il programma di religione

and again: good morning, 2005: some of you might remember: in late 2002 we were all invited to contribute very short tracks to a compilation that shawn of boyarm.com devoted and deadicated to all the 265 popes that served the catatholic church throughout the years since anno domini 32. harte, nervenfetzende arbeit: a long time it took and a very hard and energy and nerves swallowing work it was: but here comes white smoke!! "il programma di religione" is finally released: and it is so much fun: from dark folk to sheer white noise, from heaviest metal to relaxambient, from a capella to hip hop slam poetry: all styles served here: laissez faire strand! artists from all over the world include meri von kleinsmid, anaphylaxis, every kid on speed, ivan bachev, betafish, panoptic, lämant, unitedkronos, chefkirk, staplerfahrer and (you guess:) many many more. some pre-sturclub bands are involved as well as some of our friends and relatives: the likes of siemers, van daale, the lolly pope, art.ist.la.maisch, D:U:R, schrecklein, dj ee & mc d, traumwaffe, herr rommel and albrecht/d. - none of these tracks is longer than 14 seconds: and you will get a complete history of popular music of the last 2000 years in a little bit more than one hour: god created the random/shuffle button of your cd-player especially for this compilation: and even better: he did not forget the repeat button.
a complete list of all participating artists can be found at the bottom of the page.



find popes, jewels and ten words for snow

and yes: you are a pope

complete list of all participating artists in alphabetical order

please edit or link your beautiful selves if necessary:

! (orkza 1
?????
0kapi
33mm
69 cent
a.b.
aaron stilley
absorb
acrolein
alberto guedea
albrecht/d.
alejandro remeseiro
amanita disco
anant the mad cap
anaphylaxis
andrew duke
andrew liles
anki miyamoto
annihilated
art.ist.la.maisch
assjack
attraktiv & preiswert
au bord delle
baby busters ..1
beds for sleeping kites
belltone suicide
betafish
bic boy
bil mckim
bill bonds baggins
bill horist
bitstream
blango
blood club
blueprint
bob lennon
bonchi
brad sucks
brendan kuras
brian hunter
broken bird
caroline m. mason
carsick
casey paquet
chaos through programming
chapman liberation army
chefkirk
christopher delaurenti
contradiction
cosmic locksmith
crystal brandt
d.i.h.
d:u:r
d1s111us1on
damon a. dawson
deathsitcom
destructo
deucalion
didatic zeugma
dirty old men
dj ee & mc d
dj paedofile
domepiece
dowcet
dr. combat
dream weapon
eastsoul
edward coli
efm
empathy
enterprise cape breton
epop
ernest coli
eternal golden void
every kid on acid
every kid on speed
fallopian tubas
fashion flesh
favorite
flighttube
fognode
foreign correspondent
fragment king
frankie & the s.e.m.m.
fred yarm
frederick e. slidepole & the bugs who took over the world
freek kinkelaar
gina 79
goose
gordon b. isnor
granny panty network
green andy
guignol dangereux
haldous
hands free vigilantes
hapax
happiness
harbour master
hardcore annie
herr rommel
high on pope
hyacinth bobo
i love you
iim8e
intonarumori
ivan bachev
j. patrick smith
jason lewandowski
jeremy gloff
jeremy owen turner
jima
jimmy quick
joe ohler, jr.
johnny u and the universe
jorg piringer
jose banuelos
joshua wentz
jsl
kalaturru
kaleb
kerubim'duul
kevin mahler
kevin parish
klangphobie
klänguru`
koff koff
krack (we are not rock)
krischke thunderbyrd
lamant
lance grabmiller
lenin/mccarthy vs. la maisch
little timmy
luther blissett project vs. l. ron hubbard
m.a.n.
makkafroi
martinbomb
matt borghi
matthew davey
maurice depestre
megane zaru
meri von kleinsmid
mexicans
mgiorio
michael g. breece
microscope
m-sli©k da ninja
myblindeyes
myron mcmillin (live at the acropolis)
nemo retablo
neukin doe je zo
norm scott and the robot! project
not thee pinkees again.
odrz
ok
orange
origami klassika
osger crickters
pain research center
pak
panicsville
panoptic
paradise lust
parker paul
partyman
phlegethonyarre
pichismo
pine tree state mind control
pissed carpet
polar
popeye ramone
prejudgemental sacrafice
purusha
pww
radioactive prostitute
rdw
red red turnpike
residential tetanus
ress
ryan enderle
satan's scrotum
scabies babies
scalar
schrecklein
scott behnan
scullfaced moon
segma
sergio van lukenstein
shit orange horsey
shy demon
sick to the back teeth
siemers
signal bleed
sinus cavity
siokaos
skoweyajeed
sleeplessness
sludgephone
smush
solar pang
someone-or-other centralisation (or how governments work)
sons of the 3d
sorel
sorpoidar
sound 00
spatula
spitkicka
staplerfahrer
stationary odyssey
steve o'sullivan
steven miller
stevie hayes
stolen light
subcutanea isicia omentata
subspace
syd barrett's privateers
t.e.m.p.
tapebox
the arizona quints
the brady experiments
the bran flakes
the devouring element
the dry heeves
the gates
the goslings
the horse without a face
the hungry housewives
the inhibitionists
the innocent bystander
the lolly pope
the new sound of my bossa nova
the november story
the one eyed bishops
the outsider
the rib
the son of men
the trumans
thrill racer
thumper monkey
tib
tigron
tilted eardrum
tin.fr.
tommy the rabbit dissector
tomoroh hidari
toxic pliers
traumwaffe
tuktsplop
twink
tyler hoyt esq
unitedkronos
unsong
used for comparison
van daale
virgins live, sluts die
vladimir rasate
w@
walk / don't run
wally pear
weapons of mass consumption
wetfloor
when i know you will too
wisterlax
world's greatest dad
xtine
yip yop

