CiTR -- Exploding Head Movies

The actor Ray Liotta (1954-2022) was a distinctive force, so amongst various highlights, we'll profile music from Martin Scorsese's 1990 epic Goodfellas and then the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He did amuse us so. 1. Mahotella Queens: Wozani Mahipi (Next Stop...Soweto: Volume 2, 2010) Strut 2. Jamani Duo: Open Window (Timeline, 2021) self-released 3. Julee Cruise: Rockin' Back Inside M...

In tribute to actor William Hurt (1950-2022), we profile a wide swath of the actor's films, primarily focusing on John Barry's sultry score to the 1981 neo-noir Body Heat and selected music from 1998's sci-fi puzzler Dark City amongst other film scores. 1. Kamikaze Nurse: Aileen (Stimuloso, 2022) Mint 2. Mount Maxwell: Senescent Vivarium (Senescent Vivarium, 2022) Hotham Sound 3. Iggy Pop: The Pas...

gak raced back from out east so this haphazardous episode profiles Joe Hisaishi's score from the iconic Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro whilst previewing the 2022 edition of Vancouver's Music Waste festival. You can smell the jet lag. Ichi, ni, san, yon, go! 1. Otoboke Beaver: Yakitori (Super Champon, 2022) Damnably 2. ToToro: Cats Eggs (Tings in Boots 3, 2019) Push & Run 3. Joseph Shabason...

It's Victoria Day up Canada way and as gak jets off in multiple directions, this prerecorded episode promises to go Everything Everywhere All at Once (score by Son Lux). 1. Folklore Ensemble of the Village of Stena, Tomashpol District, Vinnitsa Region, Podolie: We're Starting a Curved Dance [Springtime Round Dance] (Ukrainian Music: Anthology of Folk Music, 2011) Melodiya 2. Richard Reed Parry: Ne...

May is Asian Heritage Month so we'll tackle a classic by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa that inspired part of Star Wars: 1958's The Hidden Fortress as scored by Masaru Satoh. We also pay tribute to a lot of fallen drummers as of late amongst talking concerts in the Lower Mainland this week. As with CITR's web server, podcasts are working again. 1. Jacques Greene: Taurus (Fantasy EP, 2022) LuckyM...

Iceland is on the mind as we profile a few recent posthumous releases by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, including 2 film scores from Chinese films that are now streaming in North America: Blind Massage & The Shadow Play. We also talk about concerts in Vancouver this week as we play catchup from the CITR web server outage, including the Verboden Festival. Jónsi: Salt Licorice [w. Robyn] (Shiver, 2020)...

Long desired & finally aired, this episode tried to avoid the feeling of devouring six bowls of colourful cereal on a Saturday morning by keeping the cartoony side towards the back third. Still, there's plenty of Carl Stalling's music from the original Warner Brothers' cartoons amongst other frantic music from films & TV both old & new amongst the usual frim fram. 1. Alabaster dePlume: The Sound o...

For our 600th episode as Exploding Head Movies (DC for the Romans, 698 for long-time radio free gak listeners), we go mostly Gallic with music from Wes Anderson's 2021 film The French Dispatch. The podcast gods were amenable since I couldn't record this episode from home so we are successfully relying on the rebuilt server talking to the station logger properly to present what I feared would be a...

With the passing of the actress Monica Vitti (1933-2022), we listen to a wide range of music associated with her films, ranging from comedies to Michaelangelo Antonioni's moody new wave films. There were also a lot of concerts happening in Vancouver that week -- for podcast listeners, it's not so relevant anymore -- but it's a full raft of the usual mayhem. 1. Le Rose: Monica Vitti (Le Rose, 2010)...

With the Major League Baseball season starting last week, this episode pays tribute to that pasttime with a profile on James Horner's score to the 1989 sports fantasy Field of Dreams. We also recognize Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022) with songs from his 1971 film The Last Picture Show. Podcast subscribers: yep, citr.ca was offline for a month so you'll see all the recent episodes starting popping up...

With awards season over, it's time an overdue Part 8 of our all-ambient episodes, this time focusing on soothing sounds that came out last year. 1. Kaleema: Ambrosia (Útera, 2021) Wonderwheel 2. Area 3: Whale (Amb, 2021) Khotin Industries 3. M Crook & Oxherding: Shelter in Place (Shelter in Place, 2021) self-released 4. A Winged Victory for the Sullen: The Celestial City (Invisible Cities/Le Città...

Our Oscar season draws to a close as the 94th Academy Awards were handed out yesterday in a wild ceremony. Along with a recap of the winners, we'll profile Marius De Vreis' score from this year's Best Picture: Coda. 1. Emilia Jones: Beyond the Shore (CODA OST, 2021) Republic 2. Loscil: Clara (Clara, 2021) Kranky 3. Hans Zimmer: Leaving Caladan (Dune OST, 2021) WaterTower 4. Hans Zimmer: Ornithopte...

