The Studio of Gratifying Discourse

Dream Theory

Read the full post. [https://www.jamesreeves.co/dream-theory/]  Dreams are about presence. It’s the only time we’re released from ego and intention. Dreams dredge up our baggage and drop us into the here and now of it, a thought that led to tonight’s soundtrack. It’s a busy swirl that begins with Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” (a few shades slower, naturally) and ends with Mika Vainio’s stark cover version. There’s also a pair of Seefeel remixes, a dash of Springsteen, some Spiritualized, and a lot of murmuring. I was aiming for something warm, maybe a little pretty and sinister, that feels like sinking into the soft ground of a dream. When I played tonight’s songs for C’s approval, she called it my “magical mushroom mix” and made groovy far-out gestures to underscore her point. She meant this in an encouraging way, I think, so I photographed her hands being psychedelic and that’s how we arrived at the artwork for this episode. 1. Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (19% slower) A Saucerful of Secrets • 1968 2. Flavor Crystals - Cetecea (Seefeel Adjustment) Five • 2020 • Bandcamp [https://flavorcrystals.bandcamp.com/track/cetacea-seefeel-adjustment] 3. Anthony Calonico - Collapsing Spacious Heart • Music From Memory, 2026 • Bandcamp [https://music-from-memory.bandcamp.com/album/spacious-heart] 4. Ana Roxanne - Wishful (Draft) Poem 1 • Kranky, 2026 • Bandcamp [https://anaroxanne.bandcamp.com/album/poem-1] 5. Blackwater - Oaxaca Navigation • Ethbo, 2021 • Bandcamp [https://ethbo.bandcamp.com/album/blackwater-navigation] 6. Bruce Springsteen - State Trooper (15% slower) Nebraska • 1982 7. The Dengie Hundred - Tamar Brackenbank • Ethbo, 2022 • Bandcamp [https://ethbo.bandcamp.com/album/the-dengie-hundred-brackenbank] 8. Roly Porter - Al Dhanab Aftertime • Subtext, 2011 • Bandcamp [https://rolyporter-subtext.bandcamp.com/album/aftertime] 9. Spiritualized - Electric Mainline II Electric Mainline • 1993 • Archive.org [https://archive.org/details/spiritualized-complete-works-volume-one] 10. Cocteau Twins - Cherry-Coloured Funk (Seefeel Remix) Otherness • Fontana, 1995 11. Variant - The Setting Sun The Setting Sun • Field Records, 2009/2026 • Bandcamp [https://echospace313.bandcamp.com/album/the-setting-sun-2] 12. Mika Vainio - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun Oleva • Sahko, 2024 • Bandcamp [https://sahkorecordings.bandcamp.com/album/oleva] Thank you for reading and listening. The request lines are open. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2541955/fan_mail/new] Enjoy life and get the full Midnight Radio experience delivered [https://www.jamesreeves.co/radio/] directly to your inbox ’round midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Star Demon

My first memory is sitting in a high chair in front of a small Zenith television. The opening credits for a sitcom played, maybe Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley, and there was a shenanigan that involved kissing a mannequin. It scared the hell out of me, and I screamed until my father patted my head, called me “big guy,” and changed the channel. For years, my mom couldn’t take me into a department store because I was so horrified by mannequins. Much of our shopping at Sears took place with her hand over my eyes. Read the full post [https://www.jamesreeves.co/star-demon/]. Maybe it’s the simultaneous knowing and not-knowing that makes anything resonate. Tonight we have some half-understood Midnight Radio variants of six songs from Andrea Mazzariello’s War Footing [https://andreamazzariello.bandcamp.com/album/war-footing?ref=jamesreeves.co] playbook—rewired, filtered, and slowed down between 21% and 94%: 1. Fair Is Foul Is Fair (Astronomical Dub) 2. 43:1 (Tranquil + Justified) 3. Aspirational Gardening (Cosmic Harvest) 4. 80s Death (Redshifted + Microwaved) 5. Post Nova (Initial Singularity) 6. Pre-Post (Final Singularity) Andrea Mazzariello (words, keyboards, synths, programming, drums), Brady Lenzen (bass), Jason Treuting (drums and percussion), JC Sanford (brass), Dan Trueman (strings), Mike Williams (acoustic guitars), Andy Flory (electric guitars) The request lines are open. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2541955/fan_mail/new] Enjoy life and get the full Midnight Radio experience delivered [https://www.jamesreeves.co/radio/] directly to your inbox ’round midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month.

