Le Guess Who? presents The Big Playback

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a podcast about all things music. For the occasion of Le Guess Who’s 15th Edition, we pay tribute to DJ Fitz- the man, the legend, the only artist to have been on every single lineup. 

In this final episode of the series (revisit the first part here), we follow Fitz to Berlin and beyond, where he co-founds Kreuzberg venue West Germany, labors to propagate Turkish psych on dance floors across all Hipsterdom, and fully evolves into DJ Fitz-  festival DJ extraordinaire. 

Reflecting from present-day Portugal, Fitz shares his insights on what it means to be in the scene for 25 years, the lessons learned along the way, and what we get wrong about the relationship between the underground and big investment.

Featuring interviews with:
Paul Carlin, co-founder West Germany; Severin Most, City Slang; James Hakan Dedeoğlu, Bantmag; Kelman Duran, Producer; Eric Copeland of Black Dice, Sanae Yamada of Moon Duo; Brad Truax, Jeremy Glover & DJ Fitz. 

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Music:  Moon Duo - Planet Caravan
Audio Post-Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Jasmine Pasquill
Image: Gonçalo Duarte

This episode concludes the Big Playback podcast series, (for now), and we’d like to say a special thank you to everyone who participated to make this project possible. 

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a podcast about all things music. For the occasion of Le Guess Who’s 15th Edition, we pay tribute to DJ Fitz- the man, the legend, the only artist to have been on every single lineup. 

In this two part series we dig first into Fitz’s illustrious past in NYC as a DIY show organizer who, along with his Mighty Robot crew, were co-responsible for some of the most exciting early gigs of bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, and Liars, laying the foundation for a soon-to-be-exploding-Brooklyn. 

Hear their eyebrow raising adventures told in their own words, as they describe trailblazing a scene when Williamsburg was still the Wild West, and fill in a few gaps on the days of  Meet Me in the Bathroom.

In Part 2 we will follow Fitz to Berlin and beyond, where he co-founds Kreuzberg venue West Germany, labors to propagate Turkish psych to dance floors across all Hipsterdom, and fully evolves into DJ Fitz-  festival DJ extraordinaire and occasional tag team partner of actor/DJ Elijah Wood & Zach Cowie, as Wooden Wisdom.

Reflecting from present-day Portugal, Fitz shares his insights on what it means to be in the scene for 25 years, the lessons learned along the way, and what we get wrong about the relationship between the underground and big investment.

Featuring interviews with:
John Fitzgerald/DJFitz, Co-founder Mighty Robot & Twisted Ones Production. Etain Fitzpatrick, co-founder of Mighty Robot AV Squad, co-founder of Secret Project Robot; Jeremy Glover, Sound engineer, Mighty Robot;  Rachel Nelson, co-founder Secret Project Robot;  and Erik Zajaceskowski- co-founder Mighty Robot & Secret Project Robot. Brad Truax (Interpol, Soldiers of Fortune, Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue). 

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post-Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Jasmine Pasquill
Image: Gonçalo Duarte

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled For the Record, exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.

In this series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.

While it may seem like a coincidence, we must remember that ‘records’ are in fact, just that: records- documents… testimonials. They’re meant to capture a moment, to tell a story. Which if you think about it, makes every record collector an archivist of sorts. The question is just how much the collector shapes the work in how they present it-the story of course is in the hands of the storyteller.

Part 4: Khalab
Italian DJ and producer Khalab represents one take on the question of working with archival material from the perspective of the musician. In consistent conversation with archival material for years, his 2018 release 'Black Noise 2084', was the result of 2 years of research into the sound archives of the Royal Library of Belgium. Originally approached for a simple remix project using their historical recordings, Khalab declined, opting instead to use the archive as the departure point for a reflection on the afrocentric future of music, over a series of collaborations with contemporary musicians of color.

His subsequent release with M’berra Ensemble, 2021’s 'We Are M’berra', is a joint collaboration with musicians living in a refugee camp on the border between Mali and Mauritania.

