Midnight Radio Compilation series (Interview)
Cousin Silas’s ‘The Forgotten Village’ is the first track on the first Midnight Radio Compilation (MCR), they can be found here
There is always the desire to explain how you found something on the Internet. Some part a wish to give credit, another to pull in the blanks of how that ended there.
I stumbled on the free Midnight Radio Compilations via their Nipple edition which was posted by their founder and curator, the artist Eisenlager, on one of the experimental music Facebook groups. With these groups, the post rate is often high and finding stuff can be the musical equivalent of trying to parse a river. This was a happy discovery.
While some might find the first compilation has a slight more ambient dark experimental lean to it, over the course of the series a wide sound eclecticism explodes. I say explodes because while the first collection clocks in at fourteen tracks, Midnight Radio 2 spinning dropkicks in with fifty.
This is on of my favourite things of late.
There is so much here, from all across the web, that without industrial quantities of coffee and adderall, I could not whittle this down to something small for this piece.
While the first Midnight Radio has a couple of my constant play tracks — the Nipples edition is at the moment, my favourite. But that is only because I’m at the lick the iceberg stage. With over fifty Midnight Radios and some special releases and guest compilations, track listings varying from thirty to fifty, there is a metric fuckton of music here.
Eisenlager is doing something very special here and he, his girlfriend and everyone involved in this deserve to be commended and supported in whatever way they can. Where else do you have someone parsing through the torrent of culture the Internet vomits out every day.
A format thought killed by the internet, compilers and compilation albums, are coming back. People are too busy to parse, just like they were before. People like John Peel are needed. Whether it is in the Midnight Radio format or the Spotify playlist format, having to change Youtube tracks constantly is a bore and being able to let something play, far easier and more enjoyable for many.
In Eisenlager’s own words, from his webpage,
“The music of Midnightradio 11 is subject to no form and no rules established by me. It happens in the moment that it happens. It is not being formed in my head in advance. It is formed during creation. Midnightradio 11 and Eisenlager are the two projects I have been pursuing since the year 2000. The sounds that evolve during creation reflect my humor, my fear, my life, my experiences and current events. I do not fit in any category but if I had to I would describe myself as an electric krautrocker. It makes me happy when people go on a journey with my music, when they tell me what they felt, what they remembered. When that happens I have reached my goal.”
Reading this, I decided to track this very busy man down and throw a few questions at him with the help of Google Translate for my German and an immense amount of patience on his side.
“The Midnight Radio Compilation is running since late 2013”
Only running two years, with fifty-one huge compilations carefully put together. I find this makes Midnight Radio an even more impressive project.
“The idea was to form a plattform for underground music with ALL styles. Not only ambient, not only noise, not only dark ambient. On Facebook and other places I see so many musicians and this pushed only my idea and then I started to get in toch with all this artist for this new form of compilations. I spend hours upon hours of time for the compilations.”
“All times of the day tracks come in and often, the musicians forget to give me information about websites and biographies and etc and I must find this stuff in the internet by myself. Then upload tracks, track photos, artwork and my contact message with the musicians. When a compilation comes out, (all over 14 days) I spend time to send the information to all musicians, a private message and on all social plattform and more. I don’t have a favourite, I love all the stuff people send me because, they give me a look into their hearts with their music!”
Screwy: Are there any of the compilations that you’re particularly fond of?
“Yes, I love the special editions; the Valentine’s edition, the Zauberhafte Julia edition, the Christmas edition and the Nipples edition :)”
The Nipples Edition comes in at a whopping eighty-two tracks and has some excellent tracks I can easily see in rotation in DJ sets.
Screwy: Can you explain the covers a bit?
“The covergirl on all compilations is Julia, my girlfriend and she is also features on many covers of my own music project called Eisenlager It has become a a trademark to see Julia on the compilation covers.”
Screwy: Considering the volume of music, I realise how impossible it is to answer, but do you have any favourite tracks?
“I love this track, “Julia [portrait einer unbekannten]” by Silentport.”
With the project ongoing and showing no signs of stopping. I can’t recommend Midnight Radio Compilation enough. There’s so many good musicians, so much to listen to, and it is all free, that it might swallow you for awhile.
The good news for musicians is the project is still open and accepting submissions.
Originally published on November 12, 2015.
If you enjoyed reading this review and would like your music reviewed. Get in contact via Medium.
If you would like to donate to help reviews happen — paypal.me/HousemaidandTheFear
If you hate Paypal get in contact.
Also for hire, freelance or otherwise.
