Shipwreck Radio - June 19

It’s that time of year when a (no longer) young man’s thoughts turn naturally to the Sonic Structures and Enigmatic Episodes of Shipwreck Radio. Read the introduction to this series here.

JUNE 19 - SHIPWRECK RADIO VOLUME TWO

A track from the second volume of Shipwreck Radio, the opening charm and welcome are drawn out, then sped up—announcing this as highly processed track. There’s a low and lowing electronic tone, then jangling metal adds to the eeriness. There is a moaning sample that is folded in as well, then another, and more jangling metal. After two minutes, we get the haunting calls of gulls, as a thudding echo is added as, then a shuddering beat enters with a ringing behind it building into a groove that takes over the track. After a few minutes a second beat enters, developing into a groove reminiscent to that of June 15, with some of the same tempo irregularities and seeming skips, but where the groove of June 15 was noisy and industrial, this groove stays just a bit sinister in its sonic structure. 

There are more ghosts from June 15 in this track, with the Lofoten Deadhead returning with “Lean back, you know, if the day has been hectic you just put on a record” being brought in after 7 minutes. But where June 15 seemed to invite you to relax, June 19 manages to take many of the same sounds and make it feel hectic and claustrophobic. Near nine minutes, a rushing metallic sheen slices through the track, a paranoiac cutting intruding before the groove seems to double in on itself and resume. As it returns after the ten minute mark you catch the edge of gull caws in it as the beat almost collapses like a heart beat in an arrest before the drawn out gull sheen begins to swirl, drawing the listener into the sonic whirlpool as a female vocal sample of “okay, okay” begins to repeat, the Lofoten Deadhead being drowned out by gulls that build an overwhelm the track like a scene out of birds, the groove continuing to chug unevenly along. In the last moments of the song, the Lofoten Deadhead sample begins to build again, layered over and over at faster and faster speeds until the track dissolves into a thinning colony of gulls, leaving you almost tempted to cast your gaze to the sky and make sure they’re not swirling above you.