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TRANSMISSION LOG

The following transmissions remain available. Older broadcasts have returned to the ether.

 

The SECRET STASH remains open to recurring supporters.

TRANSMISSION 0183

A NIGHT IN WINTI WAI: YOUNG MAROON DANCE BANDS, LIVE & DIRECT IN THE SURINAMESE CAPITAL (PARAMARIBO, SURINAME - NOVEMBER 3-4, 1995)

​​30 AUGUST 2026

The 1990s were a special time for music in Suriname. The country had just come out of a punishing civil war pitting insurgent Maroon forces from the interior rainforest against the national army.  Unprecedented numbers of young Maroons of various ethnicities (Okanisi, Saamaka, Aluku, Pamaka) were pouring into the capital of Paramaribo in search of economic relief and excitement.  Their African ancestors had escaped from coastal slave plantations more than two centuries before, creating free societies and cultures of their own deep in the forest.  Now, in Paramaribo’s growing urban periphery, they were fashioning a new youth-oriented musical tradition blending old ancestral musics with kaseko, the contemporary Surinamese national popular style, together with influences from Jamaican reggae and dancehall, other Caribbean popular music, and African “loketo” (soukous). Suddenly, Suriname’s local popular music industry was dominated by these urban Maroon youths (mostly in their late teens or early twenties).  The new styles they originated, like aleke-kaseko and ragga-kaseko, quickly took over the city and the rest of the country.  On the scene investigating this musical explosion in 1995, ethnomusicologist Kenneth Bilby decided to document a single night of music making by young Maroons out on the town.  It began around dusk with a visit to radio station SRS for a broadcast of a Maroon-oriented program known as Koyeba (named after a cassette label, Koyeba Sound) and continued through the night at a crowded dance hall in an urban neighborhood known to Maroons as Winti Wai (“wind blows”), with side trips to adjacent musical events, such as a wake (with drum-based aleke music) for a recently deceased woman.  Highlighting the night were performances by leading Okanisi and Saamaka dance bands of the moment, including Kriss Kross Deki Strepi, Aphiong Boys, and Big City Maraniau, as well as a well-known aleke band, Clemencia, all captured here. An unforgettable night!

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TRANSMISSION 0182

CLASSIC DANGDUT & ORKES MELAYU: TREASURES FROM THE ARCHIPELAGO, 1970S-1980S

​​20 AUGUST 2026

Classic dangdut and Orkes Melayu, pulled from the deep end of the Indonesian cassette archive. This mix moves from the early Surabaya sound of A. Kadir and Orkes Sinar KemalA – whose arrangements carried strong Middle Eastern influenceS – to Ida Laila’s famously melancholy vocals, the later Banyuwangi recordings of Yuliatin and Orkes Melayu Pengabdian, and the unmistakable voice of Meggy Z. Fourteen tracks of romantic melodrama, strange pop covers, regional orchestras and wonderfully worn-out cassette-era sound. Compiled by Madrotter.

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TRANSMISSION 0181

ROSWELL RUDD'S WORLD MUSIC CLASS

Bard College • 1973–74
A Classroom Mixtape from the Alan Lomax Cantometrics Project

​​04 AUGUST 2026

In 1973, jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd taught a course unlike any other at Bard College. Drawing on Alan Lomax's groundbreaking Cantometrics Project, he immersed students in vocal traditions, ritual music, work songs, epics, and ceremonies from every corner of the globe—not as museum pieces, but as living music to be heard, debated, and loved.

 

Among those students was ethnomusicologist Kenneth Bilby, who borrowed recordings from Rudd, copied them onto cassette, and assembled his own classroom mixtape. Passed from hand to hand, it became a favorite among classmates—a personal map through one of the most adventurous listening courses ever taught.

 

This transmission reconstructs that spirit. The first half follows the sequence of musical examples used in the Cantometrics coding sessions; the second expands outward into additional recordings Roswell shared in class, reflecting the curiosity, generosity, and boundless musical imagination that defined his teaching.

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TRANSMISSION 0180

DISPATCHES FROM THE DREAMTIME: ETHNOGRAPHIC RECORDINGS ON VINYL

​​04 AUGUST 2026

Dispatches from the Dreamtime is compiled entirely from ethnographic LPs in the personal collection of Robert Millis (Climax Golden Twins), a Seattle-based musician, artist, collector, and researcher whose work has long explored field recordings, obsolete media, vernacular sound, and forgotten recorded histories.

 

The selections span Japan, Ethiopia, the Solomon Islands, Borneo, Turkey, Peru, Greece, the Hebrides, Madagascar, the Philippines, India, Switzerland, and Cambodia, bringing together lullabies, wedding songs, shepherd's melodies, ritual music, instrumental performances, family worship, and other recordings documented by field recordists between the 1960s and 1980s. Performers are credited where identified in the original LP liner notes.

All taken from various ethnographic LPs from Rob's personal collection, c. 1960s-1980s. Performers noted here, if noted in the LP liner notes.

 

Compiled by Robert Millis

robertmillis.net

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TRANSMISSION 0179

WORLD ON A STRING - VAIKOM VIJAYALAKSHMI & THE GAYATHRI VEENA

​​25 July 2026

You wouldn’t think a single string could sound like this.

 

The Gayathri Veena is a rare one-stringed instrument built by Vaikom Vijayalakshmi's father in Kerala. In her hands it becomes something altogether different: sliding, bending, and hovering between notes until melody begins to feel almost unmoored from the instrument itself.

 

Blind since birth, Vijayalakshmi has become one of South India's best-known musicians, but this transmission leaves the playback studio behind. Instead, it follows just one musician patiently stretching a single vibrating wire into unexpected territory.

 

 

You’ll also hear some our favorite cut-ups from Alan Bishop’s Radio India on Sublime Frequencies and some off-air recordings of All India Radio on Power Moves Library, and some bangers from Discostan’s “Odysseys in Electric Carnatic” featuring the Mandolin Sisters.

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