Sunday, August 20, 2017

Artificial Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill Part 34


Hey folks!

There's a pretty specific theme going on here this week: the Invasion/Destruction of the Earth by Flying Saucers from Another World!

Fun, right?




The show "The Tripods" was a BBC sfi-fi program from 1984 based on a great series of novels by John Christopher. It was kind of a re-imagining of War of the Worlds, but what would happen if the Martians didn't all die from the flu but instead conquered and subjugated the planet. It was a fantastic show, but sadly was cancelled before it could finish the story.


Television

Venus, by Television, isn't about the planet, rather it seems to be about the statue. You know, the one with no arms?

David Dixon and Simon Jones as Ford and Arthur. Simon Jones was also the radio Arthur.

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of my favorite things. I encountered its various versions in not quite same order they were created: the radio play first (on BBC 4 in 1978 but I heard it in L.A. on NPR affiliate KCRW a few years later), then the TV show (which was on the BBC in 1981 but I'm not sure when I would have seen it) and then the books (they came second, starting in 1979). There was also a movie, in 2005. They're all fantastic, and I'll be excerpting the radio play in future episodes.

John Darnielle and friend

 The Mountain Goats are mostly just John Darnielle. I'd already chosen this song before I realized that it's actually about a guy getting picked up by a flying saucer. These themes just work themselves out sometimes.



There is a weird buzzing sound under the clip of somebody (Rev. Ivan Stang probably) talking about the "angelic host" coming on July 5th, when "we all have hangovers". I reversed it, and maybe added some other effect, but that is a sound from the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe. Here is a description of the clip:
Audio data collected by the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI), which includes an acoustic sensor, during Huygens' descent, 14 January 2005.

Radar echos from Titan's surface
This recording was produced by converting into audible sounds some of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan. As the probe approaches the ground, both the pitch and intensity increase. Scientists will use intensity of the echoes to speculate about the nature of the surface.

Neat, huh?



Moon Walk is from a French Library Music composer named Michel Gonet. Music libraries sell music to be used in movies and TV productions. It's also called "production music". Some of the tunes on the Futura album may have been heard in French TV shows, or German commercials, or British movies, all over the place!



Cabaret Voltaire is an early English "industrial" group. I slightly tweaked the track with some echo & delay. I think I also stretched it out a bit, too.



Dallas Frazier went on to write the hit country tune "Elvira" in 1966, but in 1954 when he was 14 he recorded "Space Command", written by local Bakersfield radio host Cousin Herb Henson. I slowed it down and shifted the pitch a bit, I'll post a clip of the original.



In 2005 John Kannberg recorded a soundtrack to the 1960 Walter M. Miller, Jr. novel, "A Canticle For Leibowitz". The book is about the reconstruction of society after a nuclear holocaust, and the journey toward sainthood of a martyred Jewish electrical engineer who worked for the U.S. Army brfore the "Flame Deluge", and worked to keep human knowledge alive afterward.



There are lots of clips this week from Hour of Slack #1209, an X-Day Hymns episode from 2009. X-Day, in the SubGenius religion, is the day the Men From Planet X (or X-ists) wil come on their spaceships to destroy the Pinks and Rupture up the (dues-paying) SubGenii to the Pleasure Saucers of the Sex Goddesses (or Gods). This day, on which the "world" will "end", was prophecied by J.R. "Bob" Dobbs to be July 5, 1998. The fact the the world has not ended yet is taken to be a sign that it isn't actually 1998 yet (due to some Conspiracy trickery, no doubt) so the SubGenius faithful gather every July (at a clothing-optional campground in Ohio) to await the Saucer Men. I've never been.



Next week will be a very similar show, you might even say Part II. You might not, though.

Until then, please leave a comment and let me know how you like it, ok?

Enjoy!

- Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill


'The Tripods' Main Theme - Ken Freeman (1984)

The SubGenius Hour of Slack #1209 - All-Star New X-Day Hymns and B.O. 6/15/2009 - Call me Bob - JayTourney



Venus - Television (1978)

Journey of the Sorcerer - Eagles (1975)



The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase - Fit the First - Douglas Adams - BBC Radio 4 (1978)



The Day The Aliens Came - The Mountain Goats (2005)



The SubGenius Hour of Slack #1209 - All-Star New X-Day Hymns and B.O. 6/15/2009 - Stang, Media Barrage 2: July 5

huygens alien winds descent radar (2005)


The SubGenius Hour of Slack #1209 - All-Star New X-Day Hymns and B.O. 6/15/2009 - Hal Robins, DK Jones - ARISE! soundtrack - X-Day1




 Alien Activity From The 45th Parallel - Cellutron & The Invisible (1978)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase - Fit the First - Douglas Adams - BBC Radio 4 (1978)



Moon Walk - Michel Gonet (1980)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase - Fit the First - Douglas Adams - BBC Radio 4 (1978)

Space Patrol - Cabaret Voltaire (2003)



Space Command - Dallas Frazier (1954)



There Were Spaceships Again in That Century - John Kannenberg (2005)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase - Fit the First - Douglas Adams - BBC Radio 4 (1978)



The SubGenius Hour of Slack #1209 - All-Star New X-Day Hymns and B.O. 6/15/2009


The original Hitch-Hiker's cast, L-R Douglas Adams, producer Geoffrey Perkins, David Tate (Eddie), Geoffrey McGivern (Ford), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod), Simon Jones (Arthur), Alan Ford (Roosta)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase - Fit the First - Douglas Adams - BBC Radio 4 (1978)

The SubGenius Hour of Slack #1209 - All-Star New X-Day Hymns and B.O. 6/15/2009 - LeMur: Pause To Destroy


I kinda wanted to highlight how cool Bernie Leadon looked.

 Journey of the Sorcerer - Eagles (1975)

1 comment:

  1. Great intro! Where do you get this stuff? I love all the food talk in this show and great transitions to songs, mostly I haven't heard before. That tater tot guy... haha! Is that you? Love the Hitchhikers Guide... I got a little lost trying to follow the list while listening but I appreciated that it was more about the art of the sounds you were creating. I love Dallas Frazier singing Space Command. I had never heard that before and wish I could have shared that with my Dad I think he would have loved that. Keep up the good work!

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