic NATION. It took a while but I'm pleased to have Ezekiel on today's show!

Incidentally, I believe it is through my Small World interview with Ezekiel that I met Macedonia, the host of the Both Sides of the Surface podcast. Just another example of the six degrees of connections that solipsistic NATION creates.

As long as I have your eyeballs the upcoming live sets on solipsistic NATION will feature King Cannibal, Mad EP, Terminal 11 and Ill.Gates!

Oh, one more thing. During the summer I was interviewed by Eric Fox and Erik Landi for their documentary about underground music and the underground music for their final project at High Tech High. You can see their video here. I'm amazed what Eric and Erik put together. They're learning who to use the tools as teenagers that I use as an adult. What a world!

Photo Credit: ©basic_sounds

1. Ezekiel Honig "Live at MUTEK 2009, Montreal" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Underground and Unknown by Erik Landi and Eric Fox

When I put together the mix for last week's show I realized that I had over two hours worth of music. I decided to break that mix up into two shows.

Last week's show was dark and concussive and featured the likes of Hindu Pez and King Cannibal. This week's show is dark and... atmospheric. Which makes it perfect for Halloween. In fact, you might want to play today's show while kids come to your house to trick or treat.

Everyone has a Halloween memory so let me share one of mine.

Back when I was a kid I worked at a novelty store called Jack 'N' Jill's Joke Shop in Boston. We sold your usual assortment of hand buzzers and fake dog crap but we made our nut during Halloween. All through the month of October we sold Halloween supplies ranging from fake blood to high-end items like latex masks. Each day was busier than the last and culminated in a shopping frenzy on the 31^st with customers lined up outside our door.

At the end of one Halloween shopping day our shelves were pretty bare but I grabbed some fake spiders webs, a strobe light or two and a truly frightening Frankenstein's monster mask. I rushed home to Dorchester to meet my then girlfriend to make our house ready for the trick and treaters in our neighborhood.

There was just one problem.

We had made our house so spooky and combined with my gruesome mask kids were too terrified to come up to our doorstep for candy. They'd scream and wail and despite encouragement from their parents they refused to take a single step near us. In the end I had to take off my mask so the little boys and girls would get over their fear of me and get their candy.

What's your Halloween memory?

Photo Credit: ©Teri Mills

1. Black Light Burns "Ribbons"
2. Cdatakill "Respirator"
3. Felix Inferious "Vashta Nerada"
4. Black Lung "The Regulator Plot"
5. Frank Riggio "Inside The Skull" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Pandora's Black Book "Wavelength"
7. Access To Arasaka "Montcalm"
8. Lukeing Forward "Lull Before the Storm That Never Comes"
9. The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation "The Sexy Midnight Torture Show"
10. Ezekiel Honig "Porchside Prologue"
11. Kalte "Shallow Approach" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. David Bickley and Tom Green "Possessions" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. BrainSt0rm "Sc0rpi0"
14. Lissom "Fallow"
15. Evan Bartholomew "Secret Entries Into Darkness"

When I was putting together this week's edition of solipsistic NATION I realized I had over two hours worth of music. What to do? I could either pare down the mix to an hour or break the mix into two separate shows. I decided to go with the latter option.

Originally the mix began with a selection of music that would make your ears bleed and slowly become more and more darkly atmospheric. So let's talk about the first part.

We begin with Hindu Pez's "The Blackest Sky" from his forthcoming abUSE EP that will be released Friday, November 13th. Hindu Pez was kind enough to send me an advance copy and "The Blackest Sky" set the tone for the rest of today's show.

Speaking of Hindu Pez, this is the perfect opportunity for me to talk about how some editions of solipsistic NATION come together. I'm constantly reviewing tracks to play on future shows and some tracks I play immediately and some sit on my hard drive for weeks, months or, sometimes, years before they make it on to the show. I'd love to play all new music that comes my way but my priority is to present you cohesive mixes of great music. If I can work in new music so much the better but it doesn't always work out that way.

Moving on, we've also got some music from The Teknoist, Enduser, Abelcain and Ad·ver·sary, all of whom have appeared on solipsistic NATION before. And for good reason: they all craft mind blowing music.

Another artist that is new to solipsistic NATION is King Cannibal. King Cannibal's Let the Night Roar is definitely in the dubstep vein but it's far more darker and heavier than most of the dubstep you've heard. Oh, King Cannibal will appear on solipsistic NATION in the next month or two with one of his live sets.

I followed King Cannibal with Somatic Responses who are just as menacing as King Cannibal. It was a no brainer to include them on this week's show. Somatic Responses' "Murder Thought" comes from their fantastic Reformation album.

Jega, Access To Arasaka and Pandora's Black Book also return to solipsistic NATION but Black Mold and Datach'i are new to the show.

Datach'i is an example of what I was talking about earlier. I meant to play Datach'i when I showcased Planet Mu Records on solipsistic NATION but I couldn't work him into the mix due to time constraints so I've very pleased to finally play Datach'i on today's show.

The final newcomer to solipsistic NATION is Black Mold with the track "Smoking Rat Shit" from the Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz. I confess I know little about Black Mold but they're on my radar.

That's the show. Next week will feature the second half of the mix which will be appropriately spooky for Halloween.

Stay stuned!

Photo Credit: Copyright©Lydia Marano

1. Hindu Pez "The Blackest Sky"
2. The Teknoist "Have You Seen"
3. Enduser "Pushing Chaos (Bong-Ra Remix)"
4. Abelcain "Faust (Cdatakill Remix)"
5. Ad·ver·sary "Number Nine"
6. King Cannibal "The Untitled"
7. Somatic Responses "Murder Thought"
8. Jega "Kyoto"
9. Access To Arasaka "Medway"
10. Black Mold "Smoking Rat Shit"
11. Pandora's Black Book "Black Brothel"
12. Datach'i "Intercoursing"

Today on solipsistic NATION we'll talk with Amy Grill about her documentary, Speaking in Code. We'll also talk to Paul Owens, the director of Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet, a documentary about the Chiptunes movement. On the night of the debut of Berlin Calling in Hollywood, director Hannes Stöhr shares his thoughts about his new movie. From the big screen to the pages of Big Up Magazine, we'll talk to Katyá Guseva about bass driven music, art and culture and Big Up Magazine's one year anniversary. We'll also talk to Graham St. John about the newly launched Dancecult journal. Finally, Fernando Fonseca, the founder of the Public Spaces Lab, shares with us his experiences at the Net Audio Festival in Berlin.

Speaking in Code Speaking in Code is an intimate account of people who are completely lost in music and is a heartbreaking and lighthearted documentary, it's a vérité glimpse into the world of techno. Speaking in Code stars Modeselektor, Wighnomy Brothers, Monolake, Philip Sherburne, David Day and Amy Grill.

Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chiptunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the chiptune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.

Berlin Calling is about electronic music composer Martin (Paul Kalkbrenner), known as DJ Ickarus, is touring with his manager and girlfriend Mathilde (Rita Lengyel) from club to club around the globe and is about to release their biggest album to date. However, all of his plans are thrown out of kilter after Ickarus is submitted to the emergency ward of a psychiatric clinic high on drugs after a gig- A tragicomedy in Berlin of today. Berlin Calling is directed by Hannes Stöhr who has also directed One Day in Europe (Berlinale 2005 in Official Competition) and Berlin is in Germany (Berlinale 2001 Panorama Audience Award).

Big Up Magazine is a magazine dedicated to bass driven music, art, culture and people and celebrates its one year anniversary October 24th at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco with Cyrus/Random Trio, Cluekid featuring Aurorah, Kutz, Samiyam and Darkiside of Get Darker TV.

Dancecult is a peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal for the study of electronic dance music culture and has launched the 1.1 edition 1.1 published and available at http://dj.dancecult.net.

The Net Audio Festival '09 took place from the 8th to the 11th of October and gathered the international netaudio community for a four-day music and conference festival in Berlin, under the title "East meets West." 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. Net Audio Festival '09 recalled pictures of hands reaching out to pull people from both sides up onto the Berlin wall. The event will took place at Maria, a venue situated immediately on the former Berlin 'death strip' once dividing the city and the world into eastern and western hemispheres.

That's the show! Join us again next week when we'll do it all over again. But completely different.

Photo Credit: Mitch Vega

1. The Field "Sun and Ice, Excerpt"
2. Speaking in Code Trailer
3. The Field "The Deal"
4. Interview with Amy Grill, director of Speaking in Code
5. Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet Trailer
6. Starscream "Gravity in Terms of Space-Time" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Interview with Paul Owens, director of Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet
8. Paul Kalkbrenner "Gebrünn Gebrünn (Berlin Calling Edit)"
9. Interview with Hannes Stöhr, director of Berlin Calling
10. Cyrus/Random Trio "Mind Games"
11. Interview with Katyá Guseva, editor of Big Up Magazine
12. Dubatech aka Cold Form "Windless Dub (Havantepe's Breeze)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Interview with Graham St. John, editor of Dancecult
14. Zengineers "Passage to India" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Interview with Fernando Fonseca, founder of Public Spaces Lab
16. Niteffect "Naked Swords" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

When I launched solipsistic NATION I had a list of people I wanted to be guests on the show. One was Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto and another was Amon Tobin. I've slowly been making my way down the list and today I'm happy to cross Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings off that list!

One of my favorite memories of Digital Hardcore Recordings was when I was working alongside a kid who played Korn constantly. I think he was on a mission to assault my ears with what he considered the heaviest and angriest music he knew. I put up with it for a while but after a couple of days I got fed up with it and when it was my turn to play some music I dialed up some Atari Teenage Riot. I couldn't have wished fro a better reaction from him: he fell off his chair in shock. He was simultaneously stunned and laughing hysterically at the intensity of the music that was bludgeoning his ears! Ah, the simple pleasures in life.

I have to be honest, though, my initial reaction to Atari Teenage Riot was pretty much the same. Back in the 90's there was really nothing else like them out there and while I liked it I couldn't make sense of it at first. But like it I did and I started digging up everything I could find that was released on Digital Hardcore Recordings. Atari Teenage Riot will always have a special place in my heart but I also became a big fan of The Curse of the Golden Vampire, Hanin Elias and pretty much anything Alec Empire puts out.

While most of the stuff on Digital Hardcore Recordings sounds as fresh now as it did when it was first released, time, and Alec Empire have moved on so this week's show serves as a kind of a document of the history Digital Hardcore Recordings: how the label and Atari Teenage Riot began, how people reacted to the band and the label and Alec's new label, Eat Your Heart Out.

I'd like to thank Alec for being so generous with his time. I figured I would count myself lucky if I was able to interview Alec for 15 minutes but instead Alec gave me 90 minutes and the opportunity to answer any question I asked him. Thanks, Alec!

1. Atari Teenage Riot "Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture"
2. Alec Empire "We All Die"
3. Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
4. Ec80r "We Need A Change!"
5. Christoph De Babalon "My Confession"
6. Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
7. Hanin Elias "Nizza"
8. The Curse Of The Golden Vampire "Ultrasonic Meltdown"
9. Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
10. Bomb 20 "You Killed Me First"
11. Alec Empire "1000 Eyes (Radio Edit)"
12. Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
13. Killout Trash "Straight Outta Berlin"
14. Patric C "Snuff Out"
15. Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
16. Sonic Subjunkies "Central Industrial"
17. DJ Bleed "Deaf Dumb And Blind"
18. Interview with Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore Recordings
19. Shizuo "Sweat"

Atari Teenage Riot - Destroy 2000 Years of Culture

If you've listened to solipsistic NATION for a while then you know the first Friday of each month I feature a live set from an electronic musician. It's a lot of fun and recently we've had some great performances from KiloWatts, Iambic and Exillon. What began as a one time segment has become a regular feature on solipsistic NATION.

And that takes us to today's show which caused a minor dilemma for me.

A few months I asked Brendan Angelides, who records and performs under the names Eskmo and Welder, if he'd like to be a guest on the show. Brendan was kind enough to send me a link to one of his mind blowing mixes. I couldn't wait to play it on the show.

When I arrange my interview with Brenda I discovered is... kind of live. Live in the sense that his mixed the set in his studio. By this point I had already promoted his show on solipsistic NATION and didn't have enough time to set up an interview with another musician and feature one of their live sets. That aside, I decided it didn't matter because Eskmo's music is just so great. Plus, in a couple of months Brendan will be back on the show with, this time, one of his Welder live sets!

Speaking of live sets, next month we'll have tow live sets on one show, one from Masmöd and one from Terminal 11. Oh, and next week our special guest will be Alec Empire. We'll talk with Alec and her select tracks from his label, Digital hardcore Recordings.

Stay stuned!

Eskmo The Ancestor Mix [FREE DOWNLOAD]

1. Animal Collective "Daily Routine (Intro)"
2. Eskmo "Harmony"
3. Eskmo "Trudge"
4. Interview with Eskmo
5. Eskmo "Hypercolor"
6. Eskmo "Process"
7. J. Rodgers "Mediation Point (Eskmo Remix)"
8. DJ Quest & Eskmo "Speakers Corner (Antiserum Remix)"
9. Eskmo "Ocean Lazer"
10. Coalition of the Killing "We Are the Glitch (Eskmo Remix)"
11. Interview with Eskmo
12. Sub Swara "Constructing the Abscence (Eskmo Remix)"
13. Eskmo & Antiserum "Monstahs"
14. Jason Sparks "One Eyed Man (Eskmo Remix)"
15. Bar9 "Murda Sound (Eskmo Remix)"
16. Primus "My Name is Mud (Eskmo Remix)"
17. Eskmo "Agnus Dei"
18. Afghan Headspin "MSG (Eskmo Remix)"
19. DJ Quest & Mutiny "? (Eskmo Remix)"
20. Interview with Eskmo
21. Eskmo "San Francisco"
22. Animal Collective "Daily Routine (Outro)"

Eskmo Live at Yuri's Night 2008

I've got yet another jam-packed edition of solipsistic NATION for you this week! We'll talk with Mad E.P. and O' Slick, Sean Horton from the Decibel Festival taking place in Seattle this weekend, mutantrumpeter Ben Neill, and Thesis from the Echodub collective record label. And of course I'll play you the best of all genres of electronic music!

Mad E.P. is a crafty musician who jumps from genre to genre and yet somehow makes those genres his own, whether it's breakbeat or hip hop. Mad E.P. and O' Slick join us to talk about their forthcoming collaborative album, Brimstone Bangers.

As I mentioned, we'll also talk with Sean Horton, the founder of the Decibel Festival, a four-day annual music and arts festival dedicated to live electronic music, visual art and new media. The Decibel Festival began in 2004 and has been gathering momentum each year. This year's festival features more than 100 performers hailing from 10 countries in 14 venues across Seattle, conferences, panels and workshops. You can check out the schedule here.

We'll also talk with Ben Neill. Ben is a trumpeter and composer and his music has been recorded on such labels as Astralwerks, Verve, and Six Degrees. Ben is another artist who makes each genre his own and his new album, Night Science, is an offering of some heavy, heavy dubstep infused with his mutantrumpet.

Finally, we'll talk with Thesis from Echodub. I recently discovered Echodub when I downloaded their Anechoic Chamber net release dubstep compilation album. I love dubstep but I have to admit that most of the stuff I hear is plodding and uninspired but nearly everything I've heard from Echodub is beautiful and moving.

That's the show. I hope you dig it because there's a lot of sweat equity behind this edition of solipsistic NATION. If you do dig it (and I don't see how you couldn't) then why don't you show some love and give solipsistic NATION a quick 1 to 5 star review on our iTunes page.

Oh, before I go, I want to let you know that next week's show will feature a special mix from Eskmo and the following week we'll talk with the legendary Alec Empire, the founder of Digital Hardcore Recordings and Atari Teenage Riot! I'm also working on a show that will include an interview with Amy Grill, the director of the documentary, Speaking in Code, and a chat with King Cannibal. I'm still working out who will be the other guests on the edition of solipsistic NATION so stay stuned!

Photo Credit: Yago Veith

1. Mad E.P. "Hellbass"
2. Mad E.P. "Fire & Mud (Instrumental)"
3. Interview with Mad E.P. & O'Slick
4. Mad E.P. "Apocalypse (Filthy One)"
5. Truckasauras "Hold On (Dutty Larry Mix)"
6. Heyoka "Galactic Tea Pad"
7. Interview with Sean Horton, founder of the Decibel Festival
8. Voodeux "Bones"
9. Ben Neill "Afteimage"
10. Ben Neill "Monochromatic"
11. Interview with Ben Neill
12. Ben Neill "Futura"
13. Absense "Good Love" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
14. Apathesis "Untitled" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Interview with Thesis of Echodub
16. Moonchild "The Glass Lake" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

I've never said this before about previous editions of solipsistic NATION but today's show is not safe for work. I figure we're all adults so I don't feel the need to give such a disclaimer but I decided just this one it would be be a good idea to cover my ass so you can cover yours.

That said, I don't have a lot to talk about this week's show other than listen to it because it rocks so I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about the gear I use to make solipsistic NATION. It's a question that comes up now and again so I thought I'd address it.

First off, I rock the Sennheiser e 835 microphone. There are better microphones out there but Sennheiser e 835 is a solid, inexpensive microphone and it has served me well.

I run my Sennheiser e 835 through a Behringer Eurorack UB502 mixer which I then run through an Alesis NanoCompressor which is connected to my Mac Mini.

I use Skype to conduct the interview for the show and Wiretap Pro to record the interviews. Wiretap Pro has been updated and is now called Wiretap Studio but Wiretap Pro is perfect for my needs so I never felt the need to purchase the upgrade.

I use Sound Studio to record and edit my voice overs as well as my interviews and the IDs for which are then run through an application called Levelator to further smooth out the highs and lows in the audio.

I use GarageBand to sequence and mix solipsistic NATION. I suppose I could use GarageBand to record and edit the voice overs, interviews and IDs as well but I find that Sound Studio gives me the fine degree of control I require. Besides, as I mentioned, I'm using a Mac Mini and while it's a great computer I think I would pushing the machine to it's limits to simultaneously run Skype and GarageBand and I just don't want to take that chance while recording interviews for the show.

Once the show is mixed it is exported to iTunes and I then encode the show as an MP3 at 128 kbps/44.100 kHz using an application called the iTunes-LAME Encoder. It usually takes 15 minutes to convert the show to MP3 using the iTunes-LAME Encoder and while I could use iTunes' built-it MP3 encoder which is much faster (it takes just a few minutes to encode a show in iTunes) the iTunes-LAME Encoder delivers a MP3 with superior audio. If I'm going to compress the music to a MP3 I might as well give you the best sounding show I possible can.

In the past I've also been asked why I don't encode the show at 192 or 320 kbps for higher audio fidelity. The answer is simple. I'd love to encode the show at 192 or 320 kbps but that would significantly increase the file size of the show which in turn would increase the time it would take to download the show to your computer. solipsistic NATION has a global audience and not everyone has a high speed internet connection and I want people to be able to download solipsistic NATION as quickly and easy as possible.

I've also been asked by some people why I don't encode the show as an AAC. This is another dilemma I had to wrestle with. AAC is great because at 128 kbps an AAC file supposedly sounds better than a MP3 encoded at 128 kbps. Also, I could include album art, links and additional information in an AAC file but the problem is that AAC files can, for the most part, only be played on Apple hardware and software like iTunes or the iPod. I want solipsistic NATION to be as easily accessible to as many people as possible and encoding the show an an AAC would limit the size of my audience. Who in their right mind would want to do that?

So there you have it: that's how I create each edition of solipsistic NATION. As you can see, it's a pretty inexpensive operation. It's pretty easy to produce a show but I have to admit that even though I've been doing this for a couple of years and have it down to a science it still takes a considerable amount of time to produce each show. But I find producing solipsistic NATION a fun and rewarding experience and I hope you enjoy each show.

See you next week!

Photo Credit: TReynolds08

1. hai! Robotto "Breathe" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Lucidstatic "Aux8 (Copy Paste Repeat Remix)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Bassnectar "Teleport Massive (feat. Zumbi)"
4. edIT "Artsy Remix (feat. The Grouch)"
5. Alice In Videoland "MF"
6. Thunderheist "Jerk It"
7. The Robot Disaster "Guitars Are Overated (Suxx Rmx)"
8. Mochipet "Anthem"
9. Tiga "What You Need"
10. Starkillers Vs Armand Van Heldan "Funk.Phenomena"
11. Kanye West "Robocop (MOTOR Club Remix)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. Larry Tee feat. Amanda Lepore "My Pussy (Jeff Doubleu Mix)"
13. Aaron LaCrate "Just Wanna Featuring Samir"

Today on solipsistic NATION I have got a sweet Exquisite Corpse mix for your ears!

This is actually the third Exquisite Corpse mix on solipsistic NATION but even so, I feel I need to tell you what an Exquisite Corpse mix is. You actually might have played a version of Exquisite Corpse as a child.

Here's how it works: someone hands you a piece of paper and you have to draw the head of some person or creature, real or imagined. Let's say you draw the head of an ostrich. You then hand the paper to the next person but the ostrich head would be covered so they couldn't see what you had just drawn. That person would then draw a torso and they decide to draw the buxom figure of Marilyn Monroe. They then pass the sheet of paper to the next person but covering up what they had just drawn as well as the head of the ostrich. The next person decides to draw the legs of a gorilla. Yeah, let's go with that. The legs of a gorilla. Once the drawing is done everyone gets to see the complete picture and have a good laugh. The Exquisite Corpse mix goes something like that.

For today's show I have chosen a song to kick of the Exquisite Corpse mix and then sent it to a podcaster. And not just any podcaster but a podcaster who, like myself, plays electronic music.

Once they have the song they have to choose a song that would segue nicely after the track I have selected or go off into an entirely different direction.

The song they have selected is sent off to the next podcaster and so forth and so on until the Exquisite Corpse mix is complete. Each podcaster only hears the most recently selected song and must base their selection solely on the song they have just heard.

In fact, the mix you'll hear today will be just as much as a surprise for them as it is for you.

At the end of today's show we'll hear from each podcasters and find out who they are, what song they chose for the mix and why. Enjoy!

Oh, if you dig today's Exquisite Corpse mix then you'll definitely want to listen to the first and second Exquisite Corpse mix.

Photo Credit: Sam Javanrouh

1. Think Tank "A Knife & A Fork" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
   Selected by Bazooka Joe, solipsistic NATION
2. Dynastic "Kabouter (Remix)"
   Selected by Gareth Noyce, RK2
3. Dan Berkson, James What "Mescaline Circus (Original Mix)"
   Selected by Ryan Scott
4. Voide "Space Sponge"
   Selected by Snowy, Electronicast
5. Aleksi Virta "Princess Melodiae" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
   Selected by Pete Cooper, Bleepshow
6. Zeropage "Void Sensor"
   Selected by Michael, Electronica Monthly
7. Slepcy "With Charles Bukowski On The Ride"
   Selected by Spartacus Roosevelt
8. Dementio13 "Your Link Does Not Work"
   Selected by Pixieguts, PixieCast
9. Beckett & Taylor "Smash"
   Selected by Anji Bee, The Chillcast

Today's show posed an unusual problem.

solipsistic NATION is an hour long program, more or less. That's usually not a problem but once a month on solipsistic NATION I feature a live set from an electronic musician and not all of their sets are an hour long. When that happens I'll either play some of their studio tracks afterwards or if their live set is around 30 minutes I'll pair them up with a live set by another artist. Problem solved.

But as I said, today's show posed an unusual problem.

Our guest on today's show is Jamie Watts, AKA KiloWatts and will listen to his performance at the Forward Festival in Washington D.C. recorded earlier this year.

I've always dug KiloWatts' music because Jamie has a knack for crafting songs that have a kind of hopeful buoyancy to them. Go listen to The Headphone Experience or Native State Records editions of solipsistic NATION to see what I mean.

Jamie's been a busy guy this year. In 2009 he released Six Silicates and Undercurrent and a third album, Focus & Flow, out later this month that is a collaboration with Vanek. I was lucky that I asked Jamie to be on the show months ago because otherwise I don't know where he'd find the time to do it now. Jamie was kind enough to send me a recording of his live set at the Forward Festival and here we get to the problem: instead of just clocking in at an hour or less Jamie's live set is an hour and 20 minutes long!

As a rule, I try to keep solipsistic NATION to an hour . I suppose I could of just chopped off 20 minutes but I really didn't want to do that because I really like his live set and I know you will to. In the end I decided to play his entire set. This is a podcast, after all, so I don't always have to adhere to a rigid length to the show. The only problem that remained is that for those of you who listen to solipsistic NATION on KYOURadio will only hear the abridged version of Jamie's performance at the Forward Festival. Happily, you can always listen to the performance in it's entirety at solipsisticnation.com.

