On this week’s show we’re joined in the studio by Jeff Surak, founder of the DC-based outré music label Zeromoon (home to “intelligent noise music of the non-entertainment genre”) and director of the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music.

For the past twelve years Sonic Circuits has been responsible for bringing some of the biggest names in obscure music to the District. This year’s festival—which runs September 28 through 30 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center—is possibly the most diverse yet. Featuring a massive lineup of artists, performances, and workshops, the festival is an impressive sampling of the genres, micro-genres, and not-quite-genres that make up the world of contemporary experimental music. Over the course of its three-day run, you can expect to hear everything from free improv and musique concrète to psychedelic pop and ambient drone.  

Over the course of the hour, Surak walks us through some of this year’s highlights, including cuts from local acts like Janel and Anthony and tracks from world-renowned composers like Glenn Branca. Also discussed: the important distinctions between the theramin and the tannerin.

Primal Communication [excerpt] – Tatsuya Nakatani – Primal Communication

My Dear Siegfried – The David Behrman Ensemble – Statement Against the War   

Sorrows of the Moon – Ergo – If Not Inertia 

Game 2 – Boris Bobby Jr. – Sonic Circuits Volume 5

Rasl – TL0741 – Rasl

Held to Account – TL0741 – Rasl

3e2 – Jeff Carey – Sonic Circuits Volume 5

För Svears Väl – Trepaneringsritualen – Konung Dómaldr Vid Upsala Hängd

Sticky Fingers – Music from the Film – Vi Kommer Til Å Få Deg

Fire Shuffle – Alec K Redfearn and the Eyesores – Sister Death

Big Sur – Janel and Anthony – Where is Home

Light Field (In Consonance) – Glenn Branca – The Ascension

               

The Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music runs September 28 through 30 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street. Tickets can be picked up online or at the box office the of the event.

Source: SoundCloud / 20kUnderDC

The Enchanted Sea — Martin Denny — Exotic Moog

Sun Is Melting You And Me — Aquatic Lifeforms — Aquatic Lifeforms

18 — Matthewdavid — DISK

No Trolls — Golden Dwarves — Great Turquoise Message

In Peices — R. Stevie Moore and Ariel Pink — Ku Klux Glam

Insight (Gone II) — Lunar Miasma — Impermanent Nature

Board Walk — Secret Colors — Dreamersss

12 — Matthewdavid — DISK

Couch Surfer — Triptides — Couch Surfer

My Glory Will Be To Sing Eternal Law — Black Zone Myth Chant — Straight

Herrons — Ecstatic Sunshine — Way

Place I Know, Kid Like You — Arthur Russell — World Of Echo

A Fool Persists — Infinite Body — Carve Out The Face Of My God

Preyouandi — Oneohtrix Point Never — Returnal

Houdini Rites — Black To Comm — Alphabet 1968

I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend — Black Tambourine — OneTwoThreeFour

Delight to the Sadist — DJ Signify — Of Cities

Teleporation: KOP — Excepter — Presidence

Calls from California — Wilson Alonso Sanchez — Misaligned Everything

Changes — Sandro Perri — Impossible Spaces

Parties Underground — Color Rabbit — Looking Out Surreal Window

FSCK Pt. II — Space Ghost — DYVNZMBR

Thanks and Praise — Sun Araw + M. Geddes Gengras + The Congos — FRKWYS Vol. 9

Toumani Dialogue — Mean Lady — Kid Friendly EP

Transfer #17 — Cub’b — XX

Negative Space — Blue Sausage Infant — Negative Space

Source: SoundCloud / 20kUnderDC

20kUnderDC Review: Black Dice “Mr. Impossible”

       

Occasionally the crew of 20kUnderDC leaves the subaquatic studio long enough to write some words for various other publications.  We’ll do our best to link them here as well.   The latest is a bit on one of our favorites, Black Dice:

From its inception, Black Dice has been undergoing something akin to reverse entropy. Beginning with unbounded slabs of free-range dissonance, the band has slowly been imposing order to its chaos, producing a string of albums which have gradually arced toward pop. Fittingly, Mr. Impossible, the group’s sixth full length and first on Ribbon Music, is the most structured release yet. The nine tracks presented here find the trio pushing the loops, electronic gurgles, and modulated shouts that defined their earlier work into straightforward, almost linear, compositions. The result is album of beats and grooves, alternately plodding and engaging, punctuated by the occasional bursts of Black Dice’s signature sonic playfulness… [Read the rest over at Prefix]