DJ BLEEK SWINNEY (Hollow Earth Radio)
Current top 5 tracks:
Ada Rook “Decayer” (self-released)
“Toronto artist Ada Rook is creating extraordinary music over at Bandcamp. She builds tracks that display such versatility and emotional rage (yes, rage). Go find out why. Recommended as catharsis for those of us who may identify as ‘damaged.'”
Deaf Girl, “I Am the Reaper” (self-released)
“Her(?) Bandcamp page says Florence, Italy, but the Twitters say Texas. Wherever Deaf Girl is stationed is a mystery, as are the sources of the artist’s samples. Call it ‘experimental electro’? I don’t figure it’s a sort of music descriptor that ends in ‘hop’? You tell me.”
Yoshinori Hayashi, “9828” (Jheri Tracks)
“‘9828’ appears on the three-song EP Harleys Dub and is the last track, which in my old way of reckoning, is often the one that gets short shrift as the-Professor-and-Mary-Ann tag-on material. ‘9828,’ though, is a haunted, deep-house killer.”
Houseplants, “The New History of the United Kingdom” (cassette/LP, Monofonus Press, 2016)
“This UK weirdcore outfit is an amalgam of great punky acts Ivan the Tolerable, Year of Birds, Country Teasers, and Arndales. ‘The New History of the United Kingdom’ is as thrilling as it is goofy. Maybe if the Fall had collaborated with Savage Republic? I haven’t played it for a while; I’ll have to bring it back.”
Echo Ladies, “Apart” (Sonic Cathedral)
“Sweden’s Echo Ladies’ full-length Pink Noise from last year is a nu-gaze favorite at Urban Mutant Radio. It has everything one would want in an album of the genre: beautiful wall-of-sound production, plenty of reverb and layers of detail. I’ve definitely come back to these tracks many times to punctuate a mood.”
Crew/label affiliation: “I am affiliated with Hollow Earth Radio and No Fun Radio in Vancouver, BC. I’d like to say I have a posse or crew or even a shoulder to cry on, but I tend to be an awkward loner who stays out of the way. However, I do feel protective of the affiliations I enjoy and probably need to tell more folks how much I love them. I made some Plunderphonics/noise material under the moniker Value Village People during my 11-year DJ stint at CiTR, Vancouver.”
Styles played: “I’m an old new-wave DJ from way back when, spinning lots of the standard college and club bands back in the era and before 10 million subgenres emerged out of those. I’m known by too many as being an ’80s DJ and, sure, that’s sometimes true, but I spend a ton of time searching out and presenting new and bizarre artists.
“Recently I experienced that ‘ah-ha’ moment when I belatedly came aware of the term ‘hauntology,’ which is a term used frequently in the vaporwave arena. It is a great descriptor of the type of mood I have been trying to create with Urban Mutant for the last few years. The programs have included several underground musical styles to do so, including dark wave, post-punk, art-punk, drone, field recordings, electroacoustic, electro, spoken word, easy listening, minimal, experimental, mutant pop… Almost anything which serves to make a program mysterious, eerie, alien, and unexpected.”
DJing philosophy: “I am increasingly avoiding songs that have over-saturated the college/community airscape for too long. I grew up being immediately bored with the classic rock heard on the school bus. I listened to scratchy 78s and sound collages played on Seattle’s legendary community radio station KRAB in the ’70s. I played with the radio to find the most distant stations possible and fell in love with the creepy sounds fading in and out between the AM stations at night. I identified with the stuff of misfits and outcasts. Anyway, my intention is to present the type of radio that will haunt the brain of the listener. The mysterious and strange can be fun and compelling. No hits all the time! That’s, uh… what I think I’m up to.”
Format: “I prefer vinyl these days, though I don’t get to use it exclusively, especially if I’m searching through Bandcamp or other platforms searching for the next unheard wonder. Lots of MP3s are utilized to fill out the two hours of menacing radio called Urban Mutant.”
Worst request: “I was playing some rather difficult racks at college radio one day when a young hipster who shared an annoying resemblance to Steve Malkmus, popped his head in the door and exclaimed, ‘Why don’t you play some MUSIC?!’ Always leave them wanting more.”
Upcoming events: “I host another radio program at No Fun Radio in Vancouver every second Tuesday, 3 pm to 4 pm. I don’t do many live events, but I am always willing to. I expect to spin live soon enough. I’m sure the fact that I haven’t lately has nothing to do with my being a loner homebody or ageism or anything silly like that, right?”