Anyway, enjoy today's show. Come back next and we'll do it all over again. But completely different.

1. KiloWatts "Live at Forward Festival (Washington D.C., March 21, 2009)"
2. Interview with KiloWatts

Today's show is great! I'll be talking with Jim Moynihan from Omelette Records, Great Scott from glitch.fm, Steve Nalepa and Deru.

Jim Moynihan is Spoonbill and he is also the founder of Omelette Records, a wonderful collective record label with artists that include the likes of Spoonbill, Frank Riggio and Alpha Channel.

Great Scott was our guest back in May and joins us again to talk about glitch.fm, an internet radio station featuring the best of glitch hop he helped launch a few months back.

Nalepa is another regular on solipsistic NATION. The last time I spoke with him he had just completed Flatlands:Remixes and had just begun working on the DVD version of Flatlands:Remixes.

Deru's live performance on solipsistic NATION began a tradition of featuring live electronic music on the show that continues to this day. I've anxiously been awaiting the release of Deru's new album, Say Goodbye To Useless, since he mentioned it on Twitter about six months ago.

Oh, hey, be sure to check out the related videos below for your continued edification and enjoyment.

Photo Credit: Randy Mora

1. Spoonbill "Gumtree (Respoon)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Spoonbill "Moth Adjust Stereo, Excerpt"
3. Interview with Jim Moynihan, founder of Omelette Records
4. Frank Riggio "Perplex People" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. HipGnosis "grainydontstop"
6. Ill-Esha "spook FL"
7. Interview with Great Scott, founder of glitch.fm
8. Ill-Esha "kitchen sync FH2"
9. Nalepa/David Last "Flatlands (David Last Remix)"
10. Nalepa/RND "4th of July (RND Remix)"
11. Interview with Steve Nalepa
12. Nalepa/Rena Jones "Rhodes Racer (Rena Jones Remix)"
13. Deru "I Want"
14. Deru "Hello"
15. Interview with Deru
16. Deru "What Happens When You Ask"

Cinetic Energy - Frank Riggio

Ill-Esha Intro

Nalepa + VJ Synesthete

Deru - Next Door

Today's show is pretty cool. I'll be spinning tracks that came entirely from musicians I've met on Twitter.

A couple of years ago my buddy Al told me that I had to get on Twitter. I was very cynical about social networks but Al had never steered me wrong in the past so I signed up.

I thought Twitter was pretty stupid and at that point there weren't too many musicians and record labels from the electronic music scene to make it all that useful to me. I just posted notices about editions of solipsistic NATION that had been released.

I didn't get it about Twitter. And then one day it just clicked.

Last December I was on a two week vacation from work. I was getting bored and so I just started spouting off whatever was on the top of my head, stuff related to electronic music and otherwise. I was pretty silly and pretty frank but what surprised me was the amount of conversations about some of the stuff I said generated. And that later led to other conversations.

At the same time Twitter was getting more and more mainstream attention and there were a lot of musicians and record labels joining Twitter. Suddenly Twitter became very useful.

Just for fun, I put the word out on Twitter that I wanted to do a mix of electronic music from artists on Twitter. Today's show the result of sifting through three hours of music.

It was hard to pare down three hours of music into a one hour mix. I've done my best to give you a sample of the diversity of music that was sent my way.

Keeping with the Twitter theme, I asked all the people on today's show to talk about their music in 140 characters or less, which you can read below.

I hope you enjoyed today's show. If you did, let me know on Twitter at http://twitter.com/solipsistic If I get enough responses I'll put out another Twitter mix in a few months.

1. Wildcafe Does House "You Know (Radio Cut)"
   @wildcafe I'm introducing my first release to you. It's called Wildcafe Does House "You Know?" It's an electro house smasher. Take a deep breath ;)
2. Charles Feelgood "Basshole (Charles Feelgood Remix)"
   @feelgood "Basshole" Charles Feelgood Remix(Original Jon Pegnato and Matty Schol)-Jackin beats, ripping bass, with a touch of Bmore, out now on Shush Music at Beatport!
3. Great Scott "Defcon"
   @djgreatscott "DefCon" pays homage to my favorite time of the year: the notorious hacking convention! Vox via Tim Leary's "Tune In, Turn On, & Drop Out"
4. 3'OhTree "The Beast Inside"
   @3ohtree A dark, angry, Dubstep track that treats sub-woofers how they are meant to be treated. Written & produced with pure hardware, no mac or pc.
5. hot mess "contra in a laundromat"
   @neondoom "Contra" is basically taking the idea of Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon" and relating it to trying to hook up in a club.
6. Auditory Canvas "Let's Go Stomp in the Mud"
   @auditorycanvas Inspired by a trip to Lightning in a Bottle Festival 2008, it poured down half of the weekend. still had loads of fun though.
7. James & Evander "Dro"
   @JamesAndEvander Dro was the first song we glitched guitar on. Its short for "Dntel Rip Off." Lots of layers of the Moog. LAYERS! GLITCHHHH!
8. Phylum Sinter "Sedna_Demik"
   @phylum_sinter Sedna_Demik is a chimey, noise-percussion track, taken from my album 'from unity to segmentation' on enpeg digital (out now!)
9. alka "immolated"
   @_alka immolated: a condensed aural view of life. swirling tones escalate to 1:20 when pulsing rhythmatics surge + overtake until an eventual decay
10. bllix "In the Pines"
    @bllix The disappointment you feel that it isn't a Nirvana remix helps me relive the time I stole baby Jesus from grandma's yard over and over.
11. Mystical Sun "Blue Lotus"
    @mysticalsun flowers of blue dub for drifting and dreaming.
12. Dave Seidel "Nur"
    @DaveSeidel "Nur" means light. Just intonation, micro-rhythms & acoustical beating. From upcoming release "Elementals" on @stasisfield.

This week's solipsistic NATION features select tracks from Sleevin Records mixed by the label's founder, Simon Littlewood, AKA Simo.

I know Simon through Goldilox. I knew Goldilox from back in the day when she was part of Boston's emerging electronic music scene in the mid 80s. She was a member of D.D.T. Last year I put together a show featuring D.D.T. (a few months later I would feature a live set from D.D.T. on solipsistic NATION recorded from the station that made me what I am as a DJ, WMFO.), Big Catholic Guilt, You Shriek and Think Tree. It was great to catch up Goldilox, Elaine Walker and Noel McKenna and it came up that Goldilox had sine moved to San Francisco and was helping run Sleevin Records with Simon. I made plans with Simon to have him on the show but as happens from to time, those plans never came together.

Last month I noticed that a number of albums from Sleevin Records were being promoted by IODA Promonet, a great service I use to find music to play on solipsistic NATION which reminded me of my plans to have Simon on the show. We got in touch and here you are: today's show.

This may or may not be true but I believe San Francisco is a hot bed for electronic music. I know other cities like Los Angeles or New York have electronic music scenes but there seems to be something special about San Francisco that has countless great electronic music and a community that embraces that music. Sleevin Records is a perfect example of great electronic music coming out of San Francisco alongside the likes of OM Records, Cheb i Sabbah, Asphodel, etc... The list is long.

Enjoys today's offering of tracks from Sleevin Records!

By the way, next week I'll be giving aways free CDs on Twitter. Follow me at http://twitter.com/solipsistic for your chance to win some great music!

1. SIMO feat. Diana Luna, Borrina Mapaka, Renee Wilson "Dub City"
2. Moody Eva "Fuck Off"
3. Interview with Simon Littlewood, founder of Sleevin Records
4. SIMO & Drunken Monkey "Step Into"
5. Moody Eva "Grab Your Tits"
6. Techture "Rusted"
7. SIMO "Mindless Banta"
8. Interview with Simon Littlewood, founder of Sleevin Records
9. SIMO & B.Smiley "It's A Nice"
10. SIMO & Drunken Monkey "Rennie's Skank (JFlea RMX)"
11. B.Smiley & Native Intelligence "Whacktrack(B.Smiley's Dub Mix)"
12. SIMO & Mancub "Punks Of Funk (Prato RMX)"
13. Interview with Simon Littlewood, founder of Sleevin Records
14. Moody Eva "A Little Taste"
15. Techture "Signal 1"
16. Techture "Cuts In Radar"
17. SIMO & Drunken Monkey "Controlled Manner"
18. Interview with Simon Littlewood, founder of Sleevin Records

Once a month on solipsistic NATION I feature a live performance from an electronic music. Recent shows have included live sets from Exillon, Rena Jones and Milieu. This week's show features a concert by Guy Andrews of Iambic recorded at the 2008 Waveform Festival.

I first discovered the music of Iambic through Travis Nobles, who runs the hiddenplace music blog. Travis has been a guest DJ on Solipsistic Nation several times (here and here) and on each show he played some beautiful tracks by Iambic. Iambic seamlessly blends Jazz, Soundscape, IDM, Post-Rock and Break Beat. I was so impressed with Iambic's music that I knew I had to have him on the show.

Speaking of which, today's show was originally planned to be released in June but due to scheduling conflicts I had to push it back until August. I mention this because during my interview with Guy he mentions some concerts he'll be performing at that have since passed.

I've listened to Iambic's live set recorded at Waveform Festival many times and it's a pleasure to be able to play if for you on today's show!

Upcoming live sets on solipsistic NATION will feature performances from KiloWatts, Terminal 11, ill.gates and Eskmo.

1. Iambic "Live (2008 Waveform Festival)"
2. Interview with Guy Andres of Iambic
3. Iambic "Break57"
4. Iambic "Terra Firma"
5. Iambic "Spirals"

Air (Live in Graz, Austria – May 2007)

These Lights by Kamikal-Act ll

This week's show is inspired by the Headphone Commute blog. I've always liked that idea, the headphone commute. Take solipsistic NATION, for example. You might listen to this show at home, in your car, maybe even at work. But most likely you're listening to this show on the ubiquitous white Apple earbuds. That kind of listening experience is more insular and intimate than just listening to solipsistic NATION in your car or over your speakers. It's my job to make it a rewarding listening experience.

I decided to run with theme of the headphone experience by kicking off this week's solipsistic NATION with a mix of psychedelic tinged music.

We begin with "Intro" from the Strange Fruit Project's 2006 album, The Healing. The Healing is a great album and it was a shame to pick such a short track from the Strange Fruit Project but aside from really liking "Intro," it also fits the theme of this week's show and segued nicely into DJ Food's "Extract From Stolen Moments" from his album One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World. And that takes us to Ras G's "Return From the Great Unknown" from his album, Ras G. From there this week's show goes into all sorts of different directions.

We'll also hear a track from KiloWatts. That was a tough one to call because KiloWatts currently has two new album out (Undercurrent and Six Silicates) but I decided to play "Two Parts" from his Ground State album. KiloWatts we'll be back on solipsistic NATION next month with a special live set. If you can't wait until then you can listen to the February 15th, 2008 edition of solipsistic NATION featuring my interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records. We played select tracks from Native State Records and of course we had to play Kilowatts because he's so great!

Speaking of Evan, up next is Evan Bluetech with "Another Bridge Burning" from his new EP, Call Of The Wild. Again, another tough one because Evan has recently been releasing a bunch of awesome music. You also might want to hear my interview with Evan about his new label, Somnia.

There are, of course, more great tunes on this week's headphone experience. Again, I really like the idea of music heard over headphones as being very intimate. But it's also like a soundtrack to your life. I remember a day, years ago, when I was waiting for the subway in downtown Boston. It was night, the middle of the summer, and the air was still and the humidity stifling. Yet the music I was hearing over my headphones transformed my environment to a the set of a sultry French New Wave movie. Let me know if you've had similar experiences.

Oh, hey, I wanted to mention that I was the guest of Joseph Matheny's GSpot podcast. We talked about the early days of podcasting, electronic music and the state of the recording industry. You can download the interview here but I suggest you check out previous episodes of GSpot and take a look around the Alterati blog.

Photo Credit: sevennine

1. Strange Fruit Project "Intro"
2. DJ Food "Extract From Stolen Moments"
3. Ras G "Return From the Great Unknown"
4. Prefuse 73 "Track 13"
5. KiloWatts "Two Parts"
6. Evan Bluetech "Another Bridge Burning" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Nosaj Thing "Us"
8. Kingbastard "Data-Rape Function Creep"
9. Koen Park "I Am Not Aboard This Ship Anymore" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Mochipet "Roll Credits"
11. Daedelus "Assembly Lines"
12. Moderat "Seamonkey"
13. SeventhSwami "Serpiente Cosmica"
14. Alka "Blueberry"
15. Gui Boratto "Besides"
16. general fuzz "eye heart knot" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
17. Masmöd "Orbit Around A Sphere"

Today's show is a mix that would ideally be played on a sexy and sultry summer night with the object of your desire on one hand and a mojito in the other. With any luck you're doing just that while today's show plays.

One group I'm excited to play on this week's solipsistic NATION is Sidestepper. Sidestepper is a Colombian band with English DJ/producer Richard Blair and Colombian producer/songwriter Ivan Benavides at the core. Sidestepper combines popular Afro-Colombian music styles like salsa and cumbia with electronica.

Another gem is Quantic Soul Orchestra's "Tropidelico." Will Holland (AKA Quantic), a DJ and musician, is the man behind the Quantic Soul Orchestra, which is a live band project with a changing lineup from album to album. Will has explored different genres of music in the past but the direction he's taken his album, Tropidelico , is very exciting.

We also have a track from Paul Malmstrom, the one-man band that is Monkeybacon. Monkeybacon is a favorite here at solipsistic NATION and you can download his music here.

Another sonic treat comes from Novalima, a musical collective by four Peruvian musicians several cities around the world: Lima, Barcelona, London and Hong Kong. "Malato" comes from their 2006 release, Afro.

I'm also excited to play a track from Ghostly International's Bodycode. I've been sitting on Bodycode's album Bodycode, for a couple of weeks, just waiting for the right show to play a track from the album. Today's show seemed like the perfect show to play "Arigato."

I'll play just about anything from Evan Bluetech but I'm particularly pleased that Evan has delivered a track that slots perfectly with today's show. You can download Evan's new EP, Call Of The Wild, here.

DJ Food has resurfaced with a brand spanking new album called One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World that I've been grooving to for the last few week's. I present the track "Tricky Little Ears (The Cheech Wizard Pays Respect To All Living Creatures Who Inhabit Dark Places)" to you as a gift.

Luxurious is another favorite and I'm pleased to play a track from their long awaited second album, Lost Vegas: Hip Hop Lounge Series Vol. 2.

Lokua makes another appearance on solipsistic NATION, this time with "Burning Money" from Lokua's Trails net album, which you can download here. Be sure to also listen to Lokua's live set on the April 3rd edition of solipsistic NATION.

Today's show is chock full of other great songs and musicians so enjoy!

Photo Credit: Club UltimateFelipe Smides

1. Club Ultimate "Carnival 93 (The Mardi Gras Mix)"
2. Sidestepper "Hoy Tenemos"
3. Quantic Soul Orchestra "Tropidelico"
4. monkeybacon "Her Secret Masala" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Novalima "Malato"
6. Bodycode "Arigato"
7. Evan Bluetech "Mysteriosa Flambeau" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. niteffect "never land"
9. DJ Food "Tricky Little Ears (The Cheech Wizard Pays Respect To All Living Creatures Who Inhabit Dark Places)"
10. Sixtoo "Duration, Pt. 15"
11. Luxurious "Dirty Royal"
12. Suhov "Exx Fuck" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Lokua "Burning Money" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
14. DJ Signify "Interlude 1"

This is the 150^th edition of solipsistic NATION.

When i re-launched solipsistic NATION as a podcast I knew that I would easily release 100 shows. I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to accomplish on solipsistic NATION like having guest DJs on the show, spotlighting record labels and playing a recording of a live performance of an electronic music each month. I've done all that more in 100 editions of solipsistic NATION. I just never gave much thought what I'd do after those 100 shows. But here we are.

Turned out there was nothing to worry about because I've got a lot of upcoming shows on solipsistic NATION that I'm very excited about. More about those projects as they develop.

On to today's show...

Yeah, I know I just said that I've accomplished a lot of goals on solipsistic NATION but one show I've wanted to do since solipsistic NATION launched is an all mashup show. I can't believe it's taken me nearly three years to do this show!

Mashups (or bootlegs) are, of course, songs composed of a blend of two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song over the music track of another. The concept is straightforward enough but a mashup done poorly just sounds crass while a mashup done well stands up as a song in it's own right. The secondary goal is to create a song that plays two or more tracks similar or incongruous with each other that simultaneously get excited about the original tracks and the novel way those tracks have been re-purposed and mashedup.

One person who has consistently released awesome mashups is Mark Vidler, AKA Go Home Productions. Mark just has a knack for combining tracks in his mash ups. I believe Mark's "Wrapped Detective" draws from as least from The Police, Lionel Ritchie, Elvis Costello and Bob Marley. I know there's more but I lost count. Yet Marks weaves all these disparate songs together in a cohesive whole that somehow makes sense. great stuff!

Soundhog's mashup of Black Sabbath and Pink in "Get This Supernaut Started" is pretty straightforward yet succeeds on it's simplicity. I never paid Pink much attention but after hearing her on this mashup I found myself digging her own releases. Still, "Get This Supernaut Started" might be the best that Pink will ever sound because that track rocks! Of course it's gonna rock, it's got friggin' Black Sabbath in it!

It was actually DJ Danger Mouse's mashup album of The Beatles and Jay-Z, The Grey Album, that propelled Danger Mouse to fame and notoriety. Danger Mouse originally released The Grey Album to vendors in limited quantities. EMI, copyright holder of The Beatles, told Danger Mouse to knock it off. Word got out and Danger Mouse found himself a sensation. Thing is, for once the hype was justified because Danger Mouse's The Grey Album is slamming! yes, he's sampling The Beatles but in ways you wouldn't imagine. Jay-Z is relentless as ever but the addition of The Beatles puts a new cast to his lyrics.

These are some of my favorite mashups on today's show but you'll find lots of other gems. You can find more mashups at Mashup Town.

I still can't believe it took me nearly three years to get around to doing this show!

Photo Credit: autophen

1. Go Home Productions "Crazy Little Fool" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. DJ Danger Mouse "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"
3. Soundhog "Get This Supernaut Started"
4. Go Home Productions "Ray Of Gob (Original Mix)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. d s i c o "Dirty Bottle"
6. Party Ben "Somebody Rock Me (The Clash vs. The Killers)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Loo & Placido "Should I Stay Or Should I Boogie"
8. Go Home Productions "Wrapped Detective (Full Version)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Phil RetroSpector "Step Together" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. d s i c o "2 Turntables are Ice"
11. Phil RetroSpector "Naturally Feeling Blue" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. Go Home Productions "Ain't No Sunshine In My Closet" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Pilchard "The Doors take a Walk Down Sesame Street and Learn to Spell the Macarena"
14. Alex C "Count It Out"
15. Go Home Productions "Sexual High" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
16. Mighty Mike "Massive Fear (Massive Attack vs. Lily Allen)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Here's something you don't know about me: I hate talking over the songs I play on solipsistic NATION. On the other hand, I think talking over music is pretty useful because it has less impact on the flow of the show. It's a dilemma. Take this week's show.

Once a month on solipsistic NATION I showcase a record label that is putting out amazing releases that you need to know about. Recent shows have featured n5MD, Dragon’s Eye Recordings and Summer Rain Recordings. On this edition of solipsistic NATION we'll talk with Mike Paradinas (AKA μ-Ziq), the founder of Planet μ Records and play select tracks from his label. And therein lies the problem.

Planet μ began as a subsidiary of Virgin Records but in 1998 Mike Paradinas made Planet μ independent of Virgin and Astralwerks. In the last 10 years Mike has released great albums from a roster of amazing artists like Luke Vibert, Benga, Mary Anne Hobbs and much more. There's no way I can capture the scope of Planet μ in an hour-long show. All I can do is paint a picture for you with music but only in the broadest strokes. That leaves me with the unenviable task of choosing which tracks we'll have to talk over.

For example, I love Luke Vibert's "Homewerk." The repeating riff in "Homewerk" is a classic electronica theme and has been sampled many times. How can I talk over that. And then there's "Meinheld" by μ-Ziq. He's my guest. That's be just plain rude to talk over his track. I love, love, love just about everything Venetian Snares puts out and it would cause me physical pain to talk over "Twirl." But as I said, I would rather talk with Mike over the music than not play music at all. Plus, that's an extra track you otherwise would not have heard.

I'm really excited that Mike is on today's show. Planet μ consistently puts out amazing releases and has garnered a lot of respect from people who love great music. A fan base has been created around Planet μ because of the label's roster of talent and phenomenal albums. You'll become a convert, too.

1. Luke Vibert "Homewerk"
2. μ-Ziq "Meinheld"
3. Venetian Snares "Twirl"
4. Interview with Mike Paradinas, founder of Planet μ Records
5. Meat Beat Manifesto "Less"
6. Vex'd "Thunder"
7. Interview with Mike Paradinas, founder of Planet μ Records
8. Pinch "Punisher"
9. Benga "Killers About"
10. Interview with Mike Paradinas, founder of Planet μ Records
11. Boxcutter "Bug Octet"
12. edIT "Twenty Minutes"
13. Interview with Mike Paradinas, founder of Planet μ Records
14. Chevron "Going Out of My Head"
15. Mrs Jynx "Dusty"
16. Jega "Alternating Bit"
17. Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble "The Nothing Changes"
18. Interview with Mike Paradinas, founder of Planet μ Records

Once a month on solipsistic NATION I feature a live performance from an electronic musician. Recent shows have included live sets from Rena Jones, Milieu and Lokua. Today's show features Exillon's concert at Bang Face.

Jay Fields is the man behind Exillon and I first heard his music when I interviewed Nicolas Chevreux and played music from his label, Ad Noiseam. Jay, like so many electronic musicians, played traditional instruments like the drums, guitar and bass in his teens. That changed when he got his first computer and realized that he could have complete control over every aspect of his music. His love for electronic music kicked into high gear when his friends gave him the Impulse Tracker, a simple, sample based sequencer used by some in the demoscene. Exillon performs frantic IDM with an acid twist.

I was hoping to release Jay's live set last month to help promote his concert for The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence that took place in San Francisco, June 27th, but was unable to due to a scheduling conflict. Sorry about that!

Bang Face is a monthly event that is held at the Electrowerkz in Islington, North London and has been running since October 2003. The next Bang Face event takes place in August and features a line-up that includes Luke Vibert, Pinch, Bong-Ra, Appleblim and much, much more!

If you liked today's show, mention it on your blog or give solipsistic NATION a quick one to five star review on iTunes so I can spread the virus that is solipsistic NATION further and wider!

1. Exillon "Live at Bang Fest (February 8, 2008)"
2. Interview with Jay Fields of Exillon

Exillon LivePA @ Frequencee Mind Controlle 3-3-07

Bang Face 52 ¶ Around the World in 80 Raves ¶ February 8, 2008

One of the ways I put together episodes of solipsistic NATION is that I'll collect songs and keep them in an iTunes playlist. Some times they're tracks that are genre specific like drum and bass and other times the songs will have a sound or feel, which is the case for today's show.

The last few months I've been gathering songs that either seamlessly blends traditional and electronic instruments or draws attention to the differences between those instruments.

One of the bands I've wanted to feature on solipsistic NATION is the Boredoms. I've been a fan of the Boredoms since Yamantaka Eye from Hanatarash. Where Hanatarash explored the boundaries of sound and music with raw feedback the Boredoms did the same with instruments like the guitar, bass, drums, bass, etc. The Boredoms have mutated every genre of music they touched, whether it was funk or heavy metal.

I'm also delighted to play Cornelius on the show again. Cornelius is Keigo Oyamada and I have to believe that Keigo is a happy guy because everything I've heard from him is beautiful, wacky or pretty and just makes smile.

We'll also hear some music by Black Moth Super Rainbow and The Octopus Project. Black Moth Super Rainbow describe themselves as a psyche-pop group in early '70s electronic clothing but I like to think of them of what the Butthole Surfers would sound like on a happy acid trip. Black Moth Super Rainbow also collaborated with The Octopus Project on their The House of Apples & Eyeballs album.

I'm also a long-time fan of Odd Nosdam because all his music is incredibly inventive and I'm really digging his recent release, the T.I.M.E. Soundtrack, out on Aniticon Records.

