Community Matters + For the Record

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: ⁠https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Farida Amadou is a self taught bass player based in Brussels, Belgium. The electric bass has been her main instrument since 2011. In 2013, she started to play a lot of different genres, including blues, jazz and hip-hop. Then Farida discovered improvisation music, a style and community she quickly embraced. In 2017, after spending a year playing bass for Belgian punk band Cocaine Piss, Farida decided to focus on her solo improvisation practice and collaborations. Since then, she’s played with folks like Steve Noble, Thurston Moore, Peter Brötzmann, and Moor Mother.

Yancey Strickler, a writer and entrepreneur known for co-founding Kickstarter and Metalabel, dives into the evolution of music and identities in the digital age. He reflects on his musical upbringing in Virginia and the impact of music journalism. The conversation explores how the internet shapes collective experiences, emphasizing the importance of preserving musical legacies amid fleeting trends. Yancey also discusses the balance between short-term gratification and long-term creative goals, encouraging authenticity and community connections in artistic expression.

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Lubomyr Melnyk is a composer and pianist of Ukrainian origin. He plays what he calls continuous music, a style whose rigorous technique shares commonality with martial arts. He's regarded as the world’s fastest piano player, capable of playing 19 and a half notes per second. It’s a skill that’s enabled him to create singular musical landscapes, where sound appears to come in swathes rather than individual notes -- a practice he’s been at it for more than sixty years.

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: ⁠https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Karlyn is an expert in the field of music academia, podcasting, and global presentations, having built up a rich portfolio as a published author, lecturer, and researcher with engagements spanning the UK and the USA. As a sought-after panelist and presenter at conferences worldwide, Karlyn is particularly known for her contributions to discussions surrounding the significance of vinyl in contemporary music culture. Karlyn's lockdown project, "The Songs Are Spells Podcast," is a platform where she produces and hosts insightful discussions with prominent figures from the music industry. This podcast has garnered acclaim, earning praise from Sony Music as the "magical rendition of Song Exploder." As an academic, she is on the verge of completing her doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham, delving into the enduring allure of vinyl within the context of popular culture and fan engagement. Notably, her research has already yielded a published chapter in Routledge Music's Handbook of Women's Work in Music.

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Dicky Trisco is a DJ and music producer who lives and breathes what he does. His passion for music and desire for good times is well known. He has spent years chasing that sound and that feeling around the globe as an international DJ. For him DJing is all about people. He is addicted to the way music connects people and makes for better days. Dicky really broke through as a DJ and producer in the Nu Disco/Disco Revival years from around 2004. In particular, his run of DJ edit, original and remix releases alongside Balearic House hero Pete Herbert on Disco Deviance and Maxi Discs led to him becoming an increasingly in demand DJ with a busy international touring schedule. He is also rumoured to be the force behind the rather legendary Secret Squirrel vinyl only imprint. But who knows??? It’s a secret. Since those early days, Dicky has toured constantly around Asia, Australia, Central/South America, USA, Europe and the UK sharing the music and the sound he loves. He has also become a regular at a long list of high profile festivals including the legendary Glastonbury, Electric Elephant, Mareh, Love International, Festival No 6 and many more. Dicky is also a mainstay of the local scene in his hometown of Dundee, Scotland where he was a resident of the infamous ‘Small Town Club’ aka Reading Rooms for over a decade. At nights like Autodisco, Disco Deviance, A Night With and Non Stop, he learned his trade playing alongside many of his heroes and legendary DJs from around the world such as Andrew Weatherall, Optimo, Rahaan, Jazzie B, Horse Meat Disco, Farley Jackmaster and many more. Dicky also ran and curated the well-respected House music label Home Taping Is Killing Music for many years putting out a run of amazing releases. Home Taping broke a number of great House artists who have gone on to become household names in the scene including The Blessed Madonna, The Revenge, Nicholas, Borrowed Identity, Eddie C & Medlar amongst others. Dicky continues to discover, produce and remix music for a number of quality imprints including Razor-N-Tape, File Under Disco, Home Taping, Barefoot Beats, Nervous Records and many more. He has also remixed major artists such as Bryan Ferry, Belle & Sebastian, L’Impératrice, Edwyn Collins (Orange Juice), Danielle Baldelli, Faze Action, The Orielles, Golden Dawn Arkestra and Tensnake down in his basement studio. Most recently Dicky has been creating original music alongside NYC music machine JKriv under the name Sentimental Animals for the Razor-N-Tape imprint. Their Love Vibration EP was very well received by disc jockeys around the world and has been played by the likes of Craig Charles who made it one of his Tracks of 2021 on his BBC Radio 6 Funk & Soul show. Dicky became a resident DJ at Pikes in Ibiza in the summer of 2023 playing in every area - poolside, terrace, Freddies, bathtub - in this legendary club. He also kick started a monthly radio show out of Ibiza called International Sounds on OpenLab Radio where he showcases the music he discovers, makes and plays while travelling around the globe. As a disc jockey, DT packs a little bit of everything into his sets of International Sounds and is committed to the idea that music and club nights should be all about escapism, joy and togetherness. As Dicky says love and dancing is what we need. Amen to that. Explore more of this conversation and others: www.greymatter.fm/community/ftr037-dicky-trisco

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Chris Corsano (b. 1975, USA) is a New York-based drummer who has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and experimental music since the late 1990's. He's been the rim-batterer of choice for some of the greatest contemporary purveyors of "jazz" (Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty, Mette Rasmussen, Zoh Amba) and "rock" (Sir Richard Bishop, Bill Orcutt, Jim O'Rourke), as well as artists beyond categorization (Björk for her Volta album and world tour, Michael Flower, Okkyung Lee). The Guardian has called him "one of the world's great drummers." Explore more of this conversation and others: www.greymatter.fm/community/ftr036-chris-corsano

