This Week's Free Lab Radio - Transcender, Barbican

Parissa by Saghar Barakat

This week’s Free Lab Radio is all about the Barbican’s current Transcender, a yearly series celebrating anything from acoustic music with a spiritual or meditative aspect to electronic tonal pieces that wash away the city’s ire.

Transcender 2016 series offers a set of remarkable collaborations, performing at venues from St Luke’s to Barbican hall itself.

Featured artists: Stars of the Lid, James Holden with the late Mahmoud Guinia and Floating points, (Holden will perform with Guinia son Houusam for the festival in his honour), Parissa from Iran plus ensemble, and Sonic Boom… track listings are below if you’re curious.

BROADCASTS:
Saturday 11-midnight on 104.4fm, digital in London & online

Repeats Tuesday 4am on Resonance104.4FM
On Resonance Extra the following Sat midnight-1am digital & online radio in Brighton.

Marouane Hajji, photo by Salah Ghrissi

Tracks in this order:

Sonic Boom

Sonic Boom - Puddles
Stars of the Lid - Lid
Maalem Mahmoud Guinea, James Holden & Floating Points - Mimoun Mahraba
Stars of the Lid  - Requiem for Dying Mothers
Parissa - Rahmatollah Badiyi
James Holden and Guinia - Yamoula live at Atlas Electronic festival in Marrakesh
Their track Baba Hamouda Marhom recorded live at Atlas Festival
Parissa - Hamcho Farhad Zand
Sonic Boom - Gemini
Stars of the Lid - Music for Twin Peaks

Next week, a guest mix from Mutant Jukebox.

See our Facebook page for more info + mixcloud.com/Fari for our podcasts.

Free Lab Takeover - DSM, Iran

Producer and DJ DSM, or Sasan b.1994 in Iran where he lives, returns to the airwaves with a truly fantastic mix that aims to elicit different types of feelings and emotions in the listener. 

 Using traditional Persian music, the sounds of nature sounds and his signature deep-house rhythms, DSM has edited some of the tracks and made this bespoke mix sent from Iran for Free Lab Radio this week.

Check out his last mix for us here. Since then, DSM has gone on a superb tangent into experimental sound. We hope Resonancefm has influenced him in some way!

Broadcasts on air,  on digital and online Saturdays 11:00 - midnight on Resonance104.4FM in London. Repeats Tuesdays 04:00-05:00am GMT.


We are also on Fridays 19:30-20:30 GMT on ResonanceFM's offshoot station Resonance Extra, which broadcasts on digital and online in Brighton, UK.
Podcasts -  www.mixcloud.com/fari

This Week's Free Lab Radio - Oriental Slap

Nuts One (Ωu†$ ∅Ω€), a Swiss music producer and mix-maker, decided for this mix to take a vinyl trip to the Middle-East, Levant and North Africa.

Here's a selection of 70's oriental psychedelic tracks from his collection from Turkey, Lebanon, Algeria, Iran, Israel and Egypt.

Nuts One and Someplinghave (France) have also self-released 7" vinyl records, embracing the homemade aesthetic in both appearance and sound.


"No need to explain everything, because music is made to dream and understand our own stories."

Nuts One is part of The Soundtrackers a crates diggers and beatmakers collective form Geneva, Switzerland. Members are: Nuts One, David Chandra, Mr.Riddler and Mr.Fake.

"According Google, we are living 849 kilometres apart...
But we're living the same way.
Loving music, records, dusty samples..."

Free Lab Radio broadcasts weekly on air, DAB (digital radio) and analogue on 104.4fm radio sets in London. We're also on digital and online in Brighton via our smaller sister station Resonance Extra.

Free Lab broadcasts on 104.4fm from 11-midnight GMT, Saturday nights to half a million core listeners across London on air and now digital radio, online elsewhere. The Resonance104.4fm show repeats Tuesdays 4am GMT (8am GST). 

LISTEN
Listen online to either station outside of London via this player: http://radioplayer.resonancefm.com/console/

PODCASTS
www.mixcloud.com/fari 

This Week's Free Lab Radio - Nesa Azadikhah

A bespoke set of house music, mixed in Iran for Free Lab Radio, by DJ Nesa Azadikhah. 

 "I used different styles of tracks for this mix: house , nu disco, techno, deep house... all tracks were chosen from international music. The mix adapts to changes in mood for the audience. It was mixed in Ableton Live, and I have also edited and overlayed some of the tracks.
The drawing here is a still frame of a video animation which I used last time on Free Lab Radio also as it's a source of inspiration for me. It was a collaboration between my sister and I, using collage as a technique."

