This is the Athletica Newsletter - a bi-weekly mail out curated by a new artist each volume, with a Spotify playlist, a BuyMusicClub list to buy those tracks on Bandcamp, and a section for curators to write whatever they want!
A Bla(c)k lives matter resource list is also located up top.
This volume is curated by Index. |
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Index is an Eora-based DJ and co-host of FBi Radio's Deep Web alongside Chuyi Wang.
Interested in sounds bubbling up from the hidden corners of the internet, Index's sets and radio selections collide ambient, hardcore techno, noisy club, and hypercolour pop. At the heart of her work is the knowledge that dance music is political, and dance music is radical. This ethos has landed her gigs at Shanghai's ALL Club, Eora's Community Chest and Tactic, and (a show lost to COVID) a slot opening for Discwoman's DJ Haram.
Outside of her DJing, Index is part of the team at Eora music/art group, Soft Centre, and is one of the three founding members of Third Space (currently on hiatus), a collective making space for BIPOC creatives and musicians to showcase their art.
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Index hops from downtempo ethereal home listening to tracks that are blistering, glistening, and club ready. A playlist for uploading your consciousness to the mainframe.
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(Almost) allll of the above tracks are up to buy on Bandcamp! Peruse and snap em up quick, bc as of time of sending ~8hr remains of Bandcamp Day - the day Bandcamp waives all fees and 100% of revenue goes directly to the artists. If you're looking for anything else to buy, flick through the updated and refurbished Black Bandcamp Database.
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Hi friends (ω ) ~♪ this is what I’ve been perusing in my downtime:
World Music for Who: Personal Histories of Non-Western Electronic Synthesis by Jean-Hugues Kabuiki on Dweller
Dweller is an incredible music blog that centers black perspectives, particularly on electronic and dance music. The founder of Dweller is Frankie Hutchinson, who you may know as one of the co-founders of Discwoman. This particular piece makes a case for why we should reframe our understanding of early avant-garde music and its inextricable connection to Western imperialism and colonialism, and the often erased history of electronic music pioneers from non-Western countries.
As a huge fan of Solange and gal-dem, this was an excellent read about Solange’s early career and struggles working within a white dominated indie context. It includes extracts from a book about Solange called Why Solange Matters by Stephanie Phillips.
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Limited edition artwork for True (Terrible Records, 2012) by Mickalene Thomas via gal-dem.com
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RIP to one of the greatest sites of all time Tiny Mix Tapes, that championed weird music and had some of the best music writing that was oftentimes intimate, funny, silly and full of excitement. Before they left us, TMT did an incred round up of some of the best music, labels, songs etc and I really love their round up of the 2010’s that includes Triad God, DJ Rashad, Grouper and at the #1 spot, my favourite album EVER Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1.
Nyege Nyege Tapes is truly at the forefront of electronic music right now bringing you sounds from East Africa and beyond. I’ve basically had a Nyege Nyege track in all of my mixes since 2019 so you could say I’m a bit obsessed. Here is a good starting point that includes an interview with co-founder of the label Arlen Dilsizian.
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via Fact Mag
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One of my favourite music makers and writers right now is DeForrest Brown, Jr who makes music as Speaker Music. He just put out a record on Planet Mu called Soul-Making Theodicy which is a follow up to his fked up 2020 record Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry. He is an ambassador of Make Techno Black Again, and on their site they listed a bunch of his writings. It included this Mix Mag piece where he really doesn’t hold back, even going into the history of Mix Mag itself, alongside his thoughts and research on the rise of whitewashed techno and the Eurocentric dance music industry at large, and how it failed Black artists time and time again.
(PS: If you want to broaden your knowledge on these topics even further, peruse (DeForrest Brown, Jr’s reading list)
(PPS: He also has a book of his own coming out this year called Assembling A Black Counter Culture)
My friend showed me this site that has basically every subgenre ever in it, it’s “an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space”, if you love data set out in this way I’d recommend scrolling down to the bottom for more stuff like this.
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via everynoise.com
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Basically at all times in my room, I have these two drag queens screaming obscene and ridiculous things in the background/as I go to sleep.
Hamster Sauna by SIMI TV
I love watching most cat-related youtube but I do sometimes like delving into other genres of pet, one of my favourites being this very talented and crafty hamster owner who 3D prints environments for his hamsters (bedroom, prison, hotel, restaurant), and stop-motion animation and cartoons, like this guy is truly on a level of commitment I want to be on. If you’re also a fan of miniature things and tiny animals then you’ll love this too
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