In 1988 I created, programmed and hosted a radio show called "Suspended In Gaffa", named after the song by Kate. It aired on KKFI, 90.1fm in Kansas City, MO for 6 years.
The show's format was simple...it was a celebration of the female voice. I focused on female singers, songwriters, musicians, composers and instrumentalists, featuring women with one or more (or all) of those qualities. I didn't, and still don't, consider it a "feminist" show, because most of the artists I played had male collaborators, be it men in the band or whatever.
I chose that format because I wanted to play the type of music that I wanted to hear on the radio. Sure it was self-serving...so what? I found out that a lot of other people liked my taste in music and liked the show. I was basically upset that there weren't any radio stations in the Kansas City area that played my favorite female artist, Kate Bush. I'd been a fan of Kate's music since 1980 and had never heard her on the radio in KC. First and foremost, I wanted to play Kate. Second, I wanted to play Jane Siberry, another artist I'd never heard on the radio. Third, I wanted to have a place where a listener would generally only hear female voices.
Why? Well, though female artists seem to be everywhere nowadays, back then it was a miracle to hear a steady supply of female voices on the radio. I used to "test" radio stations by listening for hours, and counting the number of songs with female voices that were played. The ratio was always atrocious, averaging 1 female voiced song for every 12 male voiced song. Sorry, that wasn't good enough for me. I'm not only interested in the female voice, but it's what I most often want to hear.
I considered the female voice to be a genre in itself, and that's how I treated it on the radio show. Although I tended to focus more on "alternative/ethereal" music, I tried to make the show quite eclectic, and played music from other genres and eras.
It was extremely common to hear Danielle Dax played next to Billie Holiday played next to Carla Bley played next to Diamanda Galas played next to Queen Latifah played next to The Boswell Sisters played next to....well, you get the idea.
Needless to say, it was great fun putting the shows together!
When I started the show, I thought I had a big collection of female voiced records, but I soon learned that I had practically nothing. I begged and borrowed from friends, haunted the record stores, and culled through magazines to learn about new (and old) artists. Over the years I went from owning a few dozen LPs and a handful of CDs by female artists to owning nearly a thousand LPs and over 1000 CDs by female artists, not to mention hundreds of cassettes. Even then, I fully realize that I have only scratched the surface of what's out there.
In mid-1988, I discovered an artist named Happy Rhodes. She was amazing! She was wonderful! I became a fan and haven't looked back. I started playing her music and talking about her all the time.
My sweetheart Chris and I got on the net in 1989, mainly because we wanted to get involved in rec.music.gaffa, the Kate Bush newsgroup. I started typing up and posting my playlists to the net, and discovered that the net was a goldmine of information about artists I'd known about, but didn't know anything about, and artists I didn't know about at all.
In June of 1991, Jessica Koeppel started a mailing list for Happy Rhodes, and called it Ecto. It soon took on an identity of its own, far beyond just being a forum for Happy fans. All sorts of artists were/are discussed in Ecto, and it became a goldmine in itself, a place to learn about and discuss female artists.
Within the framework of the mailing list, it became quite common to refer to the artists talked about as "ecto artists" and "ectoish" music. Artists such as Happy Rhodes (of course), Kate Bush, Sarah McLachlan and Jane Siberry were automatically "ecto artists" and women such as Tori Amos and Milla were added when they came along. Many of us are so used to referring to "ecto music" that it's hard to think of any other description for the type of music discussed.
Ecto-the mailing list, is, if nothing else, eclectic, and the topics discussed there range the gamut from music to movies to books to politics and just about anything else. It's a very friendly and tolerant mailing list, and anything of interest to subscribers is "on-topic."
The same tolerance is given to the music discussed. There have been many discussions about what exacly constitutes "ecto" music and though many would point to the above mentioned artists as being the ultimate ecto artists, it really boils down to whatever subscribers bring up to discuss, in the likely event that others on the mailing list might be interested.
So, here we are back to this Artists/Band WWW listing. I give joint credit to my old radio show Suspended In Gaffa and the mailing list Ecto, just because. These are some of the artists and bands that I've played on my radio show. These are some of the artists and bands (not all female either) that have been discussed in the pages of Ecto - the mailing list. Some of these artists and bands are listed just because I like them, and it's my list, so nyah. Some, I've never played and they haven't been discussed, but I just liked their web pages or thought they'd make an interesting inclusion. Some, I've never even heard of until I found their links and decided to throw them into the mix.
It goes without saying (but of course, I'll say it anyway because people always do) that if anyone has any suggestions, additions, corrections or deletions, please send me an e-mail message here
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