One artist I've just become a huge fan of is Yppah. Yppah is a Ninja Tune recording artist and Yppah is "Happy" spelled backwards. Also form Ninja Tunes we have a track from Daedelus and from Ninja Tune's sister label, Big Da Da Records, we have a track from cLOUDDEAD. You can listen to my interview with Jonathan Shedletzky of Ninja Tune here.

Somnia Records is a label that consistently puts out breath taking releases and one of my favorites is juxta phona & offthesky. You can listen to my interview with Evan Bartholomew, the founder of Somnia Records, here. Another label that puts out mind blowing releases is 12k and I'm thrilled to play tracks from Giuseppe Ielasi, Savvas Ysatis + Taylor Deupree and Sawako on today's show. You can listen to my interview with Taylor Deupree, the founder of 12k, here.

There's a lot of weird and wonderful music on today's show and I hope you fall in love with all of it!

Before I sign off, a bit of sad news. First, Thomas of the spectacular French hip hop podcast, Yo La La, has decided to stop producing his show due to time constraints. Yo La La will be missed but you can always listen to the previous shows at the Yo La La archive. Secondly, Michael Jackson died at age 50 of a cardiac arrest. I was never a big fan of Michael Jackson but even so his music always got my feet taping and my hips swaying. The King of Pop is dead.

Photo Credit: Augie Pagan

1. Boredoms "(Boriginal)"
2. Cornelius "Toner"
3. The Octopus Project + Black Moth Super Rainbow "All the Friends You Can Eat" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Black Moth Super Rainbow "All the Friends You Can Eat" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Yppah "Gumball Machine Weekend (Pollination Remix)"
6. Odd Nosdam "Ethereal Slap"
7. cLOUDDEAD "Physics Of A Bicycle"
8. Cloudland Canyon "Heme"
9. Daedelus "LA Nocturn"
10. juxta phona & offthesky "trust & roullette"
11. Giuseppe Ielasi "Track 08"
12. Savvas Ysatis + Taylor Deupree "The Youthful Sea"
13. A Wake A Week "One Take Away One"
14. Bizzart "Mount Washington Blue And Red"
15. Sawako "April - From Sea Shell (With Radiosonde)"
16. Konntinent "pin point" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

As much as I try and keep solipsistic NATION fresh I have to admit that I can be fairly predictable at times. For example, if on one show I play music that ambient and ethereal then the next show I go in the opposite direction and go hard. Today's show is is exactly like that. Last week featured melodic, shoegazer electronica so this week I'm going aggro with the likes of The Teknoist and Sickboy.

So let's talk about today's show.

First off, most of the tracks featured on today's show come from Ad Noiseam and Tympanik Audio.

First up from Ad Noiseam is The Teknoist from his wonderfully titled first full-length album, ...Like A Hurricane Made Of Zombies. Definitely stuff to make your ears bleed! Also from Ad Noiseam is Enduser, an artists I've been meaning to feature on solipsistic NATION for a very long time. I'm thrilled to finally be able to play a track from his Pushing Back album. The we've got a track from Sickboy's Time To Play CD. From Omelette Records we've got the weird and wonderful Frank Riggio who crafts songs that often remind me of Amon Tobin's Out From Out Where album (by the way, you can download Riggio's Noise Thinking EP absolutely for free here). Going back to Ad Noiseam, we also have tow tracks from Abelcain and Cdatakill from their Passage album. From there we move on to a track from Meat Beat Manifesto's Autoimmune album available on Metropolis Records. From Tympanik Audio we've got a track from Ad·ver·sary and then we bounce back to Ad Noiseam with from Larvae and then back to Tympanik with Pandora's Black Book and Integral. We'll close this week's show with a track from Blackfilm's self titled album on Spectraliquid.

If I'm going to stay true to form then next week I guess I'll have to play a set of soothing and relaxing music. Maybe I'll do a mix of industrial music just to keep you on your toes.

If you're craving more music featured on today's show then I suggest listening to the Ad Noiseam, Tympanik Audio, Spectraliquid and Metropolis Records record label showcases on solipsistic NATION. You also might want to listen to the mix Blackfilm put together for solipsistic NATION or Meat Beat Manifesto's live set.

If you liked today's show, mention it on your blog or give solipsistic NATION a quick one to five star review on iTunes so I can spread the virus that is solipsistic NATION further and wider!

Photo Credit: BFLV

1. The Teknoist "No Such Luck"
2. Enduser "The Maker"
3. Sickboy "Spartan Gabba"
4. Frank Riggio "Mini Cum Shot" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Abelcain "Musca Domestica (Cdatakill Remix)"
6. Cdatakill "Tornado Sirens (Abelcain Remix)"
7. Meat Beat Manifesto "Less"
8. Ad·ver·sary "Waiting For Gira (Phylr Remix)"
9. Larvae "Gigan And The Mysterians"
10. Pandora's Black Book "The Wait"
11. Displacer "The Witching Hour"
12. Integral "Moonwalk"
13. Blackfilm "Five Years"

Since re-launching solipsistic NATION as a podcast I've done over 25 episodes showcasing records labels that you absolutely need to know about. There are so many labels putting out such amazing releases that it some times take months, if not years, to get get to. One such label is n5MD.

n5MD was unique from the start. Founder Mike Cadoo launched n5MD as a MiniDisc-only label (hence the name, an acronym for "No Fives, Minidiscs!"). n5MD eventually transitioned to CDs when they Sony stopped manufacturing pre-recorded MiniDiscs. Whatever the platform, almost from the very beginning Mike was putting out releases that he defines as "emotional experiments in music."

What I've always found so charming is that the releases on n5MD don't just provide musics that establishes a mood, the releases on n5MD take you on an emotional journey, which I find far more compelling and interesting. Anyone can play a chord in E minor that will evoke an emotional response but it's much more difficult to build a song is emotionally complex and takes you places in your imagination. Let me take that back. There are plenty of people who can do that, there are just few people who do it well and do it with sincerity and I think that's what n5MD is all about.

If that isn't enough for you, n5MD also has launched sister labels Enpeg Digital and Nonresponse. Enpeg Digital is the digital only division of n5MD while Nonresponse is a label run by Clay Emerson and Ian Pullman of Loess.

I know you're going to love today's show and if you'd like to hear more music from n5MD I suggest you download the n5md Label Sampler with Bitcrush from XLR8R's podcast.

Speaking of podcasts, two weeks ago I put together a mix of experimental and psychedelic music for the always excellent Spartacus Roosevelt podcast which you can download here.

As much as I love electronic music I also love many different genres of music. The format of solipsistic NATION doesn't allow me to explore those other kinds of music n the show so I made a deal with Spartacus: he can host an episode of solipsistic NATION and play electronic music he digs if I can host an episode of Spartacus Roosevelt. Fortunately he agreed and you can expect a mix from him on an upcoming show. In the meantime, check you out the mix I did for his show. It's got everything from the Butthole Surfers to Zoviet France and it will melt your brain!

Finally, if you're digging solipsistic NATION why not mention us on your blog or on Twitter. Maybe even give solipsistic NATION a one to five star rating iTunes. Thanks!

1. Funckarma "The Other Dredge"
2. Ruxpin "A Sunrise (and They Turned into Stones)"
3. Another Electronic Musician "Congee"
4. Interview with Mike Cadoo, founder of n5MD
5. Phylum Sinter "What Once Was One Now Adds Two"
6. Fell "Bulgaria"
7. SubtractiveLAD "Through The Trees"
8. Interview with Mike Cadoo, founder of n5MD
9. Loess "Nomon"
10. Proem "Sputterly"
11. Interview with Mike Cadoo, founder of n5MD
12. Plastik Joy "Hands"
13. Lights Out Asia "Radars Over the Ghost Of Chernobyl"
14. Near The Parenthesis "Departing Gate"
15. Interview with Mike Cadoo, founder of n5MD
16. Last Days "Blue And White Flowers"

If this is your first time tuning into solipsistic NATION you should know that the first Friday of each month I feature a recording of a live performance from an electronic musician.

Recent shows have included live sets from Amon Tobin, Milieu and Lokua. This week's show features Rena Jones' concert recorded at The Triple Door for the Decibel Festival Fundraiser in Seattle recorded on May 6, 2009. The show also included performances from Gala with Helios, Lusine and the Seattle Piano Collective.

Rena is a multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer who weaves traditional instruments such as the violin and cello with digital instruments. Rena has also provided background music for the award winning video games Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution.

Rena Jones has also released tracks with such reputable international labels as Iboga Records, Spun Records, Aleph Zero Records and Native State Records.

If memory serves, I first heard Rena Jones music on the new defunct Fake Science podcast. I was immediately struck by Rena's beautiful music. Some how she was able to weave the feeling of stillness and movement together in a spell of the eternal now. Heady stuff! I was so enchanted that I had her come on the Just Chill edition of solipsistic NATION to talk about her album, Driftwood. Rena has since launched her own label, Cartesian Binary Recordings, and her first release on her label will be her album, Indra's Web. I thought this would be the perfect time to have Rena back on solipsistic Nation to talk about her new label and album!

By the way, I highly recommend you read Fluid Motion's interview with Rena and their review of Indra's Web.

1. Rena Jones "Live at The Triple Door (May 6 2009)"
2. Interview with Rena Jones
3. Rena Jones "A Lullaby for Corvis"
4. Rena Jones "Helix"
5. Rena Jones "Helix (EVAC Remix)"

Rena Jones - Open Me Slowly

Rena Jones Live @ Someday Lounge

Once a month on solipsistic NATION I feature a live set from a musician and showcase a music label that is putting out amazing releases. While this format keeps solipsistic NATION and unique amongst other shows that specialize in electronic music it really doesn't give me the opportunity to put together mixes of my own. That said, I get very excited whenever I can put together a mix for the show.

Last week I did a mix of dubstep. I've heard it said many times in the past that dubstep is drum and bass slowed down and that inspired me to put together a drum and bass mix for this week's show.

Like all other sub genres of electronic music drum and bass comes in a variety of different styles and moods. I was sorely tempted to do a mix of fluid drum and bass for a very sexy and jazzy feel but I decided to go in the opposite direction and play some incredibly fierce drum and bass. I'll admit right here that I've always been attracted to the aggressive aspects of drum and bass. It's such a visceral experience that I just can't resist! If you're more into fluid drum and bass, don't worry, I'll play some of that on the show in the next few months.

For this week's solipsistic NATION I've put together some of the fiercest drum and bass tracks I've come across in the last few months. As an added bonus, most of the tracks can be downloaded absolutely for free! Check the playlist below to download some of the MP3s of tracks featured on today's show.

One label that has consistently put out fantastic drum and bass is Zardonic Recordings. I first came across Zardonic Recordings after reading about the label on the Phlow Magazine website. Just about everything I've heard on Zardonic Recordings is fantastic and it just blows my mind that they give their music away for free. Nearly everything in their catalogue I'd be happy to spend my hard earned cash on.

Another label featured on today's show is PlainAudio. Like Zardonic Recordings, PlainAudio is a net label that puts out mind blowing music that you can download for free. Whether it's drum and bass, experimental or electronic music I've yet to hear a bad track from PlainAudio.

One of the artists that appears on this week's show is The Angel. The Angel is a record producer, programmer, remixer, DJ and film composer and has scored music for such films and television programs as Boiler Room, KiDULTHOOD and Standoff. We'll have The Angel on an upcoming edition of solipsistic NATION to talk about digitally scoring music for movies and television.

Another artist I wanted to mention is Kubiks. I had the pleasure of talking with Kubiks on my previous show, the Small World. I've always dug Kubiks music so it's a pleasure to play one of his tracks on this week's show.

I hope you enjoy this week's drum and bass mix. If you're craving more drum and bass, why not download the Drum and Bass for Your Face!, Sturm und Bass and Biotron editions of solipsistic NATION.

See you next week!

Photo Credit: Willis Lucero

1. Zardonic & Malsum "Natural Born Killers" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. The Angel "Selector (On Tha Side Of Midnite) (feat. Cokni O'Dire) [E-Sassin Remix]" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Blal "Noise Control (Zardonic Edit)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Hek187 "Rockwool Vip" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Kubiks "Rendered (Kubiks Remix)"
6. Panda "Monkey Island"
7. Ramsey & USB "Cut Throat" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. Triplet & Lehis "Nebyval'shina" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Buzz "Revelation" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Macc "Air Drumming" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

To keep solipsistic NATION fresh I've followed a few rules. For example, a rarely play music from the same artists unless they've released something truly phenomenal.

On of the other rules I try to adhere to is not to play music from a specific genre of electronic music to often. That's important because otherwise I could easily play breakbeat tracks on solipsistic NATION week after week. But sometimes I follow that rule to rigidly. Take this week's show, for example, which features a mix made up entirely of dubstep tracks.

I love dubstep. It has many moods: dubstep can be playful, spiritual or downright menacing and the bass and the drums always moves the music forward. But I have to watch myself or I'll play dubstep on the show constantly. I followed my one of my rules so blindly that I realized that it's been over a year since I've done a show dedicated to dubstep. That's much too long!

So I present to you on this week's solipsistic NATION a mix of dubstep tracks. Some artists, like Ebola and Cardopusher are more aggro and experimental, while other artists like Bionics and Frescoe are more traditional in their approach to dubstep ( considering that dubstep has only been around for a couple of years makes that an absurd statement - dubstep hasn't been around long enough to have an established tradition). There's something for everyone and I know you'll dig this week's show!

If you find yourself craving more dubstep then you'll want to listen to the documentary I did about dubstep labels featuring music from the likes of Boka Records, Lodubs and more! I've also done a show grimestep show featuring an with Leo Olofsson of Grimestep International and the lads from The UK Connection. Finally, I've got a straight up dubstep mix I know you're gonna love!

Photo Credit: Jon Cartwright

1. Ebola "Teledildonics (Shitmat Remx)"
2. Cardopusher "Toothsmasher"
3. Atreus "Born to Kill" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Pinch "Punisher"
5. 6Blocc "The End" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Lone Wolf "Uproot V"
7. Bionics "Feist"
8. Relocate "Dot Dot Dash"
9. Spatial "Artcore Steppa"
10. Scuba "Braille Diving"
11. Bass Science "Razors"
12. Frescoe "Afghanistan"

This week on solipsistic NATION our guests are Bassnectar, Kush Arora, Doubleclick of Two Fingers and Great Scott!

This show came together in an unexpected way. Originally I was just pulling together songs that I liked that I thought would work together nicely in a mix. But as I started gathering the songs I started noting all sorts of connections. For example, Nibu has MC'd on tracks for both Great Scott and Bassnectar. Also, this month Bassnectar and Kush Arora did a show together in Portland. After some consideration I decided to focus on these artist and ignore the rest of the tracks I had gathered for the mix and as I interviewed them even more connections became apparent. Funny how these things work out.

A few notes.

If you like Bassnectar's music (and really, how can you not?) then you'll enjoy his appearances on the The Newest In New! and Koyaanisqatsi editions of solipsistic NATION. Kush Arora has appeared on the Year One and Record Label Records editions of solipsistic NATION. While this is the first time I've had the pleasure of talking with Doubleclick I have had Amon Tobin, the other half of Two Fingers, for the Amon Tobin and Amon Tobin, Live editions of solipsistic NATION. This is also Great Scott's first appearance on the show but you listen to more music from his label on the Muti Music edition of solipsistic NATION.

I hope you enjoy this week's show as much as I did putting it together because I had a blast! Oh, and be sure to check out the related videos below.

Photo Credit: BFLV

1. Bassnectar "Underground Communication (Featuring Seasunz)"
2. Bassnectar "Art of Revolution (Instrumental)"
3. Interview with Bassnectar
4. Bassnectar "Underground Communication (Featuring Seasunz)"
5. Kush Arora "Lose Control Feat. MC Zulu"
6. Kush Arora "British Sucking Desis"
7. Interview with Kush Arora
8. Kush Arora "Newcommers Feat. N4SA"
9. Two Fingers "Jewels and Gems"
10. Two Fingers "Keman Rhythm"
11. Interview with Doubleclick of Two Fingers
12. Two Fingers "Straw Men"
13. Great Scott "Theorists feat. Raja Wilco and Nibu [Radio Vocal Edit]"
14. Great Scott "Caravan"
15. Interview with Great Scott
16. Great Scott "Defcon"

Bassnectar Video

Kush Arora Video

Two Fingers Video

Once a month on solipsistic NATION I showcase a record label that releases fantastic music you should know about. Keeping with the theme of the show I focus on record labels that release music from all genres of electronic music. On this week's solipsistic NATION we'll showcase Dragon's Eye Recordings.

Dragon's Eye Recordings is an independent record label that focuses on limited edition and varied format releases from a growing roster of sound artists, composers, and producers. By showcasing the individual artists' viewpoints, Dragon's Eye acts as a platform for new, challenging, and provocative work. Founded by Paul Novak in 1989, as the audio/visual arm of Only Connect...Publications, the label was then relaunched by his son and Northwest-based sound artist Yann Novak to continue the family tradition of self publication. Novak has since expanded the label to publish works by artists whose voices he feels need to be heard. Dragon's Eye Recordings also acts as a companion label to Infrequency.

Special thanks goes out to HC, the host of the Headphone Commute music blog. As always, HC, is one step ahead of me on all things cool in electronic music and turned me on to Dragon's Eye Recordings on his review of Lissom's Nest of Iterations album. Thanks, HC!

Next month on solipsistic NATION we'll showcase n5MD. Next week on solipsistic NATION our guests will be Bassnectar, Kush Arora, Two Fingers and Great Scott. Stay stuned!

1. Kamran Sadeghi "Euqal"
2. Wyndel Hunt "3"
3. Interview with Yann Novak of Dragon's Eye Recordings
4. Clinker "Provodyty - A New Terrain"
5. Son of Rose "Grand Treatments"
6. Interview with Yann Novak of Dragon's Eye Recordings
7. Lissom "Adrift"
8. Corey Fuller "Light Along the Edge of Water"
9. Tadahito Ichinoseki + Tomoyoshi Date "Gensho No Tabi"
10. Tomoyoshi Date + Corey Fuller "Midnight Sanctuary"
11. Interview with Yann Novak of Dragon's Eye Recordings
12. Manning / Novak "Feeling Alone All Together"
13. Yann Novak "Lulluby"
14. Interview with Yann Novak of Dragon's Eye Recordings

The first Friday of each month I feature a recording of a live performance from an electronic musician.

Towards the end of 2008 I found myself scrambling to find those recordings of live performances and my resolution for 2009 was not to let that happen again. I got proactive and contacted about a hundered artists to appear on the show. I figured that out of those hundred artists only a handful would respond but that would be enough to get me through 2009. What I didn't expect was how MANY people would get back to me about being on the show! I'm not only covered for the rest of 2009 but well into 2010 as well!

Some of the live sets you can expect to hear in the next few months will come from Iambic, Terminal 11, ill.gates, Rena Jones, KiloWatts, Altus, Exillon and The Orb.

On today's show we have a live set from Milieu.

Milieu is Brian Grainger. Brian has had releases on such labels as U-Cover, Infraction, Awkward Silence, Boltfish, Attacknine and Benbecula. Brian also runs small boutique labels Expanding Electronic Diversity, Second Sun Recordings and Install with David Tagg, in addition to maintaining his own imprint, Milieu Music. Most recently, Brian has recorded music and sound for the Seumas McNally nominated game Dyson.

1. Milieu "Live At 114RKD (March 8, 2009)"
2. Interview with Brian Grainger of Milieu
3. Milieu "Autumn Fog Lifts (Yearbook Version)"
4. Milieu "Coastline"
5. Milieu "Night Ride"

Ever play exquisite corpse when you were a kid?

Let me refresh your memory.

Here's how it works: you get a sheet of paper and on the top of that piece of paper you draw something. For this example, let's say you draw the helmet of an astronaut.

You then pass the sheet of paper to the person sitting next to you and that person draws the torso. Let's say they draw the torso of a sherrif from a western movie: a white button up shirt, a leather vest with a tin star-badge pinned to it, and in the sheriff's hands are two revolvers, waiting to be fired.

That person then passes the sheet of paper to the person sitting next to them. But this time they've covered the top of the paper: the drawing you did of the astronaut's helmet. The new player on the game of exquisite corpse can only continue the drawing based on what they can see: the sheriff's torso.

That person decides to draw the legs of a ballerina, complete with tights and a tutu. And then they pass the sheet of paper to the person sitting next to them, but this time both the astronaut's helmet and the sherrif's torso are covered. Only the ballerina's legs are showing.

That person decides to complete the drawing by adding enormous clown shoes to the legs of the ballerina.

At the end of the game the drawing in it's entirety: an astronaut's helmet on the torso of a western sheriff with the legs of a ballerina wearing huge clown shoes. Everyone has a good laugh at their group effort.

There are all sorts of variations of Exquisite Corpse. Writers will adopt this technique to tell a story. Composers will use the Exquisite Corpse method to create a piece of song.

And that's what we're going to do on today's solipsistic NATION, but with music and the players are people who blog about electronic music.

I started out the Exquisite Corpse mix by choosing a song, which I then sent to a blogger who then had to choose a track that they thought should go next. The criteria is up to them: they can choose a song that would seguely nicely from the track I selected. Maybe they want to stay in the same genre. mood or key. Maybe they decide to veer off into a different direction. It's entirely up to them.

The track they selected is sent off to the next blogger, each person choosing a song for the mix based only on the track they have just heard until the mix is complete. Today's show will be just as much a surprise for them as it is for you.

At the end of today's Exquisite Corpse mix we'll hear from each of the players: who they are, what song they chose and why they chose that song.

If you enjoy today's show you'll want to listen to the previous Exquisite Corpse mix on solipsistic NATION.

Photo Credit: Patricia Bravo

1. Bubblegone "Thank You" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
   Selected by Bazooka Joe, solipsistic NATION
2. Flexor81 "Myriapoda" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
   Selected by Pietrobot, Igloo Magazine
3. Jason Corder "Twilight Sleep" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
   Selected by Travis Nobles, hiddenplace music
4. Skeetaz "Dirty Dobbers"
   Selected by HC, Headphone Commute
5. Bufi "Homeless Hero" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
   Selected by Mike Gregoire, blocSonic
6. Machine Drum "Stevie Bam Jackson Remix (Kettel)"
   Selected by Jacob Arnold, Gridface
7. New Look "Everything" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
   Selected by Warren Casey, The Music Lobby
8. Tolera Storm "Revelation"
   Selected by Daysha Taylor, Earthbird Music/a>
9. Mint "Dead Pixel"
   Selected by Bruno Lasnier, The Milk Factory
10. Sci Fi Industries "Questions and Ansewers"
    Selected by Miguel de Sousa, Connexion Bizarre
11. Halogen "Redux"
    Selected by Daniel Crossley, Fluid Radio

This week on solipsistic NATION we have a special mix from Spectraliquid recording artist, Blackfilm!

As usual I first heard about Blackfim through HC's Headphone Commute blog. HC and I have similiar taste in music but HC always seems to be one step ahead of me in finding albums that are spectacular. HC praised Blackfilm's self-titled CD on Spectraliquid. My curiosity was already aroused but when HC said that Blackfilm defibrillates Amon Tobin's pioneering sound I knew I had to hear Blackfilm's album.

Like Amon Tobin, Blackfilm is haunting, menacing and beautiful. But Blackfilm's music is also unique. He has an arcane sound that I don't know exactly how to describe. It's spooky, eldritch, almost as if Blackfilm had set out to score music for the Kafkaesque stop-motion animated films of the Brothers Quay. Let me quote HC quoting from Emmanuel Top's Turkish Bazaar single: "The music was new, black, polished chrome and came over the summer like liquid night." Once Blackfilm's music is inside your head it will infect you like a virus and you will never want to be cured.

If you enjoy today's show you'll also want to listen to my show featuring music from Spectraliquid any my show featuring music from Tympanik Audio. If you're also a fan of Amon Tobin you also might enjoy my interview with Amon and a retrospective mix of his career so far or Amon Tobin's live set.

For now, close your eyes, kick back and create your own imaginary soundtrack to accompany Blackfim's devastatingly beautiful mix!

Photo Credit: James G. Mundie

1. Blackfilm "Come & See"
2. Blackfilm & Eraldo Bernocchi "Untitled"
3. Interview with Blackfilm
4. Ekaros "Sad Moon (Blackfilm Remix)"
5. Blackfilm "SE5"
6. Blackfilm & Ekaros "Nowhere"
7. Blackfilm "Mahabharata"
8. Interview with Blackfilm
9. Blackfilm "Stalingrad"
10. Blackfilm "Midnight to 4am"
11. Interview with Blackfilm
12. Blackfilm "Interference"
13. Blackfilm & Bridget Insinna "Burning Sun"
14. Blackfilm "Eastern"
15. Hecq "Steeltongued (Blackfilm Remix)"

Okay, here's the deal: once a month on solipsistic NATION I showcase a record label that is putting out some amazing music that you should know about. Whether it's house or industrial or experimental, if it's great I'm going to shine a light on labels who have great releases from their roster of artists.

