The best genres are based upon the denial of genre. Experimenting does not exist in a single palette and improvising even less so. The file labels are needed to figure out where to find more of the good stuff, but don’t let them convince you of anything more. What this is called may be jazz or ambient or noise or drone or all and none of the above. The music invites you to be free with it.

PLAYLIST:

1. Steinski “Jazz” [What Does It All Mean? – 1983-2006 Retrospective]
2. Charlie Parker “All The Things You Are” [Bird After Dark]
3. Sun Ra “Somewhere Else – Pt. 1” [Somewhere Else]
4. Sun Ra “Somewhere Else – Pt. 2” [Somewhere Else]
5. Spring Heel Jack “With Out Words” [Songs And Themes]
6. Jessica Lurie “Up From The Bottom Of The Well” [Licorice & Smoke]
7. David Bowie “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” [Nothing Has Changed]
8. DJ Krush “Le Temps” [Milight]
9. Ben LaMar Gay “Oh No…Not Again!” [Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun]
10. Duke Ellington “Upper and Outest” [Anatomy of a Murder]
11. Ghidra “Floating Butterfly WIngs On Fire” [The Sound of Speed]
12. Rashan Roland Kirk “The Ragman and the Junkman Ran from the Businessman They Laughed and He Cried” [Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata]
13. Tom Waits “Frank’s Song” [The Early Years Vol. 1]
14. Ornette Coleman “Focus on Sanity” [The Shape Of Jazz To Come]
15. The Lounge Lizards “The Magic Of Palermo” [No Pain For Cakes]
16. Astrud Gilberto “Windy” [Windy]
17. Flying Lotus “Kill Your Co-Workers” [Pattern+Grid World]
18. Sia “Breathe Me – Four Tet Remix” [Colour The Small One (Deluxe Edition)]
19. Marcia Bassett / Samara Lubelski “PDX” [West Coast Live]
20. Sun City Girls “Wingspan Eclipse the Moon” [Piasa… Devourer of Men]
21. Narcissa Kasraï “Articulation” [Visions of Darkness (In Iranian Contemporary Music)]

We visited the new Freeform Portland studio by Zoom. Soon we will set foot inside and not too far in the future, What’s This Called? Will move back out of the Elusive Hangar and into the new REAL radio station. Ryan Ray will get a huge break from podcast engineering when that happens! But we don’t even have dates yet, so here we have Lennon joining Ricardo again from the Elusive Hangar to prove once again that Expunkimental Music begins at home.

PLAYLIST:

1. The Beach Boys “Do You Like Worms (Roll Plymouth Rock)” [The Smile Sessions]
2. Chrome “Armageddon” [3rd From The Sun (Bonus Tracks)]
3. This Heat “Health and Efficiency” [Health and Efficiency]
4. Yo La Tengo “Autumn Sweater” [I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One]
5. Susumu Hirasawa “Town-0 Phase-5” [救済の技法 (Kyuusai no gihou)]
6. Kasumi Trio “summer is over” [Oh! Gimme You]
7. jealousy mountain duo “leaf kickers” [jealousy mountain duo no2]
8. Burial “Homeless” [Untrue]
9. Dexorcist “Dark Times” [Electroklash]
10. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma “Love’s Refrain” [In Summer]
11. The Lounge Lizards “No Pain For Cakes” [No Pain For Cakes]
12. Coil “Fire of the Mind” [The Ape Of Naples]
13. Hunting Lodge “Simulation/Stimulation” [Third Noise Principle: formative north american electronica 1975-1984]
14. Gustavo Cerati “Tabu” [Bocanada]
15. hAshtAgblAck​.​n​.​o​.​i​.​s​.​e “Forked” [ Anthology Of Contemporary Music From South Africa]
16. Pescado Rabioso “Cantata de Puentes Amarillos” [Artaud]
17. Horse Lords “Mess Mend” [Mess Mend]
18. Drive Like Jehu “Here Come the Rome Plows” [Yank Crime]
19. The Grail Carol “Dead Space Chamber Music” [Hauntology in UK]
20. Art Bears “Rats And Monkeys” [Further Perspectives & Distortion: An Encyclopedia Of British Experimental And Avant-Garde Music 1976 – 1984]

While WTC has never been a stranger to the melodic or catchy song, obviously the nature of the show more often veers into longer and musically challenging territories. So with Freeform Portland putting out a call for more unscheduled “evergreen” shows, your host Ricardo Wang decided to put together two full hours of ear candy. Admittedly the show could have been called What’s This Oldies? as nothing on the playlist is at all contemporary. But it was the psychedelic pop of the late ’60s and the often overlooked catchier “prog pop” of the early ’70s that inspired this show. A few post-punk pop tunes also found their way in of course. Very few hits to be heard overall, though Ricardo will jump at any excuse to play a Carpenters smash, and well, ELO’s finest moment may be a disco song.

PLAYLIST:

1. Harry Nilsson “Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song” [Aerial Ballet]
2. Wire “Outdoor Miner – 2006 Remastered Version” [Chairs Missing]
3. Carpenters “Rainy Days And Mondays” [Carpenters]
4. Mighty Baby “Egyptian Tomb” [Mighty Baby]
5. Robyn Hitchcock “All I Wanna Do Is Fall in Love” [Black Snake Diamond Role]
6. Everything But The Girl “On My Mind” [Night and Day]
7. Sly & The Family Stone “Stand!” [Stand]
8. Fuchsia “Me And My Kite” [Lullabies For Catatonics: A Journey Through The British Avant-Pop/Art Rock Scene 1967-74]
9. Yo La Tengo “Tom Courtenay” [Electr-o-pura]
10. The Raincoats “Fairytale in the Supermarket” [The Raincoats]
11. Spiritualized “I Think I’m in Love” [Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space]
12. Tones On Tail “Lions” [Everything!]
13. Blue Faces “Yellow Turns to Green” [In the Days of the Lightbulb on the Wall]
14. BeeGees “I Am the World” [A Slight Disturbance in My Mind – The British Proto-Psychedelic Sounds of 1966]
15. Procol Harum “Conquistador” [Procol Harum (2009 remaster)]
16. Electric Light Orchestra “Last Train to London” [Discovery]
17. Samurai “Saving It Up for So Long” [Samurai]
18. Alex Chilton “Like Flies on Sherbert” [Like Flies on Sherbert]
19. Fairport Convention “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” [Unhalfbricking (Bonus Track Edition)]
20. Parliament “Party People” [Gloryhallastoopid]
21. LL COOL J “Rock The Bells” [Radio]
22. Thin Lizzy “Sha La La” [Nightlife]
23. Scott Walker “Jackie” [Scott 2]
24. The Zombies “Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914) – Mono Version” [Odessey and Oracle]
25. Alice Cooper “Swing Low Sweet Cherrio” [Pretties for You]
26. Love “She Comes in Colors” [Da Capo (Deluxe Edition)]
27. Paul Revere & The Raiders “Kicks” [Midnight Ride]
28. As You Like It “No More Sunshine Till May” [Lullabies For Catatonics: A Journey Through The British Avant-Pop/Art Rock Scene 1967-74]