On Air October 2024

ON AIR

WKCR 89.9 FM

October 2024 Vol. xxiii, No. 9

OnAir · October 2024

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WKCR 89.9 FM

Station Manager Ted Schmiedeler stationmanager@wkcr.org Program Director Georgia Dillane programming@wkcr.org Director of Operations Ben Erdmann operations@wkcr.org Student Life Director Teddy Wyche studentlife@wkcr.org Publicity Director Tanvi Krishnamurthy publicity@wkcr.org Business Manager Casey Lamb business@wkcr.org Jazz Heads Satch Peterson & Rachel Smith jazz@wkcr.org New Music Head Vivien Sweet newmusic@wkcr.org Classical Head Anika Strite classical@wkcr.org American Head Stephen Dames american@wkcr.org In All Languages Head Alma Avgar Shohamy ial@wkcr.org Latin Head Natalie Najar latin@wkcr.org News & Arts Head Macy Hanzlik-Barend news@wkcr.org Sports Head Isabelle Fishbein sports@wkcr.org

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Dear Listeners, On August 12, 1958, freelance photographer Art Kane photographed 57 jazz musicians on a Harlem stoop for Esquire magazine. This photo, titled “A Great Day in Harlem” is one of the most iconic photographs in jazz history, and following the passing of Benny Golson on September 21, only one of these 57 musicians is still with us (Sonny Rollins). Our memorial broadcast for Golson was a broadcasting high point during the month of September, but also a reminder that preserving the legacy of “A Great Day in Harlem” comes in our everyday programming and not just a special broadcast when a beloved musician passes, although that is certainly important as well. It also serves as a reminder of the beauty passed down from a previous generation of musicians to us in the form of their art. We must cherish this!

With that said, October is shaping up to be another stellar month here on 89.9. As always, we will have our annual Thelonious Monk broadcast on October 10, which also falls on WKCR’s birthday.

In addition, this year we will be adding a Pharoah Sanders birthday broadcast to our lineup, whom you can read about in this guide in a piece from Tanvi Krishnamurthy. We also will celebrate Fela Kuti and Clifford Brown, alongside our annual Ragas Live festival broadcast. This marathon, broadcasting from 8pm on 10/19 to 8pm on 10/20, is always one of our favorites. The Ragas Live festival at Pioneer Works is shaping up to be a magical evening yet again, something you can read about in this guide as well. Safe to say, you won’t need to touch that dial all month! And remember, as Pharoah Sanders said, Love is Everywhere!

Peace and love, Ted Schmiedeler Station Manager Cover photo of Pharoah Sanders by Bruno Bollaert.

Mailing Address

CONTACT US

2920 Broadway General Inquiries: board@wkcr.org New York, NY 10027 Listener Line: 212-854-9920 USA ©Copyright 2024 WKCR FM NYC

This Month OnAir Ragas Live: Sonic Architecture . . . page 4

Pharoah Sanders, The Son, the Sun, is Everywhere . . . page 7

Weekly Schedule . . . page 10

Special Broadcasts & Themed Shows . . . page 12

Show Listings for WKCR Listeners . . . page 13

Manning Fireworks: Album Review . . . page 16

Around the Station . . . page 18

Interview with DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ . . . page 20

Thank You! . . . page 25

OnAir · October 2024

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FEATURE PIECE

Ragas Live: Sonic Architecture on 89.9FM

A

by Georgia Dillane & Ben Erdmann

rchitecture—at least good architecture— is produced for its subject. Those who inhabit it, the use-function of its space, the built environment surrounding it— each molds the architecture’s form towards a mutually beneficial program and appearance.

And yet, architecture enacts a simultaneous mutation of its subject: typology tells the visitor where to go and how to go there, content redefines the limits of use value, and form serves as an internal frame for that external built environment. This is not so different from radio; listeners shape a station’s programming, but programming shapes listeners in a similar fashion, e.g., if you don’t like our broadcast, turn the dial! But radio lacks the material typology and built form of architecture–what are the techniques of subjectivization proper to radio’s sonic ecology?

Architecture proper is largely designed with an underlying understanding of rhythm. As the built environment is constructed to aid in carrying out the particular routines of everyday life, some of which are highly personal rhythms (grooming, sleeping (sometimes)), others are carried out communally or are at least conceptually communal (hanging out, dining, etc). In this way, the space itself is built with consideration for pathways or areas of density (a large kitchen compared to a small bathroom).

Sound arguably does the same thing: it plays a large role in defining spaces as different from one another, communal or private, high use or low use, etc. But let’s return to the idea of subjectivization.

Radio plays a unique role in defining subjectivity, a role magnified by the Internet.

A former WKCR programmer wrote: “In the

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age of the Internet, you can listen to anything, but there is no guarantee that you will actually listen to anything because what you search for is ultimately in your control” (Dyan Delgiudice, “Why WKCR Matters,” 2019). Here, radio is almost reduced to a sonic architecture; the music itself falls away as inevitable for any Internet user, but the sonic architecture consists of instructions to reinfuse meaning into that music. And this is a pressing concern: “aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally,” a phenomenon that can be observed easily by turning the dial to any one of a number of commercial radio stations, where the texture of radio becomes commercials interrupted every so often for a track or two (Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” 1989, p. 56).

Radio experimentation has been replaced by an “intensification of the autoreferentiality of all modern culture, which tends to turn upon itself and designate its own cultural production as its content” (Jameson, 1989, p. 82). But radio itself is a medium, not a product, and viewing it as such requires identifying the techniques inherent in sonic architecture such that we might free them from commercialization, from capitalist stagnation.

As argued, sonic architecture requires a sense of communalism. Sound is not broadcast across FM waves for the benefit of WKCR’s programmers—we hear the tracks bump and move in the studio­—but for the ecology of listeners that experience the outward movement of these electromagnetic waves.

Here, something like the internal aesthetic of WKCR is “liquidated or overcome or avoided

in its constant throwing of itself beyond its categories, as Duke Ellington + Sianne Ngai might say” (Fred Moten, “Collective Head,” 2016, p. 165). Beyond our categories lie the listener, the radio ecology that escapes our Master Control studio. Radio must work in conversation with the spaces in which it broadcasts, the people who receive its frequencies. This is what allows us to avoid stagnation: “to bring the outside so deep inside that it cuts that opposition until it can’t be seen then cuts where it was” (Moten, 2016, p. 166).

And this is a distinctly spatial question: “The question of the architecture, economy, and ecology of our down and out commonality is the song-like question of the earth that is also, and immediately, the question of art to the extent that it is bound not only to the ability to inhabit the differential but irreducible totality but also to deal with the mobile jurisgenerativity of

Ragas Live, 2023. Photo by Georgia Dillane

dwelling” (Moten, 2016, p. 169). Where does radio dwell? Can you find a sonic architecture there? Must you look elsewhere? What is elsewhere when here is always already made into somewhere else by the sonic architecture?

