Greg Carr
Technological Retreat Mixes Vol. 1
Innova
I really like college radio. I really love weird music that never gets played anywhere else. And I believe you have a right to be as unconventional on air as your station management will let you be. But I have trouble with this disc of acoustic experiments and mixes aired on Minneapolis’s KFAI. True, they played them between 1 and 6 am, well into the safe harbor time. And some of the sound collages are a bit interesting for a minute or so, but mostly this is a really annoying collection of overlapped sounds and noises and out of context sound clips. Imagine a whole disc of “Revolution Number 9,” but with no drugs available to rationalize the experience. Despite several concerted attempts, I can’t seem to put up with more than about 5 minutes of this disc without wanting to turn on some Barry Manilow or Christian Rock or Earl Nightingale, just to get back to reality.
All the material on this disc went up in the 1980s, and Greg Carr was the DJ in charge of it. If you missed it and can tolerate the sort of chronic dissonance that never seemed popular for more than 10 seconds in the ’60s, here’s your chance. I don’t recommend this disc, and I’m being a lot nicer than I really need to be.
Innova: http://www.innova.mu
