Recently, when visiting my mother in Sydney, I came across a cache of vinyl records that she bought in the 1970s and was now storing in her garage. They are predominantly recordings of South Indian Carnatic music, often considered to be a “classical” form. Whenever I visit, I spend some time clearing out items accumulating in storage. While I’m certain these records had not been played for decades, my mother and I both agreed to hold on to them. Hidden in a cupboard I found the family stereo system from the late 1980s, and while its radio was useless, its tape deck was defective and its speakers had been misplaced, I was surprised and delighted that the turntable and amplifier still functioned. So I set about dusting off and digitizing some of these records, listening closely to a kind of music that I largely ignored growing up.
Coincidentally, my mother introduced me to a family friend; a distant relative who had recently moved to Sydney who is a musician and visual artist active in the Indian classical music scene. As we were getting acquainted, the conversation turned to the controversy rippling through the Carnatic music community. The singer Thodur Madabusi Krishna, popularly referred to by his initials T.M.K., had been awarded the coveted Sangita Kalanidhi for 2024. This is a prestigious accolade conferred annually by the Madras Music Academy (established 1928) and is considered to be the “highest accolade in Carnatic music.” The 48 year-old musician and writer has become a controversial and divisive figure for his criticisms of caste and class inequalities in the world of Carnatic music, notably as one of these privileged elites. Indeed, in 2023 Krishna was given another prestigious award; a Ramon Magsaysay award for his efforts to reduce inequalities, using “art’s power to heal India’s deep social divisions, breaking barriers of caste and class.”
While Krishna gave his debut performance at the Music Academy, aged 14, in recent years he refused to participate in the Academy’s annual month-long festival in December/Margazhi, known as Kutchery season, objecting to its caste favouritism. Instead, he was among a team of social organisers who co-founded the Urur-Olcott Kuppam Festival at an under-served, centuries-old fishing village in Chennai, to showcase a range of cultural forms across numerous sites and venues.
In 2023, T.M.K., who is of the Brahmin caste, commemorated the centenary anniversary of the anti-caste movement Vaikom Satyagraha, with music that honouring E.V. “Periyar” Ramaswamy, who is often referred to as the father of the Dravidian movement. Krishna’s critics responded that he in turn advocated for “Brahmin genocide”, recalling one of Periyar’s provocations.
“Carnatic controversy” does not include any music by T.M. Krishna. Rather, the task of digitising my mother’s record collection became a timely entry point into learning about Carnatic music and its current issues in the context of India’s Hindutva. The music in this episode in sequential order is:
N. Ramani, “Raga Ranjani”
Salem S. Jayalakshmi, “Muthu Vidhanam”
Palghat T. S. Mani Iyer, “Eka Tala” (excerpt)
Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and Party (N. Ramani, T. R. Mahalingham, R. Venkataraman, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, T. K. Murthy), “Violin, Venu, Veena” (excerpt)
Sivananda Vijayalakshmi, “Soundarya Lahari”
It’s worth noting that the family of the late Palghat T. S. Mani Iyer (1912–1981) have a particular “beef” with T.M.K. who interviewed the revered mridangam player’s for his recent book Sebastian and Sons (2020). Concerned with Dalit Christian mridangam makers and their relationship with Brahmin musicians, the family claimed they were not aware of the scope of Krishna’s concerns and felt deceived by the “caste-based” tone of his book.
“Critical Radio: Community Building and Solidarity in a Low-Bandwidth Medium” published in Springerin 1/2024, “ArtGPT.” Excerpts below:
At an assembly held during documenta fifteen, it was suggested that net radio is a kind of low bandwidth activism taking up digital space in a largely privatized and commercialized World Wide Web. While this may be so, fugitive radio claims that the critical front is not at public facing websites, rather “critical radio” emerges in the kinds of organizing, skill sharing and community building that occurs alongside the production of content. Hack-labs and live broadcast happenings facilitate sharing, co-learning and generate enthusiasm for alternative networked-sociabilities. While such gatherings are often premised on pursuing free and open (source) culture and promoting digital commons, it is arguably conviviality that shapes the micro-politics of experimental radio activity.
…
“Make friends not art” was a phrase that memed during the Jakarta-based collective ruangrupa’s takeover of documenta fifteen (2022), also known as “lumbung one,” valorizing of the social aspects of art-making over its commodified objects. Friendship was thus politicized as it determined the communities, practices and issues leveraged through infrastructural art power. This was notable as evidence of antisemitism alongside racist and transphobic attacks rocked the event, leading to censorship, withdrawals and the resignation of Documenta’s Director General Sabine Schormann. Nevertheless, solidarities resolved among those remaining and initiatives, such as lumbung radio, are ongoing. Organizations have since proposed to “learn from lumbung,” a reference to an Indonesian community rice barn, emphasizing the pooling and redistribution resources among inter-local networks and collective planning. I think it would also be wise to learn from the Humboldt Forum.
…
When I moved to Berlin in 2017, curators I met sought to politicize their practices. Now some admit to being strategically silent, contributing to a climate of self-censorship and antagonism that recalls East Germany’s Stasi era or McCarthyism in the United States. As spaces holding multiple perspectives are dramatically reduced, what are the alternative platforms for critical debate?
A conversation between Dinoj M [Instagram] and SajaS [Instagram] of DreamSpace Records, artist Lucinda Dayhew [Instagram] and myself, Sumugan Sivanesan. Together we co-organised “Dham Dham Riddim”, a nine-day intensive music production “bootcamp”, held between 21 and 29 February at DreamSpace Academy, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. The workshop sought to introduce people to digital music production across a series of sessions that progressed from field recording to sampling, from rhythm programming to lyric writing, and then on towards making a song that will contribute to a compilation album or EP. It emphasised using free, open source and accessible tools, with a focus on the digital audio workstation, Reaper. It arose out of a three-day workshop “Thaalam Riddim Reapers” we organised at DreamSpace Academy as part of Dinacon 3, 2022.
