Samuel Goldberg, who records as Radio People, will stop by Delilah's on Cayuga Monday, June 20, 2011. The band's recent release is on Mexican Summer, an indie label out of Brooklyn. Photo Provided.
AROUND 2AM SATURDAY morning in an unventilated impromptu space in Williamsburg, the neo-disco-funk-slow-jams duo Ford & Lopatin packed up their gear as a DJ named Rem Koolhaus played to a few hundred sweaty hipsters. The “Turbotax® Sketchy Warehouse Edition” was the release party for “Channel Pressure,” the latest on Mexican Summer’s offshoot Software.
The record label, a Brooklyn-based company with some of the hottest acts in the indie world (have you heard of Best Coast, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Kurt Vile, Marissa Nadler, Real Estate, Weekend or Wooden Shjips?), welcomed Ford & Lopatin’s album into the fold, which was tracked by Jan Hammer, creator of the Miami Vice theme.
But not all of the label’s output sounds like it belongs in a New Wave police procedural. Radio People, the project of Samuel Goldberg combines pop-infused synthesizer chaos and compositions that sound inspired by Kraut rock. His synthscapes feature droning organs, minimal live percussion, and a drum machine backbone. Monday, June 20, he’ll join Outer Space, and Raglani for a show at Delilah’s on Cayuga.
“This project really has danced between the two zones [of pop music and the avant garde], and has blossomed into more of a solid middle ground at this point. All the pieces are based on a mood or idea, whether it is a kinetic piece or more ambient. I rarely have a choice once the creation process of a song begins,” Goldberg wrote by email.
Radio People’s live shows will feature material from the forthcoming album, as well as older and more explorative pieces.
Goldberg will be joined Monday by Outer Space, one third of the ambient and drone act Emeralds. The band, which got its start back in 2006, has worked its way through a slew of CD-Rs and cassettes on small labels.
Raglani, a project of Joseph Raglani, released his most recent material to rave reviews on Kranky records. Some years back, he invested some of his inheritance into a DIY studio in Saint Louis’ downtown district before it was the hip thing to do. He recorded other local artists and his own debut album. In addition to recording and playing music Raglani was an avid painter, showing pieces in the city, and then making sound art.
After 2001 Raglani began releasing self-made three inch CD-Rs of sound experiments for friends and potential collaborators. The release brought his music into an audience outside of Saint Louis’ local community, and into the mail order catalogues of some of the finest experimental shops on the internet.
“Sirens Born’ was released on Kranky in September 2009, receiving a review in the last physical copy of Arthur Magazine, and high marks from Pitchfork. A spot at the No Fun Festival, curated by Carlos Giffoni, followed.