CiTR -- Exploding Head Movies

It's October again so it's time to kick off our annual Horror Month in the leadup to Hallowe'en! First up: The Bride of Frankenstein over the years, from 1935, 1985 and the recent adaptation The Bride! We also try to properly dive into the 45th annual Vancouver International Film Festival as gak's behind on several fronts. It's a perfect nice for mystery & horror. You will be warned. 01. Edwar...

807 is gak's original area code so as we ponder the Canadian National Day of Truth & Reconciliation this week, we combine themes around Northwestern Ontario and the 2007 HBO series Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. 01. Athanor: September Rain [Julia Again] (International Pop Overthrow: Volume 27, 2026) Omnivore 02. Global Communication: 8:07 (76:14, 1994) Dedicated 03. Roni Size: Heroes [Kruder's...

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards were handed out last week and in contrast to other award ceremonies, this one for television is spread out over multiple days so compiling who what what takes more time. That said, we figured it out so we'll recap all the song & score winners with a focus on David Fleming's playfully terrifying music from Season 1 of the Apple TV+ series Widow's Bay. 01. Nancy Ca...

William Orbit (1956-2026) was active in pop & classical music, so we'll touch upon some of his production work and we have a short profile on the soundtrack to the 1986 hockey film Youngblood. We also pay tribute to the jazz singer Cassandra Wilson (1955-2026) at the end so amongst some positive jams, we have some 1980s jazz. 01. Beck: Feel Good Time (2003) William Orbit 02. Leila Bordreuil &a...

Happy Labour Day! With the influences of the 2000s genre electroclash popping up anew, along with the death of the French producer Kavinsky (1975-2026), this episode gets synthy & sleazy as we look back at this rebellious scene against strict techno norms. 01. Gina X Performance: Nice Mover (Nice Mover, 1978) Crystal/Electrola/Plastic Poison 02. Light Conductor: She Glitters the Dust (Sequence...

Life has been particularly cruel as of late, so losing both Dolly Parton (1946-2026) and Tim Curry hours apart this week feels extra mean. We'll mostly focus on Dolly and her long history with music & film along with the Vancouver concert listings as they grow & we continue with our Polaris Prize nominee profiles. 01. Slayyyter: Old Technology (Wor$t Girl in America, 2026) Columbia 02. Kil...

While the season is still in session, we jump on a genre coined from the Beyond Yacht Rock podcast: Camaro Summer with all its 1980s hard rock simple ambitions. This embraces the five pillars of freedom: summer, cars, nights, weekends & rock'n'roll. gak runs you to paradise and back so buckle. 01. Judas Priest: Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days (Turbo, 1986) Columbia 02. Union Suit: August Aug...

It's been a while since we've had some funk and/or blaxploitation, though Donny Hathaway's score to the 1972 film Come Back Charleston Blue veers occasionally into ragtime so there may be saloon lunacy afoot later in the show. We also continue our Polaris Prize nominations profile amidst all the soul. 01. Deadmau5: Fabienk [Angine de Poitrine rework] (Fabienk single, 2026) Third Side 02. Tangerué:...

We pay tribute to the singer-songwriter Glen Hansard (1970-2026) and actor Sam Neill (1947-2026) as we hop around many of their associated films. gak's back and he's live again with hot topics. 01. Cat Power: Cherokee [Nicolas Jaar remix] (2012) Matador 02. Jan Garbarek: Bahia (Madar, 1992) ECM 03. Yard Act: You're Gonna Need a Little Music (You're Gonna Need a Little Music, 2026) Zen FC/Island 04...

For your August long weekend, it's part 19.5 of our all ambient series, though this one gets the half point for bringing a jazz touch to the scene. Percussion will seep in in a few places but don't let that spook you. 01. V Vecker Ensemble: Contours of Wear (Acedia Phase, 2023) Hotham Sound 02. Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas: Clock No Clock (Totality, 2025) Drag City 03. Jon Hasse...

Vancouver Pride Week is upon us so with gak back in the saddle, it's time for LGBTQ+ themes galore with a profile on Gustavo Santaolalla's Oscar-winning score to the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain. 01. Bonnie Tyler: If You Were a Woman [and I Was a Man] (Secret Dreams & Forbidden Fire, 1986) Columbia 02. Cowboy Sadness: The Cowboy Way (Selected Jambient Works: Volume 1, 2024) People Teeth 03. L7...

Part 19 of our all-ambient series takes a look at Spencer Doran, one half of the environmental sound act Visible Cloaks, and his score to the 2023 video game Season: A Letter to the Future. 01. Félicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou: Film Still/The Sea (Reflections: Volume 3 - Water Poems, 2026) RVNG Intl. 02. Kuma: Everything Constantly Forever (To be Mutable and Fluid, 2026) self-released 03....

