Monday, April 12, 2010

Radio Berlin Recorded Works 1998 - 2003

Radio Berlin Recorded Works 1998 - 2003

Sound quality is 'A'.

Radio Berlin, if we want to talk about over looked bands, if we want to talk about bands that deserve in the light of justice and truth to be given their proper due my 1st example since they broke up in 2004 has been Radio Berlin.

Sure anyone who knows me has heard me speak of plenty of bands that deserve some just due and most of them have it on one level or another and would we (who ever 'we' are) or I (got a decent grasp on who 'I' as in 'me' is .. or perhaps not and maybe thats half the fun) want these bands to get that type of spot light from every tom dick and dave mathews band loving sheep no taste tool around? A quick siting of Janes Addiction would bring most of us to a firm "No".

But I' not going on about the New Model Armys or Southern Death Cults of the world, bands most educated music lovers have at least heard of, I'm talking about the Positive Noise and the Organs, the Radio Berlins of the world.

Names when I say to people who are educated look at me and go "who". And sadly and excitingly as a music lover it's always a rush when someone who you feel understands what music means to you can actually turn you on to a band you don;t know squat about. Sad for the band but great for those of us who get to add a new group into our personal mix.

So I post Radio Berlin out of love and respect, and I used to get to talk to Jack every now and again thru the interweb thing and I used to kinda do a lil thing on some corner on the interweb thing about new sounds and I did include Radio Berlin and always had the support of the band in doing so. Maybe this post will spark hugh sales and they'll reform ... no no dont wake me up it's pretty cool here right now.

You my ask, well who was this Radio Berlin and in all truth it would depend on the era within the band, they did have a shifting about of members but only 2 and only the once from what I understand.

They formed from a few defunted Vancourver bands (that I had never heard of until I heard Radio Berlin) and for the 1st 4 or so years it was Jack Duckworth git/keys/vocs, Chris Frey bass/vocs, Warren Hill keys/piano and Joshua Wells drums/git/keys for a year or so it was Jack Duckworth, Chris Frey, Brad MacKinnon drums and Lyndsay Sung keys/piano and then for the last 2 years or so Joshua Wells re joined the band.

I don't know if Brad ever had any material recorded and put on an album, but Joshua was/is one hell of a fuckin drummer. Focus on the drums in Aftermath for ref point #1 ... amazing.

Radio Berlin is rumored to have quite a few singles in the UK but I know of none really, so if anyone has info on them drop a line, here is their discography as I know it to be (Keep in mind I got into these guys in 2001 with the the lp Selection Drone)

Albums:

1998 Self Titled cassette only release
1999 Sibling
2001 Selection Drone
2003 Sister Sounds
2003 Glass

(In 2003 Action Driver reissued both the 1998 Self Titled, 1999s Sibling & 1999s Heart Of Industry 7in as a 2 cd package.)

Singles

1999 Heart Of Industry 7in
1999 Split with Kid Commando, Radio Berlins song on this is great and I will rip it anmd post it soon but Kid Commandos songs are I think all renditions of the same song and suuuuuck.

There was to be a CDEP in early 2004 that never saw the light of day, for some time I made it my job to email the company who was to issue the EP to see when and keep the pressure up but to mine and many others disappointment it never came out, Radio Berlin disbanded and it was shelved.

I have tried over the years to get Jack to send me mp3s of the tracks just so I can hear them, but they are not fully mixed tracks and for some reason, be it legal or what not he's never sent them along. Bummer...

It's been a little over a year now since I talked to Jack, I know he and others have moved onto other projects and I used to have them all written down to look into but have since lost the paper so I can't at the moment be of any help in that department.

I'll admit I was a big supporter of the band and would email support pretty often but alas Jack once told me after the band was over "wrong time in the space of time" but I disagree, with all the "Post Punk" shit out there over the last decade, some good and some just a horrid embarrassment, Radio Berlin were in the proper space, they, like may 'REAL' bands were just that, seekers of a truth that only the 1% are also after, the other 99% are just tools.

So we lost another great band to mass media of the interweb age.

It took me some time, media fire only allows for 100 meg files and I wanted to keep this to 1 zip file so it was hard to pick the tracks but .....

For your listening and spiritual freedom pleasure I present to you ..... Radio Berlin.

Mp3 audio source: cds

Thanx to the photog.

01 Aftermath (Glass 2003)
02 A Suitcase (Glass 2003)
03 Change Your Mind (the Selection Drone 2001)
04 Eyes Like Lenses (the Selection Drone 2001)
05 All Systems Go (Der Nacht Version) (1998 Self Titled issued with 1999s Sibling)
06 Gauze (Glass 2003)
07 Hyphen (Glass 2003)
08 I Want To Fall In Your Garden (Sibling 1999)
09 My One Voice (Sibling 1999)
10 Selection Drone (the Selection Drone 2001)
11 Rote Lippen (Glass 2003)
12 Sequence Is Over (the Selection Drone 2001)
13 Sibling (Sibling 1999)
14 Twelve Fingers (the Selection Drone 2001)
15 Stroke (Clubland Ver) (Mixt by Radio Berlin) (Sister Sounds 2003)
16 16 Radio Berlin - Twelve Fingers (Mixt by Epidemic) (Sister Sounds 2003)

http://www.mediafire.com/?wzxjbgmubml

((((((((((((And to anyone paying attention, yes the pc is working and I was able to get my sound editing software back on the pc, not tested yet but really it should be ok ... so I do have 3 NMA tapes set up to be processed over the next week as long as the Stanley Cup Playoffs allow me to get them done <;-) GO BLACKHAWKS!!!)))))))))))

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm always paying attention. :-) Thanks for everything!

Anonymous said...

im a gonna check these people out many thanks!

psycho said...

many thanks for the fall's on the wireless 3 cd set. i appreciate it
but has anyone else had a problem
with disc 2 and 3. i hear glitches
possibly corrupt) disc1 is fine.
has anyone else mentioned??
many thanks for your work on pil stuff

louissyfer said...

hey man who kills old ladies in showers ...

yes i think the topic was covered in the post.. maybe it was through email ...

the glitches are actually in the original source files I have which are mp3s. so I cant fix....

the only way would be to get a copy of the source tapes but for all i know that may not really exist, it does at times sound like glitches ie bad cd encode and at other times like radio drops ... so ... if I had clean source files I would have re ript and fix by now.

try not to kill any more ladies in showers herr psycho .. think maybe you need psychotherapy ...

psycho said...

thanks for your friendly comments (haha) i never saw any comments pertaining to the problem with the fall on the wireless. and still don't i thought we were all friends here

rockymustard said...

Just found your site earlier this week. Thanks for the Liz Phair postings.
Can't wait to look around more.
Thanks
rockymustard

louissyfer said...

we are all friends ,,, i must of had the conversation with someone thru email.

your nym psycho, just made me think of the movie of course so thats what the comment was ref to ... i was hoping you'd get the joke <;-)

Peter said...

more here:

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/RADIO-BERLIN

Anonymous said...

Great great band, I would occasionally contact Jack in the olden days, just because RB was such an influence on my own band Hearts Fail, but he didn't seem too much into the fan connection thing...
Eddie - Hearts Fail

Lori said...

Great reading yourr blog