Recently I have featured music from Tympanik Audio, Spectraliquid, Alfa Matrix and 12k. This week we're going to hear beautiful music from Summer Rain Recordings.

I first heard about Summer Rain Recordings one day while reading one of HC from Headphone Commute's review of artists on the label. I've been reading HC's blog for a while now and I've come to trust and respect his opinions on the music he discusses so I kept it in mind to do a show on Summer Rain Recordings. Then out of the blue David Holmes from Summer Rain Recordings contacted me about playing artists from Summer Rain Recordings on solipsistic NATION and I thought that was the perfect opportunity to have him come on the program and talk about his label.

Summer Rain Recordings is pretty eclectic but the music that David has chosen for this week's show is very soft, beautiful and full of complex emotions expressing everything from quiet happiness to longing and regret. I think you're going to love what you hear.

Aside from the talent on Summer Rain Recordings one of the things that makes the label unique is that every artist signed to the label donates a minimum of 5% of their royalties for every release to NextAid, or a charity of their choice, and Summer Rain Recordings match their percentage donation from the label profits from the release. Ioda, Summer Rain Recordings distributor and one of my favorite music vendor, also donates 25% of their fees for each of Summer Rain Recordings releases to NextAid.

Every purchase of Summer Rain Recordings music helps NextAid to raise funds for their pilot project, the building of an ecological community center and children’s residential village in Dennilton, South Africa. Now complete are 10 structures of the 25 slated for construction by summer 2010. The center will serve as a safe home for 50 children orphaned by AIDS, a multi-purpose center for the larger community, a hub for economic enterprise, and an example of innovative solutions for future projects throughout Africa.

1. Toby Benson "La Mere de Ma Mere"
2. Proof of Concept "Object of Desire"
3. Auditory Canvas "Desert Sun"
4. Interview with David Holmes, founder of Summer Rain Recordings
5. About 9 "Keep Walking"
6. riccicomoto "Double Zero Theme"
7. Interview with David Holmes, founder of Summer Rain Recordings
8. Melorman "The Small King"
9. Pondermonkey "Cycle"
10. Mr. Squirrel "Nothing But Pebbles"
11. David Kira "Gia"
12. Tepui "Caribu"
13. Interview with David Holmes, founder of Summer Rain Recordings
14. Elysian Piers "Music Box"
15. Fabrizio Cacciamali "Close Curtains on a Sunny Day"
16. Manic "Spring"
17. Interview with David Holmes, founder of Summer Rain Recordings

When I first began featuring live sets on solipsistic NATION I thought it would be a once and a while sort of thing. Kind of a treat, really. But as solipsistic NATION progressed it became a monthly segment on the show. Even so, getting live sets on solipsistic NATION is a challenge and more than once I've had to scramble to get material for the show so my resolution for 2009 is to plan the live sets well in advance.

The live sets you can expect on solipsistic NATION will come from Milieu, Iambic, ill.gates, Exillon, Rena Jones, and, hopefully, The Orb.

This month we have not one but two live sets from Lokua.

The first live set was performed at the Morseland restaurant in Chicago on March 25^th. The second live set was also recorded at the Morseland restaurant on March 18^th.

Lokua is Joshua Keckner and is based out of Chicago. Lokua's music is rooted in hip hop and has a ambient and atmospheric feel to his music. Lokua has a back catalog of tracks hovering in the thousands and you can download his netrelease Trails album at Moment Sound, a netlabel that is maintained and curated by a select musicians from Chicago.

On this week's show I'll also announce the winners of Gary Bredow's documentary, High Tech Soul DVD, Paul Sizer's graphic novel, BPM; and Terrance Dean's autobiography, Hiding in Hip Hop from last week's giveaway contest.

1. Lokua "Live @ Morseland (03-25-09)
2. Lokua "Live @ Morseland (03-18-09)
3. Interview with Lokua
4. Lokua "Thanks Rainbow" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Lokua "C Modified" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

One of the challenges producing solipsistic NATION is balancing the music I feature on the show with the interviews. solipsistic NATION is all about the music and the interviews are used to enhance the show so I try and keep the interviews to a minimum. Too much talk detracts from the mix. But on today's show I'm going to toss that rule out the window and focus on the interviews because my guests have a lot of interesting things to say!

First, we'll talk with Gary Bredow, the director of High Tech Soul, a documentary about Detroit techno. High Tech Soul is the first documentary to tackle the deep roots of techno music alongside the cultural history of it's Detroit birthplace. High Tech Soul features interview with legends such as Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson.

High Tech Soul is distributed by Plexifilm, who produce original films, release films theatrically, and produce, distribute and markets DVDs. Plexifilm is generously giving away one copy of High Tech Soul on today's show. Send me an email at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could win a DVD of High Tech Soul!

We'll also talk with Paul Sizer, the author and illustrator of the BPM graphic novel.

The hero of the story is Roxy, a young DJ in New York City who spins in dark clubs and small bars with dreams of making it big. As Roxy becomes more and more successful she finds she has to make a choice: should she follow the music she loves or the love of her life?

Paul is giving away a signed copy of BPM on this week's show. Send me an email at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and it could be yours!

Finally, we'll talk with Terrance Dean, the author of Hiding in Hip Hop, about what it's like to be a gay man in hip hop culture and the entertainment industry. Terrance worked his way up for more than ten years in the entertainment industry from an intern to an executive, and has lived the life of glitz and bling along with Hollywood and the Hip Hop's elite. Full of startling anecdotes and incredible true stories, Hiding in Hip Hop is not a tell-all book but an honest look at stardom and sexuality.

If you would like a copy of Terrance Dean's Hiding in Hip Hop, shoot me an email at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could be a lucky winner of his autobiography!

1. K-HAND "Security" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. K-HAND "Mystery" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Interview with Gary Bredow, director of the High Tech Soul documentary
4. K-HAND aka Messenger "Wanderer (Ritzi Lee Remix)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. K-HAND "Wanderer (Original Mix)"
6. Focus3d "Inclusive Mindset (DJ Aura Minimal Techno Mix)"
7. Interview with Paul Sizer, author and illustrator of the BPM graphic novel
8. Phenomen "Made In Wishland (Zambino Tech House Dub)"
9. Dubacid "What Happens After (1394-4212 Acid House Dub)"
10. Relate4ever "Open Minded (Platona Deep Tech House Mix)"
11. Onelord "Sharing Cooperation (John Dare & Oscar Gonzalez Minimal Techno Mix)"
12. Interview with Terrance Dean, author of Hiding in Hip Hop
13. Ability "Sharing Transparently (Kevin Call aka DJ Nojz Techno Mix)"
14. Because "Sharing Cooperation (Charly Shawllporn Minimal Mix)"
15. Balanced "Universal Interpretation (Danny Lilwall Tech House Mix)"

High Tech Soul Trailer

One of the aspects of producing solipsistic NATION that I really enjoy is that it gives me the opportunity to talk to people in the electronic music community that in other circumstances I would never get the chance to talk to. I've gotten to talk with folks like Amon Tobin, Jack Dangers and Cheb i Sabbah, for example. How cool is that? I have to admit that with some of these people I do get kind of starstruck but once I get past that it's interesting to have a conversation with these artists about how they approach their craft.

On today's show were going to talk with Terre Thaemlitz. Terre is an award-winning multi-media producer, writer, public speaker, educator, audio remixer, DJ and founder of Comatonse Recordings.

Terre works in many different styles: electroacoustic computer music, club-oriented deep house, digital jazz, ambient, and computer-composed neo-expressionist piano solos. His work also explores the themes of identity politics such as gender, sexuality, class, linguistics, ethnicity and race, and the socio-economics of commercial media production.

Terre recently released his Dead Stock Archive, a collection of every audio release he has made under his real name or under his many aliases. Originally I planned was to play selected tracks from his archive but Terre pointed out that the archive has over 60 hours of music and that maybe I should play his ambient/jazz piece, "Superbonus." While "Superbonus" does not convey the scope and breadth of Terre's career it is a beautiful piece of music and provides an example of his many styles he is capable of. What's remarkable is that while "Superbonus" may, in some ways, evoke Miles Davis's classic album, In A Silent Way, "Superbonus" was composed entirely n a computer.

Terre's a very thoughtful person had many insightful things to say. Unfortunately I had to edit our conversation considerably to fit the time constraints of the show. Fortunately, however, I'm making the unedited version of that interview as a separate download. Think of it as a bonus feature that you might find on a movie DVD.

1. Funk Shui with Terre Thaemlitz "Superbonus"
2. Interview with Terre Thaemlitz

Each month on solipsistic NATION I focus on a record label that is putting out some releases and on today's show we've got a fantastic mix of tracks put together by Dov from Muti Music!

I first came across Dov through Cyberset Music. Cyberset Music is a music and media company based in San Francisco. Our growing family of artists blend musical elements of world, ambient, dance, vocal, and urban genres into fresh sounds that share the positive intentions and global reach of evolving contemporary culture.

Little did I know that Dov is also the founder of Muti Music. Since 2002 Muti Music has been one of the stateside labels pioneering the breaks sound with lots of flavour. Muti Music aims to provide quality funk-filled beats and to promote the domestic and international talent featured on the label and reflect human creative response to the urban futurist environment. Flavors of Breaks, Electro, Techno, IDM, Dubstep and experimental bass music are all present in Muti Music. They also aim to forge relationships between like minded producers. Muti Music has already proven to be a pusher of dynamic sound and talent, having released Kemek, Kraddy, EVAC, An-ten-nae, Atomic Hooligan, Future Funk Squad, Rhoca, Suff-x and more recently, Dov, Audiovoid and LayerZ!

This week's show has been sponsored by AteBits, developers of Tweetie, a fast, full featured Twitter application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Tweetie is already a great application and with AteBits 1.3 release Tweetie is even better.

Not only can you post to Twitter with Tweetie and send direct messages you can also view trends on Twitter, search Twitter and view posts from your local area. With the 1.3 release of Tweetie there's a new "Link" button to add web pages to Instapaper faster. There's also Tweeitie's new Ping.fm integration and much, much more!

AteBits is not only Solipsistic Nation's newest sponsor but they are generously giving away three copies of Tweetie. Email me at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could win a copy of Tweetie for yourself!

As always, you can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/solipsistic.

1. Seventh Swami "Forever You Forever Me"
2. Mimosa "Another Day"
3. Timonkey "Wobblesauce"
4. Knowa Knowone "Wildness"
5. Nanda "Cosmik Dance"
6. An-ten-nae
7. Klone "Can't Remember"
8. An-ten-nae "Citoyen Dub"
9. Siren "7th Level Controller"
10. Subvert "Speaker Humping"
11. Knowsleep "Autumn Kaskade"
12. Interview with Dov of Muti Music
13. LayerZ "God Particle"
14. ill.gates &ampl Adam Duke "Lizard Skin Loincloth"
15. LayerZ "Spit Wods Part 2"
16. Subhuman "Bottom Feeder"
17. Interview with Dov of Muti Music
18. ill.gates & Meesha "Irma Vep (Wookie Remix)"
19. Kether "Graffiti"
20. An-ten-nae "Griot"
21. Heyoka "Flying Dub Sauce"

This week on solipsistic NATION I have not one, but two live sets!

The first live set comes to us by way of Legato in Shibuya, Japan and is part of the Made in Glitch events. Made In Glitch is the first and only glitch hop party in Japan. Born on the west coast of the States, and now becoming established all over Europe, Glitch is a fusion of hip hop, electronic music and broken beats. The set features edIT of the Glitch Mob and was recorded in November of 2008.

If you like what you hear then you'll want to download the January 30, 2009 edition of solipsistic NATION where my guests were edIT and Boreta.

The second live set was recorded by Bass Science for Sub FM. Bass Science are MattB and Steve Nalepa. Sub FM is an online radio station dedicated to broadcasting the best in Dubstep, Garage, Grime, Dub and more!

This isn't the first time I've had Bass Science on the show and you can download their first appearance on solipsistic NATION. Steve also has been on the show and you can also download his live set he recorded for the Dub Beautiful Collective.

This week's show is sponsored by AteBits, developers of Tweetie, a wonderful fast, full-featured client for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. AteBits is also generously giving away three copies of Tweetie on today's show. Email me at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could win a copy of Tweetie for yourself!

You can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/solipsistic

1. Made In Glitch "Live in Legato, Shibuya (November 8, 2008)"
2. Bass Science "Live on Syb FM (December 11, 2008)"
3. Interview with MattB of Bass Science

Made in Glitch Video

From time to time I have guest DJs come on solipsistic NATION. Previous guests have included Travis Nobles from the hiddenplace music blog, Pete Cooper of bleepshow and Pietrobot, the co-host of Digital Nimbus and managing editor of Igloo Magazine. Today's guest is Denard Henry of Sonic Warriors United.

A few months I asked the folks I follow on Twitter if anyone would like to be a guest DJ on solipsistic NATION and Deanrd was one of the people who responded to my invitation.

Sonic Warriors United's members include Sprawl, Floppy, Marita Schreck, C-Dex, Betrisbsdruck, Jana Clemen, Reade Truth, Sneaker and Macoma.

In 2007 Denard and Jana came up launched Sonic Warriors United. They reactivated something that has almost been forgotten: the fusion of Techno, EBM, Electro and Industrial Dance Music. They are now filling dates in Germany, U.S.A and all of Europe. They plan a tour once a year to bring this concept to points of interest and are looking for clubs, bars and open air venues to host some events. For all Sonic Warriors United Events they plan 2-3 S.W.U. DJ's, plus 1-2 S.W.U. live act's along with local support: a DJ and/or a live act.

For more information on Denard Henry, tour dates and their street team missions, click here.

You can follow Denard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/denardhenry or follow me at http://www.twitter.com/solipsistic.

By the way, AteBits is generously giving away three copies of Tweetie on today's show. Tweetieis a wonderful fast, full-featured client for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Email me at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could win a copy of Tweetie for yourself!

Photo Credit: Jana Clemen

1. Sprawl "Sonic Warriors United"
2. WB Loops "Vinyl Wunderwaffe Vol. 1"
3. Interview with Denard Henry of Sonic Warriors United
4. Ancient Methods "First Method"
5. Marita Schreck "Pfirsichblut"
6. Datacide "The Ritual of Transparency"
7. Kosmik Kommando "Remember the Feeling"
8. Denard Henry "Vibe"
9. Lady Venom "Bass Me"
10. Crunch-Ø-Matic "Cøm Theme (Cøm 1)"
11. Erik the Viking "Flip2daStation"
12. Simon Owen "re-Evolution"
13. Virtual Terrorist "Search And Destroy Initiative"
14. Crunch-Ø-Matic "Earthquake.2"
15. Exit-12 "Earthquake.2"
16. Interview with Denard Henry of Sonic Warriors United

Getting this week's edition of solipsistic NATION was a bit of a chore.

Last week my iPod had a glitch and requires that I connect it to iTunes on my Mac to do a restore. The problem is that I use my iPod as an external drive to store all my music and also where I build playlists for solipsistic NATION. If I do a restore it will wipe out everything! I haven't found a way around this (email me if you have a solution) so I'm patiently waiting for the battery in my iPod to die and then I'll connect it to iTunes. Hopefully this will resolve the reconnect issue.

Fortunately, I have thousands of MP3 on my Mac to choose from (check the links below, nearly half the tracks that appear on this week's are available as free downloads!), not to mention the stack of new CDs that I'm constantly trying to work my way through. Still, it's unsettling that I might lose everything on my iPod. I've got a bunch of rare tracks that would cause me great pain if they end up unsalvagable.

On a brighter note, AteBits is the newest sponsor solipsistic NATION. AteBits has developed Tweetie, a fast, full-featured client for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. For a while I was using Twitterific, Twitterlator and Twinkle on my iPhone but after trying Tweetie for just a few days I deleted all those other apps. Tweetie beats them hands down. You can handle multiple twitter accounts, view your timeline, replies, direct messages and favorites, view Tweets in your local area, and much, much more.

AteBits is also generously giving away three copies of Tweetie on today's show. Email me at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could win a copy of Tweetie for yourself!

In the meantime, go listen to this week's show!

1. Spoonbill "Gumtree (Respoon)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Transient "Everyone Still Isn't Listening To The Lorax (Screw The Stupid Thneeds)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Ill.Gates "Sweatshop"
4. S.I.M.O. "Smut!"
5. Luxurious "Light Up The Sun"
6. Kodomo "Concept 3"
7. Slomo "Was Für Eine Welt (Remix by Zengineers feat. Backwater Planet)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. Skipless "Lo-Moments" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Authist & Dub One! "Ferry to Punjab (Remix by Backwater Planet feat. Zengineers)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. General Fuzz "Mellow Drama" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. Darkhorse "Take 2"
12. Maco "%" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Laura Palmer "Borderline" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

I've picked up a bunch of new listeners the last couple of weeks and if that happens to be you, thanks for listening!

The first Friday of each month I feature a live electronic music performance. Previous shows have included artists such as Amon Tobin, Meat Beat Manifesto and Bass Science. This week's show features a live set from Vergel Evans recorded Live at Tresor back in November.

A few months ago I put the word out on Twitter that I was looking for more live sets to feature on solipsistic NAITON and one of the people who got back to me was Vergel.

Vergel and I had been talking back and forth on Twitter for a while and had sent me a track or two in the past to listen to. Not only is Vergel influence by the Detroit techno sound but hes always had something insightful to say so I was really looking forward to having him on the show.

I wasn't wrong, either. In fact, my interview with Vergel went longer than I normally allow. While I enjoy having guests on solipsistic NAITON the thrust of the show has been, and always will be, the music. But Vergel is so passionate about music and had such interesting and witty things to say about the modern state of music that I let him go on longer then I would normally let a guest talk. I'm sure you'll agree that it was worth it.

By the way, Vergel produces a podcast of his own called Lx7 that you should check out. As long as you're clicking link, also visit his Assembler Techno Fanzine.

You can follow Vergel on Twitter at twitter.com/vveerrgg.

On, and I'm at twitter.com/solipsistic.

As long as I'm giving out Twitter addreses, I'm going to giveaway a free t shirt from Under Republic at the end of today's show and you can follow Under Republic at, you guessed it, twitter.com/UnderRepublic.

1. Vergel Evans "Live at Tresor (11/12/2008)"
2. Interview with Vergel Evans

On today's show were going to talk with Boreta and edIT of The Glitch Mob, DJ Hardware and Sin Quirin who are audio agitators in both Ministry and Revolting Cocks and are currently on the road for their Revamp Tour, Ninah Pixie and Dos from the Big City Orchestra and DJ and soundsmith Margaret Noble who is currently in San Francisco with Lux Boreal and the Little Know Dance Company in San Francisco performing Incidental Fear Numbers.

The Glitch Mob are Ooah, Kraddy, edIT and Boreta and for the last couple of years they've been putting out some incredibly funky that are guaranteed to move your ass. Their motto is "We Slay Crowds!" I've had both Ooah and Kraddy on the show in the past and do it's a pleasure to finally have Boreta and Edit on solipsistic NATION.

Sin has co-writing credits for the Ministry's "The Last Sucker" record and played guitar on Ministry's "Cover Up" album as well as Co-writing credits on the Revolting Cocks album "Sex-O Olympic-O" due out in February. DJ Hardware has been in the industry for the last two decades and is a definitive DJ and producer, combining brilliant remixed Classic Rock, Hip-Hop, and Top 40 Hits into dance floor destroyers.

Big City Orchestra is a long running art/anti-art group based generally in California. They were formed in 1979 and have released about 130 hour-long releases on over 100 labels.

Margaret was a DJ in the underground club community of Chicago from 2002 to 2005. Since then she has chosen to work in music concrete, taking her sounds from computers and the world.

I'd like to thank Melissa Mac Tavish for putting me in touch with DJ Hardware. You can find Melissa on Twitter at twitter.com/713punky.

I'd also like to thank Chris Gondek from Twitterhood for having me on his show to talk about solipsistic NATION a few weeks ago. You can listen to the interview here. You can find Chris at twitter.com/booktalk.

1. EProm "64 Bytes (Boreta Remix)"
2. Ooah "Bleeding Mirrors (Remix)"
3. Interview with Boreta and edIT of The Glitch Mob
4. edIT "The Game is Not Over (feat. J Dilla, Phat Kat & Dabrye)"
5. Revolting Cocks "Cousins (DJ Hardware Remix)"
6. Revolting Cocks "Wizard Of Sextown (Redlight District Revamp Mix)"
7. Interview with DJ Hardware and Sin Quirin
8. Big City Orchestra "Jumpingbean"
9. Big City Orchestra "Periwinkle"
10. Interview with Ninah Pixie and Dos of Big City Orchestra
11. Margaret Noble "Track 01"
12. Margaret Noble "Track 02"
13. Interview withMargaret Noble
14. Margaret Noble "Track 03"
15. Margaret Noble "Track 04"
16. Margaret Noble "Track 06"

If you've started listening to solipsistic NATION because of last week's soundtrack to an imaginary movie by Guy Ritchie or Amon Tobin's live set the week before, welcome.

If you're the kind of person who is easily bored by the same kind of music then solipsistic NATION is for you. Each week I explore a theme or genres of electronic music so each week is different.

This week out guest is Travis Nobles from the hiddenplace music blog who has prepaared a beautiful mix of music of tracks he considers the best Net Releases of 2008.

I'm grateful for Travis for putting this mix together because I've never been very good at putting together the obligatory best of lists at the end of the year. With any luck, I'll also have a HC from Headphone Commute's best 2008 releases as well.

You can follow Travis on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hiddenplace and HC at http://twitter.com/h_c.

1. Trills "Embryo" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Kiorda Daekin "Median" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Michael Hoffmann "The Pilot" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Interview with Travis Nobles of hiddenplace music
5. Solar Fields "Feelings (album mix) radio edit" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. iqtu "aiken" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Track53 "We Were Warm (Sun Showers)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. Iambic² "December's Shadows" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Lokua "Crystal Coupe" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. The Dandelion Council "Exploring Woods in Pyjamas Circa 1982" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. Interview with Travis Nobles of hiddenplace music
12. Ó lafur Arnalds "Fok" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Prologue "Legend" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
14. Planet Boelex & Lisa's antenna "Angels" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. general fuzz "go inward" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
16. Interview with Travis Nobles of hiddenplace music

Earlier this week I set my iPhone to randomly play tracks queued up in my playlist for songs to review for solipsistic NATION, eager to hear what would emerge. As I started adding tracks to my On-The_Go playlist I found myself picking songs that seemed like they would be perfect for a soundtrack for an imaginary movie by Guy Ritchie. Think Snatch. Or Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast. The mix on this week's solipsistic NATION feature songs that are gritty and trashy, sexy and fun, maybe even a little dangerous.

As long as I've got your eyeballs let me tell you about some upcoming shows on solipsistic NATION.

This weekend I'll be interviewing Boreta and edIT of the Glitch Mob. I've already had Ooah and Kraddy on the show in the past and this will serve as a bookend to the Glitch Mob interviews. If you'd like to be part of the interview, just call my voice mail at 1-619-717-6322 and record your question. I'll play both your question and their response on the show.

I'll also interview J. Anthony Allen and Douglas Geers who are running the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art taking place at the University of Minnesota, February 17 - 22.

Too wrap up the weekend I'll interview Travis Nobles hiddenplace music blog about the tracks he's lovingly selected for next week's show featuring his best of 2008 net releases.

Next month will feature a live set from Vergel E and March will feature a live set by Matt B of the Made In Glitch project and Bass Science.

If you'd like to keep up to date on upcoming shows or participate in future interviews just follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/solipsistic.

Photo Credit: Raul Flores H.

