The Time Zones Exchange Project distills selections from Negativland

Negativland

Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...

's radio program Over the Edge

Over the Edge (radio)

Over the Edge is a sound collage radio program hosted and produced in the United States by Don Joyce.Joyce is also a member of the pioneering sound collage band Negativland, members of which frequently make guest appearances on Over the Edge. A series of Over the Edge episodes have been released...

, broadcast on KPFA

KPFA

KPFA is a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station...

. This CD was edited together from several different broadcasts recorded between 1989 and 1992.

Unlike previous volumes of the Over The Edge series, this two disc set presents a rambling documentary with a pseudo-plot to uncover information about the elusive Trillionaire C.E. Friday, a character that recurs throughout various forms of Negativland Media, and also covers many theories about Howland Island

Howland Island

Howland Island is an uninhabited coral island located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States. Geographically, it is part...

. Disc 1 contains a mock radio show - The Piddle Diddle Report - from a station called ABS, which closely parodies the Art Bell

Art Bell

Arthur W. "Art" Bell, III is an American broadcaster and author, known primarily as one of the founders and the original host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM. He also created and formerly hosted its companion show, Dreamland...

 show. Disc 2 is presented as a Universal Media Netweb simulcast, in conjunction with Radio Moscow

Voice of Russia

Voice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service owned by the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company. Its predecessor Radio Moscow was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.-Early years:Radio Moscow...

, to teach the people of Russia the basics of a Free Market economy. Throughout this disc are commercials for Mertz, a Decision-Enhancing Mental Supplement, and a series of recordings from a real botched attempt to do a similar simulcast in the mid 1980's. This album was released in 1993 on Negativland's Seeland label.

Track listing

PART ONE: TIME ZONES EXCHANGE PROJECT 68:47'

1. Executive Window, Memo to Friday, Memo from the Future, Dickie Diamond and the Media Shifter – 11:38
2. The Piddle Diddle Report: Sandamanians, Transinfiltration, Nothing is Too Wonderful to be True – 8:12
3. The Piddle Diddle Report: Human Values, Where is Friday?, A Call from Howland Island and the President – 6:41
4. The Piddle Diddle Report: Strike It Rich, This Fabled Island, Cary Grant Tapes a Ghost – 18:32
5. The Piddle Diddle Report: After the Rain, Let's Take a Few Calls, Photos of Mrs. Gorbachev, Computercoup, Atom Spy – 8:46
6. The Piddle Diddle Report: Sergio Caracus, Frankenstein Meets Cyclops, What Was On The Island?, Who Was On The Island?, Agoraphobia – 7:27
7. The Piddle Diddle Report: A Future Confronting the Past which is Our Future, Last Call from Howland Island, Eaten by a Black Hole, Returned to your Rightful Channel – 7:31

PART TWO: TESTWAVE 72:10'

1. A Unique Cultural Simulcast, Cubulax Guidelines, Dickie Diamond Grabs the Gusto, Russian National Anthem, Take Me Out to the Ball Game – 8:13
2. Americo-Soviet Free Market Osmosis, Mertz, Intercontinental Phone Mess – 7:29
3. Russian Factoids, Natural Woman, Toilet Paper – 4:48
4. Ads and Smiles, Hey You-Buy This!, Innovation, Shilling for Attention – 8:08
5. Mertz, A Force of Nature, Hard and Soft Thinking, The Good Life, Cars – 6:59
6. One Bar of Soap, Rubles, Mertz, It's As If We Never Left Home, Negativ Thoughts, Nuts-Oh Nuts!, You Will Be Rearranged – 9:47
7. Passage To The 9th Dimension, Memo to Howland, Calling Radio Moscow – 5:19
8. A Presidential Campaign Shortwave Broadcast by C. Eliot Friday – 2:40
9. The Piddle Diddle Report: What's to Come, The Quantum Edge, Fiber Optics, Experimental Sharpness – 9:15
10. A Place in Time To Put Time In Its Place, Do You Have a Job?, Das Vedanya, Mertz, Credits, So What Was I Looking For? – 9:32