Episode 200: LIVE and DIRECT (and LOST)

Episode 200, in celebration of such a big, round number, needed to be something special. Since it came on the heels of the fifth anniversary episode, a celebration of a different kind of big round number, I knew I couldn’t just go long. I finally settled on something I hadn’t done since the 3rd anniversary of the show: broadcast live!

Especially since Radiant Point, my lead-in for the past several months, had started broadcasting live… along with Live From the Barrage, The Public Record, SceneBeef, sometimes Thrashterpiece Theater, once upon a time Evropa Rawks, and of course Protonic Reversal. I thought it would be fun to join the crew! And test the waters… maybe it could become a regular thing.

Another idea that occurred to me was the fact that I had 199 back episodes, including several different eras of the show. My methods and philosophy for putting together episodes has evolved, and there are things that I used to do that I no longer do. There are artists whose music I used to play that I no longer do. There are artists I used to play practically every week! Peverelist, Boxcutter, Katy B… I called them the SttM House Bands, after S. Sowley’s characterization of similar bands on Cold Storage.

And so I went through my archival list and made note of bands that got a lot of play over the years, jettisoning my usual rule about not replaying songs. I selected a few songs from each and put together a playlist that topped out at over seven hours.

So I decided to go two hours, picking and choosing songs from the list as I went, semi-improvisationally. And that’s just what I did when the night came, and everything was running smoothly. Swimmingly, even…

…for the first 45 minutes or so, and then everything went haywire…

Notepad locked up. Chrome became unresponsive. My CPU usage pinned at 100%. The Traktor load bar pinned into the red. Windows Explorer crashed, then crashed again. My screen went black for what felt like thirty seconds while the current track played toward its end. The screen came back, but Traktor was unresponsive… until about 8 bars before the end of the track, allowing me to start another one just in time.

I managed to shut down Chrome and rode the show to its end. People in the chatbox listened to my panicked dispatches and assured me that none of it was showing up in the mix. Everything was done, broadcasted and recorded.

Then I listened to the .wav file that Traktor had recorded. And at about the 45 minute mark it started glitching like a scratched CD. I tried to sort it out, to repair it, to patch some Frankensteined monster out of what I had available… and finally gave up.

YOU JUST HAD TO BE THERE!

Episode 200 is lost like a Troughton-era Dr. Who serial

Here’s the playlist!

• Julio Bashmore – Kong (feat. BIXBY) [Knockin’ Boots]
• Scuba – On Deck [Triangulation]
• Peverelist – Wireframes [Tessellations]
• LSDXOXO – SUGARFALLS [FUCK, MARRY, KILL]
• DJ Plead – Get In Circle [Get In Circle]
• Container – Insulation [Vegetation EP]
• Ziúr – Cipher [U Feel Anything?]
• Grimes – Kill V. Maim [Art Angels]
• R Y K T – TOKYO DRIFT
• 2562 – Love In Outer Space [unbalance]
• Boxcutter – Skuff’d [Oneiric]
• Martyn – Vancouver [Great Lengths]
• Silkie – Rock da Funk [City Limits, Vol. 2]
• Benga – Night [Diary of an Afro Warrior]
• Levelz – Drug Dealer [LVL 11]
• Saul Williams – Grippo [Saul Williams]
• LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls [This Is Happening]
• RP Boo – Heavy Heat [Bangs & Works Vol. 2]
• EQ Why & Traxman – Pump Dat Jam [WhyTrax]
• Traxman – Funky Block [Bangs & Works Vol. 2]
• BSN Posse – M.Y.B. [Drifting]
• Jana Rush – — [Pariah]
• JLin – Guantanamo [Dark Energy]
• Plug – Feeling So Special [Back On Time]
• Fanu – Jungle War Is Hell [Jungle War Is Hell]
• Fracture feat. Dawn Day Night – Get Busy [EXIT 040]
• ASC – Space Echo [Space Echo EP]
• Tokyo Prose – LPK Sound [Introducing Tokyo Prose]
• dBridge -The Bride [EXIT 001]
• Jade – Venom (feat. Rhymetyme) [The Venom LP]
• Moresounds – Braaka Töölö [A New Tribe]
• Perceptionists – Let’s Move [Black Dialogue]
• The Coup – U.C.P.A.S. [Steal This Album]
• Georgia – Started Out [Seeking Thrills]
• Sudanim – The Link [The Link EP]
• Curve – Horror Head [Peel Sessions]
• Wagon Christ – Workout [Tally Ho!]
• Cathy Dennis – Touch Me (All Night Long) [Move To This]
• Agent K – Feed The Cat [Breaking The Beats]
• Riton – Fake I.D. (feat. Kah-Lo) [Fake I.D.]
• Todd Terje – Strandbar [It’s Album Time]
• DJ Dumpz – Smells Like Blue Coffin Dance (Nirvana vs Lady Gaga vs Eiffel 65 vs Tony Igy vs Vicetone) [Best of Bootie Mashup 2020]
• Lobsterdust – Don’t Start A Lifetime (Talking Heads vs Dua Lipa) [Best of Bootie Mashup 2020]
• Katy B feat. Ms. Dynamite – Lights On [On A Mission]

BPM Range: 88-176