Afleveringen
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We’re still reeling from last week’s Reynoldsmania, but in the wake of our conversation with the great music scribe about the past and future of electronic music, this time we’re firmly in the present.
First, Chal puts forward a thesis about the genre trend of the moment – a movement that brings together Taylor Swift, Disney Adults, A. G. Cook and Warhammer freaks. Welcome to the lorecore era.
Next, we wade knee-deep into the sludgy waters of NYC band Couch Slut’s new album You Could Do It Tonight, a must-listen for fans of metal and hardcore’s scuzzier side, equal parts uncomfortable and funny. We chat about why bands like Couch Slut feel so refreshing compared to so much of the extreme music that came before them.
Speaking of humour, is Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess the messy pop masterpiece we so desperately need in 2024? Maybe not, considering it actually came out last year, but we only just discovered it and we’re both obsessed. Old school FACT fans might remember our love for Miley’s Bangerz era and Sky Ferreira’s Night Time, My Time, and this LP is in that lineage, offering ridiculous tunes and modern dating advice to boot.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing us on your podcast app of choice.
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For millennial music journos like us, Simon Reynolds is one of the Goats.
He’s a writer best known for his era-defining book on dance music, Energy Flash and the ultimate history of post-punk, Rip It Up And Start Again. But there’s barely a genre that Simon hasn’t touched, from hip-hop, shoegaze and glam rock to pivotal essays on Auto-Tune, “conceptronica” and the hardcore continuum.
Reynolds’ newest book is a collection of essays, interviews and reviews on the idea of “futuromania” –his word for electronic music’s obsession with the manifesting the future. Futuromania kicks off in 1977 with Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and sweeps up half a century of electronic genius, with writing on household names (Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Future), underground icons (Acen, The Mover, Omni Trio) and nebulous trends like the ambient revival.
Unsurprisingly, we couldn’t squeeze all of that in a single episode. But we did talk to Simon about the lure of accelerationism, dance music’s middle-aged desires, Daft Punk’s yearning for the “mass synchrony” of the ‘70s, the uncanniness of Boards of Canada, and how he learned to stop worrying about retromania and start loving Dry Cleaning. Plus: he gave us the scoop on his next book! We think it’s an exclusive!!
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing us on your podcast app of choice.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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No Tags is going weekly!
Since launching last year we’ve managed to stick to an episode every fortnight, but the time feels right to try and make things more frequent. So in that spirit, we’re going to be recording more regular Tom-and-Chal-only episodes. Anything you particularly want us to tackle in these? Email, comment or DM us.
This week: we tackle Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee and the revelation that Pitchfork isn’t only still going, is still able to break albums! Is it the best long-player since Fetch the Bolt Cutters, or is its success simply nostalgia for the last embers of the pre-streaming age?
We bed-rot with claire rousay and her new album sentiment, perhaps the most 2024 album of 2024 so far. It all boils down to porn bots and the numb, over-scrolled horniness of existing online in 2024.
There’s also thoughts on Coachella, the haunted nostalgia of the modern-day festival circuit, and why there might be more DJ sets like that Grimes disaster-class to come.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing us on your podcast app of choice.
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Without Jamaican sound system culture, much of the electronic music we love wouldn't even exist. So why is it so often underrepresented when we talk about dance music history?
To tackle this and more, we brought in author Marvin Sparks, one of the UK’s preeminent experts on reggae and dancehall.
We also had topical news to cover: Vybz Kartel, currently serving a life sentence in prison, had his murder conviction overturned last month. As is often the case, press coverage of the appeal has been meagre, so we asked Marvin to explain just why this ruling is so important, and how Vybz Kartel became the most important dancehall artist of the 21st century.
Marvin’s also on form when it comes to the big picture stuff: dancehall’s influence on all the music you love, the problems with its press coverage in and out of Jamaica, and his expertise in a genre that, as he puts it, music fans don’t care nearly enough about.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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It’s a question that crops up a lot: how do musicians move into video game soundtracking?
Lena Raine is one of the most respected game composers on the circuit, capturing the imagination of millions with her work for Minecraft and Celeste, one of the key indie games of the last decade.
Often with No Tags, we try to focus on people who haven’t had their story adequately told. That’s not the case with Lena. She’s given many interviews, and she’s always an excellent subject. But we wanted to ask some practical questions: just how does a musician enter the world of video games? And what do they need to know about pitching, contracts, copyright and the difference in process between releasing recorded music and working for video games?
