1.
The first housecats in ancient Egypt gradually discovered they received more attention from their owners when their meows mimicked a human baby’s cry. Today, birds mimic police sirens and chainsaws, and artificial intelligence is probably harvesting these videos for b-roll footage and ambient soundscapes designed to wake us up at an optimal hour. Someday, we might no longer understand what is echoing what.
2.
When I was growing up, my mom often told me that perfectionism was my worst trait. Being young and arrogant, I thought this was a compliment. Who wouldn’t want to be a perfectionist? Three decades and so many missed opportunities later, I can’t tell you how many times I look up at the ceiling—or wherever my mom’s ghost might be—to tell her she was so damned right.
3.
It’s the first day of a new year, and I’m thinking about accidental laughter. There’s a song called “Lali Lale”—upbeat and a little seductive, the singer’s voice autotuned for a hypnotic effect. Although she sings in a language I do not understand, the intent is clear: to speak to the limbic, to make the listener feel cool and sleek. But in the middle of a verse, she breaks into laughter. Her laugh is not calculated or cool; it’s awkward and nervous, the sound of someone breaking character. I like to imagine the moment in the studio when she glances at the faces behind the mixing board to do another take. Instead, they tell her to keep going, keep rolling. So she gets back to the beat, and now the song has become truly alive, a document of the unpredictable, an artifact of the genuinely human.
This song is the last track in tonight’s mix, and the laughter at the 28:51 mark is one of my favorite moments in the music I listened to last year. Messes and accidents, weird typos and blurts of laughter—these things feel more essential now that everything is increasingly filtered, auto-suggested, and optimized.
Before the weather turns warm, I’m determined to finish the novel I’ve been rewriting for years about a very loud god. It's time to let it go. I want to practice working fast and loose, to stop taking myself and my opinions so seriously. Embrace the fragment. Cultivate collisions. Bring the residue to the forefront.
And residue is how tonight’s broadcast begins: I excavated the vocal dregs from last year’s mixes to usher in one of my favorite songs, Wolfgang Voigt’s off-kilter loop of T. Rex and Roxy Music, which I like to play first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Then I’ve paired Nancy Sinatra with some bass, static, and a kick drum that I scraped out of an old file. The third track is a terribly-named song by a terribly-named band, but the music itself is an ideal way to start the new year in easy mode.
- Love, Inc - Life’s a Gas
Force Inc, 1996 | More - Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (Midnight Radio Static Mix)
- Japancakes - Handguns & Firearms
Bliss Out Vol. 19: Belmondo | Darla, 2002 | More - Chantssss - Swan
Shyness | Theory Therapy, 2024 | More - DjNiraha & Lale Pishmari - Lali Lale
KorgMusic2024DemoEL-HELL-EΛ | Heat Crimes, 2024 | More
Listen below or grab an mp3 before it gets cold. Next time, we'll discuss extraterrestrials and old men losing their minds in the desert. Meanwhile, I'm posting fragments and homeless sentences on Bluesky until it stops being fun. (If you're over there, let me know.)
Thank you for listening, and the request lines are open.
Midnight Radio 13 | Download