In the midst of prerecorded shows or possible repeats, gak's back to do a proper light summer theme around pirates & sea shanties. We will not get all your favourites but we'll look into TV shows like Our Flag Means Death and do a brief run through some of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. We also try to cover a lot of what's going on in Vancouver festivals before he hits the high seas...

With gak elsewhere in Canada this week, this pre-recorded episode celebrates what this nation has with a profile on Michael Timmins' score to the 2016 biopic Maudie. Based on information available at the time of creation, no soundtrack announcements or weather synopses though an attempt is made to explain the Pacific waters map for future marine forecasts, which feels like someone trying to explai...

With the Vancouver International Jazz Festival underway, it's time to get jazzy again as we look at some of the performing in one of this city's true highlights of summer. We'll pay tribute to pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (1934-2026) and saxophonist Sonny Rollins (1930-2026) and his only film score: 1966's Alfie. 01. Johnny Crawford & his Dance Orchestra: The Wilshire Grand Swing Suite "St Louis B...

With the coming Sunday sporting many holidays, we'll focus mostly on National Indigenous Peoples' Day with the score to 1966's Navajo Joe with some more Ennio Morricone as we profile many more Turtle Island musicmakers. We also bid farewell to a shortwave standard: CHU's time keeping. 01. Boards of Canada: Father and Son (Inferno, 2026) Warp 02. Gast: Boards of Yamaha (Pond 12", 2026) Ilian Tape 0...

With another large sports event coming to Vancouver, we'll talk both soccer & football as the world's most beautiful game has a tournament with 7 games in town. We'll talk about a couple films, Bend It Like Beckham & Shaolin Soccer, along with some other ephemera tied to kicking a ball around. We also talk about the recent Canadian Screen Awards & mourn CBS News. 01. Fundido & Emma...

Exploring the idea of the blue marble we live on, this explorative episode uses Daniel Blumberg's score to the 2020 film The World to Come to hit the globe. 01. Riccardo Cioni: In America [Luca Peruzzi & Matteo Sala remix] (2021) Atomika 02. Nova Pon & Turning Point Ensemble: World Within (Symphonies of Mother & Child, 2024) Redshift 03. Gremino: World is in Trouble (2026) EABE 04. The...

Miles Davis was born 1926 May 26 so this week marks his centenary. Therefore, most of this episode is jazzy with one of Davis' soundtracks, the 1958 French film Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud, but we also make our 1st attempt to paying tribute to CITR's The Jazz Show with the late great Gavin Walker as I dig up some old segments from shows, including an interview with vibraphonist Milt Jackson. Technol...

For your Victoria Day programming (now 3 hours long), we pay tribute to the Japanese author Koji Suzuki (1957-2026) with dueling North American & Japanese film adaptations of The Ring & Dark Water. No one ever died from Betamax. 01. Addison Lea Thompson: Introductio (Vita, 2025) Cowpuncher 02.Clannad: Caislean Õir (Macalla: 40th Anniversary Edition, 2025) RCA 03. The Corrupting Sea & A...

With recent volcanic activity abounding (though presently, far from the Pacific Coast of Canada), we dust off hopes of a eruptive profile, nicely timed with a recent reissue of Pink Floyd's 1972 concert film Live at Pompeii. 01. Esa Pakarinen ja Pirteät Pelimannit: Lentävä Kalakukko (1951) Rytmi 02. Matt Thibideau: Memory Loss (Forest City Series: Volume 6, 2025) A Person Disguised as People 03. C...

May the fourth be with you! Despite a new Star Wars film on the horizon this month, we'll go with an Ennio Morricone score to a 1979 space film that apparently has an influence on The Mandalorian & Grogu. Prepare yourselves for L'Umanoide or A Man in Space. 01. Lisa Dalbello: Something's Happening Here (Rarities, 1986) Expo 86 02. Colin Stetson: Something Red (Something Very Bad is Going to Ha...

gak's back and still somewhat jetlagged as he dives into one of his favourite genres: musique concréte & early industrial as Cosey Fanni Tutti scored a 2020 documentary about the most iconic member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop -- "Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes". The four hour version of this show had lots of potential, though your host would've fallen asleep halfway th...

It's been a while since we've gone all ambient, so with gak on the road again, let's listen to some of the beatless wonders that came out in 2025. 01. Mount Maxwell: Birds of Paradise (Birds of Paradise, 2025) Hotham Sound 02. Isostatic: Haystack Reveries (Reel Landscapes, 2025) Exosphere 03. Khotin: Vacation (Peace Portal, 2025) self-released 04. Anthéne & Simon McCorry: The Grove (Wellspring...

With a bit more time and stroke of luck, we'll finally pay tribute to the actor Robert Duvall (1931-2026) with a focus on two Texan gems: the 1983 film Tender Mercies & the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove. Though we aspired to be quite country this episode, we veer off in multiple directions per usual. gak also deals with a wild pony as rescheduling a cancelled flight right before airtime and ha...