The episode also features the voices of participants in the programme including: Sivanathan Nivethika, Rameshkumar Sathursaan, Sajanthan Vasanthakumar, A.H.M. Asaath, A.S. Sajeeth, Thavarasa Jeyashanth, Velrajan Rohan, Ravichandran Jeroem, Chandrujaan Sathiyamoorthy, Yash Kirirajah, Kabilashini Balakrishnan, Anantharajah Ajai, Mokeethan Sathiyamoorthy, Suresh Ashwin, Raviraja Rishahari, Sakithyan Jeyakumar, Christy Suthakaran Abiyashap, Christy Suthakaran Joshua, Joseph Jesreyal Jeyashanth, Dinoj Mahendranathan, Sajani Sivasithamparapillai and Nirushika Pragash…I hope I’ve not missed anyone!
1. “Anti War Dub” – Digital Mystikz
On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found [YouTube] there was a case for potential genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza. The court stopped short of recommending a provisional cease fire and rather required Israel report back in one month about measures taken to address its concerns (legally binding for member states). My friend, the artist Sybille Neumeyer, responding to the ongoing loss of (civilian) lives commented that there is no longer a neutral position. Indeed, I’ve heard arguments in Berlin that calling for a cease fire opposes Israel’s right to self-defence and is thus antisemitic—an accusation that can lead to serious repercussions in Germany. This episode is a playlist/meditation on how peace activism has become weaponized, reflecting on my experiences at Transmediale and CTM festivals this year.
2. “Afrotek” – Scratcha DVA
The context of this episode is the Strike Germany campaign, that began in January 2024 when the Berlin Senate announced that it would adopt an anti-discrimination act as a condition of its cultural funding, which included a controversial working definition of antisemitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). It reads:
Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.
To which the Berlin Senate added an extension which conflates criticism of Israel with the persecution of Jewish people. This decision was protested by a significant part of the cultural community in Berlin (see this letter signed by numerous Berlin-based artists and cultural workers). Strike Germany deploys similar tactics of Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS), understood as a means of peaceful protest used with success against apartheid South Africa. The BDS movement against Israel has been banned in several countries and in 2019 the German Bundestag passed a resolution to outlaw it in Germany. This decision is subject to ongoing dispute (see this letter from artists, academics and cultural workers protesting this resolution). The Strike Germany campaign can also be read as a retaliation for the forced resignations of artists and cultural workers in Berlin who have been critical of Israel, notably from South Asia (eg the resignation of Documenta 16’s finding committee in November 2023 and the cancellation of Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie 2024 soon after). Strike Germany has had a significant impact on the cultural sector, initially in Berlin’s club scene/economy, with artists withdrawing from performances at its famous Berghain club.
The “sister” festivals, Transmediale and CTM, held annually in late January and early February were also affected this year. London-based producer Scratcha DVA is one artist who announced his withdrawal via Instagram, and whom I was looking forward to seeing in Berlin. This track “Afrotek” (2021) with Durban producer Mxshi Mo brings together UK bass and gqom [YouTube].
3. “ANG INTERNASYUNAL BUDOTS BOMB STYLE REMIX [SISONS GREETINGS!]” – Teya Logos
CTM opened on 26 January, the day the IJC announced its findings, so it seems significant that the festival’s first club night at the aforementioned Berghain featured a room curated by Thai artist Pisitakun, a recent fellow at the DAAD’s Music & Sound programme. Pisitakun’s research concerns the music of social movements for democracy in South East Asia and during his time at the DAAD he launched The Three Sound of Revolution project, named after the “three finger salute.” With reference to the popular TV series Hunger Games and derived from a signal used in the French Revolution, the gesture has been recently adopted by protestors in South East Asia to demand Solidarity, Equality and Liberty. The Three Sound of Revolution is divided into three sub-projects, “Middle Sound”, a compilation of protest songs, chants and speeches remixed as dance/party music by a selection of artists was released in November 2023. This was showcased during Pisitakun’s take over of Berghain’s Säule, with the artist inviting others representing South East Asia to perform and also installing a screen printing station to distribute talismanic revolutionary imagery.
Given the situation of strike and withdrawals coupled with protests against the rise of populist Right wing movements in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, Pisitakun’s programming struck a chord. While CTM joined wide-spread criticism of the Berlin Senate’s anti-discrimination bill, it refrained from directly commenting on the war in Gaza and many of us were interested in—and perhaps anxious about—how participating artists would respond.
Someone who clearly did not give a fuck was Filipinx artist Teya Logos playing “hardcore” Budots dance music, while screaming and slam dancing. She closed out her performance with a remix of the anthemic “Dammi Falastini” by Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf [YouTube].
4. “MONn-aARCHhE-EAT-JACKAAAL” (Elvin Brandhi Remix) – Pisitakun
“Since I was born I witnessed three different coups: in 1991, 2006 and 2014,” says Thai artist Pisitakun. “The question is stuck in my mind: Why do we have so many coups?
This track, remixed by Elvin Brandhi, another artist featured in CTM, is from Pisitakun’s album Absolute C.O.U.P. (2020) [bandcamp]
5. “Prayers” – Pinky Htut Aung
This recording is taken from the compilation Common Tonalities (2022) produced as part of Goethe-Institut’s Nusasonic project focused on experimental sound cultures in South East Asia, made in collaboration with CTM alongside Yes No Klub (Yogyakarta), WSK Festival of the Recently Possible (Manila), Playfreely/BlackKaji (Singapore). From Myanmar and currently based in Paris, Pinky is a multimedia artist and noise musician. She spoke on CTM’s panel “Revolutionary Music Movements under Distorted Rule of Law” (31 January 2024), where I asked about the connection between the kinds of popular protest songs that was discussed in the panel and the noise and “hardcore rave” dance music that was showcased at Berghain. While such sounds are often overlooked by music scholars and professionals, I was interested in how they had become popular in times of social upheaval. Noise music is distinct from commercial pop music and elite classical or compositional forms. It could be understood as being a liberatory or cathartic practice, and is often made collectively, but is it necessarily political? Or does it signify a politics that is different to conventional party systems, like anarchism? I was struck when Pinky said that for her noise music is therapeutic. To pick up on CTM festival’s theme “Sustain” for its 25th edition, could it be said that music sustains people through difficult times?