Let’s look at a particularly interesting case study “housed” at WKCR every October: Ragas Live, our beloved 24 hours broadcasting live from Pioneer Works in Red Hook. Ragas Live is a logistical feat as much as it is an auditory one. The space is configured for 24 hours of continuous occupation and music production.

Doesn’t that sound like the requirements of a 24/7 radio station? We’ll get back to this. In its physical manifestation, Ragas Live is obviously an impressive example of just how sound informs space and space informs sound. This is particularly true of a space like Pioneer Works, given its past as an industrial building

OnAir · October 2024

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turned multipurpose events and art space. In some ways this flips the original narrative of how spaces are formed, but it also exposes the core functionality of its new purpose through exposed audio infrastructures, offices that open into the open plan, and an often musicfilled main hall. Almost all activity is centered around the main communal event space that becomes the space’s main locus both physically and audibly.

For WKCR to broadcast Ragas Live for all 24 hours is to both completely remove this physical experience for the listeners at home, while also inviting them to imagine the space through audio only. While we may try our best to coordinate smooth transitions, streamline interviews, and fill the time between sets, ultimately what outlines the forms of the space even more than the music performed within are the sounds of shuffling feets, microphones being moved across the stage or in the hands of our interviewees. This audio becomes more

mobile and more reliant on space than that which is typically broadcast out of Master Control in Morningside Heights. Much more could be said about the space of our studio in relation to sonic architecture; but for now let’s leave a pin in the fact that, in large part, the space of WKCR’s station cares not for the aesthetics of one’s experience within, but much more about the product it yields.

Back at Ragas Live, we’re curious to consider how our broadcast of a festival, experientially dependent on its space, changes the way listeners on our waves experience it compared to those unrolling sleeping bags on the floor of Pioneer Works. One might return to Jameson to consider how this complicates our understanding of space as it relates to our postmodern experience – our “postmodern hyperspace,” if you will, that “[transcends] the capacities of the individual human body to locate itself.” Where am I listening to?

While postmodern space tries to “organize its immediate surroundings perceptually, and cognitively to map its position in a mappable external world” (Jameson, 1989, p. 83), what can I imagine this space to be?

Try to figure it out yourself this year on October 19th and 20th. Hear us broadcasting live from Ragas Live, 8PM Saturday- 8PM Sunday, only on 89.9FM.

The WKCR broadcast control board from stageside at Ragas Live, 2023. Photo by Ale Díaz-Pizarro.

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JAZZ

Pharoah Sanders, The Son, the Sun, is Everywhere

by Tanvi Krishnamurthy

T

here is a reason Albert Ayler referred asked in response to Sanders’ 1971 album Black to himself, John Coltrane, and Pharoah Unity, “How do we as Black people triumph over Sanders in tandem, evoking clear a system of white supremacy that has affected religious and spiritual imagery to describe their even our scope to define the parameters of the roles in the developing ‘real’?” Hutchings notes scene of spiritual jazz, that Black Unity seeks the avant-garde, and the to answer that. I would New Black Thing. “Trane posit that an answer was the father. Pharoah also comes from the was the son. I was the immaterial imagining holy ghost,” Ayler said. that takes place in many Sanders started off of Sanders’ albums in more traditional jazz from the 70s, 80s, and stylings, but what most 90s, too. Sanders’ music remember him for is is rooted in spiritual his progression into potentials that may not embodying a defining be reality yet, but the act voice within free jazz and of imagining itself helps spiritual jazz. His music structure the answers was revolutionary, not to the problem that just in the sonic sense, Hutchings references, but literally, as well. The providing auditory and Cricket, a Black music philosophical tools publication founded by to ground oneself in author and pioneer of the a future that is being Black Arts Movement, constructed as one Amiri Baraka, regularly listens. The unreality of reviewed Sanders’ his music is an asset, his albums as they were Pharoah Sanders. Photo by Bruno Bollaert. sonic freeness a weapon. released.

With the Sanders was culturally prominence amongst African Americans in and politically salient, not just musically. His returning culturally (or literally) to the African work, and the work of many of his other free homeland and an emphasis on the communal jazz contemporaries, was the soundtrack for with the rise of Pan-Africanism in the 1960s a developing collective Black consciousness and 70s, Sanders’ work often served as the rooted in radicalism and love. He is a messenger, sonic translation of Black Power for many an expansive musical median between reality Black radicals and scholars. Contemporary and what could or will be. jazz multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings Sanders was, in some part, discovered by

OnAir · October 2024

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Sun Ra. While the time Sanders spent with Sun Ra was fleeting—and marked by only a few official recordings—I like to imagine that the two left their marks on one another, whether intentionally or not. Sun Ra’s afrofuturism took on distinct forms, but Sanders’ later works manifested elements of the transcendental, the cosmic, the futuristic in ways parallel to Sun Ra. It is widely held that Sun Ra was part of the reason Sanders’ decided to go by “Pharoah,” and the two embody a philosophy of the otherworldly, complementing one another's in both their similarities and differences. In certain later tracks of Sanders, I hear the large ensembles of musicians and the singing of chorus-like repeated motifs often grounded in the natural or extraordinary world—such as the title track “Moon Child,” off his 1989 record—and I see a cursory connection the two might’ve shared.

Arguably more significant in their relationship, though, was Sanders’ role as a disciple under Coltrane’s mammoth leadership.

His transition into bandleader as he began to release his own albums after Coltrane’s death reflects how the Father passed down his essence to the Son. It would be reductive to characterize all of Sanders’ greatness as originating from his time with Coltrane, but at the same time, it’s worth noting how the often-labeled world’s greatest tenor player insisted Sanders, another tenor, play alongside him. That, more than anything, is testament to Sanders’ greatness, intrinsic within himself. He brought something to the table that Coltrane himself couldn’t quite tap, the two generating a dynamic that shines with the particular expansiveness of free jazz.

You cannot box in players like Coltrane and Sanders. Sanders’ quintessential overblowing may be strenuous to some ears, but to many others, it is passion and fire crescendoing into a creative frenzy. It condenses the chaos of the spirit and the unquantifiable nature of existence into a singular sound, one which you cannot dance to or tap your foot to as you listen. All you can do is listen. His music is not meant to be confined, just as is the case for so

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many of the free jazz of his time. I’m thinking in particular of the liner notes written by poet A.B. Spellman for John Coltrane’s Ascension, in which Sanders plays tenor. Another key figure in the Black Arts Movement, Spellman wrote of how it is not a jazz album to throw on in the background, nor one which you can make claims upon in just two minutes of listening.

