{Update 1/24/2011: Below is a tribute mix that I broadcast on the 1/23/11 edition of Melting Pot, just my 10 favorite songs from Broadcast and Trish Keenan…I hope we’ll hear more music from the sessions already recorded, but if not, I’m sure thankful for time spent listening to this music}
Trish Keenan Tribute Mix: Melting Pot’s Top 10 Broadcast Tracks
The extraordinarily tragic news hit today that Trish Keenan of Broadcast passed earlier this morning from H1N1 related pneumonia contracted during the band’s tour of Australia. Keenan was a founding member and integral part of the UK group Broadcast, one of my favorite groups of the last 10 years. I first heard their music while I was at KALX in 2000 and was drawn immediately to their mix of 60s psychedelic, electronic experimentation and girl group harmony with Trish’s ethereal vocals at the fore. With each successive release they seemed to become more and more experimental in their approach to sound. I was supposed to have played a track from Broadcast in my most recent show on KPFK, in hopes that a new album would finally be released in 2011 (Broadcast hasn’t released a proper LP since 2005’s Tender Buttons, though 2009’s Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, should certainly count, it is like several other releases in this interim period, a collaboration). From interviews I’d heard before this fateful tour to Australia it does seem that they’ve been recording, but likely had not finished the new record. I sincerely hope there is more music to be heard, now that we’ve lost this unique voice.
There are a number of videos and performances of Broadcast to be found on the internet, but I’ve chosen an exceptional performance recorded at KCRW back in 2006: