The Reference Desk – CJSW Radio

Join Andrew Baldock while he scours CJSW’s music library for odd albums, fascinating bands, and other projects that make you go, “hmmmm…”

The Reference Desk is a journey through genres, studying underground sounds and maybe even teaching listeners something new along the way!

Podcasts

Turntable History

Buried deep in CJSW's Experimental music collection is this incredibly bizarre album from American composer and visual artist Arnold Dreyblatt. Turntable History consists of one 40 minute song featuring only one instrument - An MRI Machine.

Magma

A band so influential they're credited with creating their very own progressive rock subgenre. In this episode Andrew does a deep dive into the sound, style, and influences of French progressive rock legends Magma.

A City Dressed in Dynamite

That Handsome Devil blends some pretty interesting musical styles. Hip hop, rockabilly, funk, and even lounge. In this episode of the reference desk Andrew does a deep dive into the band's sophomore album; A City Dressed in Dynamite.

Boards of Canada

In this episode Andrew goes over an all encompassing, yet cautious, examination of the enigmatic electronic music duo Boards of Canada. Their early days, recording methods, and philosophy.

Amanda Palmer

CJSW plays just about every kind of music you can think of. But is musical theater perhaps underrepresented? In this episode Andrew presents the life and works of American performance artist, songwriter, musician, and singer Amanda F***ing Palmer.

LARD

What happens when you mash together the industrial metal riffs of Ministry with the frenetic lyricism of The Dead Kennedys? Andrew finds out as he explores The Power of Lard from Al Jourgensen and Jello Biafra's short lived supergroup: LARD

Vic Horvath

An episode in tribute to the late Calgary/Victoria singer-songwriter Vic Horvath. Vic's music includes everything from hard hitting rock to pastoral folk music.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez

Best known for his work with The Mars Volta and At the Drive In, Omar Rodriguez Lopez also pumped out an absolutely insane amount of solo work. In the episode Andrew shows-and-tells the compilation album Telesterion, which pulls tracks from…

UneXpect

Hailing from Montreal, UneXpect was an avant-garde extreme metal band with a sound combining aspects of progressive, black, heavy, and technical death metal as well as opera, jazz, noise, and circus music. Needless to say this called for further examination.

Metallic Spheres

In a sleepy London flop someone's coming down from their saturday night out and there's a strong chance they were listening to The Orb. This album in particular features another legendary British musician... David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

A Wild Pear

A delightful 10" record found on the wrong shelf in the CJSW library. Featuring the musical stylings of the loud and raucous Andrew W.K. and The Evaporators, lead by Nardwuar the human serviette. The albums art and title mock a…

Shadows of the Sun

An incredible work of subdued, emotional songwriting; This album from German musical collective Ulver really stands out from the rest of the groups discography and is an absolute must listen for all music aficionados.

Paranoimia

A curious vinyl single with an even more curious guest vocalist. This Art of Noise song has two different versions that feature 80's pop culture icon Max Headroom.

Delerivm Cordia

From the minds of twisted avant-garde metal supergroup Fantomas, this album features a single song soundtrack to a non-existent horror movie. The movie's premise? Experiencing invasive surgery with no anesthetic.

HAXAN: Witchcraft through the ages

An original soundtrack to the 1922 silent horror film HAXAN as written and performed by Saskatchewan's doom-wop surf rock trio The Garry's. Andrew gleans insights into the creative process the band went through and how it differs from their usual…

Bei Bei and Shawn Lee

An odd combo but one good enough that it bears repetition. Shawn Lee brings the funk and Bei Bei the elegance of the traditional Chinese guzheng. The result is an often cinematic and always catchy asian fusion you just gotta…

The Basement Paintings

This one is an absolute must listen for fans of Tool, Russian Circles, Animals as Leaders, or other such rhythmic progressive metal bands. Saskatchewan's The Basement Paintings weave fascinating psychedelic soundscapes with mind blowing riffs.

Shane Phillip

Andrew explores the music of British Columbia's Shane Philip. A one man band playing both sunny pastoral folk as well as incredibly primal world music that reaches down into your soul and FORCES you to dance.

Jazz Daredevil

You may be familiar with the voice work of H. Jon Benjamin. But did you know the Archer and Bob's Burgers star also put together a jazz album on which he plays piano? There's just one minor hitch. Jon doesn't…

Electric Audrey 2

Finally Andrew gets around to checking out an Alberta band. Electric Audrey 2 hails from Edmonton and plays an eclectic mish mash of styles focused mainly around rockabilly and bluegrass with a heavy helping of comedy.

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets

The best music from the worst band name you'll ever hear. PPC is an Australian psych rock outfit with more riffs than you can shake a drumstick at. Andrew's got everything you need to know about them so you can…

Igorrr

What? Just... I mean... is this for real? It's breakbeat, baroque, and DEATH METAL!? All at the same time? Who comes up with this stuff? Find out as Andrew takes a good long look at the entire body of work…

Morphine

It's bass music for people who don't like EDM. This 90's alt rock outfit centered their sound around a two string slide bass and baritone sax. Andrew explores the evolution of their sound and the band's odd stylistic choices over…

Walpurgis

Long ago in an ancient land known as England, a group of musicians made a name for themselves by thrilling audiences with songs of death, destruction, and horror. They called themselves Black Sabbath. But every legend has to start somewhere.…

Being Human Being

Combining the expressive experimental trumpet styles of Erik Trufaz, the minimalist electronic ambiences of Murcof, and the stark post apocalyptic artwork of Enki Bilal, Being Human Being is the soundtrack to a live audio visual experience only ever performed once.…

Dr. Colossus

Some bands take the idea of concept albums and apply it to their whole band. While many of these bands tackle epic stories spanning multiple albums or heady concepts like politics or philosophy. Other bands just really, really.... really like…

Cromagnon

Way back in 1969 two pop musicians took a stab at recording an experimental psych folk album in one day. The result is a mythical release more often talked about than listened to. One that could be called bizarrely prescient…

Dreissk

Andrew takes a stab at the somewhat difficult task of describing an ambient/drone album. Seiche by Dreissk; an atmospheric journey awash with soft white noise, deeply layered instrumentation, and powerfully emotional progressions. Let's see how well he did.