It is a piece that, however alienating or jarring it may be for some listeners, is meant to be absorbed, internalized, sat with. It is my belief that the same applies for much of Sanders' music at large, that which you could dance to and which you could not.

Here at WKCR, we take Polaroids of all of our board members that hang proudly on the wall of our station, and we have the person who held the position prior give you a special nickname that is memorialized in Sharpie on your photo. My nickname is Tanvi “Love is Everywhere” Krishnamurthy, given to me by the previous Publicity Director before me (and our current Program Director), Georgia. “Love is Everywhere” is a long, energetic, repetitive track that has been officially released twice by

Pharoah Sanders at Sesc Pinheiros, Sao Paulo, in August 2010. Photo by Paulo Borgia.

Sanders, but the version that I refer to is a track from the 1974 Love In Us All release. I espouse all this extraneous personal information to say that Pharoah Sanders is not simply just a profound tenor (and soprano) saxophonist, nor just an artist who pushed the boundaries of jazz in every which way. He is all those things and more: a herald, a translator, a visionary. He is everywhere. He boils down essential truths of humanity into screeching multiphonics and rhythmic energy, with or without words. “Love is Everywhere” is my favorite version of his doing so. It consolidates his spiritual mission and his fervor for life into a simple phrase that never gets old no matter how many times it is sung in this twenty minute-long track. It is exuberance, unbridled; a memorandum that I take with me always.

It is easier for me to talk of Sanders’ music in emotions and energies rather than in techniques and theory, because that is what speaks to me most from his work, but the two surely connect. His music rises slowly, building into a crescendo that peaks in the sky and basks its listeners in heat that is as calming as it is fervent, and the balance of both is his own particular artistic skill. No one can generate that balance in the way Sanders can.

In a May 1968 issue of DownBeat, he wrote, “It seems that for me, the more I play ‘inside’, inside the chords and the tune, the more I want to play ‘outside’, and free. But also, the more I play ‘outside’ the more I want to play ‘inside’ too. I’m trying to get a balance in my music.” While the balance he refers to speaks to the boundaries of specific musical canons within jazz, it applies to the spiritual trajectory of his music, too. It is concrete and fluid, recognizable and unidentifiable, constant yet ephemeral in its motifs and tones. You hear the swift build, pinnacle, and slow decline of “Love is Everywhere” in the sun’s path. You see the effusive state of community and Black culture in “High Life.” You recognize an introspection, contemplation, and a spiritual reckoning in “Kazuko.” In the thick of “The Creator Has A Master Plan,” you are simultaneously flung to all corners of the galaxy, everywhere and

nowhere, until you are grounded again. Poet Larry Neal, in the 1969 Issue 4 of the Cricket, perhaps described this quality of Sanders’ artistry best: “Clouds passing above. A few stars. Spotlights across the sky. The sound: Shooting stars, whirling galaxies of sound.

Expansion.”

You cannot quantify the essence of Pharoah Sanders, and you shouldn’t want to. You can only listen. For, every time you listen to Pharoah Sanders, you are learning, whether about music, about the world, about himself or yourself. That is because Pharoah Sanders, the Son, the sun, is everywhere.

On Sunday, October 13th, WKCR will be bringing a little bit of that "everywhere" onto our airwaves with a 24-hour celebration of Pharoah Sanders on what would have been his 84th birthday. Tune in all day to get a little bit of his cosmic magic, on 89.9FM or online at wkcr.org.

OnAir · October 2024

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5:00 am 6:00 am 7:00 am

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNE

Jazz ‘til Dawn (cont’d)

Daybreak

Field Trip

8:00 am 9:00 am

Amazing Grace

Monday Morningside

Bird F

10:00 am 11:00 am

Cereal Music

The Moonshine Show

12:00 pm 1:00 pm The Tennessee Border Show

Out to Lunch

2:00 pm

Sin Fro

3:00 pm 4:00 pm 5:00 pm

Sunday Profiles

Afternoon New Music

6:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm

Jazz Alte

Raag Aur Taal

9:00 pm 10:00 pm 11:00 pm 12:00 am 1:00 am 2:00 am

News + Arts Programming Live Constructions Back in the USSR The Celtic Show

Urbano Latinx

Honky Tonkin’

Nueva C

Tuesday’s Just as Bad

Som do

Night Train

Transfigur

Coordinated Universal Time

3:00 am 4:00 am

Caribe Latino

Phil Lives

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Transfigured Night

ESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY Transfigured Night (cont’d)

k Express

Sounds of Asia

5:00 am 6:00 am 7:00 am 8:00 am

Flight

9:00 am

Now's The Time Eastern Standard Time Early Music

10:00 am 11:00 am 12:00 pm

Across 110th Street

Out to Lunch

onteras

2:00 pm

Something Inside of Me

Bach Hour

Canción

o Brasil

red Night

Hobo’s Lullaby

Middle Eastern Influences

Sonidos Colombianos

Saturday Night at the Opera 11:00 pm 12:00 am

The Mambo Machine

Transfigured Night

8:00 pm

10:00 pm

Notes From Underground Offbeat

7:00 pm

9:00 pm

Workaround The African Show

5:00 pm 6:00 pm

Traditions in Swing

ernatives

3:00 pm 4:00 pm

Afternoon Classical

Extended Technique

1:00 pm

El Sonido de la Calle

1:00 am 2:00 am 3:00 am 4:00 am

Jazz ‘til Dawn

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Special Broadcasts SPECIAL BROADCASTS

Salsa Festival: Day 2 Tuesday, Octobner 1st, all day

The first of October brings us the second day of our 48-hour Salsa festival. Day one (September 30th) largely featured the work of Salsa icon Hector Lavoe. We will continue to celebrate the legacy of his work in the vastness of the Salsa canon with an additional day of Salsa! Lest our listeners forget that WKCR was the first radio station in NYC to play Salsa music on the FM waves...

Thelonious Monk

Thursday, October 10th, all day

October 10th is a big day here at WKCR. Not only is it the birthday of the station itself (we turn 83 this year!) but as is tradition, we honor the birth of the great Thelonius Monk. Born in 1917 in North Carolina, Monk’s unique improvisational style gave us many great jazz standards in the repertoire.

Pharoah Sanders

Sunday, October 13th, all day

This year, a long overdue broadcast returns to WKCR: a celebration of Pharoah Sanders for his birthday! Since his passing in 2022, the influence and legacy of his music has become all the more obvious. Along with his pioneering influence on free and spiritual jazz, his plethora of collaborative projects throughout his life has given us iconic and genre-defining work. Join us on the 13th of October for a 24 hour celebration!

