Randall Roberts

Columbia

Writer, Editor and Curator at In Sheep's Clothing hifi

Write/Edit/Select: In Sheep's Clothing, Qobuz; ex-LA Times. Insta: @liledit. I develop/implement integrated marketing tactics to actualize key strategic goals.

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Articles

Bitchin’ Bajas and Natural Information Society Revisit Their Shared Frequency on ‘Totality’

1 week ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

Ten years ago the Bitchin’ Bajas and Natural Information Society released Automaginary, their first joint transmission, a drifting, radiant thing that felt less recorded than conjured. At the time, Chicago’s jazz scene was just starting to draw international attention for its vibrant, interwoven community of improvisers, lifers and deep listeners. That record didn’t ride the wave so much as help stir it, blending modal repetition, analog haze and meditative pulse into something closer to ritual.
Before the World Knew His Name: John Zorn in the 1980s

1 week ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

Note: This profile of John Zorn was originally published in Musician Magazine in 1985. Written by Peter Watrous under the title “Raw, Funny, Nasty, Noisy New Music From a Structural Radical,” it captures Zorn in the early stages of his now-legendary career—restless, irreverent and already reshaping the boundaries of experimental sound.
Video: Watch Pedal Steel Genius Susan Alcorn in Performance

1 week ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

Few artists possess the rare ability to transform their primary instrument, bending it entirely to their will and pushing it beyond its natural limits. The pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, who died late last week, was one such musician.
From Pat Thomas to Present Day: Kwashibu Area Band Keeps Highlife Evolving

2 weeks ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

“I have a problem with choosing an instrument,” Ghanaian musician and producer Kwame Yeboah said in an old interview. “I think I’ve just gotten used to playing different instruments. I go through phases, I go through moods. I might have been a bit of a chameleon when it comes to that … I mean, I wish I could play all at the same time. I love multitasking.”He means it.
Channeling the Infinite: Alice Coltrane’s Astral TV, Exhibition, and Book

2 weeks ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

Late-night television was a singular platform in the 1980s, especially the independent station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles. A playground for the strange, the subversive, and the unexpected, programs like Peter Ivers’ New Wave Theatre, Elvira vehicle Movie Macabre, and syndicated music series Night Flight thrived in the after-hours blur.
Michael Hurley in 5 Songs: Portrait of an American Original

2 weeks ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

Michael Hurley died last week, more than 60 years after his remarkable debut album for Folkways, First Songs, hit the world. In those intervening years, Hurley was an engine of creativity, often living hand to mouth, playing odd gigs, selling his comic-inspired wolf paintings, making records and tapes, and touring. At various points he lived in a teepee, sold pretzels, painted houses, cleaned bars, made slats for Venetian blinds, and pushed carts of dough in a cookie factory.
‘Le Grand Ouest’: France’s Mellow, Introverted Music Reborn

3 weeks ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

Les Éditions Vermillon works more like a cultural salvage operation than a typical record label, driven by a desire to dig up the most beguiling, obscure tracks from France’s regional scenes and throw them back into the spotlight. Founded by Théo Berthier, Baptiste Heiles, Elise Kravets, and Hugo Le Blay, it started as a group of friends swapping weird, wonderful records, the kind that never made it past the local club. What started as a loose exchange of rare tracks grew into something bigger.
DOVS Map a New Ambient Zone for Balmat

1 month ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

Roland TB-303, Juno G, Prophet 5, Elektron Octatrack MKII, Make Noise DPO and René, Mutable Clouds, SH-101, Behringer TD3, Sherman Filterbank: On Psychic Geography, DOVS let these machines shimmer, sway and dissolve. The duo, Vienna’s Johannes Auvinen (aka Tin Man) and Mexico City’s Gabo Barranco (aka AAAA), recorded the album together in the studio, working minus drums to explore a more narrative, beatless form.
DJ-Kicks at 30: The Series That Gave DJs a Permanent Archive

1 month ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

The late Horst Weidenmüller, founder of DJ-Kicks and the driving force behind Berlin’s !K7 Records, left behind one of electronic music’s most enduring mix series. Launched in 1995, DJ-Kicks quickly became a proving ground for selectors, elevating producers and DJs onto the global stage. Kruder & Dorfmeister’s expertly curated mix, for example, didn’t just showcase their taste. It established them as in-demand artists, a feat the series has pulled off repeatedly over the past three decades.
DJ Joaquin Joe Claussell Channels the Spirit of Iboga in His Latest Edits & Overdubs

1 month ago | insheepsclothinghifi.com | Randall Roberts

“The iboga plant is indigenous to the humid, tropical climates of West Central Africa, including Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, and Angola, which are home to the second-largest rainforest in the world,” read the notes for DJ Joaquin Joe Claussell’s new selection of edits, IBOGA: Unofficial Edits & Overdubs.