 

Tracklist:

1. B12 – Into The Void
2. Willow – Feel Me
3. Gtyn – Kevin Lomax (Nesa R-Edit)
4. Dawn Mok – Like Thoughts Or Moments We’ll Fall (Nesa R-Edit)
5. Nuage – Haunting
6. Pezzner – Protection
7. Romare – Rainbow (Club)
8. Lawrence – Chez Dupont
9. Pawel – All Nearness Pauses (Nesa Remix)
10. Rocco – Saharien Child (Lars Behrenroth Reprise)
    
    CHECK OUR FREE LAB PODCASTS.
    Broadcasts 11-midnight GMT, repeats Tuesday 4am GMT. 
    Listen on air across London or online.

This Week's Free Lab Radio - Arabic, Turkish and Iranian Pop Cassettes on Resonance104.4FM

DJ K Sets compiles tape cassettes from 80s Middle East and North Africa, arranged here in 3 genres:
"taxi tapes, electro tunes and hippie age". He calls his mixes "selected working class cultures". We've had a long interest in DJ K Sets as his other incarnation DJ Cinnamoon, possibly since 5 years ago. He's superbly underground, you have to chase him!

Turkey, Iran, Iraq and beyond. Long live cassette culture!


Saturday night 11-midnight on 104.4FM Listen live also on Radioplayer: http://radioplayer.resonancefm.com/console/

Saturday Night Free Lab Radio - Sheitan's Trap Mix

Sat 22nd Feb 11-midnight on Resonance104.4FM

A very special guest appearance by Iranian-German provocateur producer/ DJ Maral Samassi. Tonight we sample "Sheitan's Trap Mix" with its traces of Diplo, Major Lazer, M.I.A and Santigold rolled into one massive hour of trap. 

The Cologne-based, Iranian-German Samassi has been making music since 1994 releasing a slew of vinyl and starting up Formic Distribution in 1996. Aside from producing and DJing she also is a writer and singer on her own tracks, and has performed all over the world, and

Samassi states her influences as ranging from old Bollywood, Persian, Latin American and Maghrebian music from the 40s - 80s to early Detroit electro and techno, Chicago House, Miami Bass, Hip Hop and especially Ethiopian Jazz.

Born 1975 in Teheran, where Sheitan (The Great Satan (Persian شيطان بزرگ Shaytân-e Bozorg) is the name given to the government of the USA and sometimes the UK, both by the Iranian government (issued in public statement)s and the people alike (appearing in street graffiti). Samassi grew up first in Iran and then Jordan, until with the fall of the Shah's regime in 1979, the family was forced to return to Iran and after seven years fled the Iran/ Iraq war to then settle in Germany in 1986.
Samassi is founder of the techno label Konsequent Records in 1997 which featured artists like Jay Denham, Cari Lekebush, The Advent or Claude Young and new media label Art of Perception in ‘99, an exclusive limited Soundtrack series in co-operation with Games Workshop UK for the game Warhammer 40.000 by artists like Alter Ego, Jimmy Tenor, Dr. Shingo, Zombie Nation or Andrew Weatherall. Maral’s now works on the diverse label Television Rocks.

Born to Maral Salmassi and partner Fabian Stall, Television Rocks, is a platform for both artists such as AcidKids, The Sneekers and Tenderlions. Maral describes her sound as “funky, playful glamour tech which is more a combination of electro, disco and old school hip hop than German Post-Minimal sounds and styles”.

A satirized painting of the Statue of Liberty now on the wall of the former U.S. Embassy, in Tehran, Iran

Selected discography Maral Salmassi

CDs
- Maral Salmassi presents Nu Forms of Techno 2CD (Zoomshot)
- Diabolus in Musiker / Compiled and mixed by Maral Salmassi CD (Konsequent)
- The Kanzleramt Years / Compiled and mixed by Maral Salmassi CD (Kanzleramt)
- Maral Salmassi presents „It’s not just about skiing...“ CD (Forte)

12” Releases:
- Maral Salmassi feat. Ascii Disko– Banana Man 12” (Television Records)
- Maral Salmassi – Get on Top 12” (Television Records) Produced with Break 3000
- Maral Salmassi – Robot Queen 12” (Television Records) Produced with Zombie Nation
- Maral Salmassi – Schaffellomania / Hotze – Pussy Galore Soundtrack – 12” (radio play music)
- Golden Days – Keep it Dry 12” (Television Rec.)
- Maral Salmassi – Love 12” (Art of Perception)
- Golden Days- We deliver your Demand 12” (Television Rec.)
- Jonjon & G. Digger Feat. Maral Salmassi – All the Girls (Criminal Rec.)
- Maral Salmassi - Victims Of The Super-Ape (Television Rocks)
- Maral Salmassi - Break Dance (Television Rocks)
- Maral Salmassi - Natural Fun (Television Rocks)
- Maral Salmassi - Fire Gem Remixes (Television Rocks)
- Maral Salmassi - My Shit Is On (Television Rocks)
- Maral Salmassi & Fukkk Offf - Let‘s Rock The Party (Television Rocks)
- Maral Salmassi - Dwarf Nebula (Collaboration with Zombie Nation) (Television Rocks)
- Maral Salmassi - WYSIWYG (Amnesty International / Peace Compilation)
- Maral Salmassi - Food Porn (Television Rocks

