The Delirious Insomniac Freeform Radio Show has haunted the airwaves of WLUW into the wee hours of dreary Monday Nights for over 2 years. Taking the concept of Freeform and directing it more into the realms of an art form, host Arvo Fingers uses his lengthy experience as a sleepless madman to wield surrealistic songs and sounds into a slithering swath for 4 hours a week. He's guested many times at WZRD-Chicago, cohosted a soul radio show with Eric Lab Rat, booked numbers of otherworldly bands, and sustained long stints of freeform DJ nights at daring bars or clubs, there's definitely a passion for abstruse, difficult music here; what college radio is born from. Presently, "Delirious Insomniac" is now syndicated on RadioKL.Hr in Croatia, with regular international guest contributions from foreign music enthusiasts on the horizon. Arvo also writes music-oriented articles as well as making music alongside some of Chicago's experimental luminaries. For the inauguration of WLUW's DJ Spotlight Series, he dusted off the crate in the attic to bring you selections from the unseen. The request line is 773-508-WLUW or IM to AIM using "wluwonairdj".
Los Iniciados - La Marca De Anubis (DRO)
"La Marca De Anubis" is a 1982 "minimal wave" concept album having something to do with Ancient Egypt. What's interesting is that while they had a more than competent female singer (see track 11), they usually chose to have men sing on this album in a way that most people must assume is just plain goofy. It's hard to tell if this album is satirical or dead serious with song names like "The Man With No Name" and "I Am The Void". Regardless of the aforementioned, there are some pretty eloquent moments, and a fair amount of instrumental interludes that will bring the Residents to mind. Like the Residents, Los Iniciados were a masked performance art band who rotated members frequently and never identified themselves. However, it is assumed that they were mainly comprised as a side project of "El Aviador Dro" a synth punk band that more or less flourished in Spain from 1978-2006.
Best: 8, 11, 12
Profanity: None
1. Obertura
2. La Marca De Anubis
3. La Comitiva Celeste
4. Meritatón y el Nilo
5: Isis y Osiris
6: Resurrección
7. Atlas
8. Mantis Religiosa
9. Ella es intangible (The Man With No Name)
10. El Hombre Sin Nombre
11. Peter Pan
12. Soy El Vacío (I Am The Emptiness/The Void)
Gandalf - S/T (Sundazed)
This album was originally released by Capitol Records, who made the band change their name from "the Rahgoos" to Gandalf in 1967, and then packed the wrong record in their sleeve for the first pressing in 1968. This damaged the outfit's career and, to add insult to injury, they were hardly promoted at all once that botched batch saw recall. While many reviews talk about baroque and classical, I don't get much of that imagery when I listen to this record. There are harpsichords and organs in there but I think of more of a serious, depressing Addams Family character more than some stuffy guy in a powdered wig. What I hear is a delicately reverb-laden mood album that is both melancholy and epic in its reach. There are a few original songs here, but most of this album is made up of covers that all seem to be internalized and made personal, placed in a sequence that is flawless from beginning to end. They cover more than a few songs that were at least 20-25 years old at the time, but give them all a feel which is still timeless to my ears. The beauty of it is that I can't tell which are covers and which are not half the time - a testament to their style and talent.
Best: 1, 6, 10
Profanity: None
| 1 | Golden Earrings | 2:49 | ||
| 2 | Hang On To A Dream | 4:17 | ||
| 3 | Never Too Far | 1:52 | ||
| 4 | Scarlet Ribbons | 3:04 | ||
| 5 | You Upset The Grace Of Living | 2:24 | ||
| 6 | Can You Travel In The Dark Alone | 3:04 | ||
| 7 | Nature Boy | 3:07 | ||
| 8 | Tiffany Rings | 1:49 | ||
| 9 | Me About You | 4:42 | ||
| 10 | I Watch The Moon |
Rancid Hell Spawn - Chainsaw Masochist (Wrench Records)
Here we have an exceptional example of basement mud, 4 track sound-- casio/feedback/guitar fuzz/tape hiss/ upbeat lo-fi drum machine punk, shredded to a degree that baffled pressing plants. Clever keyboard melodies are crammed into hi speed minute long songs about love and ooze. Rancid Hell Spawn is headed by Charlie Chainsaw, who started "Chainsaw" magazine in 1977 with a typewriter that had a broken "N" button. Therein he would publish interviews with unknown punk bands, draw sick cartoons, and reproduce images out of medical books from the '20s. All of Rancid Hell Spawn's records have cut/paste text with incredibly bizarre images, and they are still available through Charlie's imprint, Wrench Records, in existence for more than 20 years. I am under the suspicion that all of the recordings themselves were done by Charlie alone, although the "band" is rumored to be getting back together. "Chainsaw Masochist" is their "personal favorite"... ..."now with more distortion"! I've also included a favorite rare track called "Born Without A Head".