6. “Indignation” – Divide and DissolveDivide and Dissolve [bandcamp] are well known for their commitment to Black and Indigenous struggles as much as for their slow, loud and lurching music, devoid of vocals. I said to a friend who is keen to play heavy music with other racialised people, that she might not be familiar with Divide and Dissolve’s music, but she would certainly know their tee-shirt emblazoned with the words: “Destroy White Supremacy.” A classic, is how someone described it at the band’s merch stand and Divide and Dissolve have since produced a series of tees with statements that are, according to the band, “designed to provoke a conversation.”
Emerging from Naarm/Melbourne’s punk scene, where I first saw them play in 2017 alongside anticolonial death metal band Dispossessed [bandcamp]. Divide and Dissolve have gone on to achieve notable success, releasing their last two albums with Geoff Barrow’s (Portishead) label, Invada. So I was curious as to why they had not heeded the call to divest from Germany.
With my mind still occupied with Pisitakun and Pinky’s panel about protest music and noise earlier that evening, Divide and Dissolve set the scene at Berghain with a large back-projection of a animated Palestinian flag, rippling in the wind behind a wall of amplifiers. Guitarist and saxophonist, Takiaya Reed arrived on stage wearing a black and white keffiyeh across her shoulders and the duo’s drum kit was similarly draped with the checkered cloth that symbolises Palestinian liberation. After Sylvie Nehill left the band in 2022, Reed has continued with a roster of drummers and tonight she was joined by someone she named “Ced”, “Syd” or “Seb” oder…? Having established that their performance at CTM was a statement of solidarity, Reed breathed into her soprano saxophone to begin the first song only to realise that it was broken. She asked that if anyone in the audience could help, she would appreciate them coming back stage. For some long minutes we stood around, before the super-sized animated flag chatting to our neighbours and sipping our drinks as pop music played over the club’s legendary sound system. This was turning out to be an awkward performance.
Arguably, Divide and Dissolve decided to stay with the festival as their appearance would be more effective than their withdrawal. Indeed, artists critical of Strike Germany have argued that withdrawal is a privilege for only those who can afford to do so and often targets organisations working “behind the scenes” towards justice and peace. However, Divide and Dissolve also disrupted the smooth functionings of the event. Aside from delays due to her broken instrument, Reed took her time between songs to explain her position as someone with Black and Cherokee ancestry. She talked about cycles of violence, as those who have suffered genocide in turn perpetuate genocide, and elaborated on how some First Nations people in the US having survived colonial violence became slave owners. While Divide and Dissolve have cultivated a loyal and attentive following around the world, Reed’s ruminations were not well received by all at Berghain. I didn’t think it unusual when someone called out that she should stop talking and “play more music”, and certainly the audience was thinning out. Undeterred, Reed continued to address her heckler in a calm voice, without aggression, but nevertheless confrontational. With Reed holding the space and taking her time to discuss the issues that motivate the band and to name and thank all who had supported her, I began to think that Reed wields her vulnerability as a kind of power. Indeed, if Divide and Dissolve’s bone-rattling sound is as much therapeutic to experience as it is cathartic to perform, it is arguably during these times of violence and anxiety that it is most needed.
7. “Holy Motor” – FITNESSS feat. LUnG
FITNESSS’ striking intervention was into Berghain’s dance floor. Appearing among the crowd with a panel of backlit buttons strapped to their chest, FITNESSS’ provocateur (is it Jas Lin 林思穎?) encouraged the audience to push them and trigger sounds then heard on the main room’s massive surround sound system. FITNESSS are corporeal; physically confrontational and I suppose cathartic in a screamo kind of way. It feels more like a happening than a concert, as the crowd follows the action around the room. We are often pulled into to touch, mosh to crisp digital noise and so-called “sound design” or to pogo to pop music. I’m not sure if FITNESSS is the person I am watching being dragged around the room on their back, or the event in which the boundaries between performer and audience and the social conventions of the club are (physically) challenged. Towards the end of the performance, a shirtless vocalist lurches into the maelstrom of bodies, rasping into a microphone. I guess this is LUnG. Later online I read:
A FITNESSS performance is an expression of raw energy—creating immersive experiences that challenge conceptions of being and communion through movement, electronic sound architecture, and post-modern aesthetics. With an emphasis on audience involvement and collective presence, FITNESSS’ work explores the volatile nature of interpersonal dynamics, as well as the transformative power of crowd synchronization.
8. “Dimensional Spleen” – Aïsha Devi
I have been looking forward to see Aïsha Devi perform for some years. Although she does perform often enough in Berlin, I always seem to miss it. Now, touring her recent album Death Is Home (2023) [bandcamp], I find myself sitting exactly front and centre in the Volksbühne theatre where Devi will perform the closing concert. The stage’s scenography consisted of patchwork drapes and flags, set in motion by fans. Strobe lights and fog machines further contributed to Devi’s theatrics, and I heard someone commenting about “the weather on stage.” Dressed in a sheer black dress and shiny black trainers, Devi was often rendered as a silhouette and it soon became apparent that she had a Palestinian flag affixed to the back of her outfit (see main pic above). I can’t be certain about Devi’s use of flags. Given the artist draws inspiration from her paternal ancestry in Nepal, I’m guessing they are a reference to the Buddhist traditions of the Himalayas; when the wind blows through “prayer flags” bearing sutras they are believed to recite them. Devi often discusses the links between her mediation practice and music production by way of the healing qualities of frequencies. In a recent interview for Metal she offers:
Modern physics acknowledges 11 dimensions, and we perceive life in just 3D. To heal this civilization, I think we will have to be much more aware of our existence outside of this corporeal reality and in a higher dimensional plane. I really think that hyper-materialism is annihilating our sense of immortality, and that’s why the intangibility of music is so present in our life. Music is one of the tools that can help us initiate this consciousness and open the portals. I want to bring back the essential ritualistic aspect in contemporary music.
I admire Devi’s open-mindedness and willingness to speak her mind as much as I enjoy her music. When she addressed the audience at the closing of the concert she voiced her support for Palestine and said: “I came here because this is my community—you are my community.” Despite several withdrawals (and at least one forced cancellation at Transmediale), I often heard people reiterate this sense of community with phrases like: “this is my community and so in these days of war, genocidal violence and the threat of fascism it is important that we come together and talk.”
