Listen to this playlist of artists from Durham and their current releases. This selection by Durham-based artist Debt Stalker is a collection of tracks that compliment both the physical terrain of the city and the ever-changing DIY electronic music scene in the region.
Listening to live music outside can be a life changing experience. For our author, it set nothing less than the pathway of his life.
Listen to this playlist of artists from Montevideo and their current releases. With his selection of talented artists, Montevideo-based music producer and DJ Pobvio attempts to show the diversity of the Uruguay underground music scene.
Listen to this playlist of artists from New York and their current releases. It’s a selection of things that NYC-born and based sound practitioner Geng PTP has been returning to, over and over again.
With the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, our Poland-based writer realized that much of her favorite experimental music that was considered Russian is actually from Ukraine. Did she unwittingly practice «musical imperialism»?
The audiovisual artist Shaahin Peymani and his family share a long history of migration from Iran to Germany and back. Here he maps the route from his German grandmother’s migration diary alongside one of his own compositions.
Kamwangi Njue traces the story of political (i.e. conscious) music in Kenya, drawing on his own biography. He asks: Can conscious music achieve the impact it seeks when it has to play in the same sphere as popular music made purely for entertainment?
Conscious Kiswahili rap gave the youth a voice of protest towards the turn of the millennium. Today, more mainstream popular musicians have joined in, making music with direct critical messages.
Nairobi’s West/South C area was the home of the «Boomba» party sound. Now only the bars remain. What happened?
A selection of ten music videos from Nairobi from 2020 onwards, plus two older ones by DJ Raph’s algorithm. Some are examples of popular current music addressing heavy political themes, while others are a sort of antithesis.
All music is social commentary, argues Joyce Nyairo, as she deviates away from «conscious music» to consider the intended and unintended messages in current Nairobi pop.
