Broadcast

I first discovered Broadcast late in 2010. I’m not sure how this English ‘retro-futurist’ experimental art-pop band escaped my attention for a decade. Like a creepier and more adventurous Stereolab, Broadcast take a very English journey through music evoking imaginary old children’s TV theme music and art-house movie soundtracks. What makes it distinctive is the blend of Trish Keenan’s calmly haunting singing, sometimes strange surreal/ absurdist lyrics, jazzy break-beat drumming and assorted elderly synth tones and BBC Radiophonic Workshop style bleeps and noises.

I became so captivated with Broadcast I’ve been steadily buying everything I can find. I’ve had a compilation of it all playing continually in my car for the past month. Tragically, Singer Trish Keenan died from pneumonia early in 2011, making their odd, dreamy, timeless pop even more haunted and affecting.

The best place to start discovering Broadcast is at the beginning. The compilation of early EPs called ‘The Future Crayon’ is a good way to round the best of those up. The best place to obtain the Broadcast catalogue is at bleep.com https://bleep.com/artist/82

Here’s Broadcast performing ‘Unchanging Window’ on Later… http://youtu.be/NZNhsiKad18

There is a new Broadcast album out on Warp Records early in 2013. It is collected together from a film soundtrack Broadcast were working on at the time of Trish’s untimely death.
https://bleep.com/release/39856-broadcast-berberian-sound-studio

This review of the album by Alexis Petridis in the UK newspaper The Guardian also has a bit more background on the band: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jan/03/broadcast-berberian-sound-studio-review

There is a very candid, informative & interesting interview with Trish from 2001 which appeared in #14 of Chickfactor fanzine: http://chickfactor.com/2013/01/trish-keenan-from-broadcast-the-chickfactor-interview-from-may-2001/