My DJ-focused report about Unsound Festival, 2024 themed Noise has been published, somewhat sentimentally, in Cyclic Defrost. A publication that began as zine affiliated with the Frigid chill club nights in Sydney, circa the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was via Frigid that a first heard, sometimes met and occasionally befriended artists involved in abstract and experimental club music. Very happy to have completed this circle somehow and be warned: it’s a long read!

So while Unsound presented numerous notable concerts, club nights, installations and a discourse program, my focus here is on the festival’s DJ sets. Once in Kraków, I sensed a backlash against DJ culture, as people voiced to me their disdain for the popular Boiler Room platform, complained about the exorbitant fees headlining DJs charge and generally begrudged those who, to paraphrase British producer aya, “make a career out of playing other people’s music”— albeit admitting to having done so herself. Are such criticisms warranted? Let’s cut to the chase.

Read more at Cyclic Defrost.

Foto: Michal Murawski 2024