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MOTHER MIX! - This Week's Free Lab Radio Show

Gavin Maycroft is a fantastic music promoter in Stockholm who books acts that range from folk to noise (300 acts in the last five years, he'll have you know). Maycroft does this under the title of 'Mother'.  Once, a long time ago, he helped out at Resonance104.4FM and was a sound engineer who we all loved and looked forward to seeing.

Plus he manages bands; Munnen, Saigon and Invader Ace and has just launched cassette tape label 'Oma333'!  Big up!

First releases will be Gabo and the Wartels, R Stevie Moore and Blood Music (Sweden).

His bespoke mix for Free Lab Radio is a choice selection of Swedish and Finnish acts he's booked. 11-midnight on 104.4FM across London on air, and online otherwise use Radioplayer's handy little URL here http://radioplayer.resonancefm.com/console/

Tonight's Free Lab Radio Show - Women Producers

Fari Bradley takes a look at women producing and fronting their own dance music.

Listen in tonight from 11-midnight on 104.4FM - www.resonancefm.com
Electric Indigo, Founder of Female Pressure

This Week's Free Lab Radio - "SUS!"

OK that's not really the title, just made it up. SUS! is actually the title of one of tonight's tracks by Kalmata (pictured) on the UK's unwelcome SUS (suspected person) Laws.  Class track, new release too.

So tonight we're sampling new projects by ex-Ramallah Underground and many other new releases, while giving a nod to amazing work from London, Brooklyn, Iran, Berlin and beyond.
I'm on the decks after a long break. Love being forced to get into tracks to that intensity again.

All hail Afriquoi, Boicutt, Grizzly Bear, The Dø, Bernard Parmegiani, Bebop & Rocksteady (a duo with Luke's Anger), Vieux Farka Touré and Alex Tomb.  

11-midnight Saturday nights on 104.4FM, www.resonancefm.com GMT

Aboriginal Treaty Song - Club Mix

We're loving the retro 90s sound and the dynamic video of this Treaty song remixed by Filthy Lucre.

Yothu Yindi (Yolngu for "child and mother") are an Australian musical group with Aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) members formed in 1986. The group were highly active established the Yothu Yindi Foundation in 1990 to promote Yolngu cultural development, and produced the annual Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures and as of May 2007 ran a Dilthan Yolngunha (Healing Place). We like the way they use bilma (ironwood clapsticks), hear the original below the remix with its potent English lyrics.
(Then Prime Minister) Bob Hawke visited the Territory. He went to this gathering in Barunga. And this is where he made a statement that there shall be a treaty between black and white Australia. Sitting around the camp fire, trying to work out a chord to the guitar, and around that camp fire, I said, "Well, I heard it on the radio. And I saw it on the television." That should be a catchphrase. And that's where 'Treaty' was born. —Mandawuy Yunupingu, lead singer and guitarist Yothu Yindi 8 July 2004
Melbourne-based dance remixers Filthy Lucre's Robert Goodge and Gavin Campbell adapted the song, their version peaked at No. 11 on the ARIA (Australia's BBC) singles charts. In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "Treaty" as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. In October 1992, the then (another) Prime Minister government awarded Yothu Yindi a $30,000 grant but sadly the money was only used to travel to New York, where the band performed at the UN launch of International Year for the World's Indigenous People. Far better if they had performed at a concert with wider impact, a wider audience and less marginalised programming.

Lead singer and guitar player Yunupingu said he drank up to four cartons of alcohol a day.
"Alcohol was a big influence in my life. I didn't know what harm it did to my body. Before I knew, it was too late". 
You'd think someone would've had the wherewithal to tell him. In December 2012 Yothu Yindi were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, with Peter Garrett (former member of Midnight Oil).
In June 2013 Mandawuy Yunupingu died of renal failure. While languages of the aboriginal are disappearing songs like this help us to consider a culture different form ours, which was and still is mostly just brushed aside.

This Week's Free Lab Radio - WFMU Takeover

Proof that Mandl was once in the UK
Guest DJ this week is broadcaster DAVID MANDL. The Brooklyn-based WFMU stalwart, Wire writer and muse-o constructs a bespoke playlist for us this week on Free Lab Radio, featuring traces of near-jazz, anti-rock, post-punk, and other unidentified flying genres. What a record collection!

Mandl hosts the radio show “World of Echo” on ResonanceFM's US sister station - WFMU, he is also
Music Editor, at the Brooklyn Rail and as a freelancer has written/edited/reported for the Wire, The Register, The Believer, Rumpus, Flavorwire, Village Voice, Mute, Semiotext(e), Yeti, American Book Review, Sound Collector, Chicago Reader and more.


Aside from taking stunning photographs, Mandl co-founded the Conflux festival and is a bass guitar and drum player. And a dad. Listen in on Resonance 104.4FM Saturday 11pm til midnight, or catch the repeat on Wed 2.30am (GMT).