The Studio of Gratifying Discourse

C. says it’s better to make tacos at home because we know what’s in them. But I think it’s the not-knowing that makes Taco Bell the spiritual choice. Read the full episode. [https://www.jamesreeves.co/the-studio-of-gratifying-discourse/] Tonight's selections gratify me because they aim straight for the pleasure centers and risk looking foolish (especially the Orbital track, even though I slowed it down 220%). Yet they also retain some mystery, perhaps even to themselves, chanting and humming until language becomes a garbled holy tone—from the climactic minute of the xx's "Intro" to a loopy Enya edit to a Byzantine hymn from Father Dionysios Tabakis, a 52-year-old priest who dropped one of my favorite albums of the year via the crucial Heat Crimes imprint. Thank you for listening. (And thank you to Martin Essig [https://failureisfreedom.buzzsprout.com/2528418] for encouraging me to read Simon Critchley and Byung-Chul Han.) 1. The xx - Intro xx • XL Recordings, 2005 • Bandcamp [https://thexx.bandcamp.com/album/xx-deluxe] 2. Walls - Sunporch (Holy Other Mix) Coracle Remixes • Kompakt, 2012 • Bandcamp [https://walls-kompakt.bandcamp.com/album/coracle-remixes] 3. Seraphim - A3 London Is Tired of Me • Lost Domain, 2026 • Boomkat [https://boomkat.com/products/london-is-tired-of-me] 4. Death in Vegas - Girls Scorpio Rising • Sanctuary Records, 2002 5. Frederic D Oberland & Radwan Ghazi - Squeal of Swine Eternal Life No End ليلة ظلماء ملعونة، كحياة طالبيها • Constellation, 2026 • Bandcamp [https://rgmfdo.bandcamp.com/album/eternal-life-no-end] 6. Enya - Afer Ventus (DNTEL Remix) Enya Mixes • 2010 • Boomkat [https://boomkat.com/products/enya-mixes] 7. Tears for Fears - Mad World (Midnight Radio Mix) The Hurting • 1982 8. Walls - Burnt Sienna Walls • Kompakt, 2010 • Bandcamp [https://walls-kompakt.bandcamp.com/album/walls] 9. Father Dionysios Tabakis - ΑΝΑΡΧΟΣ ΘΕΟΣ Βυζαντινά Κάλαντα των Χριστουγέννων σε α΄ήχο Paradise Metal • Heat Crimes, 2026 • Boomkat [https://boomkat.com/products/paradise-metal] 10. Placid Angles - Saint Anne Canada • Oathcreations, 2026 • Bandcamp [https://oathcreations.bandcamp.com/album/canada] 11. Orbital - Halcyon and On and On (Midnight Radio Mix) Radiccio • 1993 • Bandcamp [https://orbitalofficial.bandcamp.com/track/halcyon-and-on-and-on] The request lines are open. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2541955/fan_mail/new] Enjoy life and get the full Midnight Radio experience delivered [https://www.jamesreeves.co/radio/] directly to your inbox ’round midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Noon Radio