Certainly, there are those of CTM’s community who were missed. Kyham Allami, for example, who was instrumental to Nusasonics’ Common Tonalities project, announced his individual and indefinite strike from all German state funded work in October 2023, some months before the Strike Germany campaign.
This prompts me to think about the politics of friendship during this time of polarization. TBC…
If dub is a “mutant virus”, as Kevin Martin wrote back in the mid-1990s, then perhaps footwork is a fever—bringing some heat to a globalising club culture? Emerging from the South Side of Chicago, footwork and its sibling juke have certainly caught on since I first heard such productions via the blogosphere circa 2010. This was largely due to the late DJ Rashad (1979–2014) and DJ Spinn who had to began to tour beyond these scenes and into Europe. Here is an informative interview with these innovators and ambassadors of footwork at Redbull Music Academy from 2011.
Planet Mu’s Bangs & Works compilations (two volumes released 2010 & 2011) are often credited for bringing this genre of dance-battle music, gestating among the community centres and gyms accessible to the South Side’s youth, to the world. In this interview for Resident Advisor, 2011, Mike Paradinas, founder of Planet Mu, discusses the process of connecting with young producers in Chicago and sourcing the music for these compilations, such as ripping audio from YouTube! This was soon followed by compilations such as Juke Underground’s Juke World Order (2014–16), Teklife’s VIP (2016-ongoing) and On Life (2017–ongoing) series and Juke Bounce Werk’s JDUBZ (2014–ongoing) series among others, which attest to the global appeal of this urban dance music that evolved out of booty house and ghetto tek. I’ve been steadily accumulating a hard drive directory full of these compilations over several years, and while juke and footwork tracks have been part of my DJ playlists for some time, it was only recently that I found myself really digging working with these forms. So, over the Christmas break I decided to sift through my archives, organising GBs of music towards making this turning-of-the-year mix. An annotated tracklist follows.
Tracklist 01. “Hello (Footmerc edit)” – The Isley Brothers
From Juke World Order Vol. 1 (2014) [bandcamp] released by Juke Underground to showcase juke and footwork as a worldwide phenomenon. I must have stumbled across this compilation online in the years I stopped mixing, between 2010–20, and it has sat shelved on a hard drive. Although they seems they were quite active, I couldn’t find out much about Footmerc online, other than they are based in Austin. This video of a Teklife footwork battle at SXSW2013 is a curiousity. Their reworking of “Hello It’s Me” (1974) by the Isley Brothers is nostalgic, yet likeable, and serves as a friendly entry point.
02. “Get Down Lil Booty” – EQ Why feat. Traxman
I think I first came across Traxman [bandcamp] via a Dance Mania compilation. Active since the 1990s, Corky Strong AKA Cornelius Ferguson is a so-called legend of the Chicago scenes as part of the G.E.T.O DJZ INC and Teklife crews. His releases are prolific and varied across several labels, including Planet Mu [bandcamp]. I was led towards his Acid Lyf [bandcamp] releases while listening to some early techno in recent years for fugitive radio. I was for some time thrilled by this mix he made for Resident Advisor, impressed by his seemingly irreverent but precise technique.
With arguably the best name in the game EQ Why [bandcamp] AKA Tyrone Smith is another prolific stalwart of the Chicago scenes. I first came across him via Chitokyo Mixtape (2013) released on Orange Milk Records [bandcamp], which is an eccentric and high-speed montage of 60 tracks over 60 minutes. There is more to be said about Japanese footwork scenes, whom EQ Why and Traxman seem to connect with. None of it made it to this mix—perhaps another time! This track from EQ Why’s Juke Pack Vol. 2 (2021) [bandcamp] does a good job moving the mix rapidly from familiar pop/soul sounds into bass-heavy, repetitive dance floor workouts.
03. “Shawty You Lit 2” – DJ Taye
There was some hype about this Teklife prodigy coinciding with the release of their debut album, Still Trippin’ (2018) on Hyperdub [bandcamp]. This track comes from Taye’s more recent self-released “mixtape”, PYROT3K (2020). It was the sampling that got me hooked — tight and repetitive and that shifts emphasis for rhythmic effect.
04. “Haters Knock Em Out” – DJ Pierre
DJ Pierre is probably best known for his work with Phuture (alongside Spanky and Herb J) who brought Acid House into the world in the late 1980s. This track came to me circa 2008 via a Subterranean Playhouse Sampler I picked up on an e-music service and is probably one of the first juke tracks I heard, although it does not sound so much like the kinds of music I associate with the genre. I was very happy to find it while rummaging through my hard drives. Relatively slow, hypnotic and repetitive I can imagine it piquing the interest of dubstep and grime enthusiasts.
05. “Azzoutof Control” – RP Boo
Kavain Wayne Space, often referred to as the “Godfather” of footwork, is credited with making one of Juke’s foundational tracks, “Baby Come On” released on Dance Mania in 1997. Tracks such as this, with its repetitive rhythmic refrain and phasing, remind me of the early tape works of Steve Reich. Made for dancers, Boo’s productions are undoubtably funkier, but they suggest a kind of fascination with sonic phenomena (eg psychoacoustics) that seems to operate beyond the tropes of dance music genres. The much-loved “Buuuuu” eventually released his debut album, Legendary (2013), on Planet Mu [bandcamp] and label founder Mike Paradinas (who records as μ-Ziq) has been instrumental in promoting Boo and his legacy around the world. There are several insightful interviews with Boo online and I can recommend this conversation for Red Bull Music Academy 2016, where he discusses, among other things, the late DJ Rashad paving the way for his first gigs abroad. Via this video I came to the delightfully candid documentary of the House-O-Matics 29th reunion, 2014, embedded below. Made by Watch N Witness for television(!) it bears witness to the emergence of footwork out of juke and ghetto house, with cameos from notable dancers, DJs and producers such as the late DJ Deeon (1966–2023), who was affiliated with the Dance Mania label.