1. Tricky "C'Mon Baby"
2. Boys Noize "Let's Buy Happiness (Proxy Remix)"
3. Alice In Videoland "Who's That Boy"
4. Justice "Phantom"
5. Sébastien Tellier "Sexual Sportswear (Sébastien Mix)"
6. Kavin Sky "Testarossa Sébastien Remix"
7. Sex In Dallas & Biladoll "The Freaks"
8. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip "Thou Shalt Always Kill"
9. Andrew Weatherall "Feathers"
10. S.I.M.O. "Peaches"
11. The Streets "Never Give In"
12. Spank Rock "Sweet Talk"
13. Télépathique "Sex Drugs And Funk 'n' Roll"
14. Larytta "The Money"

A lot of people got MP3 players like iPods, iPhones and Zunes as gifts for the holidays and have been downloading podcasts to put on their new toys. If that happens to be you then you're in for a treat. Today's show is beat master and sonic soundsmith, Amon Tobin.

Amon has recorded some incredible albums such as Bricolage, Permutation and Supermodified. Even his earlier releases that he recorded under the name Cujo sound as fresh today as they did in 1996. His most recent release is Foley Room, and once again Amon pushed himself to explore the possibilities of sound and music.

If you're unfamiliar with Amon I encourage you to download the March 21st, 2008 edition of solipsistic NATION. That show feature an interview with Amon Tobin about his musical career and a retrospective mix of select tracks from his albums.

Once a month on solipsistic NATION I feature a live performance of electronic music and on this week's live set comes to from Amon Tobin, recorded in Brussels for his Foley Room tour.

If you'd like to hear Amon's concert without the interview, you can download his Foley Room Recorded Live In Brussels here.

1. Amon Tobin "Into The Dark"
2. Amon Tobin "Horsefish Live Mix"
3. Cardiacs "The Alphabet Business Concern (Home Of Fadeless Splendor)"
4. Two Fingers "Two Fingers (White Label)"
5. Spank Rock "Bump Switch Rmx"
6. Two Fingers "Two Fingers (White Label)"
7. Amon Tobin "Esthers"
8. Amon Tobin "Throwback Intro To SS Live 1"
9. Zilla / King Cannibal "Aragami Style"
10. Kelis "Aww Shit"
11. Two Fingers "Two Fingers (White Label)"
12. Amon Tobin "Kitchen Sink Live Mix"
13. Amon Tobin "Big Furry Head"
14. Tech Itch "Know"
15. Amon Tobin "Verbal ACC"
16. Two Fingers "Two Fingers (White Label)"
17. Boxcutter "Grub"
18. Autechre "Doctrine"
19. Amon Tobin "Foley Room"
20. Amon Tobin "White Label"
21. Dom N Roland "Ritual"
22. Amon Tobin / Noisia "Tobin/Noisia Collab Work In Progress (White Label)"
23. Konflict "Messiah (Noisia Rmx)"
24. Spank Rock "Get On The Floor (Disco D)"
25. Nice Nice "Uh-Oh"
26. Amon Tobin "Straight Psyche"
27. Autechre "Second Bad Vibel"
28. Noisia "B.R.E.E.Z.E."
29. Noisia "Concussion"
30. Kriptic Minds And Leon Switch "No Remorse"
31. Amon Tobin "Keep Your Distance"

Philosophy and science fiction has always been a part of solipsistic NATION. In fact, the name solipsistic NATION was taken from Greg Egan's science fiction novel, Permutation City.

Recently I've been reading Neal Stephenson's novel, Anathem. Stephenson's books are great reads full of adventure, heady concepts and passages that have made me laugh out loud. Anathem is a very different book for Stephenson. For one, it's written in the first person. Secondly, it takes place in the future and in an alternate universe. Stephenson thinks big and Anathem is no exception.

There are many themes in Anathem and one of the most compelling is the idea of causal domain shear. Stephenson first introduces this concept through a dialogue between two characters, one, a student, the other, his mentor. These two characters belong to a monastic-like organization who pursue mathematicians and science rather than religion. They are cut off from the world and even within their order there are orders who are cut off from each other.

In a thought experiment the mentor poses the idea that, if taken to the extreme, an order could be so cut off from the rest of the world that they become a unique culture with their own world, universe and timeline.

Anathem explores this concept and then slowly reintroduces the characters into the larger world that expands and expands until beings from alternate universes are in conflict with each other. Like I said, heady stuff.

What does causal domain shear have to do with solipsistic NATION? Thematically I hope this week's show will subjectively slow down the clock for you while you listen. With any luck, this week's show will prompt flights of fancy or insight gained through introspection that you can take back with you when you re-emerge with the real/imaginary materialistic world.

Photo Credit: Simon Crubellier

1. Kodomo "Concept 8"
2. Integral "Je Ne Trouve Pas La Sortie"
3. juxta phona & offthesky "sex, flies, yellow tape"
4. Spyweirdos and John Mourjopoulos with Floros Floridis "At"
5. Displacer "He Could Destroy The Earth"
6. Aughra "Return To The Red Room" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Blackfilm "Interference"
8. Emanuele Errante "Radio Hopes"
9. niteffect "blur emotions" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Lukeing Forward "Soulless"
11. Tapage "Pretend Not To See"
12. Mothboy "Rewind, Erase And Replace"
13. Mad EP "Menuet"
14. BrainSt0rm "Nightviews (Rough Edit)"

I usually release my shows Thursdays at midnight so you can kick off your weekend with the latest solipsistic NATION but the last couple of shows have gone out a day or two late. I know that since this is a podcast you can listen to it whenever you like so being late a day or two isn't such a big deal. But if you're like me, there are a couple of shows that I really enjoy and I get annoyed when they release their shows late. If I've annoyed you, I offer my sincere apologies.

This week's show is actually three days late. I've been sick for the last week and I just couldn't find the energy to get out of bed and record the show. Usually I take a few days off from work to recover from a cold but this year I've taken way too many sick days as it is and couldn't afford to take any more time off so I just had to suck it up and get through the week.

Being sick the last week has really sucked but I've been having some amazing dreams!

Last night I dreamt I was independent contractor who drove a supply truck for the military. I was checked through security to make a delivery and while I was on the base I saw a bunch of prisoners of war on their knees with their hands clasped behind their head while soldiers had their machine guns trained on the back of their skulls in an abandoned parking garage.

On of the higher ups approached me and was threatening in a very charming way. He asked me if I'd be interested in participating in one of their studies. With dream logic I knew it would be some sort of science fiction experiment that would give me fantastic powers at a terrible price. I begged off and spent the rest of the dream trying to escape from the base without drawing attention to myself.

Meanwhile, military scientists were studying my movements on security cameras and noted how I was unconsciously warping reality to aid in my escape. They were speculating on how dangerous I might become if I ever became aware if my power and debating when to send soldiers out to contain me.

Pretty cool, huh?

Photo Credit: damndirty

1. Shamanic Technology "Rites Of Passage"
2. Dubosmium "7Heavens" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Mystical Sun "Incense"
4. I Awake "Constellation of the Heart (Native Edit)"
5. Ad·ver·sary "International Dark Skies" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Sawako "Deep Under"
7. Al Margolis "Natraj"
8. Koen Park "Laburnum"
9. Bubblegone "Letters from Home" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. rngmnn "What Goes Around Comes Around" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. Evan Bartholomew "Leaving Behind Ourselves"

It's a rare rainy day in San Diego and the weather goes along perfectly with today's dreamy mix.

The second week of each month of solipsistic NATION I feature music from an electronic music label that I really like but this month I've been so busy that I couldn't find the time to do that. But since last month I did two shows featuring music from the Spectraliquid and Alfa Matrix record labels that I could be forgiven for slipping up.

2008 is coming to an end and if all goes well, the next two editions of solipsistic NATION will feature HC from the Headphone Commute music blog favorite albums of the year.

I'm going to kick off 2009 with a live set from Amon Tobin, who we had on solipsistic NATION, last March. I'm going to interview Amon this week and if you have a question you'd like to ask him you can either email me your question at solipsisticnation@gmail.com or record your question on my voicemail at 1-619-717-6322.

If you want to keep up to date on future shows, just follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/solipsistic.

1. Alex Tomb "The Gardens of Babylon (Breger Remix)"
2. Remute "Out"
3. Shamanic Technology "Toy Vision"
4. Bola "Waknuts"
5. Tycho "Sunrise Projector"
6. Detalles "Sociber"
7. James Bernard "Segue 3"
8. Stefano Spataro Solquest Projects "Post-Mushroom"
9. Kingbastard "Bipolar"
10. Desert Dwellers "Stellar Dendrites"
11. OP11 "Dome"
12. Mystical Sun "Dark Energy"

D.D.T. was a hardcore aggro-industrial electronic act that was together in Boston from the late 1980's until the mid 1990's. Noel McKenna did drum programming and vocals, Lisa Sirois did samples and some vocals, and Elaine Walker (who joined in late 1991) did synth programming. Elaine joined D.D.T. at the same time she was forming ZIA. The first ZIA lineup consisted of Noel McKenna and Lisa Sirois of D.D.T. Where are they now? Noel is now a Buddhist Monk in upstate New York and Lisa is "DJ Goldilox" in San Francisco.

Today's live performance features industrial band, D.D.T.

Ever since I started I started this segment I've been looking forward to this particular show. In fact, I wanted to play D.D.T.'s performance immediatley but I wanted to hold off until October, since that seemed the appropriate time of year to put out this episode.

First, let me give you a little history.

Waaaaaay back in the 80s I was dating a girl by the name of Arni. One of her friends was named Noel McKenna and a few years later he had started an industrial act called D.D.T. Since I featured live bands on my show I invited Noel and his partner in crime, Goldilox, to come to the station and play.

At the time my soundman was an action figure of a man named Harry Wallace. I could fill up several shows with stories about his crazy life but I'll save that for another time. The best way I can some up Harry is that he should have had the world "Go!" tattooed on his forehad in capital letters.

Anyway... Harry really, really dug the band and when they asked him to do sound for their live shows he went at it like he did every thing in life, with both guns blazing!

About a year later Elaine Walker joined D.D.T. and I think she really fleshed out the band with her microtonal influence. They came back to the station in November of 1991 and played another set, which is the recording you're going to hear on today's show.

Noel is currently on retreat as a Buddhist monk, Goldilocks is helping run Sleevin Records and on the road, and Elaine is brewing trouble with her band Zia and I had the pleasure of having them on solipsistic NATION back in May.

1. D.D.T. "Live on WMFO 91.5 FM"

Today's show came about from an email from HC of Headphone Commute. HC suggested that I have Kostas K come on the show to play music from his label, Spectraliquid. There are only a handful of releases on Spectraliquid, not nearly enough to qualify for my monthly feature on electronic music labels. Still, HC was right. The music on Kostas' label was mind blowingly great so I decided to split the show with a segment on Spectraliquid and the rest would be a mix of music that would compliment Spectraliquid. By the tile I had selected the least track I realized that the only way to do Spectraliquid justice was by dedicating an entire show to music from the label.

By the way, HC posted his top 10 mixes of 2008 on his blog. It's pretty eclectic and features everything from the Glitch Mob to Pinch's mix on Rob's Electronic Explorations podcast. HC included my interview with Amon Tobin and my retrospective mix of his musical career so far. I'm honored to be included in HC's list but let's be honest, if it's a mix of music from Amon Tobin, how can you go wrong?

I'd also like to thank Denard Henry for participating on today's interview with Kostas through his post on Twitter. You can follow Denard on Twitter at http://twitter.com/denardhenry. If you want to keep in the loop on upcoming shows on solipsistic NATION follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/solipsistic.

1. Cardopusher "Toothsmasher (Innasekt Remix)"
2. Interview with Kostas K of Spectraliquid
3. Cardopusher "Cockpit"
4. Ebola "Painkillers"
5. Interview with Kostas K of Spectraliquid
6. Ebola "Teledildonics"
7. Cardopusher "Collapsible Shelter"
8. Blackfilm "Come & See"
9. Interview with Kostas K of Spectraliquid
10. Blackfilm "Atlantikend"
11. Subheim "Hollow (Remix by Mobthrow)"
12. Interview with Kostas K of Spectraliquid
13. Subheim "Howl"
14. Blackfilm "Stalingrad"
15. Interview with Kostas K of Spectraliquid

Richard Wagner coined the term gesamtkunstwerk in his 1849 essay, Art and Revolution, to express his concept of a complete artwork. By this he meant an operatic performance that integrated music, theater and the visual arts. Today we call that multimedia.

But as usual with Wagner, gesamtkunstwerk had a multifaceted meaning for him. Gesamtkunstwerk meant more than incorporating various forms of artistic expression. Wagner, like his peer, Friedrich Nietzsche, saw that humanity was becoming a specialized creature. Wagner believed we compartmentalized our capacity for art, religion, philosophy and science and sought to return humanity to a so-called golden age where all those things were unified. The only way Wagner could possibly express this in the framework of opera was through music, theater and the visual arts.

Since Wagner you could argue that even though we now consume and produce vast quantities of media we have become even more specialized. Today we take multimedia for granted. It's like air. We can watch a music video on our iPhone on the way to work that's crammed with dancing, singing and special effects. Entertaining for sure, but nothing that combines all that to express and invoke the gestalt Wagner was striving for.

William Morrison and Justin Bennett are currently touring the U.S. with American Memory, an ambitions multimedia project. American Memory tells the story of artists in a far flung future who discover the American Memory Archive on the net. Intrigued but with no historical context to understand what they have found they broadcast their surrealistic impressions back through time.

Justin and William's gesamtkunstwerk approach of merge and recontextualize music, text, interviews, speeches, photography and film may be the best way to explore the multilayered history of America.

1. American Memory "American Memory Trailer"
2. American Memory "Artifacts"
3. American Memory "Dear Mr President"
4. American Memory "Backwards Song"
5. American Memory "Ghost Dance"
6. American Memory "Time Don't Steal"
7. Interview with William Morrison and Justin Bennett of American Memory
8. Stephan Mathieu "Lux-Scn"
9. Al Margolis "Frog Field"

When I listen to aggrotech, dark elektro or synthpop I sometimes flashback on my days as a young punk in Boston. Like a lot of punks, I was an angry lad full of venom and punk and hardcore perfectly expressed the intensity of my feelings.

The problem was that I wasn't full of rage 24 hours a day.

I had other emotions that punk simply couldn't express. A gloomy, overcast day went perfect with The Smiths (and there are a lot of gloomy, overcast days in Boston. When I was up for a night of debauchery James Brown was my kick start for the evening. When I was falling in love Coltrane's "Naima" would evoke the sublime and if I was heartbroken I could commiserate with Hank Williams "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." And if I was in the mood for some dark, trashy fun I'd throw in some Front 242 or Sleep Chamber.

To admit this to any of the punks I hung out with inevitably led to being labeled a poseur, which is about the worst thing you can call a punk. After a while I started to chafe under all the conservative restrictions of punk: the modes of dress, the limited selection of music, the enforced social punk norms, etc. And like most people who pass through this phase I realized that it was the spirit of punk that's to be celebrated, not the ridiculous "laws."

Anyway, it was right about this time that I started hanging out at Manray's, which was the place to be if you were into stuff like goth and aggrotech. The music was great and I dug watching the crowd. Goths had their own attires and modes of expression but there seemed to be an sense of playful irony while the punks were so dogmatic about everything.

Since then I've always had a love for aggrotech, dark elektro and synthpop Alfa Matrix is one label that releases some of the best aggrotech, dark elektro and synthpop you'll likely to hear. Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label the was founded in 2001 by Séba Dolimont, Bernard Van Isacker and Benoî t Blanchart. I first became aware of Alfa Matrix when I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast when I came across a release by Zombie Girl on IODA and I've been a fan of Zombie Girl and Alfa Matrix ever since!

1. Krystal System "I Love My Chains"
2. I:Scintilla "The Bells"
3. Ayria "The Gun Song"
4. Zombie Girl "Go Zombie"
5. Mentallo & the Fixer "Opening The Bandwidth For The Cosmic Signal (Fine-Tuning And Frequency)"
6. Interview with Séba Dolimont, co-founder of Alfa Matrix
7. Implant "Spanish Fury (Out Out Mix)"
8. Monolith "Transmission"
9. Komor Kommando "Love Your Neighbour"
10. Front 242 "Operating Tracks"
11. Plastic Noise Experience "Monoton Synchron (Remix)"
12. Plastic Noise Experience "Schlafmodus 3"
13. Interview with Séba Dolimont, co-founder of Alfa Matrix

About six months ago the folks at Areal Records were kind enough to send me a couple of promotional CDs. One of them was a live set in Berlin by Basteroid. I'm always on the lookout for new concerts to play on solipsistic NATION so I contacted Sebastian Riedl (aka Basteroid) and asked him to join me on the show.

It took a while to arrange an interview due to our conflicting schedules and the time differences between our countries. After a couple of weeks we finally nailed a date and I found myself up at 4:30 in the morning ready to interview Sebastian. Despite being sleepy I thought it went pretty well. Except for one small thing. In my grogginess I had failed to check the settings on the software I use to record the interviews. When I went to edit the interview there was just a recording of me talking to no one.

Fortunately, Sebastian was a good sport and recorded an intro for today's show. If you listen carefully you can hear his daughter in the background.

Enjoy today's show featuring Sebastian's live set in Berlin and be sure to check out his new project, IRR (International Recordings Records).

Photo Credit: ©dayvidday

1. Basteroid "Live Set (Areal/Berlin, DE)"

Originally I was going to do a Halloween themed show this week but after putting the playlist together I realized that it just sounded cheesy. Now I appreciate a certain amount of cheese in a postmodern ironic way but the mix I had put together was ridiculous. You'll just have to trust me on this.

I had to put together the show quickly so I was flailing about for ideas for mixes when I decided what playlists I had created for my iPod. I've got a couple of smart playlists that contain all the songs in the solipsistic NATION library sorted by year, in current rotation and previously played on the show. I've also got a dozen or so playlists grouping songs by genres or labels or themes. One playlist called "Acid Jazz/Trip Hop/Swing/Lounge" had a bunch of dope tracks that I had been accumulating over the last year. All I had to do was pull an hour's worth of songs for today's show and bang! Instant show.

Acid Jazz/Trip Hop/Swing/Lounge pretty much sums it up, too.

Mr. Scruff encompasses all those genres and his collaboration with Alice Russell absolutely swings. Paul Malmstrom in the guise of Monkeybacon has got this wonderful 60s retro exotica thing going on in his music and it's always torture choosing which song to play on solipsistic NATION. And as much as I try and keep things fresh on the show by rarely ever playing more than one track by an artists Suhov and Mothboy have been making their way into my mixes with alarming frequency. They're that good!

As I'm writing this week's show notes I'm listening to the mix and it just occurred to me that what would complete the show is a martini. Shaken. Not stirred. Of course.

Photo Credit: ©drjoanne

1. Mr. Scruff "Music Takes Me Up Featuring Alice Russell (Radio Edit)"
2. Parov Stelar "Wanna Get (Dublex Inc. mix)"
3. Robberriff "Stringing Away Revisited"
4. Riovolt "Rakki Deshita"
5. Ed Solo & Skool Of Thought "Rakki Deshita"
6. Monkeybacon "Meatball" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Don Shtone "Drunkable"
8. Luxurious "Chilled"
9. Suhov "Funny" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Pinker Tones "Beyond Nostalgia"
11. CX Kidtronik "Whoopsi Daisy Featuring Ricky Ray"
12. Modaji "Bar Blues" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Coleman "No Strings Attached"
14. Mothboy "Second Spin R.I.P."
15. Tosca "Chocolate Elvis (Boozoo Bajou Soul Sufferer Version)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Sometimes it sure feels like everything is going to hell.

We're simultaneously dealing with an economic meltdown, water shortages, the rising cost of food, peak oil, global warming, the sixth wave of mass extinction, dead zones in the ocean, islands of trash the size of Manhattan floating in the sea, terrorism, sanctioned torture, increased government surveillance and much more. It makes me reel to think of it!

I don't think about that stuff all the time. I'd go crazy if I did. This is what goes through my head on the odd day when it's two in morning and I can't get to sleep. I take all that stuff seriously but at the same time I'm somewhat cynical. Just last century we were all concerned that the world would end by the atom bomb, then later ICBMs and then overpopulation, killer bees from South America, AIDs, crack, holes in the ozone, etc. Seems like there's always something to be afraid about but in the end we're still here and most of that stuff we didn't have to be afraid about in the first place. But in our society it's difficult to maintain that kind of insight because we're constantly bombarded by the media with horrific stories and images.

Bruce Sterling once said that we're all on the Titanic. The ship is sinking but hey, the music's great! I put together this week's show in that spirit. Maybe everything we're hearing in the news is overblown, maybe we really are at the end of the world, but I got some tunes to kick out the jams!

Photo Credit: ©greenwood100

1. Sebastian "Dog"
2. Black Light Burns "Forkboy"
3. Saul Williams "List of Demands (Reparations)"
4. Tricky "Council Estate"
5. CX Kidtronik "Council Estate"
6. Mothboy "Moth F.M."
7. Mothboy "Given Away"
8. Bassnectar "Amorphous Form (Featuring Souleye & E Note)"
9. The Bug "Warning (featuring Flowdan)"
10. Roots Manuva "Witness (1 Hope)"
11. Meat Beat Manifesto "Young Cassius"
12. Scorn "The Palomar"
13. Enduser "An Apology"
14. Burial "Ghost Hardware" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Bass Science "Transmission from Planet Dub"
16. OP11 "Feu"

Here some useless trivia you didn't need to know about me.

I use the iTunes-LAME encoder to convert each edition of solipsistic NATION to MP3. I could use the iTunes built-in MP3 encoder but I want to give your ears the best sounding show possible. Compressing a track to MP3 means sacrificing quite a bit of fidelity for the convenience of listening to the show on your computer, iPhone, Zune or whatever you use to listen to tunes. If I'm going to convert music to MP3 then I might as well use the best encoder available. The downside of getting the best sounding MP3 I can that means twirling my thumbs for 25 minutes or so while I encode each podcast to MP3.

So what do I do during those 25 minutes?

I usually catch up with people on Twitter or checking email. Maybe read.

Today I blew the dust off my PlayStation and played Street Fighter Alpha 3 for 30 minutes. Because I haven't played in so long my super combos were pretty rusty (I play Rolento, by the way) and I overcompensated by mashing the buttons on my controller. By the time this week's show was converted to a MP3 my left thumb and forearm were throbbing.

Anyway...

This week's show goes out to Sean, who wants less interviews and more music, and Michael, who is my own personal Ganesh.

Got some cool tunes on today's show.

Can you believe it?! Ninja Tune's Hip Hop London imprint, Big Dada, has been putting out great music for over 10 years. Their recently released double CD, Well Deep, Ten Years Of Big Dada Recordings has so much great stuff on it that it was difficult to choose which artists I would feature on this week's show. More and more music from netlabels have been working their way into solipsistic NATION and this week is no exception. Natalie Walker makes two appearances on this weeks show. Once as a solo artist and once with her new project, Dive Index.

Enjoy the show!

Photo Credit: Liberoliber

1. Diplo "Diplo Rhythm"
2. Goldfrapp "Train"
3. Tiny Stikz "Watching You (Vocal Mix)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Lokua "Coupe Deville" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Suhov "Clear" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. DJ Internet & Kid Kool A.K.A.Pella "Games" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Nobody Presents Blank Blue "All The Shallow Deep"
8. Cornelius "Music"
9. Dive Index "Between Sky and Sea"
10. susumu yokota "My Energy"
11. Aunt Jessica "Thin Air"
12. Bitstream Dream (featuring Jenna Ferone) "Rising Sun"
13. Tricky "Past Mistake"
14. Natalie Walker "Quicksand (Thievery Corporation Remix)"

I have a love/hate relationship with House and Psytrance.

See, House is kind of like the glam rock of electronic music and Psytrance is the electronic equivalent of prog rock. House, glam rock, Psytrance and prog rock are all over dramatic genres of music. House and glam for its melodrama and Psytrance and prog rock for its pomposity, which I really have to be in the mood to listen to because I usually find that kind of stuff a little overbearing.

PsyBooty Records pulls off the neat trick of combining what I love most about House and PsyTrance.

Continuing with the whole House/glam rock analogy, what I love about those two genres is that they're incredibly sexy. And what I love in Psytrance and prog rock is their ability to sonically transport you to other realms. PsyBooty Records has the knack of picking artists who craft music that is at once very sensual and psychedelic.

I first found out about PsyBooty Records while listening to their music on the Fake Science podcast and instantly became a fan of the label. I've wanted to do a show all about PsyBooty since launching solipsistic NATION and I'm amazed that it's taken this long to finally get David Justin, the label's manager, on the show. On the other hand, it's a perfect example of how many music labels are putting out such great music that it's taken me this long to have David as a guest on solipsistic NATION.