We have a winner! Jah Wobble Ticket Giveaway to Music Pilgrim

Tabernale, London
Congrats to Radu Odiatiu from Romania who's visiting London this weekend and won the pair of tickets to Jah Wobble's Tabernacle gig which is part of the current Nour Festival in West London.

Wadu said that Jah Wobble was responsible for introducing him to the culture of North Africa and Middle East with his basslines and that his "I'm an Algerian" is one of Radu's favourite tracks of all time. Radu also wrote us that as The Tabernacle plays such an important part in British musical history and is a site of cultural heritage, he'd like to be there to see it live. 

Jah wobble used to be part of PiL (Johnny Rotten's Public Image Limited), and has now expanded his musical range to experimenting with all sorts of amazing world music collaborators. We advertised tickets on this recent Free Lab Radio episode, on Resonance104.4FM

Tonigh'ts Free Lab Radio - Lo Recordings Exclusive

Lo's Summer holidays
This week's guest DJ is Flavio Nunes, from Lo Recordings, presenting a superb playlist and exclusive free downloads to give away! Listen in to find out where to get your tracks.

Lo Recordings label was founded in 1995 by Jon Tye. They are noted for their strong visual style thanks to Non-Format, with whom they work closely and won a D&AD award for several of their release sleeves.
Lo & Behold, the home of Lo Recordings, is also about esoteric events amongst other surprises. Home to Luke Vibert,  The Chap, The Adamski Kid (related?) and more, from time to time Lo promotes their music with free downloads and tonight is one of those!  Listen to the show to get your free downloads exclusive to Free Lab Radio listeners.

Flavio Nunes a film and sound enthusiast currently working at Lo Recordings, using video, photography and cine film in his practice. He also did a stint at no.w.here, a not-for-profit arts-space in Bethnal Green specialising in filming, developing and expanding 16mm and 8mm cine film. Nunes builds his own electronic musical instruments and experiments with accompanying visuals, contributing to the music-video industry. 

Guest DJ Isa GT - Free Lab Radio Show, Sat Nov 2nd

Guest Free Lab DJ this week is Isa GT, a colombian artist in London who runs her record label Etoro Records, makes videos, music and parties and has a show on pulseradio.com

Isa GT was with the !WOWOW! art collective from South London and is now with all-girl collective Girlcore. For this week's Free Lab Radio, she's prepared a truly eclectic mix, peppered with exclusives.

We broadcast Sat night 11-midnight on arts-music station Resonance 104.4FM, repeating Wednesday 2.30am. Listen online with the player, top right.

Below is the track and video that brought Isa GT to our attention, and which we played earlier in the year for a special on women who produce their own music, way before mainstream media were making a feature of it like they are now: La Mamasitas, slang for "babe” or chick. Here's her tracklist:

Mulatu Astatke - Ené Alantchi Alnorem (I Can't Live Without You)
Mat Cant ft Steph Hannah - Slow (Instrumental). Scattermusic
DJ QUALITY - Sonido Quality. Bersa Discos
Rafi El - Tra Ba. Dutty Artz
Cero 39 - Berlombia. Etoro Records
Santino - Sabor De Tú Amor (Frikstailers Remix). Trouble & Bass
Multifunkshun - Paye Ton Son. Etoro Records
Untitled Project ft Isa GT - If You Want. Etoro Records
Different Marks - Into The Night ft Mama. Pets Recordings (free download)
Son Palenque - Yo No Puedo Mas (Rafi El Remix). Dutty Artz
So Shifty feat. Paco Mendoza - Rude Gal (Chief Boima ft Isa GT Remix). Man Recordings
Gyptian - High Grade
Cocotaxi - Sueños de Marimba (Isa GT Remix). (free download) 

Tonight's Free Lab Radio - Nour Festival, Win Tickets!

Al Muqanaa (the Masked) (Photo: © Tarek Abu Esber and © Nour Festival)
This week we're highlighting the Middle Eastern arts festival taking over Kensington this month. Contemporary art, film, literature, music and performance from the Middle East and North Africa, we've tracks from Jah Wobble and Moroccan El Maâlem Mahmoud Guinia, Zaiio, Afrikan Boy, YADi, Simo Lagnawi, MC Xander, OneTaste, Borderless Beats, Simo Lagnawi and more.
   

PLUS TWO TICKETS TO SEE JAH WOBBLE LIVE IN CONCERT 
 with Morocco’s finest performer El Maâlem Mahmoud Guinia on his 1st ever UK visit 

 NOV 16th, 19:00 at the TABERNACLE
35 Powis Square, W11 2AY
Tube: Westbourne Park; Ladbroke Grove 

 2 tickets worth £33 for a pair of tickets up for grabs.
To win email info@resonancefm.com telling us why we should give them to you before Wed Nov 13th. We'll pick one of the best ones out of a hat and let you know.