06. “Naked Rewerk” – DJ Innes feat. BE3K
Before making this mix, I’d not yet heard the way footwork has infected vogue ball, although I was not surprised. I was, however, surprised to learn that Jake William Innes resides in Sydney, where I also grew up. This says something about the globalisation of footwork which seemed resolutely localised in Chicago from when it emerged in the late 1990s until it was taken abroad by DJs Spinn and Rashad circa 2010. Innes’ Shout Outs (2019) [bandcamp] brings together previously released tracks and collaborations with the likes of Divoli S’vere—a stalwart of New York’s Ballroom scene and member of Qween Beat, founded by the legendary MikeQ, and with whom BE3K [bandcamp] is also affiliated. Innes is part of the TEKK DJz crew [bandcamp] alongside Traxman, and indeed the pair released a collaboration, The T & J Project (2015) [bandcamp].
07. “WFM” – Heavee feat. Gant-Man, DJ Paypal, DJ Phil, Sirr Tmo
Heavee [bandcamp] was another new discovery for me as I sifted through numerous Teklife compilations. Described on Hyperdub’s website as a queer producer, Heavee’s tracks segued perfectly between the unrelenting “work” tracks, shifting the mix into different gears that reference RnB, jungle and vogue ball. This track is from Heavee’s WFM (2018) album released on Teklife [bandcamp]. Later in the mix I was amused by how Heavee’s “Take Control” sparred quite nicely with the histrionic minimalism of RP Boo’s “Total Control” and into Jana Rush’s howler, “Disturbed”. To my mind, a reliable “connector” track is the mark of a great producer/DJ and Heavee’s tracks feature…um…heavily in this mix. I hear some influence of video game music (VGM) in “Floor Burn”, confirmed in this interview for DJ Mag. There is also an appreciation for space, tension and drama that plays out on the EP from which it was lifted, Audio Assault (2022) released on Hyperdub.
08. “Diamonds (Ventah Remix)” – Iyer
Iyer first came to my attention for his Tamil Footwork (2014) [bandcamp] released on Ground Mass Music. At the time based in Singapore, Iyer has since relocated to San Francisco and his productions also speak of the globalisation of footwork as a music genre, if not the culture that emerged around competitive dance-battles. Searching for a different footwork flavour, I was snagged by this remix by Ventah from the Tamil Footwork Remix EP (2015) [bandcamp], with its nebulous synths and boomy and muted kicks. By chance, it aligned perfectly with Statik’s refix of Goldie’s Timeless (1995) classic below…
09. “Inner City Life (Statik Footwork Refix)” – Goldie feat. Diane Charlemagne
I suppose one could say that this 2021 re-working of Goldie and Diane Charlemagne’s drum n bass crossover anthem by a Manchester-based DJ and producer—and made available as a free download from SoundCloud—tugs at the heart strings, as did the original. Which makes me think it adds a flourish of old-fashioned nostalgia to the mix! I thought of it as the mix’s “emotional core”, although it occurs about 17 minutes into an hour-long sequence. I’d say it brings another shade or mood to the mix following a series of pumelling “work” tracks. Statik’s remix is also indicative of the way footwork was embraced by UK DJs schooled on jungle, such as Paradinas mentioned above and Hyperdub founder Steve Goodman AKA Kode9. Under the moniker Addison Groove, Brighton-based producer Tony Williams, known for his dubstep productions as Headhunter, began bringing the genres (and speeds together)—and struck up a friendship with Rashad around 2008. DJ Rashad also concurs in a 2013 interview for The Quietus, noting the genres’ similar tempos, as does another notable and prolific British producer Mark Pritchard in this interview for Fact magazine from the same year.
10. “Our Love” – Surly
From a compilation JBDUBZ Vol. 4 (2016), released by the Juke Bounce Werk collective [bandcamp] which seems to have gone offline. Another label that emphasises the globalisation of juke and footwork, foregrounding an international network of artists. What I know of Surly, gleaned from their bandcamp page, is that they are based in Auckland, which had a reputation for nurturing a thriving drum n bass scene in the 1990s. This spare, shuffling track, with its skittering snare/rim patterns offsetting (synthetic) orgasmic moans, brings another kind of fidgety swing and affect to the mix. I often think that DJing is not simply about matching beats, but about tension and release and this track serves to wind things down in terms of its beat science, but raises the erotic quotient significantly. It’s certainly not a battle track, but then I find it a little over the top for love-making, which I suppose it what makes it effective as a “DJ tool”.
11. “Funky Groove (Bass Bag)” – Heavee
Another great track from my current favourite producer, that takes the energy of the mix up a notch with its forceful drums and brash bassline that serendipitously locks snuggly into Surly’s twitchy groove. There’s also some special talent in making the “funky groove” sample not sound totally kitsch. Taken from TRACKPAK V.5 (2020) [bandcamp], Heavee describes the track as being inspired by UK producer Addison Groove’s “Footcrab” and specifically this remix my DJs Spinn and Rashad.
12. “Barnacles (Kode9 Remix)” – Hyph11E
I was trying to avoid Kode9. The London-based DJ, producer,“label boss” and sound theorist AKA Steve Goodman has certainly shaped the kinds of bass and urban dance musics I listen to. However, as an early champion of footwork, I was wary of his influence overshadowing this mix. Also, I’m not sure if this remix would be considered footwork. To my mind, Kode9 takes Hyph11E’s sound design (AKA Tess Sun, who worked in film/television sound production before focusing on music), which has the atmospherics of a sci-fi alien horror movie/game crossover, and sutures them to a “banging” drum track (I think lifted from DJ Paypal’s “100%“) with dollops of ectoplasmic bass. It rattles alongs like a mousetrap rollercoaster and it even has a big dipper moment, when the snares and cymbals drop out and the kicks and bass take over, which makes me think its structural blueprint comes from playing first-person video games. To my ears, it sounds closer to breaks than anything else in this mix, which I find quite funny. I can’t seem to take breaks very seriously—which need not be a criticism. Why shouldn’t dance music be full of novelty and thrills? The textural quality of the sounds is also different to what has come before it. Letting it play all the way out, I also found it mixes quite nicely with the EQ Why track, that follows, their respective bass punctuations seem to goad each other along, adding some extra bounce in the bottom end.
13. “Whip, Shake, Werk, Bang” – EQ Why
Like most of EQ Why’s oeuvre, this track from 2020 [bandcamp] is well produced, charismatic and works reliably in a mix. Its frequencies resonate for me in all the right places and structurally the song punches, kicks and twitches just as I like.
