Negativland, "[untitled]"

(track 1!) So, a quick primer on Negativland. They're an avant-garde project that has used sound collages to make experimental pieces going back to their first album in 1980. They've always been closely associated with radio, having hosted a weekly radio show called Over the Edge on KPFA and experimenting with various sounds and approaches through that radio show. They've used the radio stuff to guide some of their studio projects and tours, taking some of the best bits and developing them further. I'm a big fan of the band and their projects, so they'll crop up here from time to time.

It's All In Your Head FM is a live album, which is a strange thing to say about a band that isn't really a band in the conventional sense. The tour was based around a series of radio shows that explored religion, a frequent topic of concern for Negativland. The band would revisit this material a third time by creating a studio record based on the same concepts, which to my mind is the definitive version of the work, leaving the live record more of a curiosity. The show itself was a good time, though.

This intro track isn't the best intro track from Negativland. That honor, of course, goes to the opening of Escape From Noise, whose "Announcement" is similar to this but even more honeyed. This is a similar track, and a clear homage to that earlier tune. It does serve as a fine first track for today. Let's see what follows that lead-in!

DJ Shadow, "This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)"

Not bad.

I think a lot of people lost track of DJ Shadow after he dropped an all-timer with his debut record, Endtroducing.... And, you know, that record is legendary for a reason, but it took six years for his second proper album, and by then people had mostly moved on. His third record, The Outsider, is even less well-known, and it's a shame. It's an eclectic record, with tracks coming from all directions and with lots of collaborations, which manages to show the breadth of DJ Shadow's talent but also kind of has a hard time hanging together. It's a good record, though, and deserves to be better known.

DJ Vadim, "Relax With Pep, Part 6"

Part of the reason why DJ Shadow's later work got lost is that there was a lot of abstract hip-hop released in the late 90s, and I think people got pretty sick of it fast. The irony here is that DJ Shadow mostly moved on from the abstract hip-hop stuff, making a lot more use of actual vocals. DJ Vadim is one of the contributors to the avalanche of abstract hip-hop records. He's one of the better in that group, but at the same time, there's a certain samey-ness to a lot of this kind of thing that means it's hard to really go out of your way to recommend most of it.

Black Midi, "Eat Men Eat"

By the time of the third album arriving (Hellfire), Black Midi had evolved far enough to end up where basically "eclectic" was the only valid word to describe them. There's a lot going on, with lots of deliberately outre prog weirdness going on. I read a comparison with Mr. Bungle at one point, and I think that's a decent idea of where they ended up. You get the sense that they incorporated basically every sound they ever heard into their music, at least somewhere.

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, "Four O'Clocker 2"

(track 1!) Yeah! Good comaprison, Plex. Or the Thinking Fellers!