OOAH! This Week's Free Lab Radio - Welcome to New Orleans

EVERY SATURDAY 11-midnight on 104.4FM or click the Radio Player on the side of this web-post to stream live.

This week's Free Lab Radio is a cuckoo mix from the Lexdray City Series competition, as commissioned by Glitch Mob and Mixcrate.com. This Volume (23) is called Welcome to New Orleans and is mixed by LA resident DJ Ooah.

We love this mix because it features several re-works by Ooah and tracks by plenty we've never heard of alongside knowns such as Koreless and Diplo. It sounds super-fresh.

Enjoy! 

Hometown:

Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?

Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?

Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?

2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
- See more at: http://www.lexdray.com/collections/city-series/products/ooah#sthash.psuoEPr4.dpuf 
If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?
Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever perfoHometown:
Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?
Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?
Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?
2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
Volume 23
Welcome to New Orleans
Mixed by Ooah

1) The Hawketts - Mardi Gras Mambo
2) Sandro Silva & Quintino - Epic - Gent & Jawns Edit (Ooah's Rework)
3) Diplo & Swick - Keep It Gully (Ooah's Rework)
4) Sabo - Live It Up Remix (Ooah's Rework)
5) King Kong In The Trunk (Ooah's Rework)
6) Chooky - 808's & Moombah Breaks (Ooah's Rework)
7) Koreless - MTI (Twrk Remix)
8) Libton - Drift Until
9) Halo 4 - Green & Blue (KOAN Sound Remix)
10) Alexandre - The Struggle
11) Si Begg - From My Laptop
12) French Montana - Marble Floors (MartyParty Remix)
13) Dog Blood - Chella Ride
14) Ooah - Messed It Up Again
15) Lusine - Flat & Krewella - Alive (Ooah's Rework)
16) Jeremih - Girlz Gon Wyld (Taste Tester Remix)
17) Mammoth - HXV & Carnage Remix (Ooah's Rework)
18) PANTyRAiD - Brooklyn Angel
19) Kill The Noise - Rockers (Bro Safari & UFO! Remix)
20) Ooah - We're Alone

Hometown:

Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?

Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?

Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?

2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
- See more at: http://www.lexdray.com/collections/city-series/products/ooah#sthash.psuoEPr4.dpuf

Hometown:

Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?

Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?

Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?

2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
- See more at: http://www.lexdray.com/collections/city-series/products/ooah#sthash.psuoEPr4.dpuf

Hometown:

Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?

Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?

Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?

2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
- See more at: http://www.lexdray.com/collections/city-series/products/ooah#sthash.psuoEPr4.dpuf

Hometown:

Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?

Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?

Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?

2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
- See more at: http://www.lexdray.com/collections/city-series/products/ooah#sthash.psuoEPr4.dpuf

OOAH

City Series Mix Volume 23
1/3 of The Glitch Mob, 1/2 of PANTyRAiD & 100% Of Porcelain - A maker of many musics.

Hometown:

Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?

Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?

Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?

2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
- See more at: http://www.lexdray.com/collections/city-series/products/ooah#sthash.psuoEPr4.dpuf

OOAH

City Series Mix Volume 23
1/3 of The Glitch Mob, 1/2 of PANTyRAiD & 100% Of Porcelain - A maker of many musics.

Hometown:

Los Angeles, CA

If you could collaborate musically with anyone of your choice, who would you choose?

Trent Reznor

What is your favorite venue you've ever performed at?

Red Rocks in Colorado

What DJ gear and travel essentials do you always carry with you on the road?

2 Macbook Pros, 2 Apogee Ones, 1 M-Audio Trigger Finger, 1 iPad & way too many cables
- See more at: http://www.lexdray.com/collections/city-series/products/ooah#sthash.psuoEPr4.dpuf

Win Two Tickets to Yasmine Hamdan, London This Week!

Singer Yasmine Hamdan has been nurturing her solo career since disbanding her popular Lebanese duo act Soap Kills, and have made her a recognised force for experimental pop not just in the Arab-speaking world, but beyond.

Hamdan is due to perform at Bush Hall, London this Thursday 14th October 2013. To win yourself two tickets read on!

One iteration of her solo career has been Y.A.S. with Mirwais (of 80s French electronic new wave band Taxi Girl, and producer/co-wroter of several Madonna albums). HAmdan then began working Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague (band)) writing and producing her self-titled solo debut album, which came out in France and Lebanon in 2012 on Kwaidan Records), and is released internationally (in a revised version with five new tracks) in 2013 by Crammed Discs under the title Ya Nass.
To witness the pop, folk and electronic arrangements with melodies and lyrics inspired by various Middle-Eastern traditions, write in to us and claim your tickets by answering this question:

What was the first album released by Soapkills in 1999 called? 
Answers to info at resonancefm dot com - we'll pick one within 12 hours!

Hamdan is due to appear in Jim Jarmusch's forthcoming film, and is currently writing and recording an original soundtrack for the theatre production Rituel Pour une Métamorphose by Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous.

