ABJECT BLOC

Abject Bloc radio Offcom report 2013:

John Wild and " "[sic] Tim Goldie's Abject Bloc radio show on Resonance 104.4 FM bathetically remixes and recontextualises historic avant-garde experiments with sound and vocal improvisation with some of the most sonically provocative and challenging current live performers, writers, film makers, activists and artists etc. Moving from Samuel Beckett to Howard Slater, Sylvia Plath to Nina Power, Georges Bataille to Stewart Home, Laetitia Sadier to Beryl Reid, CLR James to Paris (Guerilla Funk), Valerie Solanas to Laura Wirtz, Tony Harrison to Matthew Hyland, Eve Libertine to Laura Oldfield-Ford, Philip Larkin to Philip Best and Sarah Froelich, Pier Paulo Pasolini to Mark Aerial Waller, Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Matthew Noel-Tod, Josephine Berry-Slater to X Name, Ghed 'Pansy' Patterson to Myra Hindley, Avi Pitchon to Karl Blake, Kyran Lynn to Roberto Crippa, Robin Bale to Jonathan Kemp, Daryn Brown to Malcolm Goldie, Mista Dexter to Quentin Crisp, Allon Kaye to Joe Meek, Richard Thomas to Noam Chomsky, Bryn Philips to Flavor Flav, Ryan Jordan to Jimmy Saville, Pat Thomas USA to Pat Thomas UK, Alan Clarke to Anthony Iles, Grassy Noel's Ape to Mumra, DJ Whizz Kid to Shelley Parker and more. Covering topics as diverse as anti-fascism, substance mis-use recovery, the BBC, prostitution, early hip hop in the UK, the grimprov ghetto, graffiti, disability rights, social housing, police brutality, civil rights, sleep paralysis, vicecare, Antiziganism, queer activism, and black liberation amongst others.

So far we've produced a number of special guest shows including a live improvisation between the author Iain Sinclair and the Saxophonist Bill Parry-Davies, a two part feature on the sounds of Black Power to coincide with the launch of Pat Tomas’s book ‘Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power’, and an exclusive radio play by Tai Shani as well as foolhardy and utterly disasterous séances with Cornelius Cardew, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Jimmy 'Cruella' Savile, Margaret Thatcher, Ian Curtis, Nico, Anne Frank and Stuart Lubbock.

Abject Bloc regularly appears on Korean television and was featured in the Wire magazine's top 10 political music radio shows. In a review in the Independent newspaper, on Sunday 26th February 2012, Chris Maume wrote: ‘On Tuesday, the Abject Bloc series continued: an hour of strangeness curated by John Wild and Tim Goldie. Four words stand out in my notes: "buzzing", "hissing", "crackling" and "weird". There was some Fall in there, some rap, the "Having a Gangbang" song [by Black Lace in Alan Clarke's film Rita, Sue and Bob Too] and schoolkids singing "Career Opportunities" by the Clash. But mostly there was ear-shattering, mind-stretching music, or noise, whichever you prefer. John Cage would have loved it.’

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-history-plays-radio-4-tuesdayabject-bloc-resonance-fm-tuesday-7440785.html

Abject Bloc has lead to a number of live events and collaborations beyond the actual radio show. The philosopher Nina Power was our guest and subsequently launched her own very successful radio show - The Hour of Power. Abject Bloc collaborated with The Matter of Contradiction Conference and Mute magazine to organize the the Matter of Contradiction conference meets Abject Bloc 2013 experimental culture event. Abject Bloc also co-organising the art/sound/performance event ‘Drone Planes Over Westfield’ with the Shoreditch based VSR gallery.

Abject Bloc continues to push the boundaries of sonic experimentation, poetry and political philosophy.

http://timgoldie.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.rupture.co.uk/johnwild/