Philosophy of the World

Philosophy of the World presents Sweet Thing Volume 1! On Sweet Thing Carr runs down our favorite new releases and reissues that have been getting heavy rotation around these parts. Sarah Louise joins us on the show to talk about her bright and shimmering new album, Nighttime Birds and Morning Stars. The rest of the show ranges from polyrhythms and cheap beats from Tanzania's Jay Mitta, to the nomadic Michael O'Shea and his mesmerizing Mo Chara playing, to the unsettling dark atmospheric masterpiece of Black to Comm. Tune in for some of the freshest cuts from the underground.

In the mid 1980s an underground community festered in blue collared Seattle. Inspired by the DIY raucous of punk and the burly distortion of metal, grunge music was born. The region was initially ignored by the music media in favor of bigger cities like LA and New York. Acts with harder, dirtier edges like U-Men inspired early bands of the scene like Green River, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard and Melvins. The loud, fast, moody, abrasive and authentic scene eventually spread beyond the Pacific Northwest, influencing bands like Babes in Toyland, L7 and Hole. As grunge hit the cultural zeitgeist through outlets like MTV, there was a tension between attaining success and staying true to their home-grown authenticity. While bands like Mudhoney maintained their independent and punk ethos, it was Nirvana who turned grunge upside down and ushered in the transformation towards more anthemic and arena-ready rock like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. It may have given way to some embarrassing post-grunge alt metal shite, but we can still look back on this important and transformative movement fondly.

Time to whisk away to a fictional paradise with our show on Exotica. Exotica was a popular jazz and easy-listening genre from the late '50s and early '60s that harnessed America's interest in faux-Polynesian and tiki culture. Utilizing vibraphones, piano, exotic percussion and a healthy dose of bird calls, Exotica crafted a unique and fantastical world for its listeners to inhabit. We cover Martin Denny's genre-defining output, Les Baxter's essential compositions that laid the groundwork for the movement, Arthur Lyman's gorgeous, dreamy vibes and of course plenty of oddball outliers as well. Make yourself a strong mixed drink and melt into your couch on this episode of Philosophy of the World.

How to describe Julia Holter? Is she a singer-songwriter? Composer? Sound designer? Holter is one of the most innovative artists on the music scene today. While she has roots in classical composition and piano, Holter has developed an unparalleled and thoughtful sound that eloquently interweaves avant sensibilities with sophisticated pop. We focus on her full length albums starting with her highly conceptual debut, Tragedy, that captured the focus of the underground blogosphere. She found her way to Domino crafting the opulent Loud City Song and her highly praised pop record Have You In My Wilderness. The episode culminates with Holter's stunning beast of a record, Aviary, which stands as possibly her most ambitious and outward looking effort to date that is sure to dazzle the sensorium. We at Philosophy of the World look forward to what Julia Holter does next.

You may have a definition of “post-rock” in your mind, but the prospect of encapsulating the variety of bands and sounds that have been labeled with the term over time is nearly futile. This month, Philosophy of the World goes back to the early 1990’s when the term meant, “using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes”. These artists took rock music to experimental realms often incorporating elements of jazz, electronic, musique concrete, dub, and kosmische to make something new in the face of a music scene dominated by grunge and Britpop. Listen with us as we explore the beginnings of the subgenre with Talk Talk’s irreproducible spacious jazz-inflected songs, Disco Inferno’s extreme experimentation with looped samples, the foreboding tone poems of Slint, and Tortoise’s ever-exploratory, rhythmic rock incorporating elements of minimalism, dub and jazz. Before being reduced to cathartic crescendos, post-rockers were a group of musicians unafraid to push the boundaries of what rock could be.

As summer slips away, Philosophy of the World tries to hold on, immersing itself in the wondrous, bright and lysergic pop of Animal Collective. The quartet of David Portner (Avey Tare), Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), Josh Dibb (Deakin), and Brian Weitz (Geologist) have made music together since childhood and through an independent spirit of sonic exploration, created an enduring legacy in experimental music. Early efforts including the bizarre fairy-tale imagery of Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished and the acid-fried Here Comes the Indian turned heads but it was the freak folk masterpiece, Sung Tongs, that broke them out. The subsequent string of dense, kinetic records of forward-thinking psychedelia culminating in Merriweather Post Pavilion solidified their influence on independent music. Join us as we explore the impressive discography of Animal Collective.

In the late ‘60s, the Brazilian psychedelic music of Tropicália was led by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. These visionaries sought to make music representative of all classes and social statuses by not only embracing Brazilian music like bossa nova, but also incorporating rock, psychedelia and experimental elements from the US, UK and beyond. Their harsh criticism of an iron-fisted, CIA-backed dictatorship resulted in the forced exile of Veloso and Gil in 1969. Despite this, likeminded artists persisted. The erudite experimentations of Tom Zé, far-out explorations of Gal Costa, eclectic psych pop of Os Mutantes, beautiful arrangements of Rogerio Duprat, and the fuzzed out Os Brazões pushed the bounds of the country’s musical tradition. These are the figureheads of the Brazilian counterculture, Tropicália.

In just over a decade Daniel Lopatin, best known as Oneohtrix Point Never, has created an impressive catalog of experimental and forward thinking electronic music. We discuss his early CD-R and cassette releases of Tangerine Dream-esque soundscapes, his inadvertent creation of the vaporwave genre with his Chuck Person project and his string of celebrated releases on labels like Editions Mego and Warp Records. Driven by strong concepts to shape his music making, Lopatin crafts a distinctive and otherworldly sound that is continuously built upon with each subsequent LP. From his parent’s air-conditioned house to Brooklyn DIY shows to collaborating with Iggy Pop for film music, this is Oneohtrix Point Never.

This month on Philosophy of the World we present a primer on German music from the 1970's, pejoratively known as krautrock but more accurately branded kosmische musik (or cosmic music). This was music by the 1968 Generation of West Germany emerging from the various student counterculture movements. The otherworldly music they created was the consequence of seeking a new cultural identity by not only vehemently rejecting post-Nazi Germany, but also resisting imperial Americanization after the construction of the Iron Curtain. Through the adoption of the Moog synthesizer, machine-made music, and influences from not only around the globe but also from the cosmos these bands created something wholly new. This spawned artists like the pastoral and motorik-driven Neu!, the art commune weirdos Faust, and progressive electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. Join us as we explore the many facets of this cosmic music.

Sonic Youth changed the landscape of guitar music through their experimentation with free-form noise, off-kilter rock/pop songs and dissonant alternative guitar tunings. The core members of the band (Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo) formed in 1981. On episode 35 of Philosophy of the World we revisit the output of this essential indie rock band from their early years to the end of the 1980's. We start with their debut EP highlighting Sonic Youth's no-wave roots, journey through EVOL and Sister which established them as powerful underground artists and finish off the show with instant classic Daydream Nation launching them into the pantheon of legend.