Radical Research Podcast

Few things in life get the hosts of Radical Research as excited as the squishy, otherworldly sounds of the analog synthesizer. For our 16th episode, a special detour from our typical musings, we sort through the decades in search of some of the deepest, wildest, most thrilling synthesizer sounds in the rock and metal kingdoms. So, please, meet us at the wormhole and tag along for this investigation into radical, electronic sound. Note I: Kim Rantala, whose playing is featured here on Amorphis’ “The Orphan,” is also an accomplished accordion player and professional DJ. We’re happy that he opted for the Moog on Elegy. Note II: Hunter sounds like he’s underwater throughout this episode. We apologize. We would love to buy him a decent but affordable preamp for better quality recording on his laptop. We do take Paypal donations if you want to help: paypal.me/rrpodcast. Regardless, expect this issue to be fixed by next episode. Note III: The following link doesn’t cover deeply technical aspe

Can you sense them? The ghosts? Quiet yourself for a moment. They hang in the air and whisper in our ears. They taunt us with memories of a golden age. Listen closely and you can hear the spectral voice: “1993.” They mock the sterility and cannibalism of contemporary metal and remind us of a single day that produced three works of heavy metal futurism: Dimensions, Spheres, and Focus. Radical Research heeds the call and crosses the threshold. Do you dare? Note I: The ending of Cynic’s “How Could I?,” which concludes this episode, is derived from an earlier song intended for the Focus album, “Pleading for Preservation.” In the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, which we discuss, the band scrapped the song, which can only be heard on what is known as the “Roadrunner Demo” (1991). Note II: So that “How Could I?” could end this episode the only way it should end, we elected to not preview our next episode. Radical Research 16, Synth Whores, will be a rapid-fire examination (a la episode 5, Bad-

Had Leif Endling disbanded Candlemass after 1989’s Tales of Creation, he would have given enough to place his band in the halls of metal infamy. But the bassist pressed on, enduring lineup shifts, label hassles, and changing times, to eventually arrive in the late ‘90s at a most esoteric iteration of Candlemass. We immerse deeply in this era for Radical Research episode 14. Please join us somewhere in nowhere, northwest of Babylon, out there beyond the abstrakt sun… Note I: We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that Europe drummer Ian Haugland played on two Dactylis Glomerata songs (“Wiz,” “I Still See the Black”). We think highly of the first two Europe albums. Music cited, in order of appearance: Abstrakt Algebra, “Shadowplay” (Abstrakt Algebra, 1995) Abstrakt Algebra, “Blue Wizard” (II, unreleased 1997 album) Candlemass, “Dustflow” (Dactylis Glomerata, 1998) Candlemass, “Apathy” (Dactylis Glomerata, 1998) Candlemass, “Lidocain God” (Dactylis Glomerata, 1998) Candlemass, “Tot” (From the 13th Sun, 1999) Ca

There are no happy accidents or lucky mistakes in Rick Rubin productions. The legendary producer knows exactly what he wants and how to get the leanest, meanest performances from each artist he works with. In our examples, he wielded a decisive guiding hand in helping bands clean up their tendencies toward the wandering and erratic, leading to honed, definitive albums that became legendary. His greatest talent, perhaps, was that he might have changed these bands significantly, but never sapped them of their purest essence. Note I: About Rubin’s later work with Metallica and Black Sabbath, ie. “low hanging fruit”: Rubin was hired to get the band back on track after disaster (Death Magnetic, after St. Anger), or to sculpt a definitive-sounding record in a career’s late stages (Black Sabbath’s 13). Essentially a similar purpose to our featured examples, but the point is, by the mid ‘00s, Rubin was no longer plucking young metal or rock bands from relative obscurity and readying them for the big time. It’s an imp