This Week's Free Lab Radio Show Guest DJ - Lo Recordings


This week we're handing over to Flavio Nunes, who's representing Lo Recordings, a 15 year old label widely regarded as one of the most consistently innovative independent labels on the UK music scene. Lo gave birth to Loaf, for new artists and Loeb, for vinyl 12″s. now they're all back under one moniker though, nice experiment!

The Label is run by Hub 100 and the sister company Hub 100 PublishingHub developed a production music library imprint called Lo Editions in conjunction with UPPM Universal production music. Hub 100 is run by Gavin O’Shea and Jon Tye the founder of Lo Recordings. Jon works from his home in Cornwall and Gavin runs the London office, what a busy pair! And what does the music sound like? Well Flavio Nunes has selected the best of their music for us tonight. Very Lo-key and off centre.

Flavio Nunes 

Is an film and sound enthusiast currently working at http://lorecordings.com
Flavio works with video, photography and cine film and has worked with no.w.here, a not-for-profit arts-space in Bethnal Green specialising in filming, developing and expanding moving image film 16mm and 8mm. Nunes builds his own electronic musical instruments and experiments with accompanying visuals, he is also positioning himself in the music-video industry.
twitter.com/FLAVIO_UK

This Week's Free Lab Radio - Freedom Fry HiFI

11-midnight on Resonance104.4FM.

Tonight's bespoke mix for Free Lab Radio comes all the way from USA. Originally a Dubliner, now resident in Philly, collector and recorded sound enthusiast, Freedom Fry HiFi is chasing the crackle. From home burnt music to acetates and 78" vinyl, he plays world and 60's electronic compositions, as well as home recordings. Catch more of his shows on the internet.
In this age of quickly generated, pumped up digital files, it's refreshing to have someone willing to freak out on the dancefloor to more distant sounds. There's an undeniable fidelity in these obscure recordings, a pleasure to hear.
______________________________________________
 Mama Didn't Lie - unknown singers taken from vocal booth recording
Singkil -Bayanihan Philippine dance company
Leiyla and the poet - Halim El- Dabh
Hog Bot Song Chunt - Thai group
Poppies - Buffy St.Marie
Lament of a satellite/ Trip to the moon - Margret Brill
Khmer loeu - Phleng Kar ensemble
Take off (for metric transperformer) - John Pfeiffer
El hum hum - Julio Erazo y su conjunto
Korea memorial song -Oglala singers
Don't make me over - unknown singer, camp akiba 1978
Stemning - Egil Storbekken
Gogov Gogov -Tatiana Makharadze and Georgi Bugadze
the snow is dancing (Debussy) - Ruth White
Composition for viola, electric keyboard and percussion - Entourage
Ne beh ah son (harp) - unknown performer recorded in Belize by David Blair Stiffler
Star Engine (excerpt) - Douglas Leedy

Things Worth Waiting For - Debruit Sudanese


This release makes the most of those who are tired with "world music" 'womex" memes and tropes.  Debruit has never ever sounded anything but original, and here more than ever, his often subtle refinement of exiting tracks pays off. Soundway records present a haunting take on Sudanese music by French artist / producer, Débruit. Featured are the ethereal lyrics and melodies of Sudanese-born singer Alsarah. Who will give us a translation?

Aljawal (The Traveller) conjures traditional ideas of nomadic travel but for 21st century.

Each song reflects a new stop in the journey, with new cities and new people along the way. When Alsarah first heard Débruit's music she sensed and recognised a fellow traveller through the space and geography of his influences, a sense of time and history coupled with a forward-thinking futuristic outlook.
Born in the capital city of Sudan, Khartoum, Alsarah spent the first 8 years of her life here before she relocated to Taez, Yemen with her family to escape the ever-stifling regime in her native country. She abruptly moved to the US in 1994, when a brief civil war broke out in Yemen, and has lived there to this day.
Xavier Thomas revealed Débruit in 2008 with 2 sold out 12″s for his and Fulgeance’s Parisian “Musique Large” imprint. Three more EPs on Civil Music followed that included his hit 'Nigeria What'. Piquing interest from the likes of XLR8R, Fact Mag, Benji B and Gilles Peterson his debut album ‘From The Horizon’ came out last year. His dazzling live electronics show has taken him around the world, from Russia to New York, Glastonbury to Sonar.
On Aljawal he managed to capture and play with an analog sound that stretched the boundaries of the Sudanese rhythms and melodies that Alsarah had grown up with. A unique record was imagined and is finally presented here after a 2 year interplay of ideas and interaction between France and Brooklyn: Alsarah’s adopted home.

Noble. Tonight's Free Lab Radio Show, 11pm


London-based Paul Noble is an active DJ, radio producer, music consultant and producer.

He's worked on Monocle 24, The White Cube, The Observer, The Green Man Festival and dancefloors around the world.

For this week's Free Lab Radio, his directive has been to dig into the depths of his music collection for the truly bizarre. Sounds promising!

11-midnight on London's art music radio station Resonance104.4FM

This Week's Free Lab Radio - ROBODUB

 ROBODUB

A supertronic mix for Free Lab Radio by Robodub (Simon Mathewson, UK) a DJ who's mixed for WMFU in the past and a producer released on Ergo Phizmiz's net label Chinstrap.

Robodub, has been messing about with cheap synths, broken delay units, drum machines and 2nd hand laptops producing dub-orientated and more experimental music for years. In fact so connected is he to his machines that he is not yet sure if he himself is a robot or not.


Tonight's Free Lab Radio Show - Darkfloor is a Genre

Tonight, 11pm, an hour of solid music mixed by Scotland-based Nomina, as a live set for Mantis Radio, a station that specialises in darkfloor electronica, in May 2013. Nomina is Tam Ferrans who lives in Kilmarnock, Scotland. Like many modern-day producers he toys with a series of monikers, worried fans of one won't be fans of the other. Thus he also records as Mitoma, and as Altered:Carbon (great name for a band) with Andy Paterson (theAudiologist) to create even more abstract, hip-hop based music. On tonight's show we're treated to sparse garage material reworked as Ambient unCrunk, darkfloor electronica, 

Ferrans also co-founded the netlabel Section 27 one which his releases are amongst the 100+ they've produced since 2009. This year he also made this remix of Stormfield’s Collapsing System EP for Combat Recordings; a London based label who released the EP.
As Mitoma he'll soon be releasing a 3rd album Iso:Forms and has new Nonima material in the pipeline. 
Here's the playlist supplied with the mix

DVNT
Lorenzo Montana – Qunatic Rajah [Psychonavigation]
Lifeblood – Gravitational Force of Destiny [Cicuta Netlabel]
Phat Chex – Electric Eyes [dub]
Bogger – Crash [digital-gadget/front]
House of Black Lanterns – Broken ft. Ghettozoid [Houndstooth]
Forest People – Leviathan (Scalameriya remix) [Driving Forces Recordings]
Adverse Event + James Jaymal – Hydrograph (Scott Zest remix) [Input Output Systems]
Hoth System – Data Spine [dub]
Myler – Blue Madams (Mørbeck remix) [Fifth Wall]
Minotaur Electronics – The Source [Noxgenus]
Cold Dust – Grounded (Umek remix) [Red Seal]
Israel Vines – WWKD [dub]
Carl Finlow – Hashtag (C Mantle remix) [Electrix]
Biome – Fear [Sub Pressure]
Mark Broom – Acid Dik (Beat Mix) [Power Vacuum]
CPTN – Lost [Mutant Bass Records]
Kalter Ende – Warrior Member [2010 Sttarret Underground]
Psyk – Intern [Mote Evolver]
Raw Village Hall – Thrush Strokes [dub]

NONIMA
Nonima – Jinx
Nonima – Lockheed
Nonima – [untitled]
Nonima – Paradigm (unreleased)
Nonima – Mefrac (v2)
Nonima – Symmetrophobia
Nonima – Looking Glass (version)
Dissolved – Pelagic Majesty (Nonimx)
Anno_Logic – AFP-PFA (Mitoma remix)
Nonima – Black Triangle ft. Dissolved (excerpt)
Stormfield – Collapsing System (Nonimx)
Nonima – Collider
Nonima – Protozoa
Nonima – Morphism

Static Gallery at Curfew Tower - Free Lab Radio on Resonance104.4fm

On Saturday night 11-midnight we begin a new season of Free Lab Radio nights with a composite of interviews and music from Bill Drummond's Curfew Tower (Country Antrim, N.Ireland) at a point when Static Gallery (Liverpool) were running the residencies. The Gallery put all the artwork they found hanging on walls from years and years of residencies at the Tower, into the dungeon, and instead put singers and artists in rooms with a Tascam 4 track recorder.


 The results of these unique residencies were sold in limited edition vinyl on Ebay by Liverpool based record label PRODUCT Records (Static's comment on the commercial nature of the art commissions) and a the Tower opened with performances by participants, including a piece with Clinic and another with Bill Drummond on bagpipes.



In this show we chat to Static Gallery's Paul Sullivan, performer Jinx Lennon and chef-for-the-night artist Tracey Moberly. Tracks are, in this order:
Harbinger - Paul Sullivan
Get the Tension Out - Jinx Lennon (Beetroot Spikey Head Face Observatory)
A Curfew Tower for Bill Morrison - Ex-Easter Island Head
Curfew Tower in Spring - CLINIC

Many thanks to Void Derry and the Northern Island Tourist Board for making this show possible.