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Under the alias Daedelus, Alfred Darlington has been an instigator of electronic music culture for the past 20+ years. A fore-figure of Los Angeles' Beat Scene they have released over 20+ LPs, countless EPs, remixes, and additional productions on labels such as Ninja Tune, WARP, Brainfeeder, and more. As a performer they're synonymous with controllers, from the Monome to computer-free modular, and have played over 1,000+ shows on 6 continents at venues ranging from the underground Low End Theory to festival mainstages such as Coachella. A founding dj at Dublab, founding faculty member for the Berklee College of Music's EDI (Electronic Digital Instrument) program, and S.E.T.I. artist in residence. Explore more of this conversation and others: www.greymatter.fm/community/ftr035-alfred-darlington-daedelus

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: ⁠https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Tristra is Chief Strategy Officer at rock paper scissors, the music innovation PR agency, as well as co-host of the Music Tectonics podcast. An experienced writer and PR strategy generator, she has two decades of experience working across a broad range of industries and a doctorate that dealt with the history of the performing arts in Siberia and Mongolia. She's passionate about cross-cultural stories, sounds from all over, and insights into tech, science, and society. That passion has translated into thousands of media placements for clients, including in major publications around the world. She loves writing stuff so much, she also does it in her spare time, resulting in four novels. Explore more of this conversation and other episodes: https://www.greymatter.fm/community/ftr034-tristra-newyear-yeager

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Jing Yi Teo is a curator, writer and strategist. Her work focuses on seeking new formats, understandings and alliances for creative practices, resulting in more systematically propositional bodies of work. From 2019–2022 she led ArtBizTech, an innovation and strategy consultancy and incubator, whilst serving as Curator of bang. Prix, its non-profit arm that supports practices that intersect art, technology and science. Her approach bridging the theoretical and the applied spans various fields, from contemporary art and music to emerging tech and start-ups. She is currently building Outlyr-e, a distributed strategy practice aiming to create the conditions for creative thought applied to organizations in the arts. Armen Nalbandian is an avant-garde and experimental composer and pianist whose practice seeks to expand the possibilities of sound and performance through spontaneous group composition, prepared piano and Fender Rhodes, and electronically layered improvisations. With 23 albums over 17 years, Armen has performed and recorded with Chris Corsano, Jeff Parker, Alex Cline, Steve Lehman, Han Bennink, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Makigami Koichi and other notable musicians, whilst pursuing multidisciplinary collaborations with writers, visual and performance artists. In 2023, Armen co-founded the distributed strategy practice Outlyr-e, with the objective of exploring ‘other ways’ of championing the arts. MUSIC MENTIONS Giuseppe Verdi Giacomo Puccini Frank Sinatra Tony Bennett Thelonius Monk Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Jeff Parker Chris Speed Alex Klein Eric Revis Dave King The Bad Plus Chris Corsano Spontaneous Composition & the Avant Garde ethos (28:55): Johann Sebastian Bach Johannes Brahms Ludwig van Beethoven Cecil Taylor John Cage Karlheinz Stockhausen Roman Kyn Q&A Glenn Gould Discovering music today (49:19): Thom Yorke NTS Radio Jim O’Rourke First album ever purchased (53:20): Armen: “License to Ill” by Beastie Boys Jing: “For Emma, Forever Ago” by Bon Iver Most recent album purchased (57:18): “Spectral Evolution” by Rafael Toral Artists discovered in the last year (57:18): Catherine Lamb Laurel Halo Kali Malone Desert Island Discs (58:38): “Shutting Down Here” by Jim O’Rourke “Spectral Evolution” by Rafael Toral “Ashioto / Ashiato“ by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto

For the Record is a conversation series where we speak with all manner of music heads — DJs, music journos, indie label captains, record shop owners, listening bar kingpins, et al — about their stories + the music that makes them. Join the Crate Coalition: https://discord.gg/sAaG6a7bv4 Michelle Lhooq is a writer who, by some combination of tenacity and youthful stupidity, decided to make a career out of being really, really good at partying. She was born in Singapore, an anti-hedonic country that William Gibson famously called “Disneyland with the death penalty,” and growing up under its extreme restrictions on assorted freedoms made her obsessed with drugs and nightlife like a bad kink. These days, like every romantic-turned-cynic, she prefers complaining loudly about the vanities of the rave scene – although when she is in a good mood, she also sometimes throws her own psychedelic parties in Los Angeles, where she is currently based. Her work has been published in The Guardian, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and her gonzo newsletter Rave New World. MUSIC MENTIONS Showtek Broken Social Scene Metric Ed Banger Records Uffie Dorian Electron Burial “Untrue” album by Burial deadmau5 Crookers Boyz Noise Baauer Kaskade Armin van Buuren Avicii TYGAPAW Eartheater Physical Therapy Michael Magnet Discwoman The Lot Radio Ministry of Sound Travels in Asia (24:58): Strange Weather DJ Daniel (SG) obese.dogma777 Sai Versailles Endless Return (collective) vangogh666 Pawnshop (club in Taiwan) Tsui Adam O Raja Kirik East Forest Bryan Kasenic Paige Emory Leaving Records “Intercommunications” album by Paige Emory Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith otodojo Q&A Resident Advisor Dancing Astronaut The Wire Discovering music today (53:09): Tone Glow SoundCloud Desert Island Discs (57:50): “Irisiri” by Eartheater “Healing Is a Miracle” by Julianna Barwick “Orbital 2” by Orbital Guest recommendations for future episodes (1:03:29): Paige Emory Lil Internet