Fela Kuti + Afrobeat Festival

Tuesday, October 15th – Wednesday, October 16th, all day (48 hours) One of WKCR’s most beloved birthday broadcasts in the In All Languages department is our yearly Fela Kuti birthday broadcast. This year is particularly special. In addition to our usual celebrations of his music and significant contributions to socio political discourse, this year we extend the broadcast another day to explore the genre of Afrobeat and related genres, those heavily indebted to Kuti's work.

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Ragas Live

Saturday, October 19th 8:00 PM – Sunday, October 20th 8:00 PM (24 hours) Since 2012, WKCR has broadcast live from the beloved Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works in Red Hook. This year the festival, in its typical 24-hour fashion, takes place October 19th starting at 8pm and ending at 8pm on Sunday, October 20th. Tune in for an exceptional lineup.

Clifford Brown

Wednesday, October 30th, all day

The end of October brings us our annual Clifford Brown Birthday Broadcast. 24 hours of music honoring the work and, although short, momentous life of the great jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer Clifford Brown. Tune in!

THEMED SHOWS

SUNDAY PROFILES Sundays 2:00-7:00 PM

TBA

October 6th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM Host: Stephen Park

TBA

October 27th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM Host:Sid Gribetz

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE OPERA Saturdays 9:00 PM-12:30 AM Host: Ale Díaz-Pizarro

Peter Grimes (Britten)

October 5th, 9:00 PM-12:00 AM

Pavarotti + Verdi Birthday Celebration October 12th, 9:00 PM-12:00 AM

Special Guest: Maddy Manning-Bi

October 26th, 9:00 PM-12:30 AM Mezzo-soprano Maddy Manning-Bi, also a student at Columbia University, will be joining the show at the end of the month for a live performance and a curated selection of vocal pieces.

Show Listings

JAZZ

Daybreak Express, weekdays 5-8:20am Out to Lunch, weekdays 12-3pm Jazz Alternatives, weekdays 6-9pm The core of our jazz offerings, these three programs span the entire range of recorded jazz: everything from New Orleans jazz, jazz age, swing era, bebop, hard-bop, modal, free, and avant-garde. Hosts rotate daily, offering an exciting variety of approaches, some of which include thematic presentation, artist interviews, or artist profiles.

Birdflight, Tues.-Thurs. 8:20-9:30am Archival programs from the late Phil Schaap, one of the world’s leading jazz historians, who hosted this daily forum for the music of Charlie Parker for about 40 years.

Now's The Time*, Fri. 8:20-9:30am The newest show from WKCR Jazz is dedicated to jazz as a living art form, providing a weekly space to listen to the young and current musicians pushing the genre forward.

Traditions in Swing, Sat. 6-9pm Archival programs from the late Phil Schaap, this awardwinning Saturday night staple presents focused thematic programs on jazz up until about World War II. Schaap presents the music, much of it incredibly rare, from the best sound source, which is often the original 78 issue.

Phil Lives*, Mon. 3-5am Archival broadcasts of longform programs from late NEA Jazz Master Phil Schaap.

CLASSICAL Cereal Music, Mon.-Thurs. 9:30am-12pm An entirely open-ended classical show to start your weekdays. Tune in to hear the most eclectic mix of classical music on the New York airwaves!

The Early Music Show, Fri. 9:30am-12pm Dedicated primarily to European medieval, Renaissance, and baroque music, all from before 1800 (±50 years).

Extended Technique*, Wed. & Thurs. 3-6pm WKCR’s first interdepartmental show (in the New Music and Classical departments) dedicated to contemporary classical music. You’ll hear everything from 12-tone and minimalist compositions to film and video game scores, and all things in between.

Afternoon Classical, Fri. 3-6pm.

Similar to Cereal Music, most of Afternoon Classical has no restrictions on what type of classical music to play.

The last hour of the show, however, is dedicated fully to the music of JS Bach.

Saturday Night at the Opera, Sat. 9pm-12:30am.

One of NYC’s longest running opera shows, Saturday Night at the Opera is a 3.5 hour show that allows operas to be played in their entirety, with room for commentary, descriptions, and some history.

NEW MUSIC Afternoon New Music, Mon. & Tues. 3-6pm Our daytime new music program features a wide variety of music that challenges boundaries and subverts categorizations. Shows include everything from seminal new music compositions to the most challenging of obscure deep cuts and new releases.

Transfigured Night, Tues./Thurs./Sat. 1-5am Our overnight explorations into the world of new music, Transfigured Night rewards our late night listeners with a wide range of sounds and experimental music.

Workaround*, Fri. 9-10pm WKCR presents live DJ sets from Columbia students and local artists.

Live Constructions, Sun. 10-11pm This weekly program features a live in-studio performance or a performance pre-recorded specially for the show.

AMERICAN Honky Tonkin’, Tues. 10-11pm One of WKCR’s longest-running American music programs, Honky Tonkin’ lands in the harder side of Country music. Emphasizing the greatest voices in the genre, Honky Tonkin’ is a country music dance party every Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s Just as Bad, Tues. 11pm - Wed. 1am Tuesday’s Just as bad explores the world of blues prior to World War II. Shows weave their way through the first decades of recorded music history and turn to the postwar years in the final half hour. * Indicates show was created after January 2022

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LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS Night Train, Wed. 1-5am All aboard! One of our two overnight programs in the American department, Night Train rolls through the postwar R&B and soul tradition, from the genre’s emergence in the 1940’s and 50’s through the funk revolution in the 1970’s. Shows often feature extended live recordings and concerts.

Offbeat, Fri. 1-5am Offbeat is committed to broadcasting undiscovered new hip hop music. Shows typically focus on exposing underplayed or up-and-coming new artists, including experimental instrumental artists not typically played on mainstream hip hop radio.

Across 110th Street, Sat. 12-2pm Kicking off our Saturday afternoon American music run, Across 110th Street airs soul, funk, and dance music from the 1960’s through the 1980’s and 90’s.

Something Inside of Me, Sat. 2-4pm Something Inside of Me is WKCR’s Saturday afternoon blues show, focusing mostly on the electric and post-war styles.

Hobo’s Lullaby, Sat. 4-6pm Rooted in the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, Hobo’s Lullaby airs American folk and traditional music styles from the early 20th century through the present day.

From old staples like Leadbelly, Elizabeth Cotton, and Woody Guthrie to contemporary stalwarts like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and lesser known artists, domestic traditions are alive and well on Hobo’s Lullaby.

Notes from the Underground, Sun. 12:30-2am Notes from the Underground showcases contemporary hip hop and rap music with an emphasis on emerging and experimental artists. The program also hosts local and visiting artists for interviews, freestyles, and guestcuration.

Amazing Grace, Sun. 8-10am Greeting listeners on Sunday morning, Amazing Grace shares with listeners the world of the African-American gospel tradition.