This week's show is longer than usual because David gave me two CDs of music he wanted me to play. He knows that solipsistic NATION typically runs an hour, plus or minus a few minutes, and told me to feel free to delete tracks from his mix. But in the end, I said to hell with it. I figured that since David went through all that trouble and since all the music is fantastic it would be worth it to go long this week. Besides, since solipsistic NATION is a podcast I don't always have to be locked in to clocking the shows in at around 60 minutes. Enjoy!

1. Biotone "The Rhythm"
2. Psytrip "d3skoh"
3. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
4. Bluetech "Cerulean Funk"
5. Equisol "Mokoko"
6. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
7. Prosect "In Styled"
8. Sound Field "Passion Session"
9. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
10. Evan Marc "Silver"
11. Evan Marc "Ekoshok"
12. M-Field "Foundation"
13. Interview with David Justin of PsyBooty Records
14. M-Field "Progressive Evolution"
15. M-Field "Worldsoul"
16. Init String "Watching The Rain"
17. Init String "Bacon Shake"

On today's show I'm going to follow up on last week's all dub set by playing live tracks from Dubmatix and talk to the man behind Dubmatix, Jesse King.

Dub is a tricky genre. While the basic elements of dub are understood, but it's difficult to do good dub well. I've wasted hours that must surely equal to weeks of sifting through some truly uninspired dub to find the true gems. The sort of stuff that's flat, unimaginative and, worse, ungroovable. And Dubmatix's Jesse makes some great dub.

Dubmatix has charted both in Canada and internationally and tours domestically and abroad. Jess has also collaborated with reggae greats like Sugar Minott, Michael Rose and Alton Ellis.

I've been a fan of Dubmatix since first playing "War, Peace & Dub" on one of dub sets. When I recently realized for all the live shows on solipsistic NATION and with all the different genres of electronic music those shows offered I hadn't gotten around to featuring dub. I immediately thought of Jesse and asked him if he'd come on solipsistic NATION and share some music from some of Dubmatix concerts.

Oh, and I have a retraction from Bruno Natal, the director of the Dub Echoes documentary, who was my guest on last week's show. When Bruno was talking about Joe Gibbs he really meant Errol Thompson.

1. Dubmatix feat. Kulcha Ites "Burn Out The Rich"
2. Dubmatix Soundsystem "My Selecta"
3. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix
4. Dubmatix Soundsystem "War, Peace & Dub"
5. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Sensi"
6. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Dub Phanatique"
7. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix
8. Dubmatix "Soul Dread Dub"
9. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Pirate Dub"
10. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix
11. Dubmatix & Howie Smart "Heavy Living"
12. Dubmatix feat. Treson "Praise Jah"
13. Dubmatix Soundsystem feat. Ranking Joe "Tornado"
14. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Jump & Twist"
15. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Champion Sound"
16. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix

It sometimes comes up in conversation what my criteria is for the electronic music that is featured on solipsistic NATION. You might think my answer would be fairtly straight forward. "Why, electronic music, of course!" But what are we talking about when we're talking about electronic music?

Take music made with synths and a drum machine. That's clearly electronic music. But what happens when you add vocals? Is it still electronic music? See? Things immediately become murky. Take Depeche Mode. They used a lot of electronic gear so did they make electronic music? I would say no. They were a pop band that happened to make songs with electronic instruments. The Normal, on the other hand, were clearly an electronic music band.

What happens when you start adding guitars, bass and drums into the mix? Again, it depends. Kid Rock is a rock act that utilizes electronic equipment while Ministry is an electronic band that plays rock.

Ah, you say, but all music these days is played with instruments that are electronically amplified, and recorded digitally. And you are right. But I ultimately take the position that electronic music is whatever I point to and say "That's electronic music." It's my show, after all, and I can make my own rules. I just ry and make the rules consistent.

And that brings us to today's show, which is all about dub.

Dub is one of those grey areas because even in the earliest days of dub all the instruments were traditional instruments like guitars, bass and drums. And being reggae influenced that hardly qualifies as dub, right? But the difference is how a dub producer manipulates those instruments in a recording studio by dropping track in and out and adding reverb and echo. The studio itself becomes an instrument and, to my mind, makes it electronic music.

On this week's show we're joined by Bruno Natal, the director of the Dub Echoes. Dub Echoes is a documentary on the history of dub and its effect on music, from pop to punk and, of course, electronic music. Dub Echoes is full of great interviews and features legendary greats such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Mad Professor and Sly & Robbie and many, many, many more!

If Dub Echoes is screening in your area, I highly recommend that you see it. If not, no worries, you soon will be able to purchase it on DVD from Soul Jazz Records.

Photo Credit: Federico Bebber

1. Dub Echoes (Trailer)
2. Dubmatix "Ain't Got No Love Dub" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
4. Nucleus Roots "Meditation Dub" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Bloik "Lazy Dub" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
7. Random "Dubmage"
8. Spiral System "Different Light" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Bluetech "Diaspora Dub"
10. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
11. Suns of Arqa "All You Need is Dub" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. Sympath "Zero Sum"
13. Interview with Bruno Natal, director of Dub Echoes
14. Dubosmium "All You Need is Dub" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Adham Shaikh "Micro Dreams"

Have you heard of Bruce Sterling's Spime concept? No? Let me quote Cory Doctorow, one of Sterling's peers, who can sum up the idea of Spime better than I can.

"A Spime is a location-aware, environment-aware, self-logging, self-documenting, uniquely identified object that flings off data about itself and its environment in great quantities. A universe of Spimes is an informational universe, and it is the use of this information that informs the most exciting part of Sterling's argument."

As the web becomes ever more interconnected and self-referential I've been thinking Spime more and more. But where, I think, Sterling refers to Spime as a physical object that, from cradle to grave, generates all sorts of tagged meta data, I think of Spime in terms of a podcasts.

Take solipsistic NATION, for example.

Nearly all the songs featured on solipsistic NATION were either emailed to me or I downloaded from various web sites and many of those songs were collaborations between many people done across the internet. Each show I select which songs to feature on solipsistic NATION and then release it as a podcast and at a later date, as a radio program.

The podcast is encoded as a MP3 and is tagged with various meta data. There's the show's artwork (often generously provided by folks who diplay their photography at Flickr). The MP3 also tells you the name of the show, when it was released, how large the file size is and how long the show is. In addition to the MP3, I also update my RSS feed which notifies various blogs, vendors, services and search engines whenever I release a new show.

Spime doesn't actually exist. Yet. But if it did, I find myself wondering what a Pime-like show might be like? I imagine it would be a lot like solipsistic NATION, only more so.

Today's show is kind of Spime-like. Here's the data:

We'll be talking with Bioradio about this year's Oscillation Electronic Music Festival taking place in Albuquerque, New Mexico in Ocotber. Next, we'll jump to Portugal to talk with Bruno Miguel to talk about his band, :papercutz. We'll also talk with Ian White of Blip.fm, a new social media music service you really need to try. Finally, we'll travel to San Diego and talk to Miller Puckette, author of The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music.

Speaking of social media, you can find me online on some of these social media services.

1. Distraub "Article 73"
2. Bioradio "Enter End" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Interview with Brian Botkiller of the Oscillation Electronic Music Festival
4. Vertigo Venus "Vampire Hunter C"
5. :papercutz "Ultravioleta (Signer Remix)"
6. Interview with Bruno Miguel of :papercutz
7. :papercutz "Ultravioleta"
8. Roland M. Dill "The 8th Day"
9. Interview with Ian White of the Blip.fm
10. Demons "Grey Lady"
11. Interview with Miller Puckette, author of the The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music
12. Yimino "Miagranov"

As a former Bostonian, living in San Diego can be difficult. Especially during the fall.

When I lived in New England, for example, the seasons served as cue as to what I be drinking for the next several months. When summer came to Boston I would begin drinking rum and cokes or gin and tonics. They were light and effervescent. Just the sort of thing to keep you cool during the hot and humid summer months. When fall crept in I would switch over to Guinness, whiskey and scotch. They were comfort drinks to get you through the endless winter months.

In San Diego I lack those clues. On, there is a change in the seasons but it's subtle and to my New England blood it might as well be spring all year round. So what to drink?

I also have a similar problem with music. In the spring and summer it makes perfect sense to listen to The Ramones but once fall kicks in The Ramones seem kind of dumb. In the winter months I can listen for hours on end to someone like Nick Drake but in the summer Nick Drake seems kind of melodramatic. Bit if it's perpetually spring, what the hell do you listen to?

I don't have that problem with the music from !K7 Records.

The driving music of, say, The Herbaliser is perfect for sunny days by the beach and I can wind down with their moodier songs in the evening. I find that almost all of the music !K7 Records can be played regardless of the season. All of it is wonderfully inventive, sexy and playful!

1. The Herbaliser "On Your Knees (featuring Jessica Darling)"
2. Boozoo Bajou "Killer (Featuring Top Cat)"
3. Trüby Trio "High Jazz"
4. Bomb the Bass "So Special (Radio Edit)"
5. Erlend Øye "Every Party (Has a Winner and a Loser)"
6. Tosca "John Lee Huber"
7. Stateless featuring Lateef the Truthspeaker "Bloodstream"
8. Swayzak "Quiet Life"
9. Kruder & Dorfmeister "Black Baby"
10. Interview with Stephen Bowles of !K7 Records
11. Carl Craig "Sandstorms"
12. Interview with Stephen Bowles of !K7 Records
13. Cobblestone Jazz "Change Your Apesuit"
14. Interview with Stephen Bowles of !K7 Records

Back in January I featured a recording of Steve Nalepa's Dub Beautiful Collective concert on solipsistic NATION. At the end of the show I played some studio projects from Steve's side projects with The FMs and Bass Science. I asked Steve if he had any more live material he's like to be heard on the show and he was kind enough to send me a recording of a Bass Science concert in Tokyo.

Steve has been singing the praises of Matt B (otherwise known as RaNDom and RND) and after playing Matt's "Crystal Dub" on one of my dub mixes I understood why. I love dub and Matt has created some of the most beautiful electronic dub tracks I've ever heard. That Steve and Matt would collaborate together on Bass Science was no surprise. That they took Bass Science in the direction of dubstep, however, was a surprise.

Seems like everyone loves dubstep these days. Hell, I love dubstep and listen to quite a few dubstep podcasts. Unfortunately, dubstep is one of those genres of music that is difficult to well. All to often artists will make dubstep tracks that just plod along while others will will create songs that are mired in the conventions of the genre. Not so with Bass Science. Matt and Steve are consummate soundsmiths and are able to craft exquisite dub and glitch tracks. When they combine their musical talent they create dubstep tracks that are subliminal. Or dubliminal, in this case. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

So crank up your subwoofer and prepare to have the top of your skull blasted off by the low-end frequencies of Bass Science!

1. Bass Science "Bass Science Live in Tokyo"
2. Interview with Steve Nalepa and Matt B of Bass Science

There was a time in my life where I'd start off each day by saying "hoka hey," which means "it is a good day to die."

I know that sounds morbid but for me it was actually a life affirming experience. I felt that in order for me to be able to say hoka hey each morning, that if I might actually die that day, that I needed to know that I was at peace with the world and that the affairs in my life were in order. Did I have a good relationship with my family and friends? If not, I better make sure they were. Had I accomplished the goals I had set out for myself? And were those goals important enough that it would not be a good day if they were not accomplished? And what goals would I not lose sleep over if they were left undone by my sudden death? It really put things in perspective on what was important and what was not important in my life by acknowledging my possible death each morning. And it also made me appreciate my life that much more.

I've felt my mortality more this year more than any other year in my life. I've had that unpleasant feeling that there are so many things in my life that I've left undone and so many things that will be unattainable. I've felt out of balance. But then the words hoka hey came to mind and gave me succor.

"Et in Arcadia ego" is a Latin phrase that acts as another touchstone with my death. Translated it means "Even in Arcadia I exist." It's an ambiguous phrase that some people interpret to mean that I, the person who is now dead, enjoyed the pleasures of life. It's an ironic statement contrasts the grim spectre of death with the blithe joys of the living. But I choose to interpret "Et in Arcadia ego" the same way I use "hoka hey."

I selected tracks for today's show in that spirit. It's a celebration of the seasons and life but with the knowledge that some day we all will die.

1. I Awake "Complete Garden (Eternal Forest Edit)"
2. Dubosmium "Tuvadelic Odyssey (7Heavens rmx by Rafiralfiro)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Aes Dana "Shouting Valley"
4. bubblegone "sometimes i lay in fields at night" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Taylor Deupree "6 A.M."
6. Krill.Minima "Submarine Poetry"
7. Annea Lockwood "floating World: Part 1"
8. Janek Schaefer "Alone At Last"
9. Akira Kosemura "A Park"
10. Keiichi Sugimoto "Tum"
11. OTI "Large Open Spaces"
12. Maju "Achromatic" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Mathieu Ruhlmann "Rest"
14. Brakhage "Early Morning Frost" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Unit 21 "October, 16th" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

A few week's back I released the 100th episode of solipsistic NATION and naturally I took stock of where the show has been. Almost right from the start I've been interviewing musicians and record labels or having guest DJs on the show. At first it happened once or twice a month but at some point that became the focus of the show. I'm not complaining, mind you, but it did mean that I was more of a host than a DJ, and I like being a DJ.

Another consequence is that all the new music that comes my way piles up because I can only play so much of it each month. That's frustrating because while I like the interview aspect of the show I feel like I'm doing you a disservice by not keeping you up to date on what's new in the electronic music scene. I've decided to try and strike a balance and get back to being a DJ more than I have in the last year.

This August is pretty cool because there are five Friday's in the month, giving me even more opportunities to spin you some new tunes.

On today's show I've got some...hell, I don't what to call it. Is it Bitpop? Electro? House? Disco? All of the above? Whatever the case, it's a genre I don't listen to or play a lot of. But I don't know why not because it's a lot of fun and makes me want to dance. And I'm one of those guy's who doesn't dance.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm making an effort to actively be more of a DJ on the show because there's a lot of genres of electronic music I haven't even got around to yet. So enjoy this week's show!

Photo Credit: Roberto Rizzato

1. Boys Noize "1 & Down (Siriusmo Vs. Boys Noize Mix)"
2. Headman "Running Into Time (LeLe Remix)"
3. Rouge Element "Dead Drummers"
4. Feadz "Edwrecker"
5. Justice "New Jack"
6. DJ DLG "XESS"
7. LeRon, Yves Eaux & Luke Star "Whatever This May Be (Jalebee Cartel Remix)"
8. Busy P "Rainbow Man"
9. Stargroove "Rise Up"
10. Toy Boy "Belle & Sebastian" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. 2MB vs Dr Bit "8 bit Music" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. edIT "If You Crump Stand Up"
13. Dark Machines "Organus"

On this week's solipsistic NATION I've got some mind blowing drum and bass that'll be good to your ear hole.

A few things you should know about today's show:

First, I love drum and bass and I love drum and bass that's really hard, the kind that bludgeons you senseless with it's unrelenting beats and that's what I wanted to play for you today. But try as I might, I kept selecting tracks that were more atmospheric and jazzier so I figured, why fight it.

Secondly, most of the music you'll hear on today's show comes from the Zardonic Recordings and Plain Audio netlabels, which means that if you like what you hear, you can download nearly all the tracks on today's edition of solipsistic NATION.

Zardonic Recordings is a netlabel that releases top notch quality drum 'n' bass dancefloor smashers.

Plain Audio was founded in 2001 and featured vinyl-releases and quickly evolved to one of Germany's most break-dominant drum 'n' bass labels. Plain Audio has since expanded it's horizons to techno, experimental music and other styles of electronic music.

1. Hek187 "Blue Haze" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Kubiks & Lomax "Systematic"
3. Soul Delay "Float" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Hek187 "Twizter" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Alpha Omega "Shades Of The Past" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Panda "Baghdad"
7. Soulie "Walking Home" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. Fushara "Irrational Act" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Ijo "Frequa Gembh" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Cartridge "No Data" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Back in February I had Evan Bartholomew, otherwise known as Evan Marc and Bluetech, on the show to talk about his label, Native State Records.

Native State is a label the features artists who specialize in mixed genres such as dub, ambient and glitch. I've played many artists from Native State on the show in the past such as Nalepa, Rena Jones as well as Bluetech.

At the time Evan had just launched a new label called Somnia. The first album released on Somnia was Caverns of Time by Evan and I was immediately struck by it's emotional depth. I was impressed. If Caverns of Time represented the direction that Evan wanted to explore through Somnia, then I was along for the ride. Since then, Somnia has released music from Emanuele Errante, juxta phona & offthesky and a album by both Evan Marc and Steve Hillage. Each album is different from the last and each album is astonishingly great. Or maybe not so astonishing if you know anything about Evan.

I've invited Evan to join us again on today's show to talk about his new venture and to play select tracks from artists on Somnia. Kick back and kiss the sky.

1. Evan Marc + Steve Hillage "Hypnagogue"
2. Interview with Evan Bartholomew of Somnia
3. juxta phona & offthesky "escape kit..."
4. Interview with Evan Bartholomew of Somnia
5. juxta phona & offthesky "low spark of high squealed toys"
6. Emanuele Errante "Humi"
7. Interview with Evan Bartholomew of Somnia
8. Emanuele Errante "Fecunda"
9. Evan Bartholomew "We Set Out Into The Caverns Of Time"
10. Interview with Evan Bartholomew of Somnia
11. Evan Bartholomew "Cracks In The Fabric Of The Known"

We kick off each month with a live performance from an electronic artist and today's solipsistic NATION features Aes Dana's set recorded at the Gaian Mind Summer Festival in Pennsylvania in June.

The Gaian Mind is a psytrance collective has been producing Goa-styled events in nightclubs and at outdoor locations throughout North America since 1996.

Aes Dana is an ambient trance project who's two members are Vince Villuis and Sunbeam who also run Ultimae Records.

Ultimae puts out some of the most breathtaking music you'll find and Vince and Sunny are wonderful people. Every time I talk to them they put a smile on my face.

Sunny has been on the show twice so far. Once back in October when she played select tracks by artists on Ultimae and once in December when she acted as translator for my interview with Hol Baumann. If you enjoy this week's show then you'll definitely want to download those shows as well.

I'm pleased to have both Sunny and Vince on this week's solipsistic NATION.

1. Aes Dana "Live at the Gaian Mind Summer Festival (Four Quarters, PA 2008)"
2. Interview with Vincent Villuis and Sunny of Aes Dana
3. Aes Dana "O Adonaï, Live at at Les Dominicains de Guebwiller (France, 2008)"

These days I get all my news from the internet. I follow nearly a hundred blogs on various topics that fascinate. Instead of watching television I watch YouTube videos of video podcasts. And I never listen to the radio. I listen to podcasts. Nearly all the media I consume don't come down from on high from multi-billion dollars corporations but folks just like you and me.

solipsistic NATION is part of the new media movement and I thought we'd spend this week's show exploring how people like yourself are participating and changing the way media works, which in turn changes the way we see ourselves, our community and our world.

Half my life I've been a DJ at college and community radio stations, pirate and internet radio stations, and, for nearly four years I've been a podcaster.

I've always been evangelical about being a DJ. I constantly encourage people to be a DJ and I'm always amazed how many people turn down the opportunity to get on the mic and be heard. In fact, I'm amazed everyone isn't a DJ.

Especially now when it's so easy. All you need is a computer, a microphone and a place to host your files and, boom!, you're a podcaster. Granted, there's some skill involved and spending some extra cash on some decent hardware and software doesn't hurt but the most important thing is the content. People will forgive most anything if you've got something worth hearing.

When I started podcasting I hosted a show called Small World where I'd talk to people from all walks of life from all over the planet. I've interviewed everyone from sandwich makers to filmmakers. I started off recording all my interview into a crappy cassette recorder and then transfer it to the computer. Later on I got savvy and ran a microphone directly into my computer and did my interviews on Skype. I made mistakes, sure. The audio sounded pretty bad, too. But as I went a long I learned and improved and had people from all over the world listening to my little show that I recorded in my apartment. I didn't need to spend countless dollars on a radio station to be heard.

When I launched solipsistic NATION as a podcast I knew it was going to be much more than a show where I would spin music. And I knew I wasn't going to stick to just one genre of electronic music. There are enough shows that do just that and while they may be good, after you heard two or three shows you've pretty much heard all their shows. If that kind of show bores me then I know it's going to bore you.

But I also wanted to take what I had learned from the Small World and talk to people who were part of the electronic music community, whether they were drum and bass heads or glitch addicts. I wanted to talk to the people who made the music, the people who put out the music and the people who love the music.

I've always tried to keep the interviews on solipsistic NATION brief because despite what I just said, the show really is about the music. And it's a tricky balancing act, trying to keep things interesting with the music but not detracting from the music. I don't always succeed but looking back on the last 100 shows I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish.

On today's show I'm going to pretty much just going to play excerpts of interviews from previous shows. from people who are part of the electronic music community. Hey, it's the 100th show. Indulge me.

1. Killfish "Scape From Pilar (Excerpt)"
2. Richard Metzger "Disinfo.Con, Opening Remarks"
3. Interview with Pete Cooper, host of bleepshow (Excerpt)
   solipsistic NATION No. 95: Bleep!
4. Interview with Snowy, host of Electronicast (Excerpt)
   solipsistic NATION No. 74: Electronicast
5. Interview with Mikel OD, host of Most People Are DJs (Excerpt)
   solipsistic NATION No. 59: Synthpop
6. Interview with Anji Bee, host of the Chillcast (Excerpt)
   solipsistic NATION No. 76: Lovespirals
7. Mr Flash "Disco Dynamite"
8. Interview with Travis Nobles, host of hiddenplace music (Excerpt)
   solipsistic NATION No. 79: HiddenPlace Music, Part 1
9. Interview with Pietro Da Sacco, managing editor of Igloo Magazine (Excerpt)
   solipsistic NATION No. 90: Left of Dissonance
10. Niteffect "Lights Off (Excerpt)"
11. Interview with Vivian Host, editor of XLR8R Magazine (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 51: Accelerate
12. OP11 "Naissance (Excerpt)"
13. Interview with Stephen Page, station manager of KYOURadio (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 87: Glitterdämmerung
14. Robberriff "Lifebreath (Excerpt)"
15. Interview with Brian, founder of the Oscillation Electronic Music Festival (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 58: Oscillation
16. Interview with J. Anthony Allen, Director of Programming of the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 78: Spark
17. Omid "Beat From My Mouth (Excerpt)"
18. Interview with Simon Carless of Monotonik (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 66: NetLabels
19. Interview with Nicolas Chevreux of Ad Noiseam (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 81: Ad Noiseam
20. Interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 77: Native State Records
21. Interview with Sunny of Ultimae Records (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 61: Ultimae Records
22. Detalles "Cilantro (Excerpt)"
23. Interview with Cheb i Sabbah (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 56: Cheb i Sabbah
24. Interview with Martin Rev and Alan Vega of Suicide (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 87: Glitterdämmerung
25. Interview with Amon Tobin (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin
26. Sebastian "Greel (Excerpt)"
27. Interview with Robert Rich (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 50: Robert Rich, Live
28. Interview with Hol Baumann (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 67: Hol Baumann, Live
29. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 88: Meat Beat Manifesto, Live
30. DJ Internet & Kid Kool A.K.A. Pella "Hit (Excerpt)"
31. Interviews from the Dubstep documentary (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 83: Dubsonic
32. Interview with MC Frontalot (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No.4: Nerdcore
33. Interview with Johan Kotlinski (Excerpt)
    solipsistic NATION No. 8: Chiptunese
34. Suhov "Moonhill"

I try not too talk too much on solipsistic NATION because I've only got an hour to cram as much music and interviews into each edition of the show. I don't want to waste your time with my banter. Besides, anything I can't fit in the show I can always say in the show notes.

We're just months away from a presidential election here in the U.S. and after the longest political campaign in our country's history things are really heating up. It's been said that politics are a full contact sport and this campaign has been particularly ugly and for good reason: one of the former candidates, Hillary Clinton, is a woman and Barack Obama, is a black man. Despite the changing face of America our country has yet to fully come to terms with the much needed equality of women and race in our nation. Simply by being in the campaign Clinton and Obama has forced America to think about the issues of sex and race.

While that is a good thing it also means that a lot of people can express their bigotry. Sometimes it came across in an obscure manner such as when pundits observed Clinton's tactics as being a form of "muscular" politics (none of the other male candidates politics were identified as "muscular"). Sometimes it was more egregious. For example, there were many times when Clinto was told that her place was in the kitchen, often by other women.

