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No Tags

No Tags is a podcast and newsletter from Chal Ravens and Tom Lea chronicling underground music culture. <br/><br/><a href="https://notagspodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">notagspodcast.substack.com</a>

Chal Ravens & Tom Lea

Closing a hectic summer, we’re back with our regular report on the best music of the last three months.We’re joined as always by No Tags third Beatle and zillennial savant Henry Bruce-Jones to talk us through the more fried corners of his musical diet. Can he sell these stubborn uncs on DMV crime-rap, Ivorian plugg and people who simply refuse to rap on beat? Or will we just have to find our middle ground at the altar of Kwengletarianism?We’ve listed all the music that we discuss on the show below – so if one particular corner’s not your thing, it’s easy to skip along. Get the full details from notagspodcast.substack.comPop Corner (3:00): Kelela, Chanel Beads, Charli XCX, M.I.A., QendresaHome Listening (24:20): DJ Plead, K Wata, Leo, Lifted, Dance Fountain, Lilen, Amil RajaDance Corner (50:00): Yushh, LWS, Will Hofbauer, Jenny Sparks, RustieRap Corner (1:10:02): Jeune Morty, Twentythree, Jaeychino, RealYungPhil, Tony Bontana, KiboReal Music (1:40:10): Nirosta Steel, Father Dionysios Tabakis, Horse Lords, feeble little horseExperimental Coda (1:53:48): Laurie Anderson, Rabit Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

71: Second quarter report – the best music of 2026 so far

“Is this dubstep?”There was a time in the 2010s when approximately 23% of all YouTube comments were a variation of this question. One of the UK’s most influential yet misunderstood dance exports, dubstep is also one of those rare genres that can trace its origins to a handful of people working in a few rooms.That unusual origin story is definitively told in a new book, Aftershock: The Seismic Impact of Dubstep. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews by journalist Lauren Martin, it weaves together testimony from the main players (including Benny Ill, Skream, Hatcha, Loefah, Mala, Coki, Youngsta, Plastician, Sgt Pokes, Kode9, Shackleton, Pinch, Joker and Rusko) with thoughtful framing from the likes of Martin Clark and Ammunition’s Neil Jolliffe, plus stacks of of flyers, ephemera and unseen photos.We had a blast going through the archives in preparation for this conversation with Lauren, where we talked about Croydon in the early 2000s, the school-age crew that formed around Big Apple Records, the closed loop of creativity that allowed the nascent genre to develop, the particular magic of FWD>> at Plastic People, the impact of Radio 1’s Dubstep Warz broadcast, and the competing explanations for dubstep’s demise in the 2010s, among many other things.Before the episode’s big drop into dubstep, Tom and Chal compare notes on a very ‘Merican month in the stunned afterglow of the World Cup half-time show, UFC on the White House lawn, a pretty decent Madonna album and Tom’s trip to the sunshine state.We do No Tags for the love of the game, but you can support the podcast in material ways by buying our latest book or subscribing to our paid tier for £5 per month. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

70: The true story of real dubstep

Keep honking, piggies: I’m listening to whatever rockslop the algorithm just sicked up for me!So we’ve been circling a certain topic for a while now – in order to be fashionably off-cycle rather than just late to the party, of course – and we’ve finally done enough muck-raking to present you with our red-hot take.It’s verifiable: your favourite DJ is a psyop.We jest, mildly. But why is it so satisfying to point to popular things and call them a psyop? And it’s not just Geese, the perfectly solid rock band that launched a thousand hysterical thinkpieces. Angine de Poitrine? Évidemment. Rita Ora? Innit. But what about the current numerical titans of dance music? Your Josh Bakers, Kettamas, Silva Bumpas and, of course, your Freds Again? What does it take to reach the premier league in the age of algorithm?In this episode we break down the tectonic shifts underway in the game of selling yourself, and how video clips, vlogging, ‘content seeding’ and engineered virality are becoming standard promo tools from the mainstream to the underground. Is your favourite DJ paying low four-figure sums to have someone manufacture a viral moment during their next set? Honestly, they might be. Should No Tags join the party?* Let us know!—*If you do think we should join the party, these things don’t come cheap. You can support the podcast by buying our latest book, or by subscribing to our paid tier for a mere £5 per month. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