The Moonshine Show, Sun. 10am-12pm On the air for nearly 60 years, The Moonshine Show showcases the American Bluegrass tradition, from the earliest roots in vernacular string-band music, through * indicates show was created after January 2022

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the genre’s pioneers in the 1940s and 50s and advancements in the 60s and 70s, through the leading innovators and stars of today.

The Tennessee Border Show, Sun. 12-2pm One third of WKCR’s country music programming, along with Honky Tonkin’ and the Bluegrass Moonshine Show, Tennessee Border highlights the singer-songwriter tradition, from Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt to Lucinda Williams.

LATIN Caribe Latino, Mon. 10pm-12am Caribe Latino is a music program that features the diverse, upbeat music from numerous Latin communities in the Caribbean. Popular Latin rhythms such as Salsa, Merengue, Bachata and Latin Jazz take center stage throughout the program.

Urbano Latinx, Tues. 12-1am A weekly Latin show airing contemporary sounds from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the diaspora, Urbano Latinx features mixes of salsa, merengue, Latin punk rock, and more.

Sin Fronteras*, Wed. 12-3pm Falling in the space of Out to Lunch on Wednesday afternoons, Sin Fronteras explores the tremendous Latin Jazz tradition.

Nueva Canción, Wed. 10-11pm Nueva Canción is an exploration of protest music created throughout Latin America during the 60s and 70s and its numerous other manifestations throughout other countries and time periods.

Som do Brasil, Wed. 11pm - Thurs. 1am From samba and bossa nova to MPB, hear the numerous and enchanting sounds and rhythms of Brazil.

Sonidos Colombianos, Fri. 10-11pm Sonidos Colombianos presents music from one of the most culturally diverse countries of Latin America: Colombia! Our bilingual musical tour is guaranteed to include not only cumbia, but also the guitar-based bambuco from the Andean region, the harp llanero music from the Eastern Plains, the marimba-infused currulao from the Pacific Region, and the accordiondriven vallenato of the North Atlantic Coast.

LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS The Mambo Machine, Fri. 11pm - Sat. 2am The Mambo Machine is the longest running salsa show in New York City. The program presently plays a wide spectrum of Afro-Latin rhythms, combining new and old into an exciting, danceable mix.

El Sonido de la Calle*, Sun. 2-4am A companion show to Saturday night’s American Notes from Underground, El Sonido de la Calle highlights the diverse world of contemporary Spanish-language hiphop and dance music.

IN ALL LANGUAGES The Celtic Show, Mon. 12-1am Music from across the island of Ireland throughout the era of recorded music, particularly focusing on traditional folk and vernacular music forms.

Coordinated Universal Time, Mon. 1-3am Coordinated Universal Time brings our listeners the latest cut of music from anywhere in the world, especially highlighting music that does not get attention in America.

Our programming tries to bring the hottest and the most recent tunes to WKCR’s airwaves.

The African Show, Thurs. 10pm-12am The longest running African music radio show in the United States, the African Show brings you a variety of music from the entire continent of Africa.

Middle Eastern Influences, Fri. 12-1am During the hour-long show, Middle Eastern Influences features a wide range of beautiful tracks from regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and even, at times, South Asia.

Sounds of Asia, Sat. 6-8am Rechristened from Sounds of China, Sounds of Asia explores the recorded musical traditions and innovations of Asia and the Pacific islands.

Field Trip, Sun. 6-8am Field Trip focuses on the music and practice of field recordings: music recorded outside of a studio. Tune in and you may catch field recordings that were recorded fifty years ago, others that were experimented with by your favorite Afternoon New Music artist, or even those documented in New York City by WKCR itself.

Raag Aur Taal, Sun. 7-9pm Raag Aur Taal explores the sounds and rich cultural heritage of South Asia. The term “Raag Aur Taal” roughly translates to “melody and rhythm,” indicating the classical nature of this program.

Back in the USSR, Sun. 11pm-12am Back in the USSR features music from across the former Soviet Union and soviet states across Eastern Europe and East and Central Asia, from the mid-20th century through the present.

NEWS & ARTS Monday Morningside*, Mon. 8:30-9:30am Monday Morningside is WKCR’s morning news broadcast to kick off the week, featuring news segments on events around Morningside Heights and upper Manhattan.

If you’re not an early bird, all episodes are available as podcasts on Spotify!

SUNDAY PROFILES Sunday Profile, Sun. 2-7pm* A WKCR staple, programmers use five hours to showcase longform profiles of pioneering artists. While the primary focus remains on jazz music, we also feature other styles and traditions from across WKCR’s different programming departments.

Eastern Standard Time, Sat. 8am-12pm One of New York’s most popular Reggae programs, Eastern Standard Time takes listeners through Saturday morning from 8 am to noon with the hypnotic sounds of Reggae and Jamaican dance music.

* indicates show was created after January 2022

OnAir · October 2024 15

ALBUM REVIEW

MJ Lenderman's Manning Fireworks is a Wistful Alt-Country Fireball

by Ben Rothman

A

lt-country (or y’allternative, as some wasn't the flu / Yeah, I love drinking too.”

Manning Fireworks is MJ Lenderman’s fourth affectionately call it) is one of the finest music subgenres out there. Taking solo studio album, following previous records the banjos and fiddles of country and mixing in 2019, 2021, 2022, and a fantastic 2023 live them with blazing guitars makes for a winning release. Right from the opening title track, one formula. If that’s your thing, MJ Lenderman’s can tell it’s more sonically polished than his spectacular album Manning Fireworks is likely previous works—perfect for a new fan to get into. The song “Manning to enchant you.

Fireworks” is a waltz Lenderman is a singer, driven by acoustic guitarist, and drummer guitar and a whimsical from North Carolina, fiddle. An opening line known for working teases out the singer’s both solo and with the mindset: “Birds against band Wednesday since a heavy wind that wins the early 2020s. He in the end.” On many also helped produce Manning Fireworks for singer-songwriter songs, Lenderman Indigo De Souza and altdiscusses situations country contemporary that are frustrating to Wa x a h a t c h e e. get through but are Lenderman is quite inevitable, perhaps prolific, and his solo comparable to his work in songwriting is recent breakup with its own beast. While his bandmate Wednesday bandmate Cover of Manning Fireworks. Via Bandcamp. Wednesday Hartzman. An example (and ex-girlfriend) Karly Hartzman writes fairly serious Americana- of this emerges on the second track, the steeped poetry (on their song “Bath County,” groovy-yet-depressing “Joker Lips.” Hovering she writes “We joined the Exodus / Headed out over an infectious guitar-and-organ melody, from Dollywood”), Lenderman’s lyrics tend to Lenderman sings “Kahlua shooter, DUI scooter be sarcastic and sardonic. They are the musings / With a rolling start on a hill ‘cause / This of a man who is, perhaps, slightly pathetic, but morning’s tryna kill me.” The narrator of this undeniably endearing. Take “Hangover Game” song is faced with an incredibly annoying from 2022’s Boat Songs, where the singer situation, both the result of his own actions references Michael Jordan’s infamous “flu (the DUI) and nature’s (the hill). Trudging game” and alleges that the player was actually through a mix of the preventable and the hungover, grimly comparing this theory to his inevitable is what characterizes Lenderman’s own experiences: “It wasn't the pizza / And it writing style, especially on Manning Fireworks,

16 OnAir · October 2024

where it meets the songwriter’s most polished compositions to date.

