Chris Morris - Blue Jam

I'm not British, so until briefly having XM radio in my car I hadn't experienced much British radio. It's interesting stuff, though I don't really know how to accurately describe it. Would it be accurate to say there seems to be a lot more room for experimentation and diversity? That's the impression I got. Satellite radio like XM and Sirius are great services and seem to emulate this style, albeit in a looser fashion. Just in case you're wondering, I dropped my XM subscription close to when I lost my job but it had more to do with the fact their billing department is detestable and couldn't get any information right, so I continued to get bills saying I was late despite multiple calls to provide and confirm my billing data. Standard US radio sucks, though I'd love to hear some standard British radio. I'm assuming it suffers a lot of the same issues but probably doesn't suck nearly as bad.

One radio show I would gladly have stayed up for would have been Chris Morris' Blue Jam, a bizarre presentation of ambient sounds with twisted monologues running atop them. The show ran in the early morning hours from 1997 to 1999, potentially giving new meaning to the title of The KLF's 3 A.M. Eternal. It was disturbing, fascinating and all around engrossing, sounding like something you'd hear while half-awake or having a fever dream. Of course, living in the US, I knew none of this until I started seeing ads for a then imminent CD release of material from the show on the always wonderful Warp Records. After some research and eventually downloading a rip of it, I found myself in love with the absurd world of Blue Jam, enough that I went to a certain record store, one I absolutely DETEST, and exchanged my hard-earned funds for an official pressing of the CD. The art was great, it had liner notes that referenced the backing tracks and even led to a web-only bonus track. A purchase I am eternally pleased with!

The soundtrack to Blue Jam is just as essential as the disturbing sketches. Morris and his crew selected a lot of Warp and Ninja Tune's catalogs for the broadcasts as well as works by Eno and other producers, though nothing here sounds contractually chosen, it all seems hand-picked by true music lovers who clearly enjoyed their work. This perfect mesh leads to bizarre skits like that of the television repair man, Mr. Lizard, who deals with two angry patrons who have found lizards to be crawling out of their tv, all while being extremely cool and quiet and backed by sounds from Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. If that description doesn't entice or sell you on this, I'm not sure anything will, but trust me, this is some truly bizarre and funny stuff, although I suppose the old American argument still stands that you either enjoyed Monty Python or you didn't, there was no in between.

After Blue Jam left the radio, two television shows were produced mostly using the original radio sketches and adding perverse visuals and twisted editing. You can still order the CD from Warp but it may no longer be in print as they're offering a cassette version at Bleep. On top of that, the album isn't available digitally which I'm sure has a lot to do with the ownership of the sketches and the music beds. The DVDs of the shows are still available but those are only available in Europe in PAL format, so anyone with an NTSC DVD or Blu-Ray player will find themselves terribly out of luck. All of that is terribly disappointing which is why I'm posting the album for your listening enjoyment. This is ripped from my original Warp Records CD of the album and I'm posting it as a set of high quality V0 MP3s, though you'll also find the video from the web-only exclusive, Bishop Slips, an MP3 of that track and Amon Tobin's collaboration with Morris, Bad Sex, in the archive. Grab this, play it in the middle of the night and get freaked out. As someone who doesn't indulge in "extra-curricular-substance-excursions" you can take my word that this record will freak you out whether you're smoking a J, getting shitfaced or doing anything else significantly mind altering. It's simply wonderful! Download link is below and I've listed all the music beds beneath the specific tracks. Enjoy!


Chris Morris - Blue Jam

01 Blue Jam Intro

02 Doc Phone
music bed: Labradford - P

03 Lamacq Sting

04 4ft Car
music beds: Propellerheads - Go Faster
Moloko - Day For Night

05 Suicide Journalist
music beds: Amon Tobin - Sordid
Amon Tobin - Nightlife
Funki Porcini - Going Down

06 Acupuncture
music bed: Naked Funk - Dreamland

07 Bad Sex 2
music bed: The Herbaliser - A Mother For Your Mind

08 Mayo Sting

09 Unflustered Parents
music beds: Pat C. & The Maxwell Implosion - Tic Tac
Funki Porcini - English Country Music
Brian Eno - Deep Blue Day

10 Moyles Sting

11 TV Lizards
music bed: Aphex Twin - SAW2 CD1 TRK7

12 Doc Cock
music bed: Propellerheads - Oh Yeah

13 Hobbs Sting

14 Morton Interview
music bed: Sie - Message From Jupiter

15 Fixit Girl
music bed: Aphex Twin - SAW2 CD1 TRK5
Jimi Tenor - Nobody's Perfect

16 Porn
music bed: Fila Brazillia - A Zed & Two L's

17 Kids Party
music bed: The Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination - Restless

18 Club News
music bed: 9 Lazy 9 - Brothers Of The Red

19 Whiley Sting

20 Little Girl Balls
music bed: Kensuke Shiina - Luv Bungalow

21 Blue Jam Outro

Bonus Tracks:
Bishop Slips (video and MP3)
music bed: Soul Coughing - Screenwriter's Blues

Amon Tobin - Bad Sex (feat. Chris Morris)