Growing up in Gary, Indiana, Jlin AKA Jerrilyn Patton developed her music on the fringes of Chicago’s footwork scenes, and is often described as being “footwork-adjacent”. I find that in the experimental music scenes in which I circulate, Jlin has come to represent the more experimental, abstract or “fucked up” aspects of footwork and is increasingly being recognised as a contemporary composer—a piece she developed with Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2023. This track, taken from Dark Energy (2015), Planet Mu [bandcamp], is to my mind playful and winsome, evidence of a lightness-of-touch.
In my experience of mixing footwork I’ve found that much of it conforms to a 160BPM/80BPM tempo. While the drum programming of producers such as Jlin are often described as “complex”, “abstract” or “asymmetrical”, footwork tracks tend to retain a 4/4 time signature (vestigial house?). So while it might not always be so easy to hear the “one” that emphasises the beginning of a new bar in polyrhythmic productions, there a different points in such tracks where it can be cued in or looped to emphasise a specific rhythm. In some footwork tracks, a looped vocal sample supplies the rhythmic backbone, eg DJ Taye’s “Shawty You Lit 2” prior. Samples in footwork are often short sound bites, that serve as a hook and are potentially instructional on the dance-battle ground: “work it”, “bang this joint” etc. When listening back to recordings of my mixes, I was struck by how these different voices seemed to speak to each other, coming in from different points in the stereo field and occupying different spaces of the frequency bandwidth…
16. “Ridin Hi” – DJ Earl
So, it’s obvious that DJ Hank’s refrain of “you make me feel so high” would speak to Jlin’s “so high” before encountering DJ Earl’s “you ridin’ hi”. From a compilation Dred Collective Vol. 2 (2014) [bandcamp], released by a London-based “multi-genre digital labal”.
17. “Propaganda” – A.Fruit
I’ve only just come across Anna Fruit while making this mix; a Russian producer who the internet indicates is now based in Barcelona. This track appears on Teklife’s On Life Vol. 3 (2022) [bandcamp] and sounds to my ears like it would suit a vogue ball.
18. “Workitbaby” – SubCode
I found this on Juke Bounce Werk’s JDUBZ Vol. 4 (2016) and there are ten in this series so far. The track is from SubCode’s self-released YoushouldbeDancin (2016) long-player. Not a lot of info— they seem to be glitchy productions comprising samples from rap and RnB. It segues out of the “high” segment of my mix, made up of what I’m calling “fragmented” tracks. The looping and cutting could be developed further as a particular mixing style.
19. “Bang This Joint” – DJ Manny
A tight production by Manuel Gaines, one of the co-founders of Teklife, lifted from his Control (2023) EP released on Planet Mu [bandcamp]. I like how all the sound sources are tweaked and EQ’d and sit in distinct zones of the frequency bandwidth. The repetitive sampling winds up the rhythmic tension, and this is another track that lends itself to be mixed according to the vocal line.
20. “Floor Burn” – Heavee
From Audio Assault (2022) released on Hyperdub, an EP that the producer says is designed to score specific scenes in a video game battle such as:“the calm before the storm, the showdown, the battle, and the aftermath”. To me this track builds up the drama of the mix and sounds like something I could imagine hearing at a vogue ball.
21. “Total Darkness” – RP Boo
From Planet Mu’s Bangs & Works Vol. 1 (2010) [bandcamp], the looping vocal sample in this track makes me a little anxious—it sounds an alarm—and after some repetitions it sounds to my ears like the singer is invoking: “Boo-ooh…RP Boo-ooh”! It has an epic build up—it’s almost two minutes into the track before the voice commanding listeners to “take the floor” kicks in. I can’t imagine what this would do to a dance floor.
22. “Take Control” – Heavee
Some fun mixing/wordplay as RP Boo responds to Heavee’s suggestion, “I think it’s time to make the floor burn” with “take the floor” which is then cut with Heavee’s “take control”. I suppose this would be the battle sequence of the mix. This track is from Heavee’s TRAKPAK V5 (2020) and is described as being influenced by dub and ragga.
23. “Disturbed” – Jana Rush
Arguably the emotional climax of this mix. I find Rush’s productions to be spare, almost skeletal. Nevertheless, the vocal sample is hilariously hysterical, bringing to mind diva driven house music. It’s taken from her Painful Enlightenment (2021) LP released on Planet Mu [bandcamp].
From Juke Underground’s compilation Juke World Order Vol. 2 (2015) [bandcamp], I feel like I’ve been carrying this track around for a long time. Its production standards are not as slick as much of the music featured in this mix, nevertheless its humour, driving pulse and jarring noise that have kept it in my playlists. I also thought it cute to bookend this mix with two cuts from Juke Underground’s series; beginning with a track that extends a friendly “Hello” and ending with another that issues a curt “Goodbye” before hanging up!
My friend, the artist and broadcaster Nathan Gray [Instagram], describes the current war in Gaza as the “New Berlin Wall”, as it has polarised a city that is home to significant migrant communities from both Palestine and Israel. In a country held accountable for the Jewish Holocaust and which considers Israel’s security and right to exist its “Staaträson”, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment have surfaced since Hamas’ 7 October attack in southern Israel. From a distance in Finland, I began to approach these developments via anti-racism frameworks; being attentive to (historical) forms of biological race and ethno-nationalism, alongside more recent concepts of ethnocracy—a term coined by Oren Yiftachel, a Professor of Political Geography, to describe circumstances in which democratic processes are unequally distributed among citizens, biased towards ethnic groups in power.
Cultural theorist Paul Gilroy opens his book, Against Race (2000)—re-published as Between Camps (2004)—with a citation from Frantz Fanon:
At first thought it may seem strange that the anti-Semite’s outlook should be related to that of the Negrophobe. It was my philosophy professor, a native of the Antilles, who recalled the fact to me one day: “Whenever you hear someone abuse the Jews, pay attention, because he is talking about you.” And I found that he was universally right—by which I meant that I was answerable in my body and my heart for what was done to my brother. Later I realized that he meant, quite simply, that an anti-Semite is inevitably anti-Negro.
Fanon (Black Skin, White Masks) cited in Gilroy 2000, p. 1.
