Strange Territory

The Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 6: Strange Territory by Jimcheff on Mixcloud

Music that suggests unfamiliar terrains. Featuring Boards of Canada, Miles Davis, The Advisory Circle, and Bruce Lacey. You'll find unusual music for movies in this mix, as well: Bruce Langhorne's haunting theme for 'Idaho Transfer' ... and the 'Finale and Credits' from 'Blood On Satan's Claw,' by Marc Wilkinson.

Little Fur Family

These pictures from "Little Fur Family" are just the right mix of cozy and eerie for these gloomy winter evenings. Story by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrations by Garth Williams.

The Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 5: Winter Chill

The Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 5: Winter Chill by Jimcheff on Mixcloud

Mount Maxwell Radio Reviews 'Shut-Eyed Stories'

 Many thanks to Mount Maxwell Radio for a lovely and thoughtful review of "Shut-Eyed Stories": "Wonderfully perplexing 13-track album based, presumably, on the artist’s own recorded dreams. Cheff’s music sounds vaguely Radiophonic/Ghost Box, while Cheryl Love’s narration is pure BBC. In less capable hands the whole thing could have been a recipe for disaster, but Cheff keeps it interesting by resisting the urge to tie a narrative bow around his dream’s conclusions. Instead, the tracks end much like actual dreams; suddenly, strangely, and inconclusively, with Love’s final utterances hanging in the air like riddles ..." (read more)

Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 4: Numina

The Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 4: Numina by Jimcheff on Mixcloud

The Fucked Up Beat: Trireme (Perchance to Dream)

The Fucked Up Beat have a new album out: Watch Towers of Metropolis A.

RW Investigates The Fucked Up Beat: 2 Hours of Music and Talk with Eddie Palmer and Brett Zehner

The Rough Windows Radio Hour Investigates The Fucked Up Beat by Jimcheff on Mixcloud

The Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 3 -- Driving Beats

The Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 3 -- Driving Beats by Jimcheff on Mixcloud

Plastic Moonrise -- "Autumn Avenues"

Shut-Eyed Stories

Music and text by Jim Cheff, read by Cheryl Love. Download all 13 Shut-Eyed Stories for free at jimcheff.bandcamp.com.

Fields Ohio -- 'Without Love We Are Dangerous'

Future Arizona, as seen from from August, 1975

Paintings by Robert McCall. From the August 1975 issue of Arizona Highways. The issue featured photos, paintings and articles which looked forward to a future of solar energy for Arizona.

Ghost Milk

New track on SoundCloud.

"Collection" by Jim Cheff -- Digital Album Available Now

22 tracks! Available at jimcheff.bandcamp.com

Clips from The Advisory Circle's 'From Out Here', Coming Dec.5

Exist Resist by Bracken

Sunday Session #2

Ambient sonic daydream.

'ONE THREE ONE' by Julian Cope

Great book by Julian Cope. Highly recommended!

Cocktail

Do you know her?

New 'Advisory Circle' Album in December

More good news for Jon Brooks fans -- a new 'Advisory Circle' album, coming in December from Ghost Box.

Pictures for Quiet Nights

Photographs from "A Book of Pictures for Quiet Nights".

Jon Brooks - "52"

From '52' by Jon Brooks, to be released in October by Clay Pipe Music.

Hold Head High

Late night exercises for dreamers. Are you ready?

"Plongeur"

"Plongeur" -- Bronze statue at the beach in Knokke-Heist, Belgium.

VAINO

I completed 'VAINO' recently. It's a 130 page graphic novel about Vainamoinen, the famous shaman of Finland's 'Kalevala.' The entire book can be seen online, for free. Just click here!

Sublime Frequencies

Fascinating sampler of music and sounds from the Sublime Frequencies record label.

Belgium Photos

Some photos from the recent trip to Belgium. Hear what some of the trip sounded like in the post below: "The Belgium Project."

The Belgium Project

'Woodbines and Spiders' by Jon Brooks and Ian Hodgson

I was quite pleased to return from vacationing in Belgium and find that Jon Brooks and Ian Hodgson have collaborated on an album. It's called 'Woodbines and Spiders.' Find out more here.

Early Japanese Animation at Open Culture

Nice article on early Japanese animation at Open Culture, with some interesting samples. I liked the music in this one, as well as the story. Read the article and see more films here.

Negativland - 'Time Zones'

Takeshi Murata - Melter 3-D

Pink Floyd 'Welcome To The Machine' -- CymaScope

Andrew Pekler

Treatment: Scandanavian Postcards from Andrew Pekler on Vimeo.

Just recently discovered the music of Andrew Pekler. I especially love this video.

"The Satellites" from Brian Eno and Karl Hyde's "Someday World"

'Chihuly in the Garden' Photos

Exhibition of Dale Chihuly glass sculptures, set among the cactuses of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Photos by Gudrun Lott. See more here.

Boiling Point -- THE SOUNDCARRIERS

A new release from Ghost Box coming our way in May: "Entropicalia" by The Soundcarriers. Video by Julian House.

The Rough Windows Radio Hour Investigates The Fucked Up Beat

This is a special two-hour edition of The Rough Windows Radio Hour: an interview with Eddie Palmer and Brett Zehner of the fantastic recording project called The Fucked Up Beat.