Read the full post here. [https://www.jamesreeves.co/noon-radio/]  For tonight's episode, Steve sent me a file with selections from some of his favorite songs. He wanted to put together something that would be ideal for a warm afternoon because he's a contrarian who must test the limits of Midnight Radio. Fair enough. Here are the changes I made: * Swapped the Topdown Dialectic track he selected for one I like better. * Because he's the least self-aggrandizing person I know, it probably didn’t occur to him to include his own music. I’ve fixed this. A song from his Minor Hexachords [https://minorhexachords.bandcamp.com/album/brinkmanship] project appears midway, and I love how the high-gloss majesty of a Burger & Ink classic gives way to "Radians," which shatters the dub techno template into glittery shards. * Slowed down the last two songs by 39% and 210% because they sound fantastic this way. And of course, the usual reverb and static. This 44th episode is exactly 44 minutes long, which pleases me. Thank you for listening. 1. Topdown Dialectic - 20170804-2 20170804 • Aught, 2017 • Bandcamp [https://aught.bandcamp.com/album/20170804] 2. Foote/Dickow - Volcano Snail High Cube • Geographic North, 2026 • Bandcamp [https://foote-dickow.bandcamp.com/album/high-cube] 3. Sa Pa - Ride High Ambeesh • Short Span, 2025 • Bandcamp [https://sa-pa.bandcamp.com/album/ambeesh] 4. Burger & Ink - Elvism Las Vegas • Harvest, 1996 • Boomkat [https://boomkat.com/products/las-vegas-5baa7c31-9109-4a83-9ef7-ef2b97ecba1a] 5. Minor Hexachords - Radians Brinkmanship • 2025 • Bandcamp [https://minorhexachords.bandcamp.com/album/brinkmanship] 6. Paperclip Minimiser - B2 II • Peak Oil, 2026 • Bandcamp [https://paperclipminimiser.bandcamp.com/album/ii] 7. Gramm - Legends/Nugroove™ Personal Rock • Source, 1999 • Bandcamp [https://grammpersonalrock.bandcamp.com/album/personal-rock] 8. Vehicular - Vehicular 02 (39% slower) False 5 • False Aralia, 2025 • Bandcamp [https://falsearalia.bandcamp.com/album/false-05-vehicular] 9. Koen Holtkamp - Atmos 01 (210% slower) Atmosfera • Love All Day, 2021 • Bandcamp [https://koenholtkamp.bandcamp.com/album/atmosfera] The request lines are open. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2541955/fan_mail/new] Enjoy life and get the full Midnight Radio experience delivered [https://www.jamesreeves.co/radio/] directly to your inbox ’round midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Neglected Utopian Energy

Read the entire post here [https://www.jamesreeves.co/neglected-utopian-energy/].  In its common form, nostalgia is a taunt because it fetishes a time that can never be reclaimed. But when dealing with mid-1990s electronica, perhaps it can also be an invitation. To reclaim the energy from a time when dozens of naive albums were inspired by Koyaanisqatsi or the incense-soaked rhythms of Kingsuk Biswas's Bedouin Ascent [https://www.juno.co.uk/junodaily/2025/02/24/bedouin-ascent-interview-i-was-searching-for-authenticity-and-a-musical-form-of-ecstatic-abandon/] project. It was a time of creating for its own sake without an eye on any marketplace or notion of virality. Of making things simply because new tools were there.  So maybe I’ll just sink into this plush couch with cigarette burns in the cushions while Strange Days plays on mute and someone tells me all about the benefits of globalization and the Information Superhighway. 1. Introduction: Stonecirclesampler, Air Liquide, Mojave 3, assorted radio static, etc. 2. Dr. Atmos & Oliver Lieb - Music to Films Movement V Music to Films • Fax, 1994 3. Pete Namlook & Richie Hawtin - Silent Intelligence V From Within III • Fax, 1997 4. Bedouin Ascent - Mammon [Midnight Radio Edit] Science, Art, and Ritual • Rising High, 1994 • Bandcamp [https://lapsus.bandcamp.com/album/science-art-and-ritual-30th-anniversary-edition] 5. Massive Attack vs. Mad Professor - Protection (Radiation Ruling the Nation) No Protection • Wild Bunch Records, 1995 6. B12 - Radiophonic Workshop Time Tourist • Warp, 1996 • Bandcamp [https://warprecords.bandcamp.com/album/time-tourist] 7. Photek - T’raenon Version T’raenon • Op-Art, 1996 8. Bedouin Ascent - Transition R Science, Art, and Ritual • Rising High, 1994 • Bandcamp [https://lapsus.bandcamp.com/album/science-art-and-ritual-30th-anniversary-edition] 9. Makyo - Devabandha Rasa Bhava • Silent Records, 1996 • Bandcamp [https://makyo.bandcamp.com/album/rasa-bhava] 10. Epilogue: Stonecirclesampler, Patsy Cline, assorted radio static, etc. Now I'm in Minneapolis after a viciously turbulent flight because a snowstorm is on the way. They're talking about 8 to 12 inches. I mention this because Midnight Radio seems to be the only deadline I honor and I'm pressing the button at 11:54pm Central Time. It counts. More importantly, a new version of Spite is available in your local App Store or you can learn more and download it directly here [https://www.jamesreeves.co/spite/]. The request lines are open. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2541955/fan_mail/new] Enjoy life and get the full Midnight Radio experience delivered [https://www.jamesreeves.co/radio/] directly to your inbox ’round midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month.