New Free Lab Podcast - Bitmarx in Iran

Dry Clean Only

Garrett Gibbons made a kid-friendly radio edit version of Thrift Shop. We like it for several reasons. 1) we can play it on radio 2) it proves the song doesn't need the extras. Regardless of which version the track and video merit a mention because while recycling stands on its own as a motive to thrift shop, to be able to create your own style is entirely a talent in itself. Anyone can buy a look, only a few can build it or create a new one. And at no other time (that we can think of) has a track been better placed as a pop-rap release, because the ones listening to this will fall into one of two camps. For too long now music's been out of the hands of the one camp, and in the ears of the other. The industry, despite the democratisation of mp3s and bedroom studios, is flooded with privileged kids whose parents have driven them, parking outside for auditions, shopping for their wardrobes... Not since the 80s has a music genre belonged to a class. Take it back!

New Release 'Yes Wave', Describes the Day With Music

While not every track's a gem, this album's getting it at least 90% right, with a blend of acoustic jazz instruments, swing, big band, ethnic percussion and voice occasionally peppered by varying registers of electronics.

Yes Wave is a new compilation album released on August 5th, so very right for now that it's a little disconcerting. Summer, no longer feeling resilient faced with the prospect of autumn's stealthily approaching cape. There's a knowing in this album, yet a sense of discovery that suffuses it with optimism.

Brilliantly curated contributions by Melt Yourself Down and Sons of Kesmet are reminiscent of glorious big band sounds, yet they're only composed of a few instruments. Clarinets, sax, tubas...not what you'd expect to be hearing on the dance floor but then why not? Surely we're all flush with digital sounds by now?

Dawes plays a kind of sultan-style, rhythmic and tribal track laced with surprises, while Janka Nabay & The Bubu Gang make this Somebody a new fusion of Shangaan and ethno-funk. The distributors have described the compilations hi-nrg-ethno-jazz-kraut-pop, we think this is over complicating it. Have a listen and let us know what you think. The last track Superhuman Happiness with Second Heart is a last nod to the title. Yes Wave looks back at the last New Wave to hit the shore, with late 80s programming and vocal effects. 

Robot Musicians Wow Crowds At Live Concert

With digital production robotising sound anyway, what's to stop us delving into entirely mechanised performance? Naturally robot-mad Japan is at the forefront of this quest and has now staged an all-robot performance. Who needs humans hey? Get robots to perform, never a note out, never a dull moment as the world-weary touring artist reaches for the first dirnk he's had since yesterday's wild party, and musters a comment for the eager crowd, robots are guaranteed to deliver because they come with a price tag and someone made them. Arguably the same goes for famous musicians, yet somehow the robots can just do it better, and they're a new idea so they're more fun. 

For this landmark robot concert that you can see below, Japanese pop-music which is never any good anyway, is delivered true to style with robots and live singers collaborating, as the girls customarily impersonate prepubescants and the Terminator guitarist scratch over multiple fretboards and waggle their flashing TV heads.
And who can match them? Aptly named "Mach" the guitar player has 78 fingers and uses 12 picks! Drum robot Ashura can play 22 drums with his six arms. Just think for a minute. Is the future we've always imagined, the dystopia we've been endlessly portraying since the first world war in novels and films finally here, and we're just too numb to notice its dawning? For while a full-on flashing lights Muppet Show performance would have had a similar kind of impact on an audience, once the human hands were out of sight, there'd be no life in the puppets. But Z-Machines (named aptly after the apocalyptic World War Z zombie movie starring Brad Pitt?) run on power with circuitry that contain information. At this point in time the robots are mere slaves, doing as we tell them and turning off when we switch them off. But how far is dystopia now?
Aside from all the analysis, you might ask what kind of visual spectacle it is. Well, it's hilarious - Animal-meets-Terminator-meets-Transformers set beside a school-girl Xfactor special...

OtherCosmo, the keyboard "player", was designed by Yoichiro Kawaguchi, an artist and professor at Tokyo University. These are guest produced machines. Creator DJ Tasaka who's music the robot band is playing, says the three robots in Z-Machines have the ability to create sounds that are impossible for three human musicians to mimic. He has obviously not heard The Gossip live.
The advent of the band follows on from experiments last year with a four armed drummer who looks perfectly gross. But don't complain too loudly, or manufacturers will start encasing these better-than-human performers in silicon dolls and we'll get cosy, just as Stephen Spielberg imagined in the film A.I. where Jude Law played a synthetic sex doll on the run Gigolo Joe, a male prostitute Mecha programmed with the ability to mimic love. And now years after A.I, silicon sex dolls DO have different programmable personalities. Yes, Spielberg and Charlie Brooker are on the money. Roxxy, who we've linked to in the last sentence, can even pick up on your interests such as soccer, and will email you about them. What kind of a pitiful populace are we catering for? No one deserves to be so alone they need a doll for company. We should be investing in reaching out to the lonely masses not increasing their cocoon-like solitude with toys.
Meanwhile the Japanse Z-Machine band, who appear almost cuddly compared to Spicy Susie and the Barely 18 dolls created by Roxxy's creator, recently performed their debut concert at the Future Party event "Post People, Post Party". All composed by Tokyo-based DJ Tasaka. And "Post people" it really is.

