🎵 IT080: Rambling Radio
✏️ Robin Goldbach
🗓 20.10.20
Robin is an artist from Bad Köstritz, Germany, currently living in Dresden.
Hey Robin! Can you tell us a little bit about your tape and your song selections?
Oi, Illustrated Tapes! The original idea for my tape was to focus on “outsider musicians”, more specifically home recordings. Going into it, I knew right away that Spotify might limit my options, but could potentially also surprise me with a couple of rare gems if I just looked hard enough. And that’s exactly what happened. A few of my go-to artists were either nowhere to be found, or only had one or two songs on Spotify because of Irwin Chusid’s “Songs in the Key of Z” Compilations. I didn’t want my tape to rely too heavily on those comps though, so I went digging and found gold like Mike Macharyas and Girls With Attitude. Though by far my best discovery was Choagie Graham, whose recordings I sort of built the mixtape around. The end product is something that sounds like a pirate radio show moderated by Choagie himself. I have to mention that I didn’t stick to exclusively home recorded music, because that proved to be a lot harder than I first imagined. Especially because for some albums there’s no way of finding out how or where they were made. At the time of writing, Choagie Graham’s monthly Spotify Listeners only consist of 2 people. Hoping my mixtape will increase that number a fair bit.
Note: For the best listening experience, I recommend turning on Spotify’s crossfade feature and setting it to 4 seconds.
What direction did you take with your cover art, and what was your process?
At first I wanted to go with an all analog-dirty-photocopy, a look I often use in my work because that goes hand in hand with the DIY / working-from-home-with-whatever-you-have-available-feel that I wanted the mixtape to have. I wasn’t really satisfied with any of the drawings I came up with, so I went a different route and experimented with paper cutting. The cover I ended up making is meant to visualise the artists creating their records in the comfort of their own homes, as well as me jamming out to them at my place. I also feel like it fits the Choagie Pirate Radio theme well.
At first I wanted to go with an all analog-dirty-photocopy, a look I often use in my work because that goes hand in hand with the DIY / working-from-home-with-whatever-you-have-available-feel that I wanted the mixtape to have. I wasn’t really satisfied with any of the drawings I came up with, so I went a different route and experimented with paper cutting. The cover I ended up making is meant to visualise the artists creating their records in the comfort of their own homes, as well as me jamming out to them at my place. I also feel like it fits the Choagie Pirate Radio theme well.
What are your fave album covers, records with a great music and artwork combo, or musical projects with a visual component?
There’s waaay too many albums to choose from. Good album art is very important to me, so much that sometimes I catch myself listening to artists less if I’m not a fan of the artwork, even if the music is great. I’m gonna show three favorites and then just name drop a bunch more for you to check out yourself. I also highly recommend listening to all of the albums.
cLOUDDEAD – cLOUDDEAD2000, Mush
Attention Shoppers – Nero's Day At Disneyland
2005, Audio Savant
1000 Gecs And The Tree Of Clues – 100 Gecs
2020, Dog Show Records
Artwork: Mikey Joyce + Dario Alva
Here’s the random list of other favorites:
Egg on face. Foot in mouth. Wriggling Wriggling Wriggling. – Crywank
Those Pickled Fuckers – Lumpy & The Dumpers
Third Side Of Tape –
Lil Ugly Mane
Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit –
Snowing
Mm..Food – MF DOOM
D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L – Panchiko
Lover, The Lord Has Left Us – The Sound Of Animals Fighting
In The Wake Of Doshin, The GIANT – Tatsuhiko Asano
やっぱり (Yappari) – 楽しい音楽 (Tanoshii Ongaku)
Suburban Lawns – Suburban Lawns
I apologize for making this list so long.
What did you listen to growing up?
The very first album I ever bought was Demon Days by Gorillaz in 2005. I remember going to the store with my parents and asking the clerk if I could buy “Feel Good Inc.” on CD. Back then I was 7 or 8 years old and I didn’t have any concept of what an album even was, so after being told that they only have the “full album” available, I reluctantly went ahead and bought what would later become one of my all time favorite records. After that I went through a couple of phases, but pretty much never stuck to one genre or artist.
