All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Australia’s hypnotic chilltronica group All India Radio begins another decade of sonic spacewalks with its new full-length The Silent Surf.
“We are as nonsurfer as you can get,” said All India Radio founder and unabashed sci-fi fan Martin Kennedy (above center). “So, it’s a spacewalk through an alternative surf universe for us!”
LISTEN: “Ratbags” by All India Radio
Since the turn of the 21st century, All India Radio has mashed the ambient-hop signatures of DJ Shadow, Tortoise and Thievery Corporation with the instantly recognizable guitar soundtracking of Ennio Morricone and Angelo Badalamenti. The resulting narcotic musical textures — represented at left in the free download of The Silent Surf ‘s swirling “Ratbags” — are capable of floating listeners to galaxies far, far away. The title of the new full-length, which hits stores Tuesday, says it all.
“A reviewer once labeled us ‘slow-core ambient surf,'” Kennedy said. “I’ve always loved that description, and even named an early song ‘Silent Surf.’ Seven years later, the new album morphed out of that.”
All India Radio has already morphed beyond music. The group’s evocative soundscapes have appeared in U.S. television programs like One Tree Hill and an Australian show about, yes, surfing and lifeguards.
“Our music tends to be used in the drowning and death scenes,” said Kennedy.
Speaking of death scenes, All India Radio’s “Four Three” landed on CSI: Miami. Kennedy also grafted the tune onto a handmade sci-fi video (below) inspired by speculative schlock from decades past.
“I grew up on ’70s sci-fi like Doctor Who, Space 1999, Star Wars, the Star Trek films and books by Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov,” Kennedy said. “But I have a soft spot for crappy sci-fi films like Starcrash, an Italian Star Wars rip-off…. It was so wonderfully bad, yet it had so much color and energy. ‘Four Three’ is my tribute to Starcrash and other rip-offs. Hence, my shoddy special effects and wobbling sets!”
Given the choice, Kennedy said he would love to get All India Radio’s tracks into musically clever shows like House M.D. and True Blood, but he’s dead set on expanding the video for “Four Three” into a full-fledged sci-fi exercise.
“I’d love to expand on its ‘crappy video’ idea, and transform it into something longer,” he said. “My anti-CGI music video.”
Whatever may come in the band’s new decade, Kennedy said The Silent Surf is the highlight of All India Radio’s musical sojourn so far.
“Our style has radically changed from our first album in 1999, which in fact was just me solo,” he said. “The band came later, and changed into a more melodic, mainly instrumental, song-based band, rather than an experimental solo trip. But I think the latest album combines the best of both worlds.”
Tortoise’s Beacons of Ancestorship Champions Smart Sonics[#iframe: https://more-deals.info/images_blogs/underwire/2011/01/08-Ratbags.mp3?_=1]