Since we've wrapped up our profiles on the best original scores for this Sunday's Academy Awards, Part 6 of our annual Oscar episodes focuses on the nominated songs from the films No Time to Die, Encanto, King Richard, Belfast & Four Good Days. We'll touch upon some songs that missed the cut and then pay tribute to Canadian director (1963-2021) with music from some of his films & television series...

For the 5th part of our annual Oscar profiles, we'll listen again at Hans Zimmer's score to Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune since it became nominated since we last spoke about it. We'll also a lot of live music options in Vancouver this week as pandemic mandates lift amongst more Ukrainian music and tributes to the recently deceased. 1. Dragobrath: Intro (Fra Myrer Taake, 2010) Eastside 2. T...

Part IV of our annual Oscars profile looks at Alberto Iglesias' nominated score to Pedro Almodóvar's 2021 film Parallel Mothers. We also pay tribute to Mark Lanegan (1964-2022) and the continued Ukraine resistance. 1. PJ Harvey: Ballad of the Soldier's Wife (September Songs: Music of Kurt Weill, 1997) Sony Classical 2. Robert Fripp: Elegy [Nashville 2006 March 1] (Music for Quiet Moments, 2021) Di...

As Oscar season continues, we dive into Nicholas Britell's nominated score to Adam McKay's satire Don't Look Up. We also explore music associated with a defiant Ukraine and wars since apparently, a pandemic wasn't enough strife on this planet. Go invade yourself; we aren't doomed despite how the sky feels. 1. Gavin Friday: You Me and World War Three (Shag Tobacco, 1995) Island/Polygram 2. Aidan Ba...

Part 2 of our annual Oscar nominee profile dives into the world of Encanto, the recent Disney film with a nominated score by Germain Franco and a song by Lin-Manual Miranda. We also profile plenty of associated Colombian and Latin urban music amidst tributes to Dallas Good, Bappi Lahiri and the completed Beijing Olympics. Happy Family Day! 1. Spoon: The Hardest Cut (Lucifer on the Sofa, 2022) Mata...

Oscar season is upon us again, so since the nominees for the 94th Academy Awards were announced last week, we bring our profiles on the nom'd scores and songs by focusing on Jonny Greenwood's score to the 2021 film The Power of the Dog, allowing us to also discuss other recent soundtrack work by the Radiohead member for films like Spencer and Licorice Pizza. It's also Valentine's Day and our first...

It's Fundrive time again at CITR! This year's theme is "Plenty of Fish in the Sea...Eye Tea Arrrrr" so amongst some vague piscine themes, we'll profile music from Edgar Wright's latest film, 2021's Last Night in Soho. If you can, donate today during the month of 2022 February: https://www.citr.ca/donate Fundrive programming will go until February 10th. Des chansons pour des poissons: 1. The Marvel...

In honour of actor/director Sidney Poitier (1927-2022), we feature some of the music associated with his long history in filmmaking, which shares some overlap with songwriter Marilyn Bergman (1928-2022) who worked on many a Hollywood song. February also marks the start to Black History Month and the Year of the Tiger so let's begin the beguine. 1. St Vincent: Year of the Tiger (Strange Mercy, 2011...

With The Matrix: Resurrections widely released, we listen to Johnny Klimek & Tom Tykwer's score from that film along with Don Davis' music from the original series from 20 years ago. We also pay tribute to Vancouer singer Megan MacDonald who died suddenly last weekend. 1. Mount Eerie: Do Not Be Afraid (Singers, 2005) self-released 2. Roland Kayn: Matrix (Simultan, 1977) Colosseum 3. The Poison Dar...

Prepped for this year's 24 Hours of Radio Art but missing a cutoff time, this is a superlong version of Alvin Lucier doing his seminal sound art piece I Am Sitting in a Room from a 1980 recording. You can hear that generation loss and overtone frequency collection build up over the 45 minutes. This will eventually air at a later time on CITR as part of a capsule radio art episode via Bepi Crespan'...

24 Hours of Radio Art lands on a Monday this year, so Exploding Head Movies morphs in honour of all the noise that mixes field recordings from parts of the world that feel even further away during a pandemic along with newish experimental music and tributes to those composers who recently left us, including the main chair sitter himself Alvin Lucier (1931-2021). [01] Socotra Soundscapes: 2013-03-1...

gak marks 14 years on CITR with a long-overdue countrified episode tied to Merle Haggard (1937-2016), the western sound of Bakersfield, California and music from the video game Red Dead Redemption 2. Yeehaw! 1. Laura Cantrell: 14th Street (Humming by the Flowered Vine, 2005) Matador 2. Jeff Gunn, Koi Anunta & Mike Sleath: Spiritus Momentous [Never Give Up, Opus 2] (Momentum, 2022) self-released 3....

The year is 2022 and despite all our hopes, we enter uncertain times, which we'll underscore since this new year is the setting of the 1973 dystopian science fiction film Soylent Green with music by Fred Myrow. We play catchup with recent departed souls along with digging up some best-of songs from 2021 whilst teasing at music already due out this year. 1. Ann-Margret: New Year's Greetings (Christ...