Following “Joker Lips” is the album’s lead single “Rudolph,” which kicks off with crunchy drums and Western-flavored guitar tones.

Lenderman delivers his lines melancholically, talking about desires that run the risk of overshadowing discipline (“I wouldn’t be in the seminary if I could be with you”). (Fans of this track are doubtlessly encouraged to check out the six-minute version from Lenderman’s 2023 live album And the Wind, which includes an extra three minutes of scrappy guitar work.) With the first three tracks of Manning Fireworks, the scene is set for an accessible altcountry venture with ear-grabbing lyrics—and he’s just getting started.

The catchy, slow-moving “Wristwatch” is a dour-yet-entertaining summation of Lenderman’s best songwriting qualities.

Between the sleek bass and jaunty rhythm, he sings about the trappings of technology and masculinity, including having “a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome” (whatever that means). Of course, MJ Lenderman is not the first songwriter in country or folk to sing about loneliness, yearning, and the like. His “wristwatch that tells me I’m on my own” is an extension of Neil Young’s “searching for a heart of gold” or the late Jason Molina’s (of Songs: Ohia) “no end to the desert I’ll cross.”

Because of how much he wears his influences on his sleeve, it’s refreshing to hear them channeled in something new. Similarly, the track “You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In” seems to channel the likes of Wilco’s “Jesus Etc.” and other low-key tracks from the Chicago altcountry band, with steady drumbeats and segments of subtle distortion.

Aside from “Wristwatch,” two songs likely to stick for first-time listeners are the straightforward country rockers “On My Knees” and “She’s Leaving You.” The latter deals most directly with the presumable aftermath of Lenderman’s break-up, something made even more ironic by the strong presence of Karly Hartzman’s vocals on the back-end (which, sonically, make for

one of the most pleasant outros on the record).

“She’s Leaving You” is best remembered by its mesmerizing and catchy hook—“It falls apart / We all got work to do.” Sandwiched between more rock-leaning songs is “Rip Torn,” the most straight-up country ballad on Manning Fireworks’ tracklist, which appears to deal with some of Lenderman’s thoughts after gaining more fame, as he writes “If you tap on the glass / The sharks might look at you / Damned if they don’t, and you’re damned if they do.”

MJ Lenderman’s style of writing and instrumentation emphasizes the power of a good ‘Y’allternative’ record, one that features banjos/guitars and can be lyrically depressing, fun, and everything in between. A fan of rock can enjoy the bombastic guitars, while a fan of country can resonate with the sounds of that genre in the mix. Meanwhile, Lenderman’s simultaneously heart-wrenching and hilarious lines can keep any appreciator of lyrics engaged in his material, even if it’s not entirely clear what he’s talking about sometimes. Manning Fireworks concludes with the ten-minute “Bark at the Moon,” a closer with country-rock rhythms that gradually deteriorate into guitar feedback and static that dominate the track’s second half. Whether one interprets this as a reminder of Lenderman’s yearning lyricism or a simple stylistic choice to bring the album to the 30-minute mark, it’s the kind of unique touch that a soon-to-be fan favorite alt-country songwriter would leave on what is sure to be one of his defining records.

Ben Rothman is a rotating host of Honky Tonkin' and the Tennessee Border Show.

OnAir · October 2024 17

Ben Erdmann, Director of Operations: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, "Pena" This track epitomizes the weirdness of Trout Mask Replica for me. The screaming + contrasting vocals + great guitar are freaky!

Ian Pumphrey, former News & Arts Head: Swans, "Volcano" Stylistically, the track comes out of nowhere in the context of the album, and it plays with a lot of house conventions in a way that’s awkward and unnerving.

Love the song so much!

Natalie Najar, Latin Head, host of Urbano Latine: Aphex Twin, "Alberto Balsalm" Although I do enjoy this song, it is a not-so-great song to drive—the sudden loud noise always activates my fight or flight, almost causing me to crash once because I had my volume fully blasted.

Ale Díaz-Pizarro, Librarian, host of Saturday Night at the Opera: The Beatles, "A Day in the Life" Don’t get me wrong, this is a certified incredible song, but it’s famously pretty scary! The orchestra tuning their instruments to the highest pitch they would go, the looping at the end, the detached quality of it… I need to be in a specific headspace to hear it.

Seconded by Melisa Nehrozoglu, programmer Story time: in 5th grade, my diehard Beatles fan teacher was playing Sgt. Pepper’s [Lonely Hearts Club Band] during our study hall period and when the crazy part of that song came on I asked if she could turn it down 'cause I couldn’t focus and she was like, "No you need to understand good music," and I'm thinking, "Okay, but maybe later."

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, "I Put a Spell On You" No, Nina Simone's is not the original version! The blues artist Screamin' Jay Hawkins does his name justice: rather than Simone's smooth, velvety, orchestral arrangement, Hawkins's chugs along with an unrelenting rhythm, punctuated by his maniacal laughter and his rasping voice on the edge of a scream.

This is a phenomenal song, and the blues performance in it is exquisite, but you can kind of understand where all of those legends (which they encouraged!)

18 OnAir · October 2024

about blues artists making deals with the devil came from by listening to songs like this one.

Donna Summer, "I Feel Love" Easy contender for one of the best songs of all time, firstly. It's scary how good it is! No, but seriously—one time I saw this TikTok (by the Mexican Modern Art Museum, no less!) of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman walking to this song with a deadpan expression, and since then I can't get the image out of my head of the creepy discordance between a deadpan motion and the disco in the back. I can't imagine how scary it must've been to be off your balls

AROUND TH

What is a scares on cocaine in the 80s and trying to get to a club bathroom while this song is playing...

The repetitiveness and the detached quality of Summer's voice definitely add to the sense of disconnection. I can't wait for the day when Jordan Peele writes this into one of his horror films a la "Good Vibrations" in Us. McKenna Roberts, On Air Managing Editor: Godcaster, "Didactic Flashing Antidote" I love them but they have such a menacing quality, and after seeing them live at the WBARBQ in the Spring, I felt unsettled.