Best: 2, 4, 7
Profanity: None that I'm aware of
1 Chainsaw Masochist 1:43
2 Android Pup 2:21
3 Cirrhotic Neurotic 1:30
4 Excess Is Never Enough 1:57
5 Dead Today, Hip Hip Hooray 0:54
6 Zombie Girl 1:39
7 My Pet Corpse 1:54
8 Hippie Fat 1:22
9 Stomach Pump Rock 1:17
10 Gobbling Foul 1:08
11 Eat My Cigar 0:49
12 Notting Hill Carnivore 1:46
13 Assassin Bug 1:07
14 Pigsty Of Love 1:43
15 Croydonian Institute Blues 1:51
16 Dripping Off The Wall 1:19
17 Listerine Pissup 1:15
18. Born Without A Head (from "Nothing To Believe In!" comp) 2:10
GA'AN - S/T (From Self-Released Cassette)
Call me quick to categorize, but I'd say that this stuff is heavily influenced by 70s prog rock. I've dabbled in trying to find the goods within that "genre", and I've come up with a lot of lengthy solos on the fringes of disco, among other perfectly fine things. Being that "progressive" is a difficult umbrella to swim under, I wonder if there is some kind of contemporary neo-prog movement flourishing under my radar. Anyhow, GA'AN (featuring members of Oakeater, Fielded, and Panicsville) has distilled what it is that I was looking for, it's not a deductive carrion of derivatives; As far as I'm concerned, they have the market cornered. The tape is like a geiser of complex incantations spewed forth straight from out of the earth. There's no guitar to be found, only a bass and a healthy amount of shimmering synthesizers, sometimes sounding like Tibetan monks or an alien Celesta. Seth Sher traded in the oil drum and the pots and pans of his former band, Coughs, for a conventional drum kit to bang away on, at elaborate time signatures that I will never understand. Lindsay Powell bellows out non-words or muffled cryptology as if she were a one woman choir performing an aria. The whole thing has a battle-worn triumphant vibe to it, like the soundtrack to some lost foreign film set in the desert. Note: "I of Infinite Forms" part one and two only seems to be cut for continuity on their tape release. Part one leaves the listener hanging by itself in my opinion. According to their demo CDR, I'd guess that it is intended to be played in its entirety.
Best: 5, 1, 2
Profanity: None
1. Chasmaeon
2. Living Tribunal
3. I of Infinite Forms Part 1
4. I of Infinite Forms Part II (side B)
5. Servant Eye
6. Vultures of The Horn
Diatric Puds & The Blobettes - Mutant Dinner Party
Diatric Puds & The Blobettes wear buggly-eyed monster masks and zombie make up while they do Franken-fried 60's type shooby dooby horror songs, complete with screams of fright, pitch bent vocals, scary sound effects, and giddy, wiggly synth bass lines. Headed by Count Loachfillet, a well known composer in the globular goblin guts gobbledy gook genre, Puds have become the hip new thing on the mutant scene while maintaining an aura of mystery and intrigue. Their discography is sparse, scattered throughout limited cassette compilations and short-run lathe cut records or CDRs. Everything I've heard thus far is absolutely top-shelf, and with my DJ spotlight entry I asked them to put together a nice delicacy for the listeners of WLUW. All of this is pretty much out of print or as yet unreleased. A soundtrack to your cannibal feast! Note: Track 8 is a cover of Vernon Green & The Phantoms.
Best: 3, 4, 8
Profanity: None
1. Cutting Room Floor Capers Part 1
2. In Moom's New Lull (w/ Herb Diamante)
3. Ghoul Tide Carols a)the count's invisible powder b) crawlin' right along c) itching powder lip gloss
4. Party of Two (Dinner For One)
5. Asphalt Hymnal
6. Curse of the Haunted Jukebox
7. Cutting Room Floor Capers Part 2
8. Sweet Breeze (featuring Elmer D.)
9. The Weird Watusi Variations
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