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Credits
Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post- Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Marishka Soekarna

Featured track
Beat Tape - DJ Khalab

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled For the Record, exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.

In this series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.

While it may seem like a coincidence, we must remember that ‘records’ are in fact, just that: records- documents… testimonials. They’re meant to capture a moment, to tell a story. Which if you think about it, makes every record collector an archivist of sorts. The question is just how much the collector shapes the work in how they present it-the story of course is in the hands of the storyteller.

Part 3: Vik Sohonie
Ostinato Records, established by Janto Djassi and Vik Sohonie, has been presenting some of the finest music from the African diaspora since their founding in 2016, with releases focusing on music from Cuba to Cabo Verde, Haiti, Somalia and Sudan. The most noteworthy release perhaps being the Grammy nominated compilation of Somali music, Sweet As Broken Dates, a double Lp with an accompanying booklet detailing the story of the vibrant musical scene of Mogadishu in the 1970’s and ‘80’s. As the entire industry was controlled by the Somali state at the time and therefore never mass produced for private consumption, the music of this collection was itself drawn from the invaluable archives of the Somali state radio, which survived the subsequent civil war thanks only to being buried by operators at the station.

It is the desire to find an impactful way to tell precisely this type of story that led label co-founder Vik Sohonie to turn from a career in news journalism, and he details for us his personal philosophy and mission statement of crate-digging as activism, forging a musical composite of the Global South.

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Credits
Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post- Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Marishka Soekarna

Featured tracks:
Amerigo Brito - Babylon
4 Mars - Na Daadihi (Guide Us)
Asma Omar - Raga Kaan Ke’Egetow
Super Choucoune 70 - Madeleine
Gacaltooyo Band - Ninkan Ogayn
Les Gypsies de Petionville - Francine
Ano Novo Quartet - Elefantes

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled For the Record, exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.

In this series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.

While it may seem like a coincidence, we must remember that ‘records’ are in fact, just that: records- documents… testimonials. They’re meant to capture a moment, to tell a story. Which if you think about it, makes every record collector an archivist of sorts. The question is just how much the collector shapes the work in how they present it-the story of course is in the hands of the storyteller.

Part 2: meLê yamomo
meLê yamomo lived in Manila, Seoul, Bangkok, Warwick, and Munich, and now inhabits Amsterdam and Berlin researching, teaching, and creating performance/theatre and sound/music. Through his personal experience as an academic and an artist of color, navigating a white world of classification and knowledge production, he offers insight into how intrinsically white value systems are assigned to cultural objects and practices, shedding some light on ways to rethink this.

He is Assistant Professor of Theatre, Performance, and Sound Studies (University of Amsterdam), the author of Sounding Modernities: Theatre and Music in Manila and the Asia Pacific, 1869-1946 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), and project leader and principal investigator of the projects »Sonic Entanglements« and Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS). meLê is resident artist at Theater Ballhaus Naunynstrasse where his creations Echoing Europe, sonus, and Forces of Overtones are on repertoire. meLê also curates the Decolonial Frequences Festival and hosts the Sonic Entanglements podcast. In his works as artist-scholar, meLê engages the topics of sonic migrations, queer aesthetics, and post/de-colonial acoustemologies.

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Credits
Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post- Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Marishka Soekarna

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled For the Record, exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.

In this series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.

While it may seem like a coincidence, we must remember that ‘records’ are in fact, just that: records- documents… testimonials. They’re meant to capture a moment, to tell a story. Which if you think about it, makes every record collector an archivist of sorts. The question is just how much the collector shapes the work in how they present it-the story of course is in the hands of the storyteller.

Part 1: Irama Nusantara
Digitizing Indonesian music one record at a time, with a priority for the oldest first. Featured in LGW’s 2020 online collection ‘Reports From Other Continents’, this independent collective formed in 2013, many of them musicians themselves, with an eye on changing the fact that young people in Indonesia know way more about western music than the rich and dynamic music from their own Archipelago.