Remixes
- Maral Salmassi – Robot Queen (Television Rec)
- Golden Days – Keep it Dry (Television Rec)
- John Starlight – Deep Down (Television Rec)
- Jonjon & G. Digger feat. Maral Salmassi – All the Girls (Criminal Rec.)
- Munk - Live Fast Die Old (Gomma Rec)
- The Sexinvaders - Silent Heart (Pling Plonk Rec.)
- Nias - She Would

New Free Lab Podcast - Bitmarx in Iran

Free Lab Radio - Bitmarx by Fari

Tonight's Show - Iranian Underground House Producers

Tonight's show has just circumvented internationally acknowledged internet restrictions to reach us from Iran.

Producer and DJ Bitmarx, who we caught live in 2012 at The Egg, London, has put together an hour of pulsing beats by Iran-based and diaspora producers. For this Free Lab Radio show, tonight's line up is of near-clinical beats that allow you to posit your own fancies on the canvas, as you weave and wend around a dancefloor, your own melodies and themes are permitted to come through.

Tech-savvy Bitmarx hails from a community of producers who adhere to the bass, posting things like this below their tracks "WARNING.. ! If you aren't listening to this music with some form of a bass speaker you are missing out !!!!!"

Bitmarx, who's played venues like O2 alongside Zane Lowe and remixes Steve Lawlor, made his first production in the studio for the Australian synthpop group Parralox, a remix that went on to win a global remix competition and was released with other mixes from Mark Reeder (The remixer of Pet Shop Boys, New Order) and Juan Del Toro (Gina G, Delta Goodrem) on  the EP Sharper Than A Knife EP. However Bitmarx doesn't merely play tracks back to back, he'll bring his own mixer and build up the track elements live on the decks.


To this day, Bitmarx has created a series of remixes for an impressive range of artists such as Hernan Cattaneo, Steve Lawler, Tiefschwarz, Steve Angello, Booka Shade, Kaskade and Nic Fanciulli to name a few. Bitmarx remixes have been played out on dance floors around world and have gained appreciation from superstars such as Dean Coleman, house music icon Satoshi Tomiie and techno pioneer Richie Hawtin. 

Free Lab Radio Podcast - Eddy Temple-Morris

Eddy Temple-Morris on Free Lab Radio by Fari on Mixcloud

☖⚆⚇...≳≲...BEIRU`TRONICA....≳≲...⚆⚇☖

Sampling tracks from our forthcoming live set launching Share Beirut at the Radio Beirut Cafe.

LISTEN IN! 

For a longer set we steam live from 7-9pm BST (9-11pm local time) Fri 5th Oct. on Radio Beirut.

As usual tonight's is an eclectic set, with Middle Eastern references and parallels. There's also some Grim Skunk, Delta 5 and other joys in there.

By the way...did you know that everyone in Lebanon has a cat?

Iranian Electronica - Weird, Quirky, Lovely

Tonight a salute to electronic producers hailing from Iran and scattered across the diaspora.

We navigate between experimental glitch-core-neopolka, dance, sax and funk with even a little rap permitted. Producers on tonight's show work as far afield as Israel, Netherlands, Iran, New York, UK and more.

Sometimes the music is angry, other times doleful, sometimes poetic, always reaching out. It does a listener well to remember that western music was banned in Iran in 1979 at the time of the Islamic 'revolution' and that playing this music is still punishable by harsh prison sentences. However not everyone producing music in the diaspora would say these facts affect their music directly, removed as they are from the realities of everyday Iranian life.

Art work: Taravat Talepasand- 'Modest'

Tonight's Free Lab Radio - 11-1am on 104.4FM

An hour of lo-bit sound in music. Here's a track by Missill an producer who features tonight and one of the few women promoting lo-fi tetris music. We're putting up 'Forward', though it's not snaffu, for all the people of Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt and Iran today.



From midnight follows an exclusive unreleased live recordings from the 2004 "Feedback: Order From Noise" tour curated by Knut Aufermann, followed by a live electro-acoustic piece by Oscillatorial Binnage. The piece is centred around the use highly amplified springs, captured magnetically and acoustically, and is to be premiered at Cafe Oto on the 22nd of February