It’s an interview of two halves: the first serves as a practical resource for musicians, but in classic No Tags style, the second half goes somewhere else entirely, with Lena on fine form tackling Gamergate, the evolution of the modern internet (not familiar with the theory of the Cozy Web? You soon will be) and the sale of Bandcamp. She saves her most righteous response for the coming of AI, though – that’s worth the price of admission alone.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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Dr Robin James is a philosopher of sound studies whose Twitter presence and blog, It’s Her Factory, are reliable sources of galaxy-brain takes on the discourse, from Taylor Swift Studies to “Brexit techno”.
We asked Robin to share some of her latest thinking on the forces that are changing how we listen to music, from vibes-based listening and the secrets of the Spotify algorithm to the connection between ‘90s alt-rock and the 2020s manosphere, as well as her recent book on American radio, The Future of Rock and Roll: 97X WOXY and the Fight for True Independence. Oh, and Dude Wipes.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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Look – chances are you’ve never heard of Gavin Douglas.
But if you’ve had even one ear to what’s been going on in UK radio over the last decade, you’ve definitely felt his impact – as a curator, radio programmer, trainer and mentor. Snoochie Shy, Jeremiah Asiamah, Jamz Supernova, Tash LC, JK & Bempah, Reece Parkinson and CassKid are just a handful of the country’s prominent radio hosts that he’s had a role in developing, and that’s before getting into his wider roles as Reprezent Radio’s former Head of Music and Radar Radio’s former Director of Radio. Put simply, the contemporary UK radio landscape looks very different without him.
So where did Gavin’s journey start, and how did he get here? As we find out on this episode, it’s one heck of a redemption story – from scoring interviews with Destiny's Child and Mariah Carey and becoming the golden boy of Birmingham's '90s pirate radio scene, to reinventing himself after being let go by the BBC in the late 2000s.
Gavin has given very few interviews in his life, so we jumped at the opportunity to tell his story on No Tags. We get into a lot of big picture questions – what is the future of Black British radio? Should radio playlists exist? Does radio still even matter? – while getting the inside scoop on his time at the BBC, Reprezent and Radar. There’s also some great insight into the history of Birmingham’s pirate radio scene and its political impact on the city in the 1980s and 1990s, which is really worth sticking around for.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson has had a monumental impact on the last decade of dance music, first by disrupting a male-dominated industry through the agency Discwoman, and then by creating a new, dedicated zone for Black artists with Dweller, an annual festival that takes place across various venues in New York each February.
And all without ever lowering herself to the status of a DJ.
With the peak of Discwoman press hype now a distant pre-pandemic memory, we thought it’d be a perfect time for a No Tags interview with Frankie. We’re not really in this game to speak to amoebic newcomers about their career hopes – you’ll find plenty of that in what remains of the music press. Instead we wanted to talk to Frankie as a seasoned veteran of rave, and as someone who’s both seen and enacted immense change in the scene, even helping overturn NYC's racist "cabaret law".
Ahead of next week’s Dweller festival, we talked to Frankie about the need for Dweller and the unique family atmosphere at their parties, as well as the underground films the platform has curated for a season on The Criterion Channel. We also discuss why Dweller recently cancelled a showcase of Black artists at Berghain, the state of NYC nightlife, and how raving brought a shy, scared teenager out of her shell.
Plus: her favourite films about white men in crisis. Enjoy!
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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The Large is a perfect example of the sort of figure we want to talk about on No Tags.
She’s been a savvy behind-the-scenes operator for over 15 years, coming of age in London’s late ‘00s DIY clubbing era as a promoter, DJ, radio host and blogger. It was in the early part of the next decade, however, that she came into her own at Mixpak, the New York-based label that did more than any to connect the dots between the Caribbean, the UK and US in the 2010s. As label manager, Suze worked with Vybz Kartel, Murlo, Jubilee, Palmistry and more – but none made as seismic an impact as Popcaan, whose first two albums had Suze at the helm.
Her crowning glory however, came in the summer of 2016 when Mixpak (and a weighty extended crew) triumphed in London’s Wembley Arena at Red Bull’s flagship Culture Clash event, to a global viewing audience of millions. As we find out in this episode, Suze was at the heart of that success, organising hundreds of exclusive dubplates and guest appearances to leverage their soundclash victory, including Spice, Popcaan, J Hus, Tony Matterhorn, Sneakbo, Kranium and Drake.
