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

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

The Big Playback is a podcast about all things music.

Episode 2 of ‘The Big Playback’ is titled What's Behind The Mask? It has been said that our ability to create art is directly linked to our ability to imagine something beyond what we see in front of us. For many, that imaginary ‘something’ begins with the Self. This episode explores the shifting relationship between Art and Identity, from alter-Ego to anonymity.

Like Sun Ra introducing a musical Universe to which he himself was an ambassador; or David Bowie inventing personas to break new musical ground, the re-invention of the self through art can open access to parts of ourselves that find no expression in the day-to-day.

What kinds of possibilities are open to an artist through inhabiting a persona of their own creation that wouldn’t be available otherwise? Does the work create the Self, or vice-versa, and what are the effects of living in that space of transformation even beyond the stage?We hear from four musicians on their varying approaches to the themes of performance and persona. 

The episode centers around conversations with four musicians: Patrick Flegel (Cindy Lee), Natalie Sharp (Lone Taxidermist), Radwan Gazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart) and an undisclosed member of Goat.

Patrick Flegel, Canadian musician and force behind the project 'Cindy Lee', sings sparse and eerie ballads against the occasional squall of guitar. Patrick starts us off with the revelations that what the artist intends and what the audience sees are two very different things,  reminds us that each performance is only a snapshot of a single moment but with an entire history behind it, and probes into the exclusivity of ‘inclusive spaces’.

Cumbrian Natalie Sharp, introduced her signature hybrid of performance art/live music as Lone Taxidermist, in 2017, allowing the body free reign to exaggerate all its impulses; then followed up with Body Vice, an open investigation into chronic pain and the experience of medical procedures and hospitalization. Natalie speaks with us about the highs and lows of doing performance art work in the context of clubs and live music venues, the role of audience involvement, and her new project Mara, which turns the focus to her own dual cultural heritage.

Lebanese producer and composer Radwan Gazi Moumneh speaks to us from his home-base of Montreal, about his project Jerusalem In My Heart, an immersive multi-projection visual and audio experience. Radwan takes us through how his work reflects his dual realities existing in two very different cultures simultaneously. discusses how we  experience music through individually accumulated filters, and parses out a nuanced take on cultural appropriation.

And finally, an undisclosed member of Swedish collective Goat sheds a bit of light on the spiritual experience of immersing the individual ego for the good of the collective, and the ups and downs of producing anonymous artistic output. 

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

The Big Playback is a podcast about all things music.

Episode 1 of ‘The Big Playback’ is titled Is Music A Religion? This first episode investigates how music and spirituality are inextricably intertwined and takes a closer look at the transcendent experience of live music, the re-enactment of its rituals, connection and belonging. It examines what it means to be a part of the music community, from the maker to the listener – the spectrum of ways music affects us, from the individual to the collective, which can be both a social glue and a vehicle for transcendence.

The episode centers around conversations with three guests: Brian Collins (Chair of Indian Religion and Philosophy, Ohio University), Sanae Yamada (Moon Duo, Vive La Void) and Yale Evelev (Luaka Bop Records).

The Scholar
As an actively lecturing professor, music lover and record collector who often writes articles about religion and popular culture on the side, Brian Collins takes us through the various aspects of Indian philosophy and religion which were incorporated into popular music in the 60’s, giving birth to a radical psychedelic culture which lead to so many modern musical genres of today.

The Seeker
Sanae Yamada is a Portland-based artist, composer, musician and writer, who plays keyboard in the bands Moon Duo as well as her solo project Vive La Void. As an investigator into many spiritual traditions, from buddhism and meditation to feminist anthropology, Yamada takes on the question Is Music A Religion? from the perspective of someone who, for over a decade, has been active within a scene which glamorizes spirituality without necessarily practicing it.

The Devotee
Founded in 1989, Luaka Bop Records boasts a rather mysterious catalogue, the crown jewels of which are often archival projects of artists who have already passed on, or rarely still play live. While their releases include the likes of Alice Coltrane, Tim Maia, William Onyeabor, as well as the upcoming Pharoah Sanders and Floating Points album, Yale Evelev speaks about his process and philosophy behind the World Spirituality Classics series, and why he views himself as merely a conduit for the music, in his work.

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?
Contributing Editor: Jasper Willems
Artwork: Lily McNeil, Lily Nilly Art / www.lilynillyart.com
Music: Ultrabillions / ultrabillions.bandcamp.com