The campaign has narrowed down to McCain and Obama so now America's discomfort with the possibility of having a black man as a president has become more pronounced. Recently there were a batch of pins that read "If Obama is President...will we still call it The White House?" When Obama gently banged fists with his wife, Michelle, a FOXNews anchor asked if the fist-bump might actually be "a terrorist fist jab." It goes on and on.

When I'm optimistic I see all this as a good thing because it means my country is addressing it's collective fears and hopefully we can move on. If Obama is elected president racism will still exist in our country but it's a step in the right direction. Even if Obama is not elected president it still is a victory. The U.S. is finally moving past an antiquated mindset. When I'm not so optimistic I get really pissed off. Can we please move into the fucking 21^st century. But rather than rant about all this on solipsistic NATION I figure it would be more productive and just play some music that kicks ass and today's show does just that. Turn it up and get your rage on!

Photo Credit: Chad Davis

1. The Prodigy "Smack My Bitch Up"
2. DJ Danger Mouse "99 Problems"
3. Rob Sonic "Brand New Vandals"
4. Aesop Rock Feat. Rob Sonic "Dark Heart News"
5. Dark Machines "Rituals"
6. Klaxons "Interzone To Golden Skans So Me (Remix)"
7. Neon Stereo vs Marcie "F*ck Me Baby" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. Cornelius "Gum" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Justice "Stress"
10. Time Promises Power "Rope of Gloves" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. Rabbit Junk "Vote Bolshevik Lite"
12. CTRLer "Vote Bolshevik Lite" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Bong-Ra "Suicide Speed Machine Girl"
14. Sabrepulse "Dot Matrix Hero"
15. Raüberhöhle "My Heart Bleeps Noisy Beeps"

It amazes me just how many music labels are out there that are putting out some of the most phenomenal music I've ever heard. What's wonderful about electronic music is that these labels can focus on a specific genre and mine the very best music that that genre has to offer. Ultimae Records, for example, focuses and ambient/trance music while Native State Records specializes in the glitchier and dubbier stuff.

Today on solipsistic NATION we're joined by Taylor Deupree, the founder of the 12k music label.

12k an independent boutique label that showcases artists who specialize in experimental electronic music. To date, 12k has released over 40 CDs since the label's inception in 1971. Due to the caliber of music Taylor offers 12k has become one of the most respected experimental electronic labels in the world. Each album from 12k is a special and made even more unique by Taylor's insistence that he only releases 500 copies of each CD.

I think that 12k puts out some of the most beautiful electronic music I've ever heard. Since most of the albums on 12k are quiet things I've come to enjoy how the sounds of the environment I'm in when I listen to 12k releases become part of the music while the music colors my perceptions of the environment I'm in. It's a sublime experience. See if that happens to you when you listen to this week's show.

1. Savvas Ysatis + Taylor Deupree "Under Your Breath"
2. Interview with Taylor Deupree of 12k
3. Solo Andata - Seaworthy - Taylor Deupree "Solo Andata"
4. Interview with Taylor Deupree of 12k
5. Giuseppe Ielasi "01"
6. Sawako "Wind Shower Particle"
7. William Basinski + Richard Chartier "untitled 2"
8. Interview with Taylor Deupree of 12k
9. Richard Chartier "Archival1992"

For those of you who live in the U.S., Happy 4^th of July!

Today is a special day for me because July 4^th of 2004 is when solipsistic NATION was first broadcast on Free Radio San Diego (FRSD). Back then, studio of FRSD was located in a toolshed. We had an air conditioner but that only brought down the temperature down a few degrees and I had to turn it off whenever I went on the mic for on-air announcements to avoid the air conditioner's hum.

Another challenge of doing an electronic music show on FRSD was that our station used Ots Labs radio software. Ots Labs has come a long way but when I first began solipsistic NATION their app was great for programing the schedules for shows but lousy for doing the seamless segues you expect from an electronic music show. Despite the software and our air conditioner I managed to put out a decent show each week and built up an audience in San Diego for people who were starved for just such a program.

In addition to solipsistic NATION's four year anniversary I'll have released 100 editions of the show as a podcast in three weeks and in September solipsistic NATION will celebrate two years of weekly podcasts. 2008 is a banner year for solipsistic NATION!

This week's show is special for another reason because I've released one show featuring a live performance by an electronic artists for nearly a year. When I began the live segment I thought it would be something that I would do occasionally on the show and never expected that it would become a monthly segment. In the last year I've has live sets from the likes of Robert Rich, Hol Baumann and Meat Beat Manifesto and in the next few months you can expect to hear concerts by The Orb, Bass Science and Aes Dana.

To celebrate solipsistic NATION's four year anniversary we have a live performance from Bubblegone and Verzerren. Play it when the fireworks begin!

Photo Credit: chromedecay

1. Bubblegone vs. Verzerren "Live at the Darkroom (Chicago, IL 2004)"
2. Interview with Jason Engling of Bubblegone and Joe Pauer of Verzerren
3. Bubblegone "Live at the Dreamland Theater (Ypsilanti, MI 2007)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Interview with Jason Engling of Bubblegone and Joe Pauer of Verzerren

This week on solipsistic NATION I've got a great show for you!

Last year I interviewed JP of Rabbit Junk for a documentary on digital hardcore that I'm working on. He's since released his latest album, Life Is Where You Get Fucked, and was kind enough to send me a copy of his CD. On his new album JP has combined metal, punk, hip hop and electronica. It's an exciting venture and I wanted to have JP on today's show to talk about his CD.

I've also been kicking around the idea of doing a regular feature on artists and bands who played a major role in the early days of electronic music. While this notion has been bouncing around my skull I came across Hula's web site. Hula was an electronic based band I was into during the 80s and so I contacted Nort to have him on the show to talk about the band.

A few weeks ago I was perusing XLR8R and read their review of Lulu Rouge's Bless You album. I was intrigued and went to Lulu Rouge's MySpace page. After hearing their song, "Melankoli," I instantly fell in love with their music. As you might have guessed, I invited them to come on today's show.

Our last guest is Cheb I Sabbah. I had Cheb on solipsistic NATION for a retrospective mix of his musical career so far. Cheb released his latest album, Devotion back in January. I've been meaning to have Cheb back on solipsistic NATION for quite a while and this week's show seemed like it would be a perfect fit.

So there you have it: a great show with great guest and great music. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: JohnKit

1. Rabbit Junk "Black"
2. Interview with JP of Rabbit Junk
3. Rabbit Junk "Ghetto Blasphemer"
4. Hula "Poison"
5. Hula "Big Car"
6. Interview with Nort of Hula
7. Hula "Invisible"
8. Lulu Rouge "Bless You"
9. Lulu Rouge "Slow Pigeon"
10. Interview with DJ T.O.M & DJ Buda of Lulu Rouge
11. Lulu Rouge "Melankoli"
12. Cheb I Sabbah "Qalanderi" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Cheb I Sabbah "Devotion"
14. Interview with Cheb I Sabbah
15. Cheb I Sabbah "Haun Vaari Haun Varaney"

I hate Pete Cooper!

Each week I face the same dilemma: what do I feature on solipsistic NATION? My priority is to play the best of all genres of electronic music but I've only got an hour to work with. Add to that the interviews, the live sets and the spotlighting of music labels of note and the question becomes what do I take out? Those are the kind of decisions that I agonize over.

The obvious solution is to release solipsistic NATION as a daily podcast. That would give me the opportunity to do everything I want to do with the show as well as giving me the chance to be an actual DJ and play more mixes. But honestly, I spend so much time putting out one show a week that doing a daily podcast would most likely kill me and given my obsessive compulsive tendencies that would happen pretty quickly.

Back in January I had Snowy who hosts Electronicast on solipsistic NATION as a guest DJ and he told me about his favorite podcast called bleepshow, hosted by Pete Cooper. Since I'm always on the lookout for new shows to listen I gave it a try and became a regular listener.

Pete does a daily one hour podcast where he plays the best electronic music that netlabels like Monotonik and Thinner have to offer. bleeppshow is fun, informative and eclectic. Pete does the kind of show I only wish I had the time and energy to do.

I hate Pete Cooper!

Photo Credit: Ultra (No videos on Flickr)

1. Stark Effect "Bunnyrabbits, Satan, Cheese And Milk" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Braces Tower "Eleven Twelve" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. DQ "Psychosis" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Interview with Pete Cooper, host of bleepshow
5. Seksu Roba "Telstar" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Interview with Pete Cooper, host of bleepshow
7. Pocka "Cutty Ranks Mashup" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. Glomag "Cherie Amour" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Interview with Pete Cooper, host of bleepshow
10. Orange Dust "Chillin With The Villin" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. Mossa "Town Hall - Take One" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. Interview with Pete Cooper, host of bleepshow
13. Gary Beck "Face of the Day" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
14. Troy Pierce "Louderbach" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
15. Ronin "Ferox"
16. Interview with Pete Cooper, host of bleepshow

The last couple of months I've been thinking about the electronic music community. Electronic music has been around for decades but to me it has always seemed underground, even more so than punk. What's weird about that is that electronic music is a presence in almost all genres of music today. Almost every artist or band employs samples or drum loops, from your local bar band to Madonna. And yet if you asked your average person on the street they'd be hard pressed to think of an electronic music artist or band they know.

But if you're listening to solipsistic NATION then you're obviously a fan of electronic music and may be part of the electronic music community.

Today's guest is Dave Heckman, the founder of Metropolis Records. Dave's label specializes in electro, industrial, synthpop, futurepop, darkwave, and goth and his roster of artists include the likes of KMFDM, Front 242 and Snog. While it was a pleasure to talk to Dave about Metropolis Records what I really enjoyed was the history of the label and the community that grew around the label.

As Dave points out, genres like industrial came out of the post-punk scene and that scene has always had a strong community. Electronic music in general may still be underground, and maybe that's for the best, but there has always been people who have kept the scene fresh and exciting.

1. Snog "License"
2. IAMX "The Alternative"
3. IAMX "Nightlife"
4. Interview with Chris Corner of IAMX
5. KMFDM "Godlike (Original 12" Mix)"
6. Front 242 "Headhunter (Front Line Assembly Mix)"
7. Front Line Assembly "Unleashed (Mindless Mix By Sebastian R. Komor)"
8. Combichrist "Electrohead"
9. Ken Marshall & (Cevin) Key "Maniac Shuffle"
10. Interview with Dave Heckman of Metropolis Records
11. PIG "Suck Shit Spit (Album Version)"
12. Velvet Acid Christ "Discolored Eyes"
13. Interview with Dave Heckman of Metropolis Records
14. Vnv Nation "Descent"
15. Juno Reactor "Tanta Pena"
16. Wumpscut "Hard to Bear"
17. Interview with Dave Heckman of Metropolis Records
18. Meat Beat Manifesto "Children of Earth"

When I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast my only plan was to play for you the best of all genres of electronic music. But after a few weeks I realized that I could pursue the things I wanted to do but couldn't do at the radio station I used to spin at. At first it was just doing interviews but that quickly grew to include documentaries about electronic music, showcasing artists and record labels, guest DJs and featuring recordings of live performances.

The live shows have been a lot of fun because it gives me the opportunity to focus on a specific artist and hear music by them I might otherwise not know about.

When I began the live shows I thought it was just something I'd do every once in a while but it has become a regular segment of solipsistic NATION. The only problem is that very few live sets are an hour long. Originally I'd pad out the show by adding a few studio recordings by the featured artist but then I got the brilliant idea (okay, the obvious idea) of featuring two live performances back-to-back!

Today's show features Jason Chung, AKA Nosaj Thing, and Robin Rimbaud, AKA Scanner.

I first found out about Nosaj Thing through Nalepa. Nalepa was singing praises to Jason and Nalepa had never steered me wrong so I downloaded a few tracks by Jason, which were absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend Jason's Views/Octopus EP. Jason's set comes from his performance he gave for dublab.

I've been a fan of Robin's music for years, maybe decades at this point. Recently Robin made some songs from his many albums available to podcaster, which gave me the excuse to have him on the show back in April. Afterwards I asked Robin if he had any live recordings I could play in the show and he was kind enough to give me a copy of his concert at The Rhiz.

In the near future you can expect to hear concerts by The Orb and Bubblegone. You can also expect to gear more sets back-to-back!

1. Nosaj Thing "Live from dublab"
2. Interview with Nosaj Thing
3. Scanner "Live at The Rhiz"
4. Interview with Scanner

Back in the mid 80s I fell in love with hardcore punk. The rage, the belligerence, the do-it-yourself ethic; I loved all of it.

But while I was thrashing out to the likes of Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Agnostic Front I was also listening to electronic based bands like Skinny Puppy, Wire and Clock DVA and this caused a problem with my hardcore ideology. I was supposed to despise the latter bands for their "pretense" and "artiness." They were, after all, the antithesis of hardcore. Hell, you'd actually have to learn to play your instrument beyond furiously bashing out bar chords.

My hardcore punk phase didn't last long, though. I had always loved all kinds of music and I found most of punk terribly boring, never mind the conservative mindset of most people in the punk community. Leaving hardcore punk behind (but not the music), I started listening to more and more of these electronic based bands.

The mid 80s were an interesting time for electronic music because while electronic music had been around for many decades it was always in the domain of composers like Edgard Varèse and Iannis Xenakis. Suddenly anyone could go to their local music and purchase some synths and sequencers for very little money. Well, it was still expensive but not insanely so. And so music started going into some weird places.

I lived in Boston while all of this was happening and while Boston's galaxies of colleges and universities ensured a incredibly rich and vibrant music scene there was very little in the way of electronic based bands. But there were a few like D.D.T., Big Catholic Guilt, Think Tree and You Shriek and they were all great and they were all very unique.

A couple of months ago I thought it would be cool to have D.D.T. come on the show and play some of their songs but then it occurred to me, why not have some of the other bands that I loved so much on the show as well? I contacted them all and to my delight, everyone wanted to participate. It was great talking to them and the conversations brought back a lot of memories of my days in Boston that I had completely forgotten about. If you're fans of any of these bands then I'm sure you'll experience the same thing. If you're new to D.D.T., Big Catholic Guilt, Think Tree and You Shriek then you're in for a very special treat!

Photo Credit: Boston Pozivivor

1. Big Catholic Guilt "Crank"
2. Big Catholic Guilt "Silence (Remix)"
3. Interview with Big Catholic Guilt
4. Big Catholic Guilt "Descent"
5. You Shriek "Grim"
6. You Shriek "Untitled #4"
7. Interview with You Shriek
8. You Shriek "New Romantic Circuitry"
9. D.D.T. "H2O (Remix)"
10. D.D.T. "AID, Live"
11. Interview with D.D.T.
12. D.D.T. "Unknown, Live"
13. D.D.T. "Unknown, Live"
14. Think Tree "Hire A Bird"
15. Think Tree "Mampther"
16. Interview with Think Tree
17. Think Tree "Holy Cow"

I had originally planned to release this mix during the week of Valentine's Day but I decided against it because I had meaning to have Lovespirals on solipsistic NATION for quite a while so I shelved the mix for a later date. Speaking of Lovespirals, if you dig this week's show then you'll want to listen to the Chillcast, which is hosted by Lovespirals chanteuse Anji Bee.

Today's show is a mix of acid jazz and trip hop and is very romantic and very sexy. In fact, you might use it to woo that special someone or, better yet, use it during lovemaking. Trust me on this. I've actually used a couple of my shows for that exact purpose. It is a bit disconcerting to hear my voice over the speakers during pillow talk.

If you want more sexy music may I direct you to the Just Chill edition of solipsistic NATION? I think you'll find it very sensuous. I also recommend the Through A Glass Darkly. Either one or both of those shows will set the mood for trysts.

Photo Credit: DrJoanne

1. Stephane Pompougnac "Better Days" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Monkeybacon "Roller" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
3. Braces Tower "Spelling Bee" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Nils Krogh "Things We Do" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Genji Siraisi "Space Monkey" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
6. Jette-Ives feat. Jette Kelly and Holmes Ives "In the Presence of... (D-Fault Remix)" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Belleruche "Northern Girls"
8. DJ Genesis "Hush" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. A'Merika Vera "Goduria" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Spiral System "Elephant" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. Govinda "Delicate Poison" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
12. The Shanghai Restoration Project & Di Johnston "Jade Buddha Temple" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Mysteria "In My Soul" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
14. Head Surfers "Blaise - Le Mans" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

As long as I've been a DJ my shows have been two to three hours long. I couldn't imagine doing a show in less than two hours. I saw my shows as a journey that I took the listener on and those journeys took time, ideally three hours so there would be a first act, a second act and a third act. But when I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast I had to do away with that structure.

If you listen to podcasts then I'm sure you've noticed that shows usually clock in anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and there's a reason for that. Your average radio listener will tune into a station for seven to 15 minutes and then spin the dial or turn off the radio. Podcasts are different in that most people will listen to a show from start to finish and asking them to sit for two to three hour show is asking a lot. So an hour is the most you can expect a person to listen to a show.

At first that seemed a tremendous compromise after doing years of two to three hours radio programs. How I could condense that journey to a mere hour? I felt like I was cheating you, the listeners and myself.

But after a few months of doing one hour editions of solipsistic NATION I came to accept that limitation. After that I began to think of it as a challenge. How much great music and engaging interviews could I pack into an hour? Pretty soon I came to think of any show longer than an hour as being excessive. When I think of doing a three hour show now I see it as wilderness that I would quickly get lost in. I'm afraid my shows would meander aimlessly.

Today's guest DJ is Pietrobot, who we had on the show just a few weeks ago. Pietro is the co-host of Digital Nimbus, an electronic music program on KUCI 88.9FM in Irvine, California. Pietro is also the managing editor of Igloo Magazine. Pietrobot, alongside his fellow DJ and wife, Freakquency Modulator, blaze a trail into the wild frontier of electronic music. Each week they lead their listeners through unknown sonic landscape, introducing the listeners to natives along the way in the form of interviews and live performances.

Despite everything I said before, I envy Pietrobot and Freakquency Modulator and their leisurely safaris through sound. We have the good fortune of having Pietro with us to navigate through through this week's mix. Don't be afraid to lose yourself in the music.

Photo Credit: nana_cindy42

1. Port-Royal "Putin vs Valery"
2. Interview with Pietro, co-host of Digital Nimbus and managing editor of Igloo Magazine
3. Worriedaboutsatan "Morwenna, Pt 2"
4. Hammock "The Silence"
5. Bitcrush "A False Movement, True"
6. Aaron Spectre "The Wrong Fuel"
7. Ben Frost "Theory of Machines"
8. Interview with Pietro, co-host of Digital Nimbus and managing editor of Igloo Magazine
9. SubtractiveLAD "Spoiled Honey"
10. Syntaks "In The Wake"
11. Fabio Fonda "Re-Seed"
12. Interview with Pietro, co-host of Digital Nimbus and managing editor of Igloo Magazine
13. Disinterested "Dissonance"

Sponsors: GoDaddy and eMusic

Tags: Digital Nimbus, Igloo Magazine, eMusic, GoDaddy

I've got a great show for you today! Well, actually, Robbie Martin from Record Label Records has got a great show for you. I'm just the host for this week's shin dig.

I first met Robbie about four months ago when he was kind enough to send me his latest album Gaseous Opal Orbs. I enjoyed his CD so much that I had him on the show as a guest. I twas only then I found out that Robbie is the founder of Record Label Records. That's one of the joys of producing solipsistic NATION, the show constantly surprises me with the people it puts me in contact with.

Record Label Records is a cool indie label that features such artists as Scorn, Kush Arora ( who I've also had on the show as a guest, by the way) and Sote. I like Robbie's label because he features music by artists who fall on the experimental side of electronic music but lacks the pretension of your more artier musicians. There seems to be an element of playfulness and adventurousness than your typical soundsmiths who are usually over serious.

1. Fluorescent Grey w/Laurie AK "Pea Leery"
2. Kush Arora "Surya Dub"
3. Scorn "Pin Down"
4. Fluorescent Grey "Blue Glue"
5. Interview with Robbie Martin of Record Label Records
6. Nommo Ogo "Induction (Excerpt)"
7. Fluorescent Grey "Hold Down + HK + START to Play as Kintaro"
8. Lich "Shadow Men"
9. Tomoroh Hidari "Shranzhall"
10. Contagious Orgasm w/ Jiver Dicker "A1"
11. Fluorescent Grey "EBM Nightmare"
12. Dalglish "16b"
13. Interview with Robbie Martin of Record Label Records
14. Scuzi "Vanishing Twin Syndrome"
15. Kush Arora "Garage Riddim"
16. Sote "Trip"
17. Nommo Ogo "Aisha"
18. Interview with Robbie Martin of Record Label Records

Let me tell you my favorite Meat Beat Manifesto concert story.

I had become a fan of Meat Beat Manifesto during the 99% tour and was psyched to see them again on their Satyricon tour. I went to the nightclub they were going to perform at with my buddy in hopes of catching their soundcheck. No such luck, but we did get to meet the members of Consolidated. Nice guys but I don't think they were to impressed to see me eating a Whopper from Burger King.

Later that night, Harry, my soundman from WMFO, and I went to the nightclub for the show. Consolidated put on an incredible multimedia show and as much as I loved Meat Beat Manifesto I didn't know how they could possibly top their opening act. I needn't have worried because Meat Beat Manifesto put on a show that I'll never forget.

That's saying quite a lot for two reasons. One, I've seen some top notch show and, two, I was out of my head that night. I'm amazed I can remember anything for all the beer and whiskey I was drinking, and I'm not much of a drinker in the first place.

Meat Beat Manifesto were phenomenal. The music was unrelenting and their multimedia stage show was a paranoid hallucination. The beats were pounding and the bass was throbbing and despite my tendency to be one of those guys who stands against the wall tapping his feet to the music I couldn't but help hitting the dance floor.

I met a lot of cool people that night. None that I can remember after all these years but cool all the same. That's another thing I like about Meat Beat Manifesto, they've built up a community of smart and wonderful people around them. To this day if I meet someone who is also into Meat Beat manifesto we almost always instantly bond.

Anyway, the night came to a close and Harry managed to herd me into his truck and drive me home. I don't remember anything after that. What I do remember is that Heidi, my girlfriend at the time, had spent the night working at a club and was covered in cigarette smoke, sweat and beer scum came home from work to find my passed out in a puddle of my own vomit. Not my proudest moment. Angel that she was, she undressed me, got me in the tub and washed me down and put me to bed. She's a far better man than I because if I came to that, I would have just left me on the floor and went to bed.

Writing this all down I realize that this doesn't sound like such a great story but somehow I'm very fond of that night. If you have a favorite Meat Beat Manifesto concert story, email me and I'll read it on the show.

All the songs that appear on this week's solipsistic Nation come from Meat Beat Manifesto's Live '05 album, courtesy of Jack Dangers.

1. Meat Beat Manifesto "I Am Electro"
2. Meat Beat Manifesto "Spinning Round"
3. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
4. Meat Beat Manifesto "Hello Teenage America"
5. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
6. Meat Beat Manifesto "Radio Babylon"
7. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
8. Meat Beat Manifesto "God O.D."
9. Meat Beat Manifesto "No Purpose, No Design"
10. Meat Beat Manifesto "It's the Music"
11. Meat Beat Manifesto "Nuclear Bomb"
12. Meat Beat Manifesto "Helter Skelter"
13. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
14. Meat Beat Manifesto "Edge of No Control"
15. Meat Beat Manifesto "Prime Audio Soup"
16. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
17. Meat Beat Manifesto "Do It with Soul"
18. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

Damn, this week's show is packed with great stuff!

When I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast one of the first shows I did was a documentary about Nerdcore. Shortly afterwards I learned that Negin Farsad was also working on a documentary about the genre called Nerdcore Rising. The documentary was recently released and I knew I had to get Negin on the show to talk about her documentary.

Another person I've wanted to get on solipsistic NATION is drum and bass artist Panda. As luck would have it, Panda has put out a new album called Retake Manhattan that simply rocks! Panda and I have been exchanging emails during the last year and I nailed a date to get hm on the line to talk about his new CD. It's rare to hear an electronic music concept album and Panda sails around the globe in a mere hour and ten minutes.

Speaking of new releases, Meat Beat Manifesto has released a new album titled Autoimmune that is so bass heavy that it could move a freight truck across a parking lot. Just imagine what it can do to your ears! I had the pleasure of seeing Meat Beat Manifesto last week and they put on an awesome show. They're on the last leg of their U.S. tour so visit their website to see if they're playing in your area. If you've missed them, no worries, Jack will be on next week's show with a live recording of one of Meat Beat Manifesto's performances.