We spoke to Suze about her decade in NYC, the mechanics of releasing music in 2024, the inside scoop on Culture Clash, dancehall’s historical relationship with the US-UK press machine, the emergence of Latin America and Korea as global pop music forces, the difference between drunk crowds and ketamine crowds, and much, much more.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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It’s been a bad week for music journalists. Anna Wintour kept her sunglasses on to inform Pitchfork staff of their absorption into men’s magazine GQ, while FACT Magazine – alma mater of both yours truly – quietly announced the end of an era, with the mix series closing down and editorial scaling back.
Nothing lasts forever, but we were still jolted by FACT’s announcement (especially when it got completely buried by the Pitchfork story, lol). So we looked inside our hearts and did the only thing we know how to do: record an emergency podcast about it.
As guest, we brought in Henry Bruce Jones – who has capably helped steer the ship at FACT since 2018, including curating the website’s beloved mix series – to perform a biopsy of the last 15 years of online music journalism and help us predict the next phase.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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Jeff Weiss is probably the best music writer we’ve got. We admire him not only for his radiant and voluminous prose – 8,000 words on the Grateful Dead, anyone? – but his willingness to put gumshoe to pavement in order to dig up the real story. That investigative instinct has placed him at the forefront of American rap scenes for the best part of two decades, from exposing the white devilry of Post Malone to reporting the killing of Drakeo The Ruler.
The LA native has many strings his to bow: running the peerless rap blog Passion of the Weiss, launching a magazine, campaigning against predatory media barons, and writing a forthcoming novel about Britney Spears.
We had a lot to talk about, so we invited him on the show to dissect a topic close to our hearts: the collapse of the music industry ecosystem. But fear not, we also have a laugh about the 2010s blog era, the hyper-regionalisation of rap, huffing the fumes of the ‘90s, Andre 3000’s surprising media illiteracy and a lot more.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app.
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Are end of year lists over?
This year it felt like end of year season came and went with minimal impact and minimal consensus. So why was that? Falling in the middle of a global crisis obviously doesn’t help, but even outside of the news context — and frankly that’s never stopped musicians tooting their own horns before — 2023’s parade of end of year lists really did feel like a damp squib.
We also tackled the year’s objective stand-out hits (‘Sprinter’, ‘Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2’), the music that had a global impact but was ignored in most editorial lists (‘Water’, amapiano in general), the impact of NTS Radio on people’s tastes, dance music’s ups (Nikki Nair) and downs (Bandcamp), Chal’s #JusticeForPadam campaign, the post-millennial vibe shift, and some of our own favourite records, radio shows and films to come out this year.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) — or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice.
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A true DJ’s DJ, CCL is typical of the kind of artist we both admire: someone with reassuringly broad taste, a lifelong affinity with the underground and a winningly self-deprecating sense of humour.
After obsessing over their recorded mixes for ages we realised we knew almost nothing about Ceci the person. Turns out, there’s much to tell – with past lives in Moscow, Rome, Bristol and Seattle, their life story veers from elite dance schools to cider-swilling student nights via stints as a festival booker, trainee coder and crisis hotline staffer.
We sat down with Ceci between two London gigs for a great IRL conversation, going deep on the intricacies (and flaws!) of Rekordbox, the politics of DJ collectives, the dynamics of queer dancefloors, the importance of digital archiving and more, all threaded through their unique life story.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) — or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice.
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For the second episode of No Tags, Chal & Tom meet Nick Boyd and Tony G, the duo behind one of the underground’s best dance labels.
We talked about why a record label in 2023 needs to do more than just release good record, the increasing corporatisation of the underground, acid epiphanies, Boiler Room, the music press and this episode’s main theme: the network of underground dance music in North America that ultimately drives Nick and Tony's mission. This is the Sorry Records story to date — but it’s also much more than that.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) - or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice.
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For the first episode of No Tags, Chal and Tom meet JK & Bempah, hosts of NTS's go-to rap show and true scholars of street music.
Early champions of everyone from Pop Smoke to Jim Legxacy, their weekly radio show is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in rap music from either side of the Atlantic. We spoke about their story so far, the Met Police’s treatment of drill artists, whether Central Cee can go all the way, the lack of breakout stars in 2023 and something called The Theory of Him, which you’ll just have to let them explain.
Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) - or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice.
Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe
