100% Improvisation; No Rehearsals

This album is a live recording of NBC's performance for the S.P.A.Z. collective's internet radio broadcast from their San Francisco studio (5lowershop) on July 27, 2003. SPAZ Radio is still broadcasting at spaz.org/radio/
More about SPAZ: www.thebaycitybeacon.com/culture/beats-beyond-the-basics-5lowershops-underground-roots-take-over-sfs-club-scene/article_4053072c-bce8-11e7-9730-6f647744949f.html

About half of the show features "dub" and "re-composition" techniques applied to selections by other artists, and a few humorous segues lifted from various eclectic sources. The rest of the performance is composed of original live NBC songs, primarily supported by ROBO's signature rhythms.

To fit the theme, NBC begins with a live dub of the catchy western-flavored reggae of "Black Cowboy" by Eek-A-Mouse. The mix then descends into an expansive re-composition/live synth overdub of Blacker Dread's classic 90's "From Creation" riddim. "Monster Heart" features hilarious samples from the cult classic kaiju movie "Frankenstein Conquers The World" over a relatively short burst of a traditional dub baseline selected by ROBO. Zerø K then drops a psychedelic mega-distortion dub treatment of Mister Rogers' biggest "hit" to remind everyone what neighborhood we come from.

Then NBC dives in full bore with the strictly serious dark minimal dub of "Wicked Paradise", featuring ROBO's heavy slow-burn distorted beats, accented by shouty locked-groove records and vocal samples of John Mark Byers from the movie Paradise Lost 2 versus the nutty interjections of tongues-speaking TV evangelist Robert Tilton. In complete contrast, NBC then moves into silly pop culture territory with a parrot training record-infested remix of Terbo Ted's own plunderphonic remix of Britney Spears' (actually The Neptunes) "I'm a Slave 4 U".***

After a hilarious break featuring a manipulated snippet of "My Time High" by The Cannabis Cup Band, NBC gets serious again with a slew of intense originals. "This is This (Crazy)" is a frantic hyper-jungle banger that pokes lo-fi fun at the concept of bangers. "Attack Warning" is a fantastic drone-oriented piece that quickly builds to a proggy keyboard finish, way before it should have ended (lots of subtile song style jokes hidden here). The minimal but pumping techno of "A Clockwork Owl" features samples from the Stanley Kubrick movie and, of course, an owl [Relatedly, there is an inside joke involving Hoodsy the Crack Owl™, a character we invented that was inspired by the hooting sounds that the neighborhood crack dealers used to notify their customers of delivery].

The next two tracks, "Cancer Trance" and "Juice Breaks", involve lo-fi re-construction dubs of unidentified electronic records (ROBO and/or DJ Skippy were the contributors), so they remain "dub" versions that fit right in with NBC's aesthetic of warped electronic weirdness.
"X Minus One" takes a trip-hop turn with another excellent ROBO backing rhythm and some blunted mumble-scat from zerø K. "Generation NBC" features a reprise of DJ Skippy's melodic synth/record ambience from the previous track, this time with a hypnotic treated techno rhythm by zerø K.

Following a short break with a classic vintage Lowell Thomas radio blooper, NBC ends with a live dub of ROBO's powerful "Bridges Falling" rhythm, sprinkled with immigrant English training tape samples versus a parakeet training record. Included here as the final track is a bonus outtake radio ID, full of locked-groove record goodness.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the wonderful artwork contributed to this project by ROBO. The square digital cover only features half of the gatefold design that he produced for the original CD-R. There was also a painting made for the back cover, which originally included the tracklist. All of the original full-resolution art is included as extras with download of the album, but all of the images can be accessed freely by clicking on some of the individual songs: the full gatefold can be seen by clicking on "From Creation", then click on the image to see it full size. The second panel detail of Death ringing a bell (which doubles as a cool NBC sticker design) can be seen by clicking on "Wicked Paradise". The "rodeo girl" back cover painting can be seen by clicking on track 7, "Slave".

This project has turned out to be one of my personal favorites, considering its pervasive but varying sense of humor (even the "serious" sounding tracks still make me laugh for one reason or another) and the sonic maturity that the core NBC members seem to be reaching with unique, diverse material that has its own "sound" emerging from the process...
Should we file this under macro-dub remix-techno comedy?! Probably not, but still I recommend that you PLAY LOUD!

-zerø K 2020

Favorite Tracks: From Creation, Wicked Paradise, Slave, A Clockwork Owl, X Minus One, Bridges Falling

-WARNING-
The uncompressed bass and high frequency combinations on some tracks are likely to damage built-in laptop speakers at full volume. For best results, playback over LARGE SPEAKERS or studio quality monitors is recommended.


***NOTE: Since Terbo Ted was involved with the S.P.A.Z. collective, I thought it was an appropriate surprise to feature an NBC permutation of his work, of which I'm a fan. Recently I got in touch with him concerning this online release and he approves!

Contact information and online archives: www.terboted.com

Free download of Turbo Ted's "Slave", including the full album: www.terboted.com/albums/TERBO_TED_IS_DEAD_(2003)/