August Smörgås

August is off for Resonance104.4FM, programming is suspended in a strange summer haze of memories and thoughts...vintage and finely selected shows are coming to you 24-7 on air and online as you visit the past and realise how much of the future of arts, culture and society we'd correctly predicted and imagined on your arts-music radio station. Meanwhile, Free Lab Radio are fixing up for some live DJ gigs in Europe, and even recording an album of electro-acoustic improv, as Oscillatorial Binnage.

In the meantime check out the podcasts, whydonchyou! Neurostep, Maximalism, Middle East and Dungeon Humour, Speak Easty, Funk and Hiphopology, sound art with Haroon Mirza...reads like a sonic flights menu.


Japenese Instru-Electro Hop

Scrunchy, crunchy, swaying left to right...for any of its shortcomings Japan Project is not a boring album, and we're enthused by this exploratory style that brings Japanese wood blocks and traditional strings up against breathy, vinyl-sampled vocals and electronic beats.

New Music Podcast- Summer's Got Peaky




Very laid back tonight, we sample new releases, new bands (new to us) anything from contemporary classical to Gaza rap. Abjure, Trushkadelic, Dai Dream, Crash Ensemble, Nullsleep, Kratos Himself... Fains. Tracklist above. It's very hot. We're travelling up and down the country. We're taking a break in August do to some live producing and record an album. 
Follow the show on Facebook for more regular news https://www.facebook.com/FreeLabRadio

UNTRUST US - Kids Choir Does Crystal Castles

"We wanted to cover Crystal Castles because we liked the idea of replacing their synths and percussion using only our voices and hands," the choir posted about their unexpected selection.

Endless Sustain


New, New and True - This Week's Free Lab Radio Show


Trushkadelic (Petrushka Morsink) armed with main instrument
New releases including Crash Ensemble (Ireland), Nullsleep (NYC) and a
two tracks sent direct from Palestine to the show by Dai Dream. Plus a follow up of
some Free Lab favourites - what are artists like the very independent and instinctive Trushkadelic (NL) doing now?

The vibrant Crash Ensemble, crashed presumably.
Other artists include Kratos Himself with a the album release on Jus Like Music , The Cutler (again!) from their new album release Everything is Touching Everything Else, plus the new sound of Fains from their new album released by Scissor Tail.  Summer's turning out to be a veritable flood of super sounds, speaking of which we can't resist throwing in a funk track right in the middle with a driving guitar that says: funk producers listen to rock too. Listen 11-mdnight on Resonance104.4FM or check it out Supersound by Jimmy Castor Bunch ... "This song don't need violin for backup..."

New Podcast Free Lab Radio - Republika



New releases including E.M.M.A, The Cutler, Shugmonkey, Mind Enterprises, tracks from France, Serbia, Hackney, tracks for summer by the man we're calling a "solarr-vocalist", and a shout out to Republika Festival, from which we play the track by X-Coast. And somewhere in the middle the Alva T Stanford Middle School Chorus kids sing 'Chinatown' with a suitably plinky-plonky piano.

This Week's Free Lab Radio Show - DJ Wrongspeed

Saturday night 11-midnight on the UK's art-music station, Resonance 104.4FM DJ Wrongspeed tunes in to Dicken's Little Dorrit, the soundscapes of the Thai & Malay forests and Bangkok city (after his recent trip there to all three) then onwards into a chaotic vinyl set including the Firesign Theatre company and beyond.

Heidegger interlopes throughout.
Download a Wrongspeed signature crazy live mix for free here....

This Week's Free Lab Radio - Serbia, Croatia, your Ipod

Tonight at 11-midnight we sample recent new releases and air tracks that deserve a re-listen plus present a track from Serbia ahead of the Republika Festival in Croatia next week where we'll be Djing.

Around 1000 people gather from all over the world for three days of talks, workshops and parties at the seaside ad on board ex-president Tito's boat are Belgrade's internet-celebrating SHARE Conference team, A MAZE. - indie gaming event from Berlin, PAUSE - Australian digital art / industries festival, alongside with fresh local projects RockPaperStartups and Start Art Expo.


