Inside No. 9, Season 4, Episode #48: Under the constellation of Gemini
A galaxy not so far away and a planet with one distant sun barely warming its surface. Here we stand. The rocks jut like ragged teeth, framing the pale pink skyline as it fades to a zenith of opaque blue. Barely a cloud obscures the large moon that floats like a faint balloon beyond the horizon; its face so sad and lonely as it sleeps on the long days, not knowing it’s being watched. The hum of generators sing in conflict with the din of vagrants and leftovers from a once rich civilization. There is little left in the pockmarked cityscapes and scorched earth that once adorned this vibrant planet. Yet there is music still and music will only end once all is consumed by the vacuum of nothing.
Most of this music is recorded from vinyl. Expect surface noise and pure magic.
November sees a mix inspired by a recent Chocolate Monk release by Gaël Segalen and Andy Bolus. They created one of the freshest and most imaginative records of 2025 with their record ‘The 70’s Imaginary Sci-Fi Movie’. As a lover of science fiction from the 20th Century I couldn’t resist naming this mix after a Russian movie from said genre.
This episode opens with a record that totally floored me. It’s a reissue from Harold Budd and is unlike anything I’ve ever heard from him. It’s so blisteringly good that it inspired my new record. ‘The Oak Of The Golden Dreams’ captures Budd at his most experimental, working with the then-revolutionary Buchla Electronic Music System at California Institute of the Arts in 1970.’ This is all lasers set to stun.
Next up is Michael Ranta and his 1971 piece Kagaku Henka, which is a definite earthbound recording, yet it sounds like it’s an alien signal picked up by Tibetan monks during a spiritual/musical endeavour communicating with persons unknown to mankind. Although this was recorded over 50 years ago it sounds like a post-apocalyptic jam to the heavens and our distant neighbours.
I can’t really say much about Paul DeMarinis other than he’s a freakin genius. I imagine this piece as a lost music box and self-help/destruction guide stored on a rusty flash drive. Timeless and so far removed from its 90s creation that I’d posit a theory that it was made sometime in 3091. If there was ever a recording that sounded as if it was picked up by aliens trying to understand our insane Western humanity this is it. BBC Universal Service.
Next I will regrettably bypass Uranus and head to 1970s Finland for “Electronic music inspired by the paintings of Reidar Särestöniemi, composed and realized by Åke Andersson and Antero Honkanen
In the experimental studio of Yleisradio”. Anything ‘radio’ and pre 1980s gets my antennae twitching and this record was not a disappointment. A little festive, a little wintry, but all very out-there and definitely one to soundtrack an X-Files episode colliding with Northern Exposure via Jodorowski. You can even feel the more creative tendrils of Animal Collective in some of its passages.
Next up is grandfather of far-out violin and composition and late maestro of incredible music: Takehisa Kosugi. Catch-Wave has been on my wishlist since I read about it in one of David Toop’s seminal books on sound. I have been looking for this for a while and managed to pick it up on wax from the awesome YooDoRightRecords shop in Lausanne. This is one of my favourite records of all time so enjoy this edit and trip into the Kuiper Belt.
We come to the inspiration of this month’s playlist courtesy of Bolus & Segalen. This is music firmly set in an detourned Eastern Europe of the 70s, but with a definite nod to purveyors of DIY noise such as Aaron Dilloway and label owner Dylan Nyoukis. That is a somewhat reductive comparison as this is its own beast. This is mid-trip, Journey Into Space (Charles Chilton) meets Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky). BBC Radio skewed through 70s soviet cinema and its magic. The recording is also worth noting as it sounds like they are jamming in your living room. Lay back and you’ll find space is the place,
A time to return to earth for a bit, and this time with Luc Ferrari’s Music Liberation Workshop. For some reason this piece made me think of Fallout. God this would make a great soundtrack to a Fall-out/Bioshock movie! Hit me up if you want to make one. This is music for farming on a space station. I mean you could even do a Serenity sequel. It’s Dark Star and High Life rolled into one. It’s a Ferrari piece, so expect the unexpected.
John Wiese is incredible for two reasons. One, I can never spell his name; and two, he makes the best fucking ear tickling noise out there. This is from his gorgeous CD released on Pan almost 15 years ago. This is when the plants take over and merge with the machines like jayce and the wheeled warriors. Wiese operates in a singular space in a saturated field and simmers like a refined foam on a body of viscous liquid. Are we on the event horizon? No. We’re climbing out of the debris and seeing a new landscape for the first time. And he paints the most incredible picture.
And so it ends. Time to drift like Voyager into the abyss. Who else but Pan Sonic and Keiji Haino. This is the collaboration of the century. Recorded in 2007 when I was peak into noise. This is freedom of an old state fucking the empire a new one. The title of the record alone is a tell for the future. “Shall I Download A Blackhole And Offer It To You”. You can try, but we will rise and eat you while you survey your people.
The Oak of the Golden Dreams
Harold Budd
The Oak of the Golden Dreams
1972
LP on Parole Records, 2025
Kagaku Henka
Michael Ranta
Taiwan Years
1971
CD on Metaphon, 2021
The Power of Suggestion
Paul DeMarinis
Music as a Second Language
1991
CD on Lovely Music
Viuluniekka
Åke Andersson / Antero Honkanen
Reidarin Sähköiset Kuvat
1977
LP on Svart Records, 2018
Mano-Dharma ’74
Takehisa Kosugi
Catch-Wave
1975
LP on Phoenix Records, 2011
The 70’s Imaginary Sci-Fi Movie
Bolus/Segalen
The 70’s Imaginary Sci-Fi Movie
2025
CDr on Chocolate Monk
Feb 17th, 1975
Luc Ferrari
Atelier De Libération De La Musique
1975
LP on Alga Marghen, 2018
Don’t Stop Now, You’re Killing Me
John Wiese
Seven of Wands
2011
CD on Pan
Track 3 (I have named this Baron Vladimir Harkonnen)
Pan Sonic & Haino Keiji
“Shall I Download A Blackhole And Offer It To You” Live In Berlin 15.11.2007
2009
Blast First Petite
Inside No. 9 is an attempt to share unique narratives through the mixing of 9 songs. Every episode will showcase a new theme, opening up new tributaries of discovery. Inside No. 9 is presented by Peter Taylor, a former features writer for Foxy Digitalis from back in the late 2000s. Peter is a visual artist and musician and has been creating music as MAbH since 2008.
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