talk about popes:

Ever wonder how a 265-track CD would sound? Shawn Knight, the man behind this ambitious project probably did. The result was Il Programma di Religione (The Religion Program), which includes 67 tracks, each including four 10-15-second long "songs", for a total of 265 tracks, recorded in tribute to the 265 Popes in the history of the Catholic church, starting with St. Peter and ending with John Paul II (the last track - for John Paul II - contains only one song). The result is another anthology disc that follows in the path of a previous CD by Boyarm/Slight Records that celebrated the innovators in the field of medicine, The Health Program. And this album proves to be even more crazy than that one. "It was cool, but never again!" Shawn Knight comments in the CD booklet and you can understand why, as it must have taken him an awful lot of time to put together this anthology. Each track is a mish-mash of different sounds: there are samples, noises, scratches, orgasms, snippets of childish songs, electronica, punk, rock, hip-hop, classical music and spoken word. In a nutshell, there is a bit of everything here, and the final result feels a bit like flipping between radio channels while being drunk. All the tracks are penned by obscure artists - who knows who's hiding behind the monikers The Lolly Pope, Origami Klassika or Luther Blisset Project vs. L. Ron Hubbard - from different parts of the world, from the U.S.A. to Canada, from Germany to Italy, from Bulgaria to Lithuania, from Hong Kong to Japan. The irony of the whole project stands in the fact that most of the tracks here collected don't have anything to do with any Pope; they're just there to be listened and appreciated for what they are. Warning: listening to the 66-minute long compilation is a true act of courage. Indeed, the innovative "Il Programma di Religione" is for daring sonic adventurers and sound collectors only. - anna battista