"Beautiful Darkness" by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoet

I don’t do reviews, but I do like to write about things that I enjoy. And I enjoyed the graphic novel “Beautiful Darkness” very much. Comics critic Rob Clough does a very good job describing “Beautiful Darkness” here. If you like that gorgeous book cover shown above, you should take a moment and read Rob’s review. I’ve read other reviews of this book as well, and I agree with the very positive responses it has gotten. There is one idea that I had about the book that I haven’t seen anywhere else, though, and that is the thing I’d like to contribute. Note: if you haven’t read ‘Beautiful Darkness,’ the following interpretation refers to events in the book that should be considered SPOILERS. My take on the book’s ending was this: The man who lived in the cabin, the man who Aurora goes to live with at the end, was the murderer of the dead girl in the woods. The elves and fairies and sprites that literally came out of the dead girl’s head at the beginning of the book were the hopes, fantasies, and dreams of the girl – her hopes for romance, her innocence -- as seen in Aurora -- and also her darker feelings, her doubts, fears, jealousies, meanness, etc. -- as embodied by practically all the other elves and fairies and animals. As the girl’s body decays, these non-physical remains decay as well. They come out lively, but they drop, they disappear, they die, one by one. At the end, Aurora herself kills off the last remaining bunch of them. It is fitting that Aurora kills off the others. Aurora has indeed, by then, been stripped of her innocence -- because she has become the moment when that rotting girl in the woods realizes that she is dead. That her life is over, and that everything has been taken from her. Aurora goes to “live” with the murderer. He is her ‘prince.’ But only because he stopped the murdered girl from being with anyone but him -- and from ever leaving that beautiful and deadly forest. It has been noted that “Beautiful Darkness” has elements of “Lord of the Flies,” "The Wind In The Willows,"and “The Borrowers.” I would add “The Lovely Bones” to that list in that it, too, depicts the last flickers of consciousness of a murdered girl.

Investigates Strange Weather Patterns and the UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada

'Investigates Strange Weather Patterns and the UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada' by The Fucked Up Beat starts with a crackly recording of a man’s voice: “Alone in a room … 1,000 miles from Earth. My body lay dead before me. And yet, I spoke … and felt … and lived …” Then the music starts – and we’re off to the eerie landscape of strange weather and saucer-filled skies promised in the album’s title. Like last year’s 'Roswell Radio Cult', this Fucked Up Beat album has a vintage sci-fi feel to it. But it’s theme is more specifically defined. The album’s fragments of dialogue and description consist almost entirely of accounts of Cold War UFO experiences. The variety of these voices and the stories they tell give the album the feel of an event -- something that is happening all over, to a large number of people. It’s a bit like Orson Welle’s 1938 'War of The Worlds' broadcast, but with a schizo-noir, trip-hop beat. 'Investigates Strange Weather …' also reminds me of the feeling I get when I listen to 'The Conet Project'. 'The Conet Project' -- a real-life collection of mysterious short-wave radio messages -- gives me a sense of a world that’s wilder ... more dense and complex ... than the world we live our normal lives in. The difference between 'Investigates Strange Weather ...' and 'The Conet Project' though, is that 'The Conet Project' never makes me want to tap my feet or move with the music. As with the aforementioned 'Roswell Radio Cult,' the beats and grooves on this album are imaginative and irresistable. The album is fun too -- as fun as it is eerie. It suggests sinister nocturnal factories, dangerous government programs and ominous coded transmissions. But it also reminds one of old, lovably over-dramatic sci-fi movies, or the amusing ramblings of an eccentric neighbor who knows all about the visitors and exactly what they’re up to. Woman’s voice: …If they are from another planet, I hope they’re from Venus. Man’s voice: Yeah, why Venus? Woman’s voice: Well, then at least they’ll be peaceful. Man’s voice: Yeah, what makes you so sure? Any track on this album is fascinating on its own. But to me, The Fucked Up Beat are painters of sprawling sonic murals. 'Investigates Strange Weather Patterns and the UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada'is an album best heard in its entirety. The picture it paints is huge and fascinating, and the music of The Fucked Up Beat is, as always, entrancing. (cover art seen above by Anya Rymer of Brooklyn)

Edison Recordings of Robert G Ingersoll, 'The Great Agnostic'

New Album from The Fucked Up Beat has 15 Unique Album Covers

The new album from The Fucked Up Beat "Investigates Strange Weather Patterns And The UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada" is available now at the thefuckedupbeat.bandcamp.com.  Each download of the album allows you to choose from 15 unique covers.  Here's a selection of four of them.

The first is by Anya Rymer of Brooklyn USA.

The second is by Mariana Borau, a Venezuelan artist based in Madrid, Spain.  marianaborau.com

Number three is by Thomas Schonne of Osnabruck, Germany.

And number four is by Shayne Gray of Toronto, Canada.  www.shaynegray.com

See the other eleven covers and download this fascinating album at the thefuckedupbeat.bandcamp.com

Rough Windows Radio Hour, Program 6, on Radio Free Flagstaff

The new Rough Windows program is up at Radio Free Flagstaff.  This show has plenty of music, but the emphasis is on the spoken word.  Listen to it here. 

A New Release from The Fucked Up Beat

This is good news.  A new album from The Fucked Up Beat will be available tomorrow, March 20th.  It's called "Investigates Strange Weather Patterns and the UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada."  And it's every bit as strange and interesting as that name suggests.  I've listened to it many times since Monday.  I think it's fantastic!  More details in the days ahead.  Till then, why not visit The Fucked Up Beat -- click here .

A Cover for Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

Another cover design for an imaginary edition of a book -- this time, for Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451.'

A Cover for Yevgeny Zamyatin's "WE"

I recently read Yevgeny Zamyatin's 1924 science fiction novel "We."  Above is my cover design for an imaginary edition of the book.