Seconded by Melisa Nehrozoglu, programmer Melisa Nehrozoglu, programmer: Ulver, "Lyckantropen Theme 2" Fake answer is this song. One time it came on while I was high and I was like oh hell no.

Ella Presiado, programmer, host of Monday Morningside: Swans, "Red Velvet Corridor" Another Swans pick! It has this super haunting, droning loop throughout the whole track. It always evokes feelings of being stuck for me. Listening to it feels like being in a trance, scary but awesome!

Sam Seliger ('24), former Program Director and former host of Tuesday's Just as Bad: Luke Bryan, "Rain is a Good Thing" A song that scares me? This one. [Prompted to elaborate and/or give a serious answer.] That's my idea of fear.

Stella Fusaro, programmer, host of Extended Technique: Brockhampton, "Heat" It's just really intense.

David Gonzalez ('24), former programmer and former host of Urbano Latinx: Mac de Marco, "Moonlight by the River"

HE STATION

song that s you?

Specifically the ending creeps me out as the guitar melody that plays throughout the whole song falls apart and the song kinda crashes to an echoey end. I’ve seen people interpret it as the release of a lot of complex emotions about estranged parents and I think I see the eeriness being intentional.

Complicated feelings are terrifying!

Hannah Lui, intern: Dora Jar, "She Loves Me" It's so surreal and insane at the end and it always freaks me out because the beginning of the song is so enjoyable and predictable! But halfway through it just sounds like she’s losing her mind and the music absolutely does not care… it keeps up this cheerful twinkle and there’s a clock ticking—I absolutely can’t do it, it makes me feel like I’m being chased.

OnAir · October 2024 19

NEW MUSIC

Interview with DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ

D

by Taylor Guidry

J Sabrina The Teenage DJ is an outsider house and deepwave producer that uses the art of sampling to create a sonic landscape that references popular culture and is, in her own words, full of “magick.”

Although DJ Sabrina is anonymous, they have cultivated a social media presence that is both light-hearted in manner and rooted in Internet culture. In late August, I reached out to DJ Sabrina on Instagram for an interview, and they were gracious enough to let me do it.

In a correspondence over email, I asked them about their newest album Hex, their creative aspirations, their feelings about the genre of plunderphonics in relation to their music, and more!

O

n Hex, we hear a sonic continuation as well as evolution from your last album Destiny. We hear this specifically in your first single for Hex, "Deep Down," which feels like a sonic evolution from Destiny and also "The One Love" that sounds like a sonic continuation of Destiny. How do you choose what songs will be singles for your albums, and specifically why "Deep Down" and "The One Love" as some of your singles for Hex? “Deep Down” was originally a remix I did a few years ago that I wanted to repurpose into a track. I completely remade every part of all of the music and reworked some of the sampled elements and built up the rest of it and I think it has a darker, more mature feel than a lot of other tracks I've done. “The One Love” was started earlier this year and mostly worked on a few months ago, it also has a cooler tone that I wanted Hex to have, as a contrast to the generally brighter sound of Destiny.

20 OnAir · October 2024

Cover of Hex. Via Bandcamp.

“Deep Down” was finished and I wanted to put something out at the time... I'm hoping to make more videos for the album, but “The One Love” seemed to resonate with people and I wanted to make a classic kind of video for it and was a good choice for the first to be released after the album.

You have talked about how your albums have existed in a continuum and how songs meant for certain albums have instead been used in another album. Also, how there are songs that act as ‘twins’ to songs on different albums. Which songs on Hex act as twins to songs from previous albums and/or even as direct opposites?

“Anything Lost” was a sister track to “All I Can Feel” (I wanted to release it on Christmas Eve

but ran out of time!), “Come In, Carmen” felt a little like a friend to “Next To Me” or “Spirit,” there were some elements of “Vibrations” and “I'm Taken” that I wanted to improve on with “This Station” (which kind of vibed like fellow track 2s “Burn” and “Enchanted”). "Couldn't Say That" is a little like a twin to “Figuring It Out” or “I Wish For That”, “Hold On” was definitely designed as a sister track to “The Promise,” "10" shares some ideas from “Yenoh” (and very, very, very loosely inspired by “One Without from Aftersun”), "The Hextiny" has a familiarity to “DestiNY FM,” “Come Find Out” is a kinda hyper-pop idea like “Vibrations”.

“Deep Down” is probably the most different in some ways. “In Silence” is fairly different in a lot of ways. I try to explore new ideas very carefully and slowly absorb any new concepts into the general body of work. Doing something radically different would be maybe a little jarring, and I think would be more effective when slowly administered.

There is a conceptual divergence with Hex in comparison to your previous albums.

Especially in the title of the album, which seems more darker than the more whimsical titles of your previous albums. Was that intentional, and what is the biggest thematic

Cover of Destiny. Via Bandcamp.

difference between Hex compared to your previous albums?

Yes! Hex was originally intended to be part of a three-album simultaneous release in 2022 which would have been Bewitched!, Hex and half of what Destiny became. The idea was to have a darker, harder album, then a cool, groovy, chill album and finally a bright, catchy, pop album, but the heat wave and my exhaustion got the better of me. So, I just released what I had mixed at the time as Bewitched! on its own.

Destiny became a kind of mix of some of the cooler, groovier tracks that would have gone on the other album and some new tracks to make an epic compilation of everything that wasn't too dark or heavy I had mixed. Hex has actually been in the making for a few years, but I still have a lot of left-over tracks that didn't make it as it became a little more balanced as a standalone release. Many of the brighter songs made their way onto the album. I still have a full couple of albums worth of material to keep me going!

"Honey" was the first song that introduced me to you. What song and album would you choose for first time listeners of your music?

“Honey” was meant to be a good introduction to listeners, it's kind of a twin to “Next To Me” in many ways, although it mostly occurred to me after I'd made the track. I think “Honey,” “Next To Me,” “Charmed,” “Being Alone,” “Call You,” “Deep Down” are all tracks that have resonated with people in different ways and would all be great introductions. I personally think “Goodnight,” “What Else Should I Believe,” “Over The Edge,” “Tonight Let's Focus On The Future," “The Promise/Realms,” “I Guess You'll Find Out (Even If It Ends),” “One Day,” “Music,” “A Part Of Me,” and “Deeper” would be a selection of lesser-known tracks of mine that would equally be a good introduction. Charmed is probably the best all-rounder, but Enchanted is a personal favorite album of mine that I'd be happy for anyone to be introduced to me with!

A lot of your music has to do with world building. Yur music reminds me of Kodwo

OnAir · October 2024 21

Cover of Bewitched!. Via Bandcamp.

Eshun’s term, "Sonic Fiction," in the way that your music engages with Internet culture and alternative worldbuilding. If you could create a phrase or word that encapsulates your music, what would it be and why?