69: Your favourite DJ is a psyop

Why be seamless when you can go KLANGGG? This week’s guest is living proof that doing things wrong, backwards, upside-down or simply not at all can reap creative dividends.We speak, of course, about Djrum. Recorded at our book launch at London’s ICA last December, our conversation with the Oxford-dwelling DJ-producer followed up on the wild acclaim for his 2025 maybe-opus, Under Tangled Silence.The interview starts at 48:00, but before that we debrief on some new music from old favourites. Is the spirit of 2011 still haunting dance music? We couldn’t possibly say.Look out for our third listening session at 180 Studios, to be announced soon! Our second book, No Tags: Conversations on underground music culture Vol. 1 is out now. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

68: Djrum or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Clang

Sheffield punches well above its weight when it comes to tunes. From #1 synth-pop hits to underground techno classics, clattering industrial funk to accidental Britpop icons, the Steel City might have produced more brilliant music per capita than any other world metropolis.And yet, no one has published the definitive book on the subject – until now! Daniel Dylan Wray is one of the UK’s best music writers, and his new book Groovy, Laidback and Nasty: The History of Independent Music in Sheffield chronicles the maverick artists, chart invaders, parties, labels, venues and even Christian cults that shaped the city’s musical history.We talked to Dan about why Sheffield wasn’t swept away by punk rock but instead loved Kraftwerk and Wendy Carlos, how Peter Stringfellow became a crucial early mover in Sheffield’s club scene, and why there are no murals of Jarvis Cocker in the city centre. We also heard about the unlikely chain of events that birthed Warp Records, and one of the most important yet undersung ‘80s club nights, Jive Turkey.We also unveil a major expansion of our Rockufiction canon of ‘music films that bend reality’, including Frank Zappa, Daft Punk, Macca and S Club 7. That’ll probably be the final update on Rockufiction, but if you have any burning additions then get them in quick…As ever, if you like what we do on No Tags, please do consider signing up to our paid tier for a mere £5 per month! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

67: Sheffield, Synth City

The Q1 report is here and the charts are clear: buy underscores. 📈On this episode of No Tags, we talk through our favourite releases of 2026 so far – not to mention some music that we’re more mixed on but felt like it was worthy of discussion regardless.Before we get into it, on 5th May we’ll be returning to 180 Studios for our second session at their audiophile listening room. Following March’s session with Call Super and Parris, this time we’ll be joined by Al Wootton and Valentina Magaletti, collaborators in Holy Tongue and live bandmates in Moin, to play records from their collections and explore where their musical tastes meet. Tickets are on sale now, it should be a treat!If you discover something you love on this episode, why not send us a tip? We have a paid tier which allows you to support No Tags for £5 a month, and also gives you a discount on our book – which is out now.Discussed on this episode, in order:Maara – Ultra Villain (Naff)Zora Jones – Angel Crisis (Bellyfat)Kim Gordon – PLAY ME (Matador)Mandy, Indiana – URGH (Sacred Bones)Fcukers – Ö (Ninja Tune)2charm – star scum city (self-released)Slayyyter – WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA (Columbia)Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights (Atlantic)underscores – U (Mom+Pop)Sade Olutola – Arrow Heart (Rogue Collective)Shy One – Mali (Touching Bass)PACH – The Wake-Up Call (Peach Discs)SY3 – 梦游 Sleepwalker (Music from Memory)Simo Cell & Abdullah Miniawy – Dying is the Internet (Dekmantel UFO)Egg Meat – The most Pathetic poem is small people on fire (Mutualism)Mammo – Lateral (Short Span)Crespi Drum Syndicate – Colada Talk (Cinnamon Disc)Valentina Magaletti & Upsammy - Seismo (PAN) Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

66: First Quarter Report – the best music of the last three months

We all know what sound is, but are we any good at describing it?This week’s guest is a musician, writer and one of independent music’s wisest observers. Damon Krukowski has been playing in bands since the ‘80s, drumming for dreampop originals Galaxie 500 and, for the past 30 years, fronting Damon & Naomi with his partner Naomi Yang.He’s also written three books about sound and its strange, intangible properties (most recently Why Sound Matters) and he's a proud member of UMAW, a cool young labour union for music workers.It was a privilege to talk to Damon about the full spectrum of sound – from noise pollution and sodcasting to the merch table, from the ‘red herring’ of intellectual property to the hidden value of hanging out backstage.Unsurprisingly he had several excellent movies to recommend to us, including one for all you Coen Brothers fans out there.Before that, we debrief our recent nights out and the last ever weekend at Corsica Studios, which could still be going as far as we know. We also hear your Rockufiction feedback and offer a hot new entry to the canon: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

