Radio Kills is a sound collage inspired by the heavy-metal cult movie Trick or Treat (1986) directed by Charles Martin Smith starring Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne. Eddie, a teenager shocked by the death of his hero, the rock singer Sammi Curr, receives as gift the only existing copy of his last and unpublished LP. If played in reverse mode, the record contains messages by Curr that invite Eddie to take revenge for the harsh treatment suffered by a group of tough guys. Trick or Treat is a typical American b-movie. It continues with the apparition of the ghost of Sammi who comes from the afterlife, and moves navigating electric conductions, to kill everybody.

In Radio Kills, it is the radio to be played in reverse mode. Radio Kills combines recordings from Italian commercial, religious and political radio stations. Broadcastings vary from commentaries to commercials, from religious readings to live phone calls, from pure interferences to music compositions. Radio Kills features music from international pop stars like ABBA, Artanis Ycnan, Ellivahpla, Ggod Poons, Nrocirpac, Peedni, Ronyag Airolg, Saep Deye Kcalb, Sniwt Eht, Sreppep Yllihc Toh Der, Stnec 05 as well as acclaimed Italian interpreters like Far and Onabla.

Like in Trick or Treat, in Radio Kills to hear radio broadcastings in reverse mode contains subliminal messages. In fact the reverse listening is interrupted by a speech by Guglielmo Marconi, originally recorded on the wire in 1932, in which the father of radio recalls the main passages of the birth of wireless communications from 1901 (year of his first transoceanic telegraphic broadcasting) to 1920 (when the first news and entertainment programs have been transmitted). An interesting observation is that Marconi, in his speech, never mentions the world radio, but only wireless or wireless telephony.

Radio Kills would be a reflection on the role of radio in the history of technological revolutions and on the importance of Bologna, Italy, in the evolution of the uses of this means of communication. Bologna is actually the place of birth and early training of Guglielmo Marconi, recognized worldwide as the inventor of radio. But it is also the city where the potentialities of radio have been experimented in a revolutionary way by the group of activists behind Radio Alice during the 1977 student revolts.

Radio Kills follows the invitation by two American artists, Christopher Williams and John Kelsey (Bernadette Corporation/Reena Spaulings), to join Radio Daniéle, an experimental radio program broadcasted in Bologna from January to May 2007, in conjunction with Williams exhibition at the GAM/MAMbo and in Zurich during Fall 2007 in conjunction with Williams’ exhibition at the Zurich Kunsthalle and Kelsey’s year-long project also at Kunsthalle. Radio Daniéle is a free-form sonic collage combining re-broadcasts of original Radio Alice (1976-1977) transmissions with on-air interventions by contemporary artists, writers and activists featuring Cory Arcangel, Paul Chan, Claire Fontaine, Gareth James, Martin Kippenberger, Paul McCarthy, Thurston Moore, Seth Price, Reena Spaulings, Lawrence Weiner and Christopher Williams. Radio Daniéle is in memory of the French director Daniéle Huillet (1936-2006).

RADIO KILLS
a project by Francesco Spampinato
10 inches vinyl record, ed. 100
on sale at Printed Matter, NY

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