@AmonTobinHQ - Latest Release V838 Monocerotis

ISAM stage set, in which Tobin is mostly hidden during the performance
The one man act that is Brazilian Amon Tobin has long had an industry spun out of his name. Tee shirts, ringtones, promo films, and large scale multi-media performances, the press machine whirrs on.
Yet the music since ISAM hit stages internationally as a tour a while back has been less discussed than the visuals, a familiar trap other artists have fallen into, with only a few such as DJ Shadow managing to escape.
Now however Tobin and his crew will launch a new commission from Kronos Quartet which Tobin will perform July 14 when he is set to reveal their work together at San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival, USA. Kronos formed in 1973 and now celebrate their 40th birthday with a string of worthy collaborations with artists such as My Brightest Diamond and Phillip Glass. Last year the quartet performed with ISAM in Berkley California, and before that contributed to Tobin's album Foley Room by giving him source material for the album, and even recast his music for the 20th anniversary box set of Tobin's label, Ninja Tune.
Amon's new commissioned piece, V838 Monocerotis, will be played/debuted by Kronos Quartet as part of their forthcoming Kronos At 40 celebrations. Amon joins the likes of Philip Glass, Bryce Dessner (The National),  Aleksandra Vrebalov, Dan Deacon, Mary Kouyoumdjian, David T. Little, and others for this landmark initiative, which also includes two film scores and a volume of commissioned works published by Boosey & Hawkes for the Kronos four.

The Capital's First Vinyl Lending Library

Pending Lending
The space for the library
Stoke Newington sees the opening of The Vinyl Library, a lending library at the start of next month. Scratches are inevitable, but at the same time what a joy! Yet is the survival of vinyl ensured? Not at all. Just like the form of the library itself, everything is in danger of being subsumed by virtual reality.

However, the this initiative adds to the one thing that has made vinyl an enduring form outside the world of DJing and scratching, and that is the fetishistic interest in its vintage form.

There is of course a crowd of people whose ears are attuned to the soft warmth of sound vinyl offers and which CD never has, but mainly it's about the form. Look at Haroon Mirza's installations for example. It's the eras they evoke as much as the rarity that keeps this very necessary fetish
alive.

So 1st July, founders Sophie Austin and Elly Rendall will launch their not for profit space, “We want to create a sharing space for people to learn from one another by exploring vinyl in all its gloriousness”. The savvy duo offer free membership to anyone donating records to the collection, and the venue is set host to DJ live performances and talks. Expect anything from 1970s Afro-rock and vintage disco to UK garage and contemporary techno.

There's no website as yet. Guess you'll have to embrace old school fully, and get your feet down there in person...
The Vinyl Library, Unit 1, Foulden Road, Stoke Newington, NI6 7UU, London.

The not-for-profit venture will open to the public on 1 Jul, charging a monthly fee to become a member – or offering free access to those who donate records themselves.
Promising to offer everything from “70s Afro-rock to UK garage”, founders Sophie Austin and Elly Rendall told CMU: “We want to create a sharing space for people to learn from one another by exploring vinyl in all its gloriousness”.
- See more at: http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/article/vinyl-lending-library-to-open-in-london/#sthash.w75Z2PCr.dpuf

The Stream - 13 Channels at the Mouth of the Sea

Image: Ed perkins
This week's Free Lab Radio extolls the current work of Call and Response, a sonic arts collective, in setting up The Stream. The Stream is a week long installation in a public space culminating a live performance for 13 3D speaker sound system featuring Mark Fell, Ed Perkins and Apartment House and Tonspur (a duo from Vienna).

The week long immersive listening experience The Stream in which visitors to a free lounge in Canada Water (amazingly the area has a cultural space) will experience enveloping electronic soundscapes composed especially for a unique 3-dimensional speaker domeculminating in a night of live performance on a 13 speaker 3D sound system.

For the show we hear a previously unheard interview with Mark Fell, plus audio files form each of the performing artists.
The playlist for tonight is:
Mark Fell - audio recording
Mark Fell interview 
Manchester Liberalism by Peter Szely
Immaterial - Jeremy Keenan
David Moss curated by Tonspur
Sam Ashely curated by Tonspur
The Stream 'Mantra' - Ed Perkins

Saturday 29th June's immersive multichannel audio works will be performed live by:
Ed Perkins and Apartment House – A real time
Canada Water Cultural Space
Mark Fell – Live Ambisonic performance (ambisonic recordings of an installation, plus multichannel FM synthesis and strobe light synced to the audio)
Peter Szely of TONSPUR – Live 13 channel performance social model and live audio-visual composition system

And tonight we'll let you know who you can get discounted tickets to the event!

Tonight's Free Lab Radio - Haroon Mirza '/o/o/o/o/'

“/\/\/\/\/\/\” Michigan Museum of Art, polyfoam triangular wedges
Tonight's show is dedicated to sounds created and disseminated by artist Haroon Mirza for his exhibition '/o/o/o/o/' at Lisson Gallery, London. We sample releases by Vinyl Factory on limited edition vinyl and listen to remixes from o-o-o-o, a project made in conjunction with Haroon Mirza's exhibition and which involves working with his source sounds, plus an interview with Mirza on details of the show.
For this project tracks by Factory Floor and Jellyman were issued on vinyl, one black and one as white as the white light of the reverberation chamber, one of the installations in the exhibition in which the sound of rushing water are fed into a brightly lit room.
The Lisson show continues until June 29th 2013 and Mirza has another show at the Hepworth Wakefield until 29 September.
Adam, Eve, others and a UFO, Lisson Gallery