By Talbs, WTSC GM

The punk-rock born, experimentally-evolved band The Flaming Lips have created a new pinnacle in their psychedelic rock endeavors this week with the release of their twelfth studio album Embryonic. With a strong cult following after albums such as The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the hard-core followers (not me, by the way) felt the band was on a course for pop-alternative sounds and a routine stage performance with their 2006 release of At War with the Mystics. However, those assumptions have been turned upside down with the most experimental release by the "fearless freaks" since their four-disk Zaireeka album which was meant to be played on four stereos simultaneously.

Unlike At War with the Mystics which featured fairly processed and mastered tracks such as "The W.A.N.D." which were featured in Dell commercials and movies, Embryonic is incredibly raw sounding. Unless you have a trained ear or are able to listen to the album without any distractions, it's almost too raw sounding in fact. The album begins with "Convinced of the Hex" and "The Sparrow Looks up at the Machine" - two great tracks which exemplify the band's ability to produce a song surrounding you as if they were packed into your dorm room. The sound is genuine, live-like, and complex. The lyrics, in Flaming Lips fashion, question life, madness, time, and other deep subjects leaving the listener with similar confusion and contradictions as they did in the track "Do You Realize??", now the Official Rock Song of Oklahoma. The 18-track album continues in a similar fashion with some more mellow, hallucinagenic tracks such as "Evil", "If", and "Gemini Syringes" mixed in with dense, higher-tempo songs such as "Aquarius Sabotage" and "See The Leaves".

Another great addition to this album is the guest appearances by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and MGMT. Karen O throws in some animal-sound vocal work into the freakishly-chilling-yet-kindergarden-inspired "I Can Be A Frog". She also adds come color to the fantastic ending-track which is a personal favorite of mine, "Watching the Planets". MGMT adds some overly-fuzzed guitar to the track "Worm Mountain" which is upbeat and drowning in both the guitar and drums.

Lastly I would like to leave you with these thoughts - this albums is not for the faint of heart. If you listen to it thinking you are going to study over it or get something done, forget about it. It is as intellectually challenging as music could possibly be. However, it is absolutely beautiful to listen to if you have the focus. To give you an idea, I had to listen to the 70-minute double LP about 8 times in the past 2 days before feeling confident enough to write this review. From this I have found, the more you listen, the more rewarding Embryonic gets.

The Flaming Lips Embryonic is now in rotation at WTSC 91.1fm. Call in to request a track or visit our website at radio.clarkson.edu.

Here are links to two recent interviews held on WTSC:

Steve Newkofski, Alumni Relations
George Roll, Head Mens Hockey Coach

The recent WTSC interview with Dean of Admissions Brian Grant can be found at the following link:

http://radio.clarkson.edu/recordedshows/interviews/Interview_with_Brian_Grant,_Dean_of_Admissions-091709.mp3

Please join us next week for the interview of Steve Newkofski from Alumni Relations

by Talbs, WTSC General Manager

If you were to walk up to a bar and simply ask for something "exotic yet frozen" the bartender would whip up something brilliantly tasty without thinking twice about it. A few minutes and dollars later, you would possibly be handed a Hurricane (New Orleans rum-based drink). But when I read an album review which used the phrase "exotic yet frozen", I had to think to myself for a couple minutes before continuing. What would happen if you mixed the electronic music of Nordic lands with elements of Carribean rhythm and sound?

Apparently this is exactly what happened when a little-known album flew completely under our radar last spring at WTSC. Fever Ray's self-titled and first album is the solo work of Karin Dreijer Andersson of Sweden. Originally she was working with her brother in the band, The Knife, the electronic duo which kept clear of America.

To give you an idea, in 2007 they won seven Swedish Grammys, and have you or I heard of them before? Nope. Despite this, Dreijer shook off her cloak and did quite a bit of work to promote this album. As a result, it came to our mailbox at WTSC.

The music is creepy, to say the least. The mysterious ambient tones underneath crisp tropical percussion instruments and clapping are fascinating. In addition, the tracks are filled with dark vocals (in English, mostly) which fluctuate between Dreijer's unaltered voice and that of a processed one - most likely her own put through a little synth, vibrato, and dropped down a full octave.

What you are left with is a fluid album you probably think you are going to put on to study to, but you are left trying to grasp its complexity. In one interview, Dreijer revealed that the album's inspiration came from sleep deprivation. This matches some songs like "Dry and Dusty" which sounds cloudy and exhausted. One of our Clarkson night owls would love to fall asleep to this album at 8 a.m. after a long night of gaming or studying.

Some of the best tracks are "Seven," "Triangle Walks," and "When I Grow Up." These feature some of the better percussive and drum loops on the album, while still retaining a very captivating sound without putting you into too much of a trance. Her vocals are also clear English and very complimentary to the instrumental sounds.

These songs have already been very popular choices for third-party remixes found on sites such as RCRDLBL.com. Overall, I suggest this album to anyone who has enough sense to put the creepiness aside. Check out free tracks at RCRDLBL and Last.FM, and request songs at WTSC 91.1 FM, The Source.

WTSC interviewed Tony Collins this past Thursday. If you missed parts of it or all, check it out through this free mp3 on our site!

Tune in next week when we will interview Brian Grant, Dean of Admissions! If you would like to view the entire schedule of Thursday night interviews, please follow this link to the schedule.

WTSC interviewed Clarkson University Dean of Students Kurt Stimeling this week! If you missed it, check out the .mp3 at this link!

Here at WTSC we're doing an interview every Thursday night at 8pm. Next week we'll have down President Tony Collins! Send your questions to gm@radio.clarkson.edu.