A show of early musics! Each episode dives into a specific aspect or variation of the theme: from the earliest recordings of the earliest pieces to the music composed for instruments made yesterday.

https://repeater-radio.com/shows/semibegun/

Semibegun by Heather Mease

In 1968 Wendy Carlos released Switched-On Bach, a virtuosic demonstration of the Moog's musical capabilities through arrangements of pieces by baroque composer J.S. Bach. The certified platinum album introduced and legitimized the synthesizer to many and inspired numerous imitations ranging from charming to utterly bizarre: Switched-On Nashville, Switched-On Santa, Turned On Joplin, The Happy Moog!, and The Sounds Of Love...A To Zzzz (Sensually Sinthesized) to name just a few of the records that make it into this episode. Hear an hour of fun, surprising, and questionable synthesized tunes from this pivotal chapter of electronic music history.

Semibegun #05 | Gotta Switch On To Go Off 08032022

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This episode narrows in on a specific corner of video game music history: the origins of rhythm games. Tune in for an hour of dance tunes from the earliest mixes of Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania, IIDX, Pop'n Music, and Bust a Groove on Semibegun 21: "Revolution and Mania: Japanese Rhythm Games in the 1990s." Viva la revolución!

Semibegun #21 | Revolution and Mania 08302023

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What is library music? Viewed initially as background music for various forms of media primarily made in Europe from the 1960s to the 1980s, library music brought many session musicians together to make music they wouldn’t be able to otherwise, from schlocky conventional muzak to psychedelic drum-centric freakout jams. Over the years, library music has served as the source material for many hip-hop producers and has influenced some of the most prolific artists of the 21st Century. Guest curated by composer-researcher-filmmaker Orson Abram, this mix answers (and challenges) that question with an hour of music that blurs the lines between foreground and background, conventionality and abstraction, and musical intention through genre overlapping.

Heather Mease | Semibegun #22 | Through the Crates 01142023

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Come all ye vulgar, sinful peasants! We’ve slogged through the dingy hole that comprises Semibegun’s catalog to find the steamiest, raunchiest cuts for a special St. Valentine’s Day mix. A show focusing on a different kind of banger––enjoy an hour of bawdy catches about farts and intercourse, homoerotic country songs, dadaist orgasms, dirty (absolutely filthy) blues, and sex-sound infused synthesizer tunes. In these surprisingly explicit tunes from a variety of time periods and styles, we gather what we already knew: that to be horny is to be.

Semibegun #23 | Catch and Release 02112024

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The needle drop shatters the illusion that we are merely listening to a recording. The turntable and the record have existed as tools of performance and composition since their inception in the late 19th century. Early on, its limitations and affordances influenced how composers wrote and musicians performed. Practicioners of Gramaphonmusik and musique concrete utilized the record as compositional material before moving to the sound collagists preferred medium, tape. DJs from myriad parallel and intersecting musical trajectories spun new sounds and music-making practices out of their turntables. And the practice of frictional sound reproduction continues within a seemingly frictionless, streaming-based listening culture. We play the record; the record plays itself. An hour of non-exhaustive approaches to composing and performing on/with/for records and turntables, including my own! Music by Maria Chavez, Mariam Rezaei, Edward Elgar, The Caretaker, Philip Jeck, Herbie Hancock, Grandmaster Flash, and more.

Semibegun #24 | The Record Plays Itself 03102024

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Long time Semibegun-nuts will know that we here love early synthesizer records, particularly in the vein of Switched-On arrangements for Moog. Well, folks! You're in lucky. We've got another round of the beautiful, the schlocky, the goofy, the profound, and the questionable in analog form. Irving Berlin arrangements on the RCA Mark I crawled so that Wendy Carlos' "Switched-On Bach" could walk so that "Switched-On Buck Owens" could run. Oh, and we heard you couldn't get enough of albums that feature synthesizer with overlaid sex sounds so we found another in the vaults for you.

Semibegun #25 | Switch Me On, Baby! 06022024

former radio station from Repeater Books exploring philosophy, film, gender, music and politics from a radical Left perspective.

Semibegun #05 | Gotta Switch On To Go Off 08032022

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