65: The indies fight back! Damon Krukowski on the value of sound

So we had another idea for a movie canon.After blinking our way through The Moment – the recent mockumentary about Charli XCX by director Aidan Zamiri – we got thinking about a certain kind of music film that exists between the margins of biopic and rockdoc. Not real, not exactly fake… and all the more incisive for it.We came up with a handful of movies – some of them HIGHLY recommended! – which dramatise rather than document the artist’s status as a ‘star’: their negotiations with fame and celebrity, their discomfort with being the centre of attention, their feelings of being trapped inside the machine.In our conversation about these films – including Pavements, The Nowhere Inn, Spice World, A Hard Day’s Night and Slade in Flame – we think about the irreversible vibe shift that marks 21st century humour, and identify the influence of film and TV comedy, from the Goon Show to Charlie Brooker.The canon is a slim one so far – at least compared to our adventures in Big Beat Cinema, the made-up movie niche coined by Finn and mapped out over two NT episodes and a list last year. But we’ve built a Rockufiction Letterboxd list nonetheless and are all ears for your suggestions. A reminder of the criteria: A film about a musician or band in which they play themselves, generally to comic effect. A blurring of reality and fiction. Not a biopic. Not a documentary.This episode contains some spoilers but not too many. If you need to skip the Charli chat for any reason, it’s from 17:00–29:00. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

64: A new film canon! Rockufiction

Some of the most exciting dance music around right now is coming out of Baltimore.Reenergised by a younger generation of artists putting a fresh spin on the Baltimore Club sound, the city is producing stacks of great new records – and we keep hearing dazzled on-the-ground reports from our cool DJ friends (yes, we have them!) about the shows they’ve played there.Kade Young and JIALING are two of the central figures in the city’s new school, known for running events and releasing a stream of club bangers via their label WOE. They had plenty to tell us about why Baltimore is the real engine room of US dance music right now, and why its importance remains undersung. As well as clueing us into the local scene in 2026, they offered an insider perspective on the last 20 years of Baltimore Club.We also managed to record the entire episode without making a joke about The Wire, so well done us. (Come at JIALING, you best not miss.)Before that, for this show’s intro, we offer our recent scene reports: Tom’s trip to see Tony Njoku’s All Our Knives are Always Sharp at the Southbank Centre, and Chal mucking in at the SMUT Press night at the Distillery.We also tackle the elephant in the big room: Fred Again and Thomas Bangalter’s back-to-back at Alexandra Palace. Was this an event for the ages? Should the man behind ‘Club Soda’ be lowering himself to making mash-ups with a bloke with eight hyperlinked family members on Wikipedia? Or are they both in fact nepo baby posh men? Find out inside! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

63: ⁠Baltimore is still the engine room of US club music

Taganistas may know Lil Internet from his music videos (Beyoncé, Diplo), his high-concept DJ mixes, or his ever-present voice on Twitter. Since 2017 his main focus has been New Models – a website, podcast and active Discord.But the reason we asked Lil Internet to join us on No Tags is his latest music project – a brand new, rule-based genre he’s calling gencore. Showcased across two mixes released in 2024 and 2025, gencore is completely AI-generated from Udio. More controversially, Lil Internet proposes that gencore marks an evolution – or maybe even the endstate – of the hardcore continuum.Obviously this was catnip to us. We spent a great hour with Lil Internet talking about the AI music landscape, how Udio’s quirks give AI music ‘soul’, moral boundaries and Bandcamp’s AI ban.And for the first 30 minutes of the show, we each pick a Winter Olympics sport, compare our gunmanship, and offer some recommendations – including Otto Benson, 6amsunset and They Are Gutting a Body of Water.We do No Tags for the love, but if you enjoy the show and want to show a little love back, you can do so for £5 per month. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

