“Sixty Forty” by Broadcast

English ‘retro-futurist’ experimental art-pop band Broadcast’s journey through music at times evoked imaginary old children’s TV theme music and art-house movie soundtracks. What makes their music so distinctive is the sometimes familiar – yet not from this world – eclectic style of the music, with its assorted elderly synth tones and BBC Radiophonic Workshop style bleeps and noises, together with Trish Keenan’s calmly haunting singing, often of strange surreal/ absurdist lyrics.

Tragically, Singer Trish Keenan died from pneumonia early in 2011, making their odd, dreamy, timeless pop even more haunted and affecting. Since then there have been re-issues of the original albums and compilations of singles and EPs in 2015, but the announcement of three archival releases this month was a pleasant surprise. Here’s “Sixty Forty” from a 2003 BBC Maida Vale studio session:

“Sixty Forty” – Broadcast’s cover of a song from Nico’s 1981 “Drama in Exile” album – was previously only available on a 2009 Warp Records compilation Warp20 (Unheard).

“The BBC Maida Vale Sessions“ compiles four of Broadcast’s live performances at the West London studios between October 1996 – their first session for the John Peel show the same year as their first single release – and August 2003, by which time they had released their “Haha Sound” album. It was a period that saw them devolve from a more expansive kind of eerie psychedelic pop into even more experimental electronic noise pop as the group reduced to the core duo of James Cargill and Trish Keenan. “Sixty Forty” here is perhaps an early sign of what was to come two years later on their “Tender Buttons” album.

While most of the remaining songs will be familiar from their studio releases BBC sessions always seem to bring out something fresh in bands. This album also includes a song they did not record on any subsequent studio release – “Forget Every Time”.

Broadcast release three archival albums on the 18th March 2022 via Warp Records – Microtronics – Volumes 1 & 2, Mother Is The Milky Way, and BBC Maida Vale Sessions from which “Sixty Forty” here is taken.

“All These Conditions” by Govrmint

“All These Conditions” is a sweetly dislocated slice of ambient glitch sound-collage from Dunedin ensemble Govrmint.

Dunedin’s experimental/electronic music underground is a clandestine world of of it’s own. A new generation of sound-makers operate as Charisma Collective. The Charisma Collective Bandcamp page is where I stumbled across Govrmint’s “Pipe DRM” but Govrmint also have their own Bandcamp.

The whole album is wonderful. A familiar reference point may be Boards of Canada, but Govrmint operate like a futuristic laptop glitch advancement of that kind of oddly dislocating (mis)use of sound and samples. Check out the glorious “Altnow” for another poke in the third eye.

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/