I think I use the word “Magick” a lot, as the music itself feels very magic to me. I've always just been making the music for myself to listen to and could never really find any one style that satisfied everything I was looking for, so it feels like magic to me that I have all of these albums to listen to! I primarily make music that I'd want to hear, and it's just amazing to me that anyone else would feel the same way and that is truly magical to me too. I love the fact that I can be totally anonymous yet engage with everyone, so it doesn't feel like some secret Wizard Of Oz that no one's allowed to talk to, and the little references to pop culture or reality with a timeless quality I think gives the music a more visceral feeling, even more real to people. That's what I hope, anyways.

You have spoken about how you consider your music genreless rather than as electronic music. Your music has also been considered under the term of plunderphonics due to the use of sampling. Do you feel that your music being put under the genre of plunderphonics

22 OnAir · October 2024

pigeonholes your music? How do you feel about the term in relation to the art you make? When you started sampling music, did you aim to create music that would fall under plunderphonics or did it just happen naturally from your creative process and experimentation?

I just think of my albums generally being pop music—that is, songs that have readily accessible emotion and feeling to most people who listen. Obviously, some won't get it, but to me it's a sound that probably makes connective sense to the majority of casual listeners. Samples were really just a way of trying to connect with people where real instruments or entirely organic music wouldn't; a lot of people hear instrumentation and exclusively song-written and performed parts and they think, "Well, I could do that, who does this nobody think they are, trying to get my attention with this bland nothingness," but many hear samples and it takes them to a different world where they can't quite figure out what they're listening to. I always liked the disconnect between the creator and the work that sampling has. You enjoy the music as if it was made by some omnipresent being; the samples themselves have personality, history, and come with their own character, but the assembly of the musical collage came from someone else, and you have to just enjoy the piece rather than worry about who was responsible for it. Plunderphonics is a fine enough genre name, and Outsider House is also frequently cited. Future Funk was used for a while, but I'm still rooting for Deepwave to replace it someday (I've been campaigning for this since around 2018 and have a site www.deepwave.fyi to encourage the adoption of the genre!).

You have done demos for other artists and most notably produced "Happiness" by The 1975. How do you creatively approach work that you do for other artists?

I figure out what the artist liked about my sound first, then I try to think how they'd want to hear the natural progression of that sound

within the context of their own work. It's a lot of fun to do, and I always look forward to the challenge of making whatever it is about me that they like work for them; you can explore some very different ideas and be influenced in ways you'd often not think of by yourself.

What is your dream musical collaboration?

I'd love to work with Haim, Jai Paul, Bon Iver, Mike Kinsella, Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, PinkPantheress, Aphex Twin, Taylor Swift, Thomas Bangalter, Harry Styles—I mean, the possibilities are endless!

Your DJ mixes seem to expand on the musical world that you have built. What are the differences and similarities in your creative approach to your DJ mixes, remixes, and albums?

Thank you! I always hope the mixes will serve as a continuation of the albums, so if you've listened to the albums and want more, they'll live up to the same energy and atmosphere. I use Ableton for the mixes rather than Studio One 4, but other than that, it's mostly the same approach and takes around as much work as it would to make a similar amount of album music between the remixing, mixing/mastering, and fine-tuning. They're probably even more difficult for me to be satisfied with, and a lot of the time I can't really tell if I even like the mixes until I'm finished with them. But again, I make them primarily for myself to listen to so, I have to make sure I really like every single second of the Combinisions, otherwise there really isn't any point in doing it. I want them to be as emotional as the albums, and if I can turn someone on to a track or artist they've not heard of or given a chance until hearing them in this context, then that's probably the other most important takeaway from them!

I really love your DJ Mixes! In your newest DJ Mix, "Treble Fine," I heard a strong influence of rock music, especially math rock, postrock, and 80s pop rock. Will we see a DJ Sabrina album that has more rock influences in the future?

Thank you! I've done some rock tracks on the albums (“Goodnight” has a rock B-section/ coda, “Matter Of Course” was a kind of John Mayer Pro-Tools retro-rock concept piece, “My Own” was a John Martyn-type vibe and “Seraph” is a kind of alternative indie-wave ambient track), and I definitely want to do more in the future. I have a demo for a track I dreamed about and demoed as soon as I woke up that should hopefully go on the next album when it's finished...

I find the storytelling of your music videos important to your artistry, because you use found footage or collage films that are similar in technique and intention to the use of sampling in your music. I am also drawn to the color grading in your music videos that evokes the nostalgia that your music creates. The color grading is also similar to the coloring that you use on your album covers. Was this intentional for branding and/or aesthetic? How do you actually conceptualize the visual media that you use to present your music?

That's so cool you noticed! I always try to color grade the videos so they have that otherwordly look, sort of like how you remember a music video looking but not specifically from

Cover of Charmed. Via Bandcamp.

OnAir · October 2024 23

a particular period in time, just from a time that's forgotten or "not present." Some of the titling is for fun, but other times I'll want a logo to appear on certain midtones so it looks almost as if it's baked into the clip, but also like it's been interpolated from another place in time and kinda bled through; or I'll use noise reduction as an aesthetic so it feels as though it was ripped from a video and cleaned up.

Other times, I'll try to make it look as though some organic clips were cut together to seem as if it incidentally matched the lyrics or I'll use rose black and white colors to feel like a Herb Ritts period commercial that was processed for NTSC, or I'll use three-two pull down as an aesthetic. There's so much about the visual side of music that's kinda been lost to time, and I have a lot of fun working with looks as part of evoking feelings to compliment the music. I like the album covers to have a look of timelessness too. I usually try to see how a cover looks as a tiny thumbnail on a phone or computer screen and adjust the tone to really stand out in some way. The covers, the videos, the memes, it all just comes from a place of trying to seem visually appealing if you weren't familiar with anything I'd done before. Same with the music. I’m always trying to make the next song or album for someone who's never

Cover of Enchanted. Via Bandcamp.

24 OnAir · October 2024

heard me before, that way I surprise myself when I'm listening and it always sounds like the first time to me too!

DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ's music is available for digital purchase on Bandcamp.

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OnAir · October 2024 25

Sp e c i a l t ha n ks to Ben Erdmann, Ben Rothman, David Gonzalez, DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, Eamon Costello, Ella Presiado, Hannah Lui, Georgia Dillane, Ian Pumphrey, Melisa Nehrozoglu, Michael Onwutalu, Natalie Najar, Sam Seliger, Stella Fusaro, Tanvi Krishnamur thy, Taylor Guidr y, & Ted Schmiedeler.

26 OnAir · October 2024

WKCR 89.9 FM

2920 Broadway New York, NY 10027

O n Ai r 's e d i to r i a l b oa rd i s Ale Díaz-Pizarro & McKenna Rober ts.