62: Lil Internet changed our minds about AI music

Reports of the death of nightlife may be greatly exaggerated. In recent months we’ve heard of new clubs opening in Peckham and Brixton, an audio upgrade at Tola and plans for a DIY venue in Catford. Even the Old Blue Last is good again!Yet the official figures paint a depressing picture, with hundreds of venues lost, and thousands of jobs. So which story is right? To  inspect the situation, Party Lines author Ed Gillett returns to the podcast fresh from his contribution to the London Nightlife Taskforce report.The report's 23 recommendations are the result of a year-long consultation following the axing of the night czar role previously held by Amy Lamé. Ed talks to us about noise, crime, gentrification, the closure of Corsica Studios, and his concern that the discourse of decline might be doing more harm than good.Plus, Chal reports back from the Green Party Party at Heaven, a fundraiser-slash-rally for Zack Polanski’s insurgent electoral movement. Are we really letting Lobsta B lead the green revolution? Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

61: Is clubbing really in decline? We asked Ed Gillett

A stack of new interviews are coming down the No Tags pipes right now, but first we return to a conversation from our sold-out event at the ICA last month.If you couldn’t make it down, or if you were there but forgot to take notes, this episode is a keeper. London-based rave researcher Anjali Prashar-Savoie set out her vision of a ‘club commons’ – a radical, positive and participatory kind of nightlife, as inspired by her research into the history of queer scenes in the UK, from lesbian sound systems with a creche on the side to George Michael-themed free parties.The interview section begins at 41m. Before that we spend some time reporting on our New Year jollies, our seasonal “locking in” progress, and recent film-watching (Into The Abyss, Marty Supreme, The Smashing Machine).Then a conversation about the growing magnetism of Substack, a nine-year-old newsletter platform that’s suddenly having a moment with musicians and celebs. Does the Troye Sivan newsletter herald a new intimacy in fan-artist relations? Or is this just another example of Brands Saying Bae? (With apologies to Shawn Reynaldo, who wrote his own First Floor newsletter on this subject a few days after we recorded ours. Soz.)If you missed it, the ICA event was also a book launch for No Tags Vol 2: Conversations on underground music culture, featuring interviews from the last year of the podcast and four brand new essays. The book is available from our Shopify, and from select bookshops and record shops.In other news! Chal has written about Britney Spears and her memoir for the latest issue of the London Review of Books. (It also references Jeff Weiss’s 2024 book Waiting For Britney Spears, which we interviewed him about last summer.) And Tom has more dance music out on his label Local Action. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

60: A radical vision for club culture with Anjali Prashar-Savoie

Sneaking in at the last possible moment, it's the No Tags best of 2025 show! As is tradition, we’re joined by Henry Bruce-Jones to look back on the year in tunes and spotlight some lesser-feted records that you need to hear.We tried to avoid going over the same releases that we covered on the Best Music of 2025 So Far episode from July, so if you’re wondering where the love is for Smerz, aya, Jim Legxacy or numerous other albums from the first half of the year, we probably talked about them back then.Scroll down for a time-stamped rundown of the episode – the full version is available on Substack, along with our personal Best of 2025 lists. But we want to hear your highlights as well! Tell us your most loved (and hated) releases, films or trends of the year, and let us know if we missed anything crucial via the comments.In case you forgot, our second book is out now.We’ve been running No Tags for over two years now. We do it around other jobs, we have no corporate backing, no sponsorship and we don’t even run ads on the podcast. If you’d like to show your thanks, it really helps if you leave us a positive review over at Apple Podcasts. You can also like or share this post on Substack, which makes a big difference – and if you really love the pod, you can subscribe to our paid tier for £5 per month.Happy new year!Running order:People Making Music In A Room: feeo, The Necks, Water From Your Eyes, Kelela, Shell Company & Older Brother, Rat Heart, Blawan, DJ Travella, Dijon, Alex GDance Corner (33:16): Slikback - 'Data', Beatrice M - ‘Midnight Swim’, Facta - ‘Jets’, K-Lone - ‘Someone Else’, Anthony Naples - ‘Compact’, Efdemin - ‘Signal to Noise’, Car Culture - ‘Nothingburger’, Jump Source - ‘On’ (ft. Martyn Bootyspoon), Minor Science - ‘Mortals’, Ploy - ‘It’s Later Than You Think’, Hodge - ‘Tom’s Tweaks’, Nikki Nair - ‘Sheeps’, Slikback and Skrillex - ‘Kixa’, Debba - ‘Electrolyte’ (Wordcolour Remix)Rap Corner (1:09:18): EsDeeKid, Jawnino & Surf Gang, RoosterPop Corner (1:31:44) Lily Allen, Addison Rae, UnderscoresNo Rules! (1:42:12) Los Thuthanaka, Coldsteel, Camille Keller, ear, weed420, d.silvestre, Oli XL, Jennifer WaltonAmbient afters (2:00:03) Oneohtrix Point Never, Klein, 7038634357, Begena Songs from Ethiopia. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

59: The best music of 2025

First off, we’re plugging.The second No Tags book is here – and it looks great. ‘Conversations on underground music culture, Volume 2’ compiles the best interviews and conversations we’ve had on the second year of No Tags, plus five exclusive pieces with Emma Garland, Shaad D’Souza, Mattie Colquhoun, Nono Gigsta and Yu Su. You can order it here, and it will ship from the 10th December.Speaking of plugging, No Tags live at the ICA on 11th December is almost sold out! There are around 25 tickets left. As well as live conversations with Djrum and Anjali Prashar-Savoie and a DJ set from Finn, we’ll have copies of the book on sale – plus some predictably stupid stickers. Keep honking!From plugging to yapping, there’s a pod this week. We compile some of our listeners’ best war stories from Bloc 2012 (who’d have thought so many future Taganistas were in attendance?), before getting into some big questions: is it too far for artists to market themselves via Black Friday sales? And has graffiti run its course?We also dig into the strange story of ‘I Run’, the dance mega-hit of the moment that has been accused of using AI to plagiarise Jorja Smith. Depending on what happens now, this could represent a line-in-the-sand moment for AI and copyright, so we get into the background of the track, where the case currently stands and what might happen from here.Also: what are your top five dancefloor bangers of the 21st century? Chal submitted hers to this rundown for The Quietus, but we’d like to know what our listeners would pick. Tell us in the comments! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

58: Deepfake Jorja and the biggest bangers of the 21st century

…And we’re back!Yes, first episode of No Tags for a few weeks, and while we do appreciate the concern, it’s just the two of us running this show, we both have jobs that we do it around, and sometimes we get really busy. Also Tom was in Asia for three weeks and most importantly, we were making a book.That’s right: the second No Tags book is here! Titled ‘Conversations on underground music culture, Volume 2’, it’s essentially a sequel to our first book: a compendium of the best interviews and conversations we’ve had on the second year of No Tags, with five exclusive pieces to boot. You can order it now over on our Shopify store! We’ll be launching the book on 11th December at the ICA, where we’ll be joined by Djrum, Anjali Prashar-Savoie and Finn. We’re down to the last 50 tickets for the show, and we’ll have the new book on sale on the night plus some other treats. We’re excited to see you there – get your tickets from the ICA website. Finally, there’s a pod this week!We’ve spent the last month sucking up culture like the sponges we are – and we’re not just talking about Tom’s late night ramen adventures in Tokyo. We debrief recent trips to Bang Face Weekender and Simple Things, as well as live shows from Smerz and Model/Actriz. We also share our memories (not to mention some potentially spurious speculation) about the great Bloc Weekend debacle of 2012. If you know you know.It’s a loose episode that’s heavy on the yapping, but hey – we were making a book! It’s good to be back. See you at the ICA. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

57: The second No Tags book is here!

First, news: our new book is almost at the printers ahead of launching it at the No Tags live show in London on 11th December! We’ll be announcing our guests very soon, and you can grab tickets now from the ICA website.This week’s guest is a revered member of the UK blognoscenti: Dan Hancox. Dan has written extensively on grime (including its definitive history, Inner City Pressure), crowds, the politics of public space and his beloved Spain, while interviewing icons from Skepta to Wiley to Barcelona’s socialist mayor. He’s also the co-host of the Cursed Objects podcast, where he and Dr Kasia Tee try to make sense of this mad world through tat such as Jamie Oliver’s mix CD.In September, Dan broke the internet by sharing the transcript of his 2007 interview with Burial on his Substack. With that excitement, plus the paperback publication of his book Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World, we realised it was time to get Dan pon pod.Join us in the smoking area as we discuss: releasing the Burial tapes; Dizzee and Wiley’s on-stage reunion; the power of crowds and why the state is so scared of them; the future of Notting Hill Carnival; what Dan makes of DJ AG’s livestream empire; the return of sodcasting; Van Gogh bucket hats and other cursed objects; and his favourite films. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