For our 12th installment, your intrepid hosts sift through time and dust in search of Orange County’s Mind Over Four. Bridging an unknown gulf between cutting edge alternative rock and hyperkinetic tech/prog metal, Mind Over Four was poised for a breakthrough to the mainstream. But the stars never aligned and Mind Over Four has mostly been forgotten. Radical Research celebrates the timelessness and innovation of the band’s first four albums and invites you to play Dante to our Virgil as we navigate the barriers and passages of Mind Over Four. Note I: If you like Mind Over Four, then “like” this: https://www.facebook.com/MindOverFour/ Note II: The snippet of “Ogre Battle” that closes this episode is from a 1990 record label sampler (The Goddess era). The beginning is clearly not from the Queen song — it’s the first emanations of “Phobos Y Damos,” which appeared half a decade later, on 1995’s divisive and career-capping Empty Hands. We find this all very interesting. Note III: For the Radical

Death metal is very weird musick. It’s the rupturing and restructuring of musical tradition. At its best it offers otherworldly, phantasmagoric deliverance. We begin this episode hearing Carbonized in its embryonic stages as an exemplar of the peculiar Swedish death metal substrata, but in short time, they took the weirdness inherent in death metal and followed their muse to its logical (illogical?) end. Death, post-death, avant-garde, noise rock, progressive, eclectic…whatever you call it, Carbonized was a vanguard of musical abnormality for 7 strange years before sputtering to a screaming end. Note I: Count how many times we say “Voivod” in this episode. Note II: On second thought, maybe those cars on album covers 1 & 3 are supposed to be Rolls-Royces. Note III: Bagpipes are not accordions, and vice versa. We know this way better than we know cars. Music cited, in order of appearance: “Purified (From the Sulfur)” (For the Security, 1991) “Paradise Lost” (Au-To-Dafe demo, 1989) “Au-To-Dafe” (No Canoniza

The 10th installment of the Radical Research odyssey pries into the amorphous body of work that has been known to your hosts privately as “Ginncore.” Based around a loosely-connected confederacy of artists — mostly American and mostly active during the difficult-to-define ‘00s — Ginncore has come to embody for Messrs. Wagner and Ginn a cryptic and subversive narrative in modern rock’s often-blighted history. Over the course of two hours, your hosts examine the work of 9 artists, whose music often wrestles with the tensions between commercial ambition and the pursuit of rarified expression. In this shadowy space, deep hooks are draped over thorny time signatures and signal declares an alliance with noise. This is Ginncore and this time, it’s personal. Note 1: Hunter mentions during the discussion of Cave In’s epochal Jupiter the influence of several bands, such as Radiohead, Hum, and Failure. However, he fails to cite the title of Failure’s Fantastic Planet, whic

Rock Progressivo Italiano (RPI) was a remarkably fertile, prolific progressive rock movement of the 1970s. Italy’s compositional and performance acumen rivaled England’s more popular scene, and its output exceeded it. Your Radical Research hosts are mad for the stuff, and with our ninth episode, we pluck three of our favorite specimens from the ether and put them under the microscope. These albums by Semiramis, Corte dei Miracoli and Alphataurus also count among the many one-offs from Italy’s vast number of representatives – one and done, but hardly forgotten in these parts. Note I: We couldn’t help but mention other Italian prog greats in our discussion of these three. Since our skills in that language do not pay the bills, we thought it helpful to list some of the other bands/albums noted in the episode, all highly recommended: Il Balletto di Bronzo – Ys; Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso – Darwin; Biglietto per L’inferno – self-titled; Blocco Mentale – POA; Cherry Five – Cherry Five; New Trolls – Ut; Le Orme – Felo

Join us on an extended tour through the curious world of Norway’s Beyond Dawn. For thirteen years, Beyond Dawn occupied a shadowy, distorted universe of their own making. Rather than scowl at the moon, Beyond Dawn chased phantoms through pitiless cityscapes and fairytale grottos in equal measure. An outlier even in a community of dissidents, Beyond Dawn created a realm where things are rarely as they appear. Note I: In this episode, we take a brief sidebar to wax romantic on the bass stylings of Hugh Stephen James Mingay, better known to metal enthusiasts as Skoll. If you’ve not done so, we encourage you to explore the man’s work in Ulver, Ved Buens Ende, and Arcturus. Even his work with the lesser known Fimbulwinter (Skoll appeared on their 1994 LP Servants of Sorcery) has its merits and paves the way for the comparably bass-forward Carpathian Forest LP, Black Shining Leather. Few metal bassists have ever approached the instrument with such lyricism. Note II: We apologize for the dodgy qual

