SLOW FM
2014
SLOW FM was a temporary FM and online microstation dedicated to SLOW music, broadcasted live September 2014 and existing as an online archive afterward. It received a visit by the FCC and its FM signal was shut down. In addition to the live broadcast SLOW FM featured live in-studio concerts.
Starting in the early 90s, a subgenre of southern hip hop called screw emerged with vinyl albums played and re-recorded 20-30% slower with added beats, introductions and other effects. This subgenre bubbled beneath the surface for over a decade, and took off in the mid-2000s as the phenomenon of chopped and screwed music was applied to hip hop mixtapes. Experimental musicians have mined this technique to combine hip hop, electronic, ambient, noise and other experimental music. SLOW FM commissioned artists internationally to create new slowed-down compositions as well as broadcasted a range of slow music from ambient, dub, drone, contemporary classical, dance, hip hop and cross-genre music. Artists included: Tim Hecker, Lawrence English, Aaron Roche, Greg Fox/GDFX, Cars Will Burn, Yung Pharoah, Thin Gaze, Selfies, Lil ‘Merica, Ulalume, DJ Bearings, Eartheater, and Indridi Ingolffson. Additional works performed live by Lee Tusman and Jacob Herschel.
Credits
Support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage "New Spaces / New Formats" Research group.
Project support and photo documentation by Tim Bieniosek.