56: Burial whisperer Dan Hancox on grime reunions, the power of crowds and sodcasting

First, a plug: tickets are now on general sale for No Tags live at the ICA in London on 11th December! There will be special guests, and there will be a new book for sale: Vol 2 is in production now.On this week’s episode we drive headfirst – Modelos in hand – into the discourse around One Battle After Another, the designated cinema event of the year. Is it PTA’s masterpiece, or has he bitten off more than he can chew?OBAA’s ubiquity got us thinking: what was the last album that felt like a monocultural event? Do albums have the power to do this anymore, or were the early 2010s our last hurrah?Finally we debrief on the news that Corsica Studios – the club that Chal and Tom have spent more time in than any other – is closing. We share some Corsica memories but also wonder: should great clubs stay open forever?If you’re a longtime enjoyer No Tags, perhaps you'd consider subscribing to our paid tier for £5 per month. Thanks to everyone who’s signed up so far. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

55: One monoculture after another

Lots to cover today, but first off: we’re going live again!We’ll be bringing No Tags live to the ICA in London – yep, that one – on the evening of 11th December. If you are based enough to subscribe to our paid tier, then you now have early access to discounted tickets via the link in this email’s header (and in the paywalled section at the bottom of the email). These early access tickets will be available for seven days before the show goes on general sale on 8th October.If you don’t subscribe to our paid tier but are considering making the leap, then you’re in luck: the discount will also be available to new subscribers who sign up in the next seven days – once you subscribe, you’ll receive an email with the link.More details for both the show and the book are imminent, but for the former: there will be guests! There will be DJs! There will be books on sale! And there may be merch!OK, on to this week’s show. With the second leg of the Oasis reunion cashgrab safely behind us, it felt like the right time to tackle something we’ve noticed building all year long – a massive surge of flag-waving, football shirts and indie tribalism across pop and political culture.Is the “Britcore” trend anything more than warmed-over nostalgia for the ‘90s? When and where is it safe to wave an England flag? How did the Ireland flag become a rallying point for right-on indie tribes and politicised youth? Why do we show support for Palestine through football shirts?And a bonus Blobby mention, as is customary. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

54: Flags, football shirts and indie nationalism

We all know that hardcore will never die – but do we really know what hardcore is? As a music journalist for 15 years and raver for much longer, Holly Dicker is no stranger to documenting dance music’s heaviest, gnarliest and speediest niches – but in Dance or Die: A History of Hardcore, she attempts to finally answer that big question.From the pioneering hardware assault developed in Frankfurt and Berlin, to London’s grubbiest squat raves, Dutch intercity gabber rivalries and Scotland’s ‘tartan techno’ explosion, Dance or Die is a historical map of hardcore in its many forms.Holly dials in from – where else? – Rotterdam to talk us through the crucial rave tales collected in her book, as well as revealing her personal history with hardcore and offering her thoughts on where the scene went wrong post-Covid.Feeling like a hardcore Taganista? Help the pod by giving us a (good!) rating on your podcast app of choice, leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts, or liking this post on Substack. You can also subscribe to our paid tier for £5 per month and become a member of our own NT Hard Crew. Thanks to this month’s new subscribers! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

53: Holly Dicker will be the last hardcore raver standing

We all know what happened to the sorcerer’s apprentice, right?Mickey Mouse got hold of a spell book before he was smart enough to use it, conjured a broom that just wouldn’t quit, and nearly got sucked into a whirlpool. Yet, tragically, no one can remember what the moral of this story was supposed to be!This week we batten down the hatches in preparation for the #slopwave – at least, that was the plan a couple of months ago when we first started worrying about the volume of mass-produced AI gibberish coming down the pipes. Now it kinda feels too late? Like microplastics in the brain, we’re already compromised.Still, we start by tackling the current wave of AI slop infiltrating country music, the lo-fi beat scene, City Pop and faux-vintage soul before turning to deeper conundrums about AI-generated art. Could an AI music app like Suno ever produce a hit? Is Suno really so much worse than using a loop library like