Month: October 2018

Exfiltration radio: Thirty years ago today

This is the second of two recent Hackathon playlists, and where The Holy Ghost was all about the Spirit, this one’s all about the body.

I have trouble believing that 1988 was thirty years ago, but then I also have trouble believing that my being old enough to drink happened before some of my youngest coworkers were born.

Lots of material that I omitted that might have made a volume II, in favor of more recognizable (though still oblique) corners of 1988. But it’s worth recognizing that the iconic rubbery shredding guitar on that iconic early Morrissey solo number is by none other than Durutti Column frontman Vini Reilly. And that Janet Jackson wouldn’t do anything as innovative as Rhythm Nation for basically the rest of her career (though she’d have bigger hits). And that Madonna would ultimately prove more transgressive than what Thurston did to “Into the Groove,” but that the combination of the two would be as dark and unsettling as Leonard Cohen. And… Well, you get the picture. There was a lot of darkness around the corner everywhere in the late 1980s.

  1. Eye of Fatima, Pt. 1 – Camper Van Beethoven (Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart)
  2. Birth, School, Work, Death – The Godfathers (Big Hits, Skinny Ties:New Wave)
  3. In Your Room – The Bangles (Everything)
  4. I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me – Morrissey (Viva Hate)
  5. Peek-A-Boo (Single) – Siouxsie and The Banshees (Peep Show)
  6. Cupid Come – My Bloody Valentine (Isn’t Anything)
  7. Everybody Knows – Leonard Cohen (I’m Your Man)
  8. Into The Groovey – Ciccone Youth (The Whitey Album)
  9. Miss You Much – Janet Jackson (Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814)
  10. Silver Rocket – Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation)
  11. Coldsweat – The Sugarcubes (Life’s Too Good)
  12. Dad I’m in Jail – Was (Not Was) (What Up, Dog?)
  13. Don’t Believe the Hype – Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back)
  14. Christine – The House of Love (The House of Love)
  15. Carolyn’s Fingers – Cocteau Twins (Blue Bell Knoll (Remastered) [Remastered])
  16. Under the Milky Way – The Church (Starfish)

Exfiltration Radio: the Holy Ghost

It’s been a hard day for many folks, after a hard year and 259 days. But in these days you have to do what you can, and not worry about what you can’t.

For me that translates to seeking out what’s important in music. Which is why the fifth volume in my series of one-hour Exfiltration Radio shows is about spiritual jazz. 

(Why that name? The music takes some of the techniques of free jazz and infuses it with the searching, looking beyond that Coltrane brought to the table with A Love Supreme. It’s a broad banner, as the multiple volumes of the Spiritual Jazz compilation series show.)

This one mixes up a track from one of my favorite McCoy Tyner albums, his Extensions, with other tracks from Alice Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Wayne Shorter, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the redoubtable Pharoah Sanders, and a few other goodies that I’ve found over the years on Bandcamp or other spots. It’s a good one-hour introduction if you’re feeling sinister—and it’s a good reminder that not everything that is in the world is of the world.

Enjoy…

  1. Rainbow Warriors – Alan Braufman (Valley of Search (Reissue))
  2. Journey In Satchidananda – Alice Coltrane (The Impulse Story: Alice Coltrane)
  3. Message From The Nile – McCoy Tyner (Extensions)
  4. Dance! Dance, Eternal Spirits – Joe Bonner with David Friesen, Billy Harper, Virgil Jones, M (Black Saint)
  5. Elijah – Donald Byrd (A New Perspective)
  6. Ja Mil – Hastings Street Jazz Experience (Spiritual Jazz)
  7. JuJu – Wayne Shorter (JuJu (Rudy Van Gelder Edition))
  8. Spirits Up Above – Rahsaan Roland Kirk (Volunteered Slavery)
  9. Colors – Pharoah Sanders (Karma)