Wishful Dreaming: A Study of My Dying Bride’s Urban Detour Join Radical Research hosts Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn in a spirited discussion on the fifth album from English death/doom maestros My Dying Bride. 34.788%…Complete was met with quizzical confusion upon its release in 1998, but we feel it was always one of the band’s finest hours. We’re here to proffer evidence of its worth. As usual, we sweat the small stuff. Note I: Jeff forgot about 2004’s Songs of Darkness, Words of Light in the final minutes of our discussion. Unless that’s your favorite MDB album (and how could it be?), he begs forgiveness of that minor lapse. Music cited, in order of appearance: “The Whore, the Cook and the Mother” (34.788%…Complete, 1998) “The Stance of Evander Sinque” (34.788%…Complete, 1998) “Der Uberlebende” (34.788%…Complete, 1998) “Heroin Chic” (34.788%…Complete, 1998) “Apocalypse Woman” (34.788%…Complete, 1998) “Base Level Erotica” (34.788%…Complete, 1998) “Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms” (34.788%…Compl

Band in the Trees: Among the Ruins of Die Kreuzen Episode 6 of Radical Research finds your intrepid hosts deep-diving into the discography of Milwaukee’s cult heroes, Die Kreuzen. Over the span of a decade, Die Kreuzen created four records that propose a hostile challenge to easy categorization. Their discography tests the boundaries of punk and metal and accounts for one of the most fascinating morphologies in all of rock music. As always, we invite you to join us in our immersion and wander the ruins of Die Kreuzen. Note I: The band’s Gone Away EP (1989) is given the hushed-tone treatment. Though we prefer physical media, the iTunes version also includes the Germs and Wire covers we discuss. So does the long out-of-print 1990 CD version. Here’s the salient point: buy this music. RR is not a forum for sanctimony, but the artists who sweat and bleed for the music we love deserve remuneration for their toil. Note II: Guitarist Brian Egeness left the band on April 1, 1992, resulting in what is

Radical Research 5.5 is the first in an occasional series of brief ambushes. Super-trivial stuff that’s too fun, weird and/or interesting to ignore, but undeserving of a full episode. For Radical Research diehards only! Music cited in order of appearance: Nuclear Death – “A Dark Country” (Carrion for Worm, 1991) Nuclear Death – “Lurker in the Closet: A ‘Fairy’ Tale” (Carrion for Worm, 1991) Nuclear Death – “Cathedral of Sleep” (Carrion for Worm, 1991) Nuclear Death – “Homage to Morpheus” (Carrion for Worm, 1991) Kiss – “Calling Dr. Love” (Rock and Roll Over, 1976) This is Radical Research Podcast, Episode 5.5 We love Nuclear Death. We love Kiss. We hope Gene Simmons attempts legal action.

Ten blasts of springtime joy before the scorch of summer. This is the Radical Research strain of fusion, corralling some of the baddest asses within the larger prog/jazz/fusion/rock heliosphere. From NYC giants Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever, we veer into decidedly deadly territory through explorations in early Utopia, England’s high-end nutz Brand X, and Italy’s utterly withering Area. These and others are the sons borne of Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew (1970) and the gonzo spazz-jazz moments in King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” (1969). Note I: ‘Ten Bad-Ass Fusion Decapitations’ will likely be the most notes you’ll ever have to process on any Radical Research episode. Not for the faint of heart. Note II: We hope you purchase any music you hear on this episode that you’d like to delve into further. Outlets such as Discogs, Laser’s Edge, Amazon and your local record store all depend on your patronage (except maybe Amazon, they’ll be okay without you). Online snacking tubes or corrupt streamin