I've mentioned previously that one of the blogs I frequently read is Igloo Magazine. I've been talking with Pietro Da Sacco, Igloo's managing editor, and I asked him to come on this week's show to talk about his 'zine. Pietro will be back on solipsistic NATION next month with a beautiful mix of electronic music that's going to make you weak at the knees.

A few months back solipsistic NATION was picked up by KYOURadio 1550 AM in San Francisco. KYOURadio plays an eclectic program of talk and music shows but what make the station truly unique that all the content comes from user generate content. That is to say, podcasts. I invited KYOURadio's station manager, Stephen Page, to come on today's show to talk about the station and the dramatic changes radio is currently going through.

Last, and by no stretch of the imagination, least, is an interview with Martin Rev and Alan Vega of Suicide. Alan and Martin are old school and began Suicide way back in the 70s. Often imitated but never duplicated, Suicide is one of the original proto-electronic music bands who have influenced genres such as techno, industrial and electroclash. Suicide was never ahead of their time, just that everyone else was behind the times and desperately trying to catch up to the path that Suicide was blazing.

Photo Credit: pausetivespace

1. Baddd Spellah (feat. MC Frontalot) "Rhyme of the Nibelung" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Interview with Negin Farsad, director of Nerdcore Rising
3. Nerdcore Rising Trailer
4. Panda "Quebec"
5. Panda "Casablanca"
6. Interview with Panda
7. Meat Beat Manifesto "Hellfire"
8. Meat Beat Manifesto "62 Dub"
9. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
10. Scorn "Enough To Hold Bottom"
11. Interview with Pietro Da Sacco, managing editor of Igloo Magazine
12. Ambivalent "Lowlights"
13. Interview with Stephen Page, station manager of KYOURadio
14. Dark Machines "Inferno"
15. Suicide "Rocket USA"
16. Suicide "Frankie Teardrop"
17. Interview with Martin Rev and Alan Vega of Suicide

I've been trying to remember when I first came across Scanner (the stage name of Robin Rimbaud). I'm quite sure it was a compilation CD but I can't recall which one. No matter. What I do recall, however, was that the track featured recordings of phone conversations that he had snatched from the ether. At first I regarded it as a cheap gimmick. But I kept coming back to the track, listening to it over and over again as I wrestled with the complications of what the song meant.

The conversation was compelling because of it's intimacy. It was simply two people talking, gossiping and joking, completely unaware that they were being recorded and, as far as I know, unaware that their conversation would be incorporated into a song. Despite Robin's unsettling soundscape the conversation had a warmth to it. It lent humanity to Robin's bleak music. Was this his commentary that we all can make the simplest connections with each other despite the alienating effects of the very technology that makes that connection possible?

But the question also sparked some anger. What right had Robin to steal their conversation? It rankled that he would intrude on their privacy and then compound the intrusion by using it in his art. But that provoked the question of my role as a listener. How could I point an accusing finger when I was just as complicit by being drawn into the song. True, I'm not the one who made the recording but if I was truly outraged I could have pressed stop on my CD player as soon as I realized what was going on. But I kept listening. Again and again.

And all of this raises the question of our governments who are more and more eavesdropping on our phone calls and reading our email and text messages. It's one thing for an artists to do it but quite another for the government to do it. The common explanation these days is that the government is doing it to monitor for terrorists but it also acts as yet another panopticon to keep people under control. As Foucault observed, if you think you are constantly being monitored you will begin policing yourself which is very unsettling.

Robin has since moved away from using recorded phone conversations in his music but he's always had a unique of making me questioning and reevaluating the world I live in and always shifting the context. Robin is a perfect example of one of the reasons I love electronic music so much because it has the capacity to go far beyond a dance track with cool sounds.

1. Scanner "140 Acid" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
2. Interview with Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner
3. Scanner "Pearl Necklace" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
4. Scanner "Reason by Heart, Sleep by Twilight, Excerpt" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
5. Interview with Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner
6. Scanner "915.675" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
7. Scanner "394" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
8. Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner "Experience" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
9. Scanner "Radio Entry" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
10. Scanner "Passage De Recherche" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
11. Interview with Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner
12. Scanner "Unknown" [FREE DOWNLOAD]
13. Interview with Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner

When I think of Germany and electronic music I often think of the robotic sounds of Kraftwerk or the pummeling tracks of techno of the 90s. When I think of Germany I don't think of electronic music that blends jazz elements with house and r&b that will either shake your ass or seduce you. I admit it's a stereotype but there you have it. Well, I believed that until I came across Compost Records.

Compost Records was founded in 1994 by Michael Reinboth and in the last 14 years Michael has released music from some of the most talented artists around. Beanfield, Trüby Trio, Jazzanova; these are just some of the dynamic talent that Compost records represents.

On today's show we'll talk with Michael and find out where his love affair with r&b, jazz, funk and soul began and how his career as a music journalist led to launching Compost Records. And, of course, will accompany our conversation with Michael with select tracks from the roster of artists on his label.

What better way to get your groove on?

1. Eddy Meets Yannah "Shamed (Domu Remix)"
2. Interview with Michael Reinboth of Compost Records
3. Studio R Feat Capitol "A&R (Llorca Remix)"
4. Shahrokh SoundOfK "Chicago"
5. Lorenz Rhode "Shake It (Extended)"
6. Tj Kong & Nuno Dos Santos "Circus Bells (Technucada Mix)"
7. Interview with Michael Reinboth of Compost Records
8. Nova Dream Sequence "Dream 4"
9. Interview with Michael Reinboth of Compost Records
10. Alif Tree "Forgotten Places (Moodymann Remix)"
11. Koop "I See A Different You"
12. Marsmobil "Mangia Amore"
13. Kyoto Jazz Massive "Between the Lights"
14. Marbert Rocel "Blue Days"

There is so much electronic music coming out these days that more and more I've come to rely on blogs. Just as solipsistic NATION acts as a filter to what is the best of all genres of electronic music so to do the blogs I frequent. And what blogs do I read?

Pitchfork is a great source for music news but Pitchfork's reporting is broad in scope and I find myself having to sift through a lot of articles to find information useful to me. XLR8R is more in line with the kind of music I'm interested in but I don't rely on XLR8R alone. Neural.it is a fantastic site for reviews of experimental electronic music. Igloo Magazine is a great site for reviews of electronic music, although I wish they would have more in-depth articles and reviews. More recently I've begun following the Headphone Commute and Phlow Magazine. Headphone Commute posts articles featuring music that I really enjoy as well as interesting and concise interviews with electronic musicians. Phlow Magazine extensively covers free MP3 music culture, which is great because you can download the music they review as you ready their articles.

I'm a big fan of Travis Nobles hiddenplace music blog. I respect Travis's thoughts on music so much that I had him on solipsistic NATION as a guest DJ back in February. One of the artists he featured in his mix was Planet Boelex. I was so taken with Planet Boelex that I contacted Ossi, the man who is Planet Boelex, to arrange an interview and to feature his release, Live At Virus Festival 2007, Lithuania, on today's show.

The music of Planet Boelex is a sonic soundscape that envelopes you like gossamer but is rooted in driving beats and an emotionally complex structure, giving his music a depth and force that belies it's tenuous first impressions. Just as Ossi's music metamorphasizes so to does his performances. Live At Virus Festival 2007, Lithuania is a document of Ossi's development as an artist at a specific time in his life. Ossi is constantly honing his craft and his next live release will significantly different from his previous release. Today's show represents a snapshot of where Planet Boelex was in 2007. I can't even begin to imagine where he is now.

1. Planet Boelex "Forever and Always"
2. Interview with Planet Boelex
3. Planet Boelex "Untitled"
4. Interview with Planet Boelex
5. Planet Boelex "Shower Curtain"
6. Interview with Planet Boelex
7. Planet Boelex "Seagull Scene"
8. Interview with Planet Boelex
9. Planet Boelex "Untitled"
10. Planet Boelex "Suunta"
11. Interview with Planet Boelex
12. Planet Boelex "Blinded Of You"
13. Interview with Planet Boelex
14. Planet Boelex "Sim Ten"
15. Planet Boelex "Direction Backwards"
16. Planet Boelex "100kn"
17. Interview with Planet Boelex

This week on solipsistic NATION we're going to focus seven labels that are putting out some of the finest dubstep you're likely to hear.

Dubstep is growing in popularity with its dark sound of minimal rhythms and throbbing bass. We'll learn where dubstep came from, why our guests have chose to specialize in dubstep when electronic music mutates so quickly and whether dubstep has gone mainstream or is still regarded as an underground phenomenon.

The labels featured on today's show are Nozl Recordings/Bloodied Blade Recordings, Boka Records, Hot Flush Recordings, Iberian Records, Immerse Records, Lodubs and Studio Rockers.

Today's show is sponsored by eMusic. eMusic is the number one site for independent music with over three million tracks to choose from. Right now eMusic is offering a 14 day free trial with 35 free song downloads. If you cancel before 14 days, you get to keep all 35 tracks for free! If you sign up at emusic.com/nation you help support solipsistic NATION, and, more importantly, you support the artists.

In keeping with the theme of this week's show, below are some dubstep artists you can find on eMusic. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: R_O_B_O

1. Lone Wolf "Slayed By Shadows"
   Nozl Recordings
2. Lone Wolf "The Plague"
   Nozl Recordings/Bloodied Blade Recordings
3. Afterdark "Infernal"
   Boka Records
4. DZ "Chalice Dub"
   Lodubs
5. 23Hz & Numaestro "Galleon Dub"
   Immerse Records
6. 23Hz & Numaestro "Al Andalus (Full Mix)"
   Iberian Records
7. Emalkay "My Story"
   Boka Records
8. Vaccine "Fever"
   Hot Flush Recordings
9. Bionics "Dubcore"
   Studio Rockers
10. Relocate "Too Moody to Swing"
    Iberian Records
11. Solvent "Think Like Us (Bombaman Remix)"
    Lodubs
12. Boxcutter "Endothermic (D & M Master)"
    Hot Flush Recordings
13. Forsaken "Fighting Spirit"
    Immerse Records

Electronic musicians often choose to be anonymous. That is to say, they present themselves persona free in opposition to rock bands like Fall Out Boy, who are slickly marketed and have a tailor made image to consumers who frequent stores like Hot Topic. And let's be honest, a lot of electronic music is pretty generic. It sounds like it could have been made by anyone.

And then there are artists like Amon Tobin who creates music that is so distinct and unique that his sound is as identifiable as his finger prints. It's like listening to 'Trane; one you him blow his sax it gets etched into your brain and from then on, you will always be able to pick out a Coltrane tune in a crowded and noisy bar.

Amon first his the scene as Cujo with his 1996 release, Adventures in Foam. Amon was definitely influenced by drum and bass be he stood out, even then. Foam was laced wild horns, jazz drum breaks, Latin rhythms and a touch of exotica. Whatever the hell it was, it was great!

Amon quickly followed Foam with Bricolage, Permutation and Supermodified and took those themes further and further and as he went along his music got weirder and heavier. By Out from Out Where Tobin had become a full fledged soundsmith, tweaking and twisting his samples well beyond their source material. Foley Room found Amon sampling field recordings of lions, motorcycles and wasps rather than vinyl dug from crates and transforming it all into something utterly recognizable as being Amon Tobin.

On solipsistic NATION I play the best of all genres of electronic music. I'm not kidding around. I really mean it. Amon is the very best at what he does and I'm pleased that he has joined me on today's show for a retrospective of his musical career so far.

I hope you enjoy the ride!

Photo Credit: Bruno Bollaert

1. Amon Tobin "Creatures"
2. Interview with Amon Tobin
3. Cujo "The Sequel"
4. Interview with Amon Tobin
5. Amon Tobin "One Day In My Garden"
6. Interview with Amon Tobin
7. Amon Tobin "Bridge"
8. Interview with Amon Tobin
9. Amon Tobin "Nightlife"
10. Interview with Amon Tobin
11. Amon Tobin "Four Ton Mantis"
12. Interview with Amon Tobin
13. Amon Tobin "Chocolate Lovely"
14. Interview with Amon Tobin
15. Amon Tobin "Hey Blondie"
16. Interview with Amon Tobin
17. Amon Tobin "Back From Space"
18. Interview with Amon Tobin
19. Amon Tobin "Ruthless"
20. Interview with Amon Tobin
21. Amon Tobin "Esther's"
22. Interview with Amon Tobin
23. Amon Tobin "Keep Your Distance"
24. Interview with Amon Tobin

Amon Tobin Interview: Unedited
When I arranged to interview Amon I figured I would get 15 or 20 minutes with him over the phone. Amon was extremely generous with his time and talked with me for nearly two hours. Amon gave me thoughtful and considered responses to my questions and it pained me knowing that there was no way I would be able to fit it all into a typical edition of solipsistic NATION. I decided to treat the interview like a movie DVD: I would use the edited version of the interview for today's show but offer the unedited interview for download for those of you who wanted to hear the conversation in it's entirety. It was a win-win scenario.

I'd like to thank Amon for taking time out of his weekend to talk with me. I'd also like to thank Jonath Shedletzkey of Ninja Tune and Kim Hobbs of Envision Management for arranging the interview with Amon. I'd also like to thank Craig Ruiz, Nicolas Chevreux, Victor Chen, Dr. Toast, Mr. Fresh, Jay Dugger, Macedonia, Ben Mautner and Steve Howard for participating on today's show. I wish I could have included all their questions during the show.

Download unedited interview.
1:25:49 | 78.59 MB

I seemed to have gained a reputation for playing only chillout music on solipsistic NATION. So untrue! I can, however, understand why some people might think that. The last couple months I've featured live performances from Dr. Toast and Nalepa, a guest mix from Travis Nobles from the hiddenplace music blog and featured music from Native State Records. So, yeah, I can see why people might think that all I play is chillout. Hopefully this week's show featuring an interview with Nicolas Chevreux from Ad Noiseam and music from his roster of artists will put that notion to rest.

There is some pretty and delicate music on Ad Noiseam but on the whole, Ad Noiseam specializes in music that is experimental, gritty and very, very loud. Ad Noiseam doesn't limit itself to a specific genre. From the metal/drum and bass stylings of Bong Ra to the insane breakcore of Enduser to the subsonic bludgeoning of Scorn, there's something for everyone. As long as you don't mind your ears bleeding, that is.

Sit tight. Crank the volume to eleven and prepare to have your mind completely blown. Just don't send your medical bill my way.

1. Bong Ra "Slaytronic"
2. Enduser "Pushing Back"
3. Interview with Nicolas Chevreux of Ad Noiseam
4. Glowstyx "U R Mine"
5. Interview with Nicolas Chevreux of Ad Noiseam
6. Chevron "Burn Down The Jungle!"
7. Exillon "Darkassid"
8. Interview with Nicolas Chevreux of Ad Noiseam
9. Jvox "Murder"
10. Interview with Nicolas Chevreux of Ad Noiseam
11. Raoul Sinier "Huge Samurai Radish (Lynx And Ram Remix)"
12. Cdatakill "Yesterdays"
13. Lapsed & Nonnon "Hapless Plastic (Ra Remix)"
14. Mad E.P. "Scab Removal Technique"
15. Mothboy "A303"
16. Interview with Nicolas Chevreux of Ad Noiseam
17. Scorn "Stripped Black Hinge"
18. Aaron Spectere "Half Silver"
19. Interview with Nicolas Chevreux of Ad Noiseam
20. Lapsed "Lapsed + Urusai: Where Were You?"

If you're new to solipsistic NATION, I kick off each month with a live performance by an electronic musician.

When I first introduced the live segment on the show I thought that it would be something I would only occasionally do on solipsistic NATION. I just assumed that recordings of live performance that artists would share with me would be scant. Happily, I was wrong.

As more and more live recordings came my way I decided that I would feature those shows on solipsistic NATION at the beginning of each month until the well ran dry. At this point I have enough recordings to take us until June and it at this point it looks like I can continue this segment on solipsistic NATION indefinitely.

This month's comes to us from Dr. Toast by way of the Dub Beautiful Collective. Dr. Toast's music is, well, beautiful.

I'd like to thank Dr. Toast and Maer from the Collective for their generosity. I had Maer on solipsistic NATION a few months back to feature some of the artists who have performed for the Collective in the past. I could probably continue the live segment on solipsistic NATION for the next year drawing from their archive alone.

This month I'm going to give away one tee shirt, courtesy of Threadless. Threadless is a community based tee shirt company with an ongoing, open-call for tee design submissions.

Send me an email and you could win a Threadless tee!

1. Dr. Toast "Live (November, 2004), recorded by the Dub Beautiful Collective"
2. Interview with Dr. Toast
3. Dr. Toast "Skronked"
4. Dr. Toast "Zero-Marking"
5. Dr. Toast "Somnambulist"
6. Dr. Toast "Deeper (Dr. Toast Remix Ft. Rena Jones)"

When I began solipsistic NATION I didn't make any attempt to make the show commercially viable. My mission was to play electronic music that I love and if people listening to the show happened to love what I was playing, I considered that a bonus.

I wasn't being entirely self-serving. I was playing quality music so I knew I was bound to pick up an audience, even if it was a niche audience. And I was right. Over the years, solipsistic NATION has attracted an ever growing audience. And that's where it gets interesting.

People often find their way to solipsistic NATION because they are just as passionate about electronic music as I am. And that shared passion sparks some wonderful conversations, which often leads to friendships.

Nearly a year ago I met Travis Nobles, who runs the hiddenplace music blog. Travis and I share similar taste in music and he constantly exposes me to new artists I most likely would have never heard about and usually those artists are on netlabels.

Travis is so dead-on about the artists he reviews that I invited him to be a guest DJ on solipsistic NATION because I knew he would select some stellar music for the show. The other reason I had Travis come on the show is because that while our tastes are comparable, he tends to pick out music that is more ethereal than I would normally listen to. But it is exactly that difference that makes listening to his music such a beautiful experience; he turns me on to stuff that I might otherwise miss. That forces me to expand my horizons and ultimately keeps solipsistic NATION fresh and exciting.

1. Xurba "You Are a Circle"
2. Workbench "De La Terre À La Cime (I & II)"
3. Interview with Travis Nobles of hiddenplace music
4. Sabi "Dried Flowers, Mirrored World"
5. Planet Poelex "Forever and Always (Feat. K)"
6. Mikael Fyrek "The Tiny Greens and Whites"
7. muxu "Moving at 30"
8. Iambic² "Regulus"
9. Nest "Charlotte"
10. Le Mépris "susu"
11. Deluge "The Crush"
12. Audiokonstrukte "Disfiction"
13. Interview with Travis Nobles of hiddenplace music
14. Promo: Fallen Nation

I'm very excited about today's show because as of this week, solipsistic NATION is being broadcast on KYOU Open Source Radio on 1550 AM in San Francisco.

I'd like to thank KYOU's station manager, Stephen Page, from bringing me on board. I'd also like to think all of you who are listening, whether you're listening to solipsistic NATION over the airwaves in San Francisco or those of you who have downloaded the show from all over the world.

I've got a jam packed show for you!

This week on solipsistic NATION we'll talk with J. Anthony Allen, the Director of Programming for the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art taking place at the University of Minnesota, February 26 through March 2.

We'll also talk to to Professor Diana Deutsch from the University of California, San Diego's psychology department, about musical illusions and paradoxes, phantom words and other curiosities.

We'll also chat with Robbie Martin, who performs experimental electronic music under the name Fluorescent Grey and runs Record Label Records.

Finally, this week on solipsistic NATION I'll be giving away two with Robbie Martin, who performs experimental electronic music under the name Mix Tape USB Drives, courtesy of SUCK UK. The Mix Tape USB Drives stores up to one hour of high quality digital music - the same amount as you get on a C60 cassette tape. Perfect for creating your own unique compilation or mix 'tape'.

Send me an email and you could win one of the Mix Tape USB Drives. I'll randomly pick a winner in two weeks and announce the winners on an upcoming show.

SUCK UK produce furniture, lighting, interior products and accessories. Most of the designs are by Sam and Jude or selected by them from some of the best designers around the world. SUCK PRODUCTS are available in shops in the UK and around the globe.

1. Puzzleweasel "Fodhovl"
2. Parag Chordia "Vadi"
3. Interview with J. Anthony Allen, Director of Programming of the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art
4. SoNu Ensemble "Sonaurium"
5. Professor Diana Deutsch "Introduction"
6. Professor Diana Deutsch "Scale Illusion"
7. Professor Diana Deutsch "Commentary"
8. Professor Diana Deutsch "Nowhere"
9. Interview with Professor Diana Deutsch, University of California, San Diego Psychology Department
10. Evan Bartholomew "Elusive And Effervescent Is Our Destination"
11. Fluorescent Grey "Physically Modelled Theme For Children"
12. Fluorescent Grey "Are you aware of the pink light emenating from your naval?"
13. Interview with Robbie Martin of Fluorescent Grey and Record Label Records
14. Fluorescent Grey "Molten Ghost"
15. Promo: Fallen Nation

I really appreciate electronic record labels because they tend to focus on specific genres of music such as industrial or hip hop. That focus means they can narrow in on a specific aesthetic and seperate the wheat from the chaff.

Once a month I dedicate a show to a record label that is worth hearing and this week on solipsistic NATION we'll talk with Evan Marc, the man behind Native State Records.

Native State Records is a west coast electronic music label that explores the boundaries between downtempo, idm, dub, and chillout. I've featured several artists from Native State Records on solipsistic NATION in the past such as Rena Jones, Shen and Nalepa so it was only a matter of time before I had Evan as a guest on the show.

Evan recently launched Somnia, a sublabel of Native State Records. Somnia releases ambient, electronic, minimalist, modern classical, electro acoustic, and "other" recordings. If Somnia's first release, Caverns of Time, is an indication of the direction the label is heading in, then Somnia is destined for greatness.

Evan has also entered the world of podcasting with his Somnia podcast, which features artists that put out incredibly moving and beautiful music. You owe it to yourself subscribe to the Somnia podcast. And if you're so inclined, why not support the artists on his podcast and solipsistic NATION by purchasing osme of their songs or albums.

1. Aerostatic "Drone"
2. Interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records
3. KiloWatts "Dub Serious"
4. Vibesquad "Dome Piece"
5. Interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records
6. Bluetech "Enter The Lovely"
7. Interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records
8. Sympath "Pond Life"
9. krill.minima "Nautica"
10. Interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records
11. Shen "Embrace"
12. Saqi "Offering / Reminder"
13. Interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records
14. Welder "Sumeria"
15. Interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records
16. String Theories "White Dragon"
17. Rena Jones "Undercurrent"

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and some of you might be thinking to yourself that the whole thing is just an excuse to sell cards, chocolate, roses and jewelery , or that it's a way to get couples to spend a lot of money n expensive restaurants. You might also think that we don't need holidays like Valentine's Day, that each day we should cherish the people we love and tell them how we feel about them.

All of that is true. But if you're one of those cynical people I ask you to consider this: life goes by pretty fast and it's easy to get caught up in our day to day existence. It's all too easy to let the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months and forget to take the time to express our love to that certain special someone.

I think holidays like Valentine's Day serve as a touch stone to remind us to appreciate the one's we love and declare how much we love and cherish them. Things like chocolate and roses can be a sweet way to symbolize our affections. But they aren't absolutely necessary. Sometimes music can be the expression of our feelings.

Which brings us to today's show.

Our guests for this week's solipsistic NATION are Ryan Lum and Anji Bee from Lovespirals and together I hope we'll put you in a romantic state of mind for Valentine's Day.

Granted, not all the music of Lovespirals is about the joys of love. There are songs about heart break and more but on the whole, your music is often romantic and sensual, even when the music is at it's darkest.

By the way, if you're a musician then you'll want to enter the Loverspirals Remix Contest. The contest will allow you the opportunity to remix Lovespirals' new single "This Truth." The best remix wins some great prizes and the opportunity to be included on an upcoming Lovespirals remix digital EP and remix collection CD.

1. Lovespirals "Beatitude"
2. Interview with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum of Lovespirals
3. Lovespirals "Motherless Child (Chris Caulder Remix)"
4. Interview with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum of Lovespirals
5. Bitstream Dream "Love Me Leave Me"
6. Interview with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum of Lovespirals
7. Lovespirals "Deep in My Soul"
8. Interview with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum of Lovespirals
9. Plastic Chair "Requiem"
10. Interview with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum of Lovespirals
11. Lovespirals "Trouble"
12. Interview with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum of Lovespirals
13. Lovespirals "Walk Away (Bitstream Dream Remix)"
14. Interview with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum of Lovespirals