Writing at the turn of the last century, Gilroy argues that the ambition of anti-racism work should be to dismantle race as a category of difference, and he urges his readers to be wary of emergent forms of racism arising from technological developments, such as genetics.
Like many others, doomscrolling through a feed of “atrocity images” and trauma over the past two months, my interest was piqued last week with the publication of an investigation “‘A mass assassination factory‘: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza” by +972 Magazine and Local Call , an independent, bipartisan and non-profit platform established by Israeli and Palestinian journalists. Authored by Yuval Abraham [Instagram], the article outlines Israel Defense Forces (IDF) use of machine learning and AI in determining military targets, in particular a system named Hasbora (The Gospel). There has already been much discussion about the inherent bias in such systems and criticism about their use in policing, so Hasbora’s deployment in a situation where vengeance is a motive is alarming. It should be noted, as Abraham states at the beginning of this interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, that this report was vetted by the Israeli military censor. That is, the IDF has some interest in publicising this information. A recent article in the New York Times reveals how Israel’s security intelligence failed to act on early indicators of Hamas planning an attack on 7 October, thus Abraham proposes that the Netanyahu government is under pressure to produce a “victory image” for its citizens, and arguably one that foregrounds its technological prowess.
Investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein, whose recent book The Palestine Laboratory (2023) is concerned with how Israel develops and tests its sophisticated military and surveillance technologies in Gaza, is often called upon to comment on these issues. Contained within a security wall, Egypt’s national border and the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is often described as an “open-air prison”. With over 2 million people in area that is approximately 365 square km, it is one the most densely populated regions in the world. As noted by scholars Eyal Weizman (2007) and Jasbir K. Puar (2017), Gaza is tightly controlled; dependent on aid, supplies and (communication) infrastructures that are ultimately managed by Israel, calculated according to what is necessary for survival. Thus, it can be easily analysed as a bio/necro-political regime. Following the end of the cease-fire on 30 November and as the staggering civilian death toll continues to climb, the US and other allied states, including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, are qualifying their statements of unequivocal support for the war Israel names “Operation Iron Swords”, cautioning the Zionist state to minimise civilian casualties while continuing to sanction its efforts to completely destroy Hamas. In an interview with Amy Goodman and Juan González on Democracy Now!, Loewenstein points out that these states are continuing to export arms to Israel, and that some of them have significantly expanded these exports since 7 October. Alongside arms proliferation and shared intelligence, these states are also implicated in global supply chains that produce these weapons technologies. As such, the images (and information) currently flowing out of Gaza are effectively, as Al Jazeera presenter Jonah Hull puts it, a “live-fire, real-time experiment” demonstrating these technologies and their concomitant political strategies.
This podcast, “The Image of Gaza”, returns to the theme of “optics”. It is a montage/mixtape of news media, music, infomercials and street recordings that serve as a prompt to think about the images flowing out of the war and how they are being received and interpreted by different interests. These include:
– affective “atrocity images” of an exceptional humanitarian crisis at scale and evidence of possible war crimes
– a “victory image” that Israel’s Netanyahu government is under pressure produce following security intelligence failures to act on early indications of Hamas’ 7 October attack
– a “live-fire, real-time experiment” demonstrating Israel’s military technologies and that attest to a global weapons market and production supply chains that implicate the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia in the war.
fugitive radio made a presentation and live broadcast at “one century abc”, a week-long program of experimental music, installation and performance organised by Äänipäivät at Titanik Gallery, Turku, 21–26 November. After meeting OOO Radio for their inaugural outside broadcast in Helsinki on the weekend, I wanted to present something that echoed their gesture and also connected some of the radio networks/projects that we potentially overlap. Unfortunately, I was hampered by an uncontrollable running nose and a technical glitch rendered the recording near unlistenable. So below is the script.
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fugitive radio-Out Of Office Radio: artradio2radioart Out of Office Radio (OOO Radio) is a bicycle-mounted mobile radio station based in Helsinki, initiated by artists James Prevett and Samantha Lippett with bespoke speakers and a fabric designed by Timo Vaittinen and additional support from Iiri Poteri. It was launched this month as part of James’ exhibition, “Together With” at Forum Box art space in Helsinki with a focus on “the creation of curious and experimental sound in public space”. It is available online— indeed we are streaming live on it now—and they plan to make the mobile studio a loanable resource, prioritising “participatory approaches to broadcasting and distributing material that would otherwise not have a place on traditional radio stations.”
Some listeners may know that my ongoing project, fugitive radio, was initially proposed to be a “bicycle-mounted radio shack and mobile recording studio” to the Helsinki based media arts association, Pixelache, for their 2021 festival. So my interest was immediately piqued when I stumbled onto OOO Radio a little over a week ago. I reached out to Sam and James via email to offer a contribution and then last Saturday joined them alongside Iiri for their inaugural outside broadcast: an excursion to this sculpture of Elias Lönnrot.
James maintains a series, “Patsastellaan: Parties for Public Sculpture”, for which the artist invites other artists to collaborate on making a new work together, beginning from an existing public sculpture. Arguably these “parties” celebrate historically commissioned monuments, drawing attention to aspects of the built/designed/landscaped environment that are often overlooked; thus together we recall the histories and the contexts in which these sculptures were erected, to examine their details and encourage speculation or fabulation about their (continued or shifting) significance, symbolism and meaning.
[Audio description of the image]
These two people are passerby, I believe strangers to the artists who were intrigued enough to stop by on a wintery Saturday afternoon – can you see snow in the image?
I like how this person in the left is taking a photograph. I wonder if they put it on Instagram? Because that’s what I did, with the caption:
#outsideofficeradio streaming live with Elias Lönnrot. Public sculpture meets social sculpture as outside broadcast @forumbox
So for this performance/presentation, I would like to unpack this caption and this photographic/Instagramatic impulse, responding in turn to OOO Radio—art-radio-to-radioart—as a live (but not outside) broadcast.