Besides the 6000 albums they’ve compiled onto iramanusantara.org, they’ve authored articles and even books about the history of the Indonesian music industry, including featured article, “Rock and Roll is Forbidden Here”, by Alvin Yunata, presented on our website for the occasion of this episode, in an English translation by Oriza Sativa Taufani.

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Credits
Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post- Production: Francisco Marujo
Article translation: Oriza Sativa Taufani
Artwork: Marishka Soekarna

Featured tracks
Elly Kasim w/ Orkes Arsianti - Lintuah
Elly Kasim - Relakan Daku
Euis Karwati & Layung Bandung Group - Eleh Deet
Elly Kasim w/ Orkes Arsianti - Peujeum Bandung
Benny Soebardja and Lizard - Candle Light
Idjah Hadidjah & Jupala Jaipongan - Senggot
S. Alimin Husein, Zaenal Arifien - Merantau
S. Alimin Husein, Zaenal Arifien - Ampat Lima Dalang Djambangan

John Dwyer (OSEES, Bent Arcana) is one of the guest curators for Le Guess Who? 2021. His stirring program includes Brigid Dawson, whom he played with for years. Dawson released the debut record of her The Mother’s Network project last year via Castleface Records and will be taking the festival stage with Sunwatchers.

Ahead of their performances at Le Guess Who?, Bant Mag. invited John and Brigid to have a conversation about their songwriting methods, memories of touring, finding solace in classical music, good birthday presents and much more. Listen to their conversation, or read the full article here.

Conversation on initiative of Bant Mag.
Audio introduction by Cheri Percy

This November, Le Guess Who? will feature a rare performance (their first European show in over 15 years) of Egypt’s Mazaher: a small group of mostly women musicians and singers who play Zar music: chanting songs and playing hypnotic polyrhythms used in a ceremonial event to cleanse the spirits and to clear away illness and discomfort.

We very much want to introduce you to the Egyptian ensemble, but figured that Nadah El Shazly is in a much better position to do so, since her connection to the group goes back much further. Nadah El Shazly is a producer, vocalist and sound artist from Cairo who previously performed at Le Guess Who? 2017, as part of Jerusalem In My Heart’s curation. She visited and spoke to the ensemble at Makan, Egyptian Center for Culture and Arts in Cairo.

Words & audio by Nadah El Shazly
Mazaher footage courtesy of Ajabu! Records

Forget Detroit, Chicago, and Berlin for a minute. Some of the most exciting electronic music records are being cut in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, and many are coming out of label Nyege Nyege Tapes. The collective is committed to shedding light on some of the best outsider music made in Kampala and all around East Africa.

This November, Le Guess Who? is drawing attention to the label, featuring performances from some of Nyege Nyege Tapes’ most irreverent names, such as Kenyan black metal project Duma (who are curated by Phil Elverum for the festival). The Kampala label will also bring the heat to Utrecht with Hakuna Kulala’s Club Night, in which names from the futuristic sub-label, like Turkana and Diaki, will surely shine bright.

The Big Playback is a podcast about all things music.

Welcome back, to Part 2 of “What’s Behind The Mask?” 

In Part 1, we spoke to 4 musicians about how identity and persona play a role in their work, whether through legit alter-ego’s or just digging into the self as a raw material. From Cindy Lee, the drag-chanson project of Patrick Flegel; a series of music/performance art hybrids from Natalie Sharp aka Lone Taxidermist; anonymous Swedish collective Goat; and Jerusalem In My Heart, a film and music happening by Radwan Gazi Moumneh and Erin Weisgerber, which attempts to project Arabic musical references for reception into a western context.

Part 2 digs deeper into both the conflict and conviction that comes with blazing a trail where there is none, about the unique position of the outsider, and cultural appropriation by way of colonialism.

Finally, the rewards of sticking out, and in the process reaching similar minds and folks in sympathetic situations.

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Credits
Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Artwork: Victoria Topping / www.victoriatopping.com
Music: Ultrabillions / ultrabillions.bandcamp.com