Episode 4 of Radical Research explores the surreal work of Austrian metalunatics, Disharmonic Orchestra.* Our conversation exposes the psychic tensions and psychedelic grottos of this extraordinary band, one whose music was ignored largely during its heyday and continues, for the most part, to be bereft of appreciation. From the gnashing death/grind of their early output to the strange emotions and nuanced geometry of their mature work, your hosts ask that you listen with perishing passion and immerse yourselves in the addicted seas of Disharmonic Orchestra. Note I: D’Orch’s third album, Pleasuredome, was released by Steamhammer Records. This has Disharmonic Orchestra keeping unlikely company with Fozzy, Dokken, and Judas Priest. Truth is always stranger than fiction, folks. Note II: According to the estimable Metal Archives, Austria has given the world 1,147 metal bands. Hunter was able to name 4 of them. *D’Orch (pr. “dork”) for short. Music cited, in order of appearance: “Inexorable Logic” (Expositionsprop

Episode 3 of Radical Research covers three progressive rock bands from the glorious ‘70s era that often don’t come up in the usual ‘70s prog conversations. But they should, and this is our little way of correcting that. Please drop your prejudices and Yes albums, just for a little while, and explore further: meet Gnidrolog (UK), Supersister (Netherlands) and Artcane (France). Note: We wonder in the episode what an original vinyl copy of Gnidrolog’s In Spite of Harry’s Toe-Nail might go for. Jeff researched: looks like about $100 minimum for a copy in acceptable condition. Note II: Artcane’s sole album, Odyssee, was released on the Philips label, the same Philips that produces or has produced electronics, lighting and health care products. What a world. Note III: Hunter gets all unctuous up in this. Music cited, in order of appearance: Gnidrolog – “Long Live Man Dead” (In Spite of Harry’s Toe-Nail, 1972) Gnidrolog – “Snails” (In Spite of Harry’s Toe-Nail, 1972) Gnidrolog – “Time and Space” (In Spite of Harry’s

The second episode of Radical Research dives into the strange world of Sweden’s Dan Swanö. From his neo-prog roots in Unicorn to the way-left-of-center Karaboudjan, and bedrocks Edge of Sanity and Pan-Thy-Monium, we are usually in awe. Swanö has also been a crucial cog in the Katatonia and Opeth machines. He has approximately 24 other bands to his credit, and about 4 bazillion production/engineering/mixing/mastering credits. What have YOU done lately? Note: The proper Swedish pronunciation of Dan Swanö goes a little something like: Don Swan’-ya. Don’t worry about it. We prefer to say it just like every other American Swanö fan does. But hey, you Scandinavians, we know. Note II: We also know Pan-Thy-Monium vocalist Derelict (Roberth Karlsson) went on to membership in Scar Symmetry, but we here at Radical Research choose to ignore that fact. — Music cited, in order of appearance: Edge of Sanity – “Twilight” (Unorthodox, 1994) Pan-Thy-Monium – “The Battle of Geeheeb” (Khaooohs and Kon-fus-ion, 1996) Pan-Th

For the inaugural episode of Radical Research, we delve into the mysterious, magnificent William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1998), the fourth album by Norwegian shape-shifters Ulver. Note: The sound quality of RR1 isn’t exactly superb, especially Jeff’s mic in the intro. This was our first time in the lab. Our apologies. Our next two episodes are already recorded and edited; the improvements will be immediately noticeable. We also apologize for slaughtering the pronunciation of various surnames and nicknames in this episode. [‘It Ulver Is’ was recorded in September 2017] Note: We talk about the infamous “car picture” in relation to its use in the packaging of …The Marriage…, yet those who were howling in 1997 may recall that the same picture began circulating upon the release of Ulver’s previous album, Nattens Madrigal. We’re aware that some people will tie the car picture into the Nattens era, and that’s fair enough. It’s subversive hijinks from any perspective. Music cited, i