Public sculpture
I grew up in Sydney, Australia and I think it was an artist and friend Deborah Kelly who once quipped to me, that if you really want to forget about a popular or political figure, then one sure way to do it is to turn them into a public sculpture that birds will shit on and that everyone would ignore. So, I’m interested in this prospect of public sculpture being a means of externalising or purging someone from the collective conscience. In some ways memorialising them, but also making their sanctioned legacy—literally the ideas and values that such a monument stands for—available for public scrutiny, critique, perhaps vandalism or even iconoclasm. Think of the toppling of statues of slave owners as part of the Black Lives Matter uprisings.
Social sculpture
“Social sculpture”, a term coined by the conceptual artist Jospeh Beuys to develop an understanding of art that encompasses all of society. According to Beuys: “EVERY HUMAN BEING IS AN ARTIST” with the potential to consciously contribute to a “TOTAL ART WORK OF THE FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER.” An entry on Wikipedia suggests that even a mundane task, such as peeling a potato, would contribute to such a TOTAL ART WORK, if undertaken as a conscious act. It reminds me of other traditions that endorse approaching the rituals of daily life into deliberate, intentional and potentially aesthetic actions—such as certain forms of Buddhism or (secular) mindfulness techniques that compel one to be present, attentive and calm.
Outside broadcast
fugitive radio was initiated in 2020 with the aforementioned Pixelache during the first waves of the COVID pandemic. During this time it seemed that everyone was making a podcast, but who was listening? So I began to wonder what it was we were doing. I came to think of these radio experiments as a kind of social phenomena with technology, emphasising the social production that accompanied the production of (experimental/amateur/art) radio.
The Japanese philosopher and performer, Tetsuo Kogawa, coined the term “radioart” (one word), to distinguish the “free play of frequencies” from art on the radio. It’s a notion that fugitive radio is aligned with, alongside open culture movements that emphasise the use and development of free/libre and open source tools and practices of sharing (digital commoning). As such, fugitive radio collaborates with like-minded groups and organisations including: {openradio}, lumbung radio/Station of Commons and πNode on which we are currently broadcasting.
I often describe fugitive radio as “responding to the uptake of radio in contemporary art by producing live, collectively-realised broadcast events.” Sometimes I say it as a vehicle for developing experimental modes of “performance/participatory radio.” During Pixelache Helsinki’s 2021 festival at Oodi Library, fugitive radio produced a regular hour-long outside broadcast over eight consecutive days, exploring formats that included: interviews, conversations and vox pops; Hum Klub; Karaoke Theory; environmental percussion (with artist Suva Das) alongside (augmented) soundscapes and of course glitches and occasional dead air.
Since then fugitive radio has gone on to produce events such as KARA-O-KLINIK, a karaoke therapy clinic (HIAP Suomenlinna, 2022), conceived as a kind of awkward durational sit-com; and NightShift, a live and improvised overnight broadcast and publishing performance/happening at the independent art book shop, Limestone Books, Maastricht and organised in collaboration with London-based artist/publisher Rose Nordin.
Over the last year I found myself emphasising that while fugitive radio has found a niche in contemporary art, it is not a visual arts project.
Radio communities
I think of this presentation of echoing OOO Radio’s inaugural outside broadcast; speaking to their social sculpture in the same way they are speaking to this monument of ….?
I’ve become intrigued by how the notion of “radio” or “broadcasting” frames a discussion. It seems that as soon as you put a microphone in front of a person they begin to perform. Or perhaps people simply perform to the situation. How much of this technology is necessary, especially if no-one is listening? Can we simply “frame” a conversation discursively and call it “radio”? Does anybody need to be listening? “If a radio broadcasts in a forest…” is something Sophea Lerner, one of the co-founders of the independent radio platform { openradio }, once said to me.
Nevertheless, technology is indeed one of fugitive radio’s concerns, emphasising the use of free/libre and open source tools and artist-developed platforms and software. I often describe my interest is in performing these infrastructures. And I would suggest that there is something similar going on in this pictures as James, Sam and Iirie perform—or perform to—the built environment. In doing so they bring others into the artwork understood as expanded sculpture, social practice or indeed social sculpture—as participants, interlocutors or onlookers, drawing attention to the situation by simply contributing their gaze.
Arguably, fugitive radio’s real interest is not so much about community radio, but rather “radio communities”. That is, those who use, develop and maintain alternative networked communication media technologies. I often claim that such radio communities suggest a counter-culture to the “pics-or-it-didn’t-happen” behaviour induced by popular social media platforms, such as Instagram. This might not be a revolutionary “FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER”, but it may nevertheless be emancipatory as people grasp the tools of production, communication and distribution and most importantly co-learn, share and socialise as “radio friends” or comrades.
I had the pleasure of meeting Juuso [Instagram] and hanging out at IDA radio, Helsinki last Friday 17 November. It turns out Juuso was one of the founders of MYÖS [Instagram], Finland’s premier “genre fluid” queer party collective. We chatted about our different histories and interests in DJing and approaches to the “Night Life Business”. We also shared some music…but be warned my mix is messy. Next time I will insist on familiarising myself with the mixer beforehand!
FYI: IDA is truly underground radio — a community organised initiative spanning Tallinn (Estonia) and Helsinki. In Finland, IDA maintains a cosy bunker studio that is inconspicuous behind tiny Alice In Wonderland doors beneath KAIKU, Helsinki’s most reputable club for electronic dance music.
+ Kiitos to Lintu Lunar AKA LIPGLOSSBOY for connecting us!
We began by recalling Matti’s visit to Sydney, Australia in 2000 as a representative of the Finnish Youth Parliament and then went on to range over issues that overlap art and politics, such as: settler colonialism in Finland and the Nordic States—notably so-called “Green Colonialism”—alongside the appropriation and weaponisation of Sámi culture by the tourism industry. We also discuss our mutual interests in music; the horrorcore rap of Inari language activist Amoc and the intricacies of Sámi joiking. Given we both DJ, Matti also shed some light on the underground techno scenes in the North.
Many thanks to Lena, Petra and Ville-Veikko from Goethe-Institut Finnland for organising the event. Also props to Timo Tuhkanen, Eddie Choo Wen Yi, Constantinos Miltiadis, Irina Mutt, Mathilde Palenius and Essi for their generous contributions to our conversation, and to Goethe-Institut Finnland and Jakub Bobrowski for the fotos [all links on Instagram]!