And what’s on heavy rotation for you at the moment?
I’ve been attending a lot of virtual music festivals inside Minecraft and a ton of DJ sets from these festivals are on repeat for me right now, especially in my car. One of my favorites is the Boyz b2b Men Set from Lavapalooza 2020.
The very first album I ever bought was Demon Days by Gorillaz in 2005. I remember going to the store with my parents and asking the clerk if I could buy “Feel Good Inc.” on CD. Back then I was 7 or 8 years old and I didn’t have any concept of what an album even was, so after being told that they only have the “full album” available, I reluctantly went ahead and bought what would later become one of my all time favorite records. After that I went through a couple of phases, but pretty much never stuck to one genre or artist.
And what’s on heavy rotation for you at the moment?
I’ve been attending a lot of virtual music festivals inside Minecraft and a ton of DJ sets from these festivals are on repeat for me right now, especially in my car. One of my favorites is the Boyz b2b Men Set from Lavapalooza 2020.
What’s happening in your creative world at the moment?
Trying to learn basic animation for a sort of secret project and practicing my paper cutting and collage skills.
Where can we find you?
︎ @roofpuke
Thanks Robin
TRACKLIST
"Choagie" Graham - Intro (with Hair Pulling) / Jad Fair - Summer Time / Tracey Trance - Feelin' the Sun / Neil Dick - The Future is Now / Mike Macharyas - 2PAC / Klimperei - Walz 82 / K.Lewis - Let's Go Party / Girls With Attitude - There's Nothing in my Dreams / Michael Cera - What Gives (...I Can't Live Like This) / Son of Salami - Cigarettes Make Me Feel Good / Amanda - Worship Me / The Savage Young Taterbug - Working Juice / "Choagie" Graham - Human Electric Guitar Gets Gonged / Peter Grudzien - Satan's Horn / Weird Paul Petroskey - I Wasted My Masterball On Freakin' Goldeen / Ween - Alone / "Choagie" Graham - Drug Song by Warren Extrada / Daniel Johnston - Cold Hard World / Paul "Super Apple" - Apple Love / Joe Pera Talks With You - Warm Apple Night / Klaus Beyer - Gestern / Sigríður Níelsdóttir - Ástarjátning / Anton Maiden - Die With Your Boots On / Gerty Farish - Finale / "Choagie" Graham - Don't Miss The Next David Graham Recording ︎
Trying to learn basic animation for a sort of secret project and practicing my paper cutting and collage skills.
Where can we find you?
︎ @roofpuke
Thanks Robin
TRACKLIST
"Choagie" Graham - Intro (with Hair Pulling) / Jad Fair - Summer Time / Tracey Trance - Feelin' the Sun / Neil Dick - The Future is Now / Mike Macharyas - 2PAC / Klimperei - Walz 82 / K.Lewis - Let's Go Party / Girls With Attitude - There's Nothing in my Dreams / Michael Cera - What Gives (...I Can't Live Like This) / Son of Salami - Cigarettes Make Me Feel Good / Amanda - Worship Me / The Savage Young Taterbug - Working Juice / "Choagie" Graham - Human Electric Guitar Gets Gonged / Peter Grudzien - Satan's Horn / Weird Paul Petroskey - I Wasted My Masterball On Freakin' Goldeen / Ween - Alone / "Choagie" Graham - Drug Song by Warren Extrada / Daniel Johnston - Cold Hard World / Paul "Super Apple" - Apple Love / Joe Pera Talks With You - Warm Apple Night / Klaus Beyer - Gestern / Sigríður Níelsdóttir - Ástarjátning / Anton Maiden - Die With Your Boots On / Gerty Farish - Finale / "Choagie" Graham - Don't Miss The Next David Graham Recording ︎