Broadcast - Microtronics - Volumes 1 & 2 '2022

Tracks list

       Originally released in 2003 and 2005 as limited edition 3" CDs,
Broadcast's "Microtronics" sets of squelchy library electronix and analog beat
loops have been spliced together and remastered.

Broadcast's romantic fixation on the Radiophonic Workshop's soundtrack work, and
the library music that accompanied so many of that era's B-movies and TV shows
has provided a backbone to their music since the earliest twangs of their debut
single 'Accidentals'. But it wasn't until 2003's "Microtronics Volume 01",
cheekily subtitled "Stereo Recorded Music For Links And Bridges", that their
passion unravelled fully. These tracks aren't just Broadcast tunes with library
elements, they're Broadcast's attempt at assembling proper library jams - short,
sharp interludes and themes assembled from sonic elements that wouldn't sound
out of place on "Haha Sound" or "Tender Buttons".

The longest track runs just over two minutes -  they aren't songs, they're spry
strip-lit odes to a long-gone era. Crate diggers will have a field day - with
clattering live drums and burned-out electronics, there's a similar blunted
atmosphere to "Microtronics" as the masses of interchangeable oddities Madlib
fills his sampler banks with. Influenced by Italian mad scientists like Piero
Umiliani, Bruno Nicolai and Alessandro Alessandroni, the KPM label, and roguish
British eccentrics like Basil Kirchin, John Baker, and even Delia Derbyshire,
these vignettes vibrate with genuine glee. It's as if being cleaved from their
duties as a proper band, Broadcast were able to run wild into atmospheres they
might otherwise have left on the cutting room floor - but it also gives a
prescient look into their later recordings, like their collaborations with The
Focus Group, and their soundtrack to Peter Strickland's "Berberian Sound
Studio".

It's a varied selection too: there's the shuffle of sci-fi dancefloor number
'Microtronics 02', the ruff 'n tumble stop-start tape saturated psychedelia of
'Microtronics 04', or 'Microtronics 05' with its post-"Haha Sound" spy movie
dub-jazz drum edits. The second side pushes further into the red, with the jerky
bass-led 'Microtronics 13', submerged exotica jammer 'Microtronics 14', and
Cluster-esque 'Microtronics 15'. It's essential business that adds deeper shades
of color to their immaculate catalogue. 

1.01 - Broadcast - Microtronics 01 (1:25)
1.02 - Broadcast - Microtronics 02 (1:34)
1.03 - Broadcast - Microtronics 03 (1:44)
1.04 - Broadcast - Microtronics 04 (1:05)
1.05 - Broadcast - Microtronics 05 (1:48)
1.06 - Broadcast - Microtronics 06 (1:52)
1.07 - Broadcast - Microtronics 07 (2:01)
1.08 - Broadcast - Microtronics 08 (1:54)
1.09 - Broadcast - Microtronics 09 (2:11)
1.10 - Broadcast - Microtronics 10 (1:19)
1.11 - Broadcast - Microtronics 11 (2:09)
1.12 - Broadcast - Microtronics 12 (1:34)
1.13 - Broadcast - Microtronics 13 (1:40)
1.14 - Broadcast - Microtronics 14 (1:33)
1.15 - Broadcast - Microtronics 15 (1:44)
1.16 - Broadcast - Microtronics 16 (1:10)
1.17 - Broadcast - Microtronics 17 (1:29)
1.18 - Broadcast - Microtronics 18 (1:29)
1.19 - Broadcast - Microtronics 19 (0:59)
1.20 - Broadcast - Microtronics 20 (1:35)
1.21 - Broadcast - Microtronics 21 (1:42) 

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