Some ideas that sound good when drunk and/or stoned and discussing them with your eagerly agreeable friends should be re-evaluated in the relative clarity of morning. Consider New Coke, Crystal Pepsi, and now the latest compilation mash from Boyarm. Seeing as how I have yet to make it through this compilation album from start to finish, I was loathe to review it. But recent events made it rather timely, and some might find it the kind of quirky and unique release that's worth having - if not listening to.
Il Programma Di Religione (The Religion Program) is a massive compilation that attempts to include, in just over an hour, a song for every single pope in the 2000-year history of the Catholic church. That's right: this compilation offers 265 songs, none more than 15 seconds, that attempt to chronicle the impressive line of papal history from Peter to Pope John Paul II. No word yet if a re-release is planned in a few weeks when the next pope is announced.
A quick scan of the artists here reveal merely one or two that spark some hint of memory in the back of my mind, and I imagine many of the band names were invented just for this compilation (see The Lolly Pope and High on Pope). Were this sprinkled with the occasional indie artist most people would recognize, it might make it even more of a curious keepsake, but as it is, you likely wouldn't recognize the track by your band anyway.
Because what you have here are 256 tracks of noise. Sure, some may hint at metal or spoken word or classical, but frankly in 15 seconds or less, all that you really get a sense of is noise after noise after noise for far too long to actually listen. There's blaring sonic blasts and subtle electronic washes, words spoken coherently and incoherently, little experimental flourishes and what may just be white noise.
In short, there's nothing here you really want to listen to. So the ultimate question is whether this is supposed to be an homage to the popes or the aural equivalent of running a marathon: you do it just to see if you can. The only redeemable positive I can find here is that those who seek to fill mix CDs with little clips of sound or noise may want to explore this album's depths. I, frankly, do not. No disrespect to the late pope intended.
-Jeff Marsh
05/03/05

Considering world events, what better time for a record like Il Programma di Religione, a unique tribute to the Pope. Not just Pope John Paul II, but...all of them. All 265 of them. On one disc. Think about that. On the surface, 265-that's going to mean a lot of songs about popes. Heck, that's a lot of songs, regardless of the subject matter! Though there are 265 songs for every Pope, if someone played Il Programma di Religione to you blindfolded, you wouldn't know what the theme was. Instead, you'd think you were hearing a bunch of really random noises put together in fifteen second bursts and put together to form a one-minute song.
Actually, that's pretty much what this is. While the concept is interesting, and the execution is done rather well, the content itself doesn't really lend itself to a tribute. At times, it feels as if this is nothing more than a noise rock project, something similar in nature to John Zorn's Naked City-where sounds go in and out at such a frantic pace, it's hard (and pointless) to look at the individual 'songs,' leaving the listener to consider the larger scope of the project. There's just so much going on with Il Programma di Religione-and it's not exactly easy to keep up with who does what and where-that highlighting one moment becomes a daunting-and downright impossible-task. It's worth pointing out that sometimes mundane sounds contributor Eric Wolf (AKA Sergio Van Lukenstein) appears on here, paying tribute to Pope Innocent II.
While the record may be an epic-kudos to mastermind Shawn Knight for spending two and a half years on this obviously difficult project-it's still an interesting listen. Where else can you go from computerized beats to screaming to heavy duty metal-like riffs to a burst of uncontroable noise and other forms of total weirdness and back again, all within a matter of minutes? Best advice is to simply forget about the concept and just put this in your stereo and let it overwhelm you. It works so much better that way.
-Joseph Kyle

As concepts go, it's certainly an ambitious one, and an interesting one on paper at least: one track, each by a different artist (presuming there's no cheating), in "tribute" to each of the 265 Popes in the history of the Catholic church, from St. Peter through John Paul II. Each "song" is 10-15 seconds long and, due to the limitations of the audio CD format, they're grouped 4 to a track. Quite an undertaking. Unfortunately the result is almost entirely unlistenable. This might be forgivable, in the name of "art", if it seemed like some thought and effort had gone into more than a scant handful of these tracks, but such does not seem to be the case. Imagine someone with ADHD in the middle of nowhere flipping around randomly on the AM radio dial at 3 in the morning: it's dominated by static, with some sound collages, snippets of death metal, classical, and spoken word, some horrid juvenile punk and "rap", and lots and lots of white noise. Very few tracks seem to have anything to do with the particular Pope they are purportedly about, or with any Pope at all for that matter, and it seems possible that some of the tracks could be out of order, although who knows. There was one kind of humorous ditty, and a few other pleasing sounds (and the packaging is nice), but if I were to borrow the ratings system from Indiepages I would give this an MTQ of about 4/265. (mike.04.05)

Boyarm Records has released a compilation of 265 15-second songs. The songs are a tribute to each of the 265 popes, and they are played in chronological order from St. Peter to John Paul II. The project is an interesting idea, especially if some care were given to making a historical comment on each of the papal reigns.
Ironically, this album was conceived by a hundred or so artists who I assume are educated, are in their 20s and 30s, and are politically liberal. This group of "the enlightened" probably espouses a hatred of television. I happen to agree with them. Television's combined randomness, belligerence, and quick cutting undoubtedly affects our national IQ in a negative way. Sadly, and yet ironically, this album is like watching television with someone who utilizes the clicker every 15 seconds. The same randomness (because much of the content has nothing to do with the papacy), the same belligerence (because 99% of all references to the papacy are belligerently mocking and hateful), and the same quick cutting (because 15 seconds is short) all replicate the emotionally draining and numbing experience of watching TV. This is the most nauseating album I've heard all year. To read a catalog of this compilation's sins, please continue.
The album art is tastefully rendered: a cardinal (the bird, not the church clergyman) against a background of red, white and gold wallpaper. The recently deceased John Paul II has a quote about the value of well-executed artistic statements. But the moderation ends with the cover. About 50% of the "songs" exhibit profound ill will for the papacy and Christianity in general. The other 50% are instrumentals of neutrality, not daring to actually say something positive about an institution that despite its failings, contributed massively to peace, non violence, and the value of the individual. Had any of these "educated" artists taken a single medieval history course, they would have known that without the Catholic church, Western civilization would have been lost forever to the dark ages. My guess is that we would all be Muslims.
Most of the music is electronica, and actually a lot of it has potential for some interesting compositions. Some of it is even pretty. Unfortunately anything interesting is quickly wiped away with the power of the album's 15-second remote control. Any stitch of positiveness is washed away in the sea of anti-Christian anger. Stupidly, most of the anti-pope comments don't have anything to do with the papacy or even the Catholic Church, but rather Protestant traditions. The ill-educated artists often seem to confuse Southern Baptists with Catholicism. The album lacks a sense of historicity as almost all of the artists' comments relate to the church in the 20th century. They seem quite uninformed about anything that happened before 1950.
About 10% of the album is nothing but annoying, grating white noise.
O.K., you've waited long enough. Here's a laundry list of some of Il Programma's offensiveness: the Lord's prayer being interrupted by a toilet flush, overdubs of a southern preacher's rant with a woman's sex noises in the background, the rhyming of "Elvis" and "penis", an imitation Christian praise and worship song with the lyrics "I want to watch you fall", mutterings about nicotine and alcohol, a shouted chorus of "fuck the pope", another chorus with the lyrics "I'm going to stick my nuts in your face", horrible screeching drowning out the song "Jesus Loves the Little Children", a reference to pedophilia as children whimper "you're hurting me", a stupid commercial for potpourri in church, and a particularly ill-timed chorus that complains that John Paul II won't "ever die". Combine these with the near-constant invasion of obliterating noise of jackhammers, distortion, TV snow, and static, and you've got 3,975 seconds (that being 265 x 15) of barfing on Catholicism.
Buy this album only if you're proud to change the TV channel every 15 seconds, have no sense of decency in your sense of humor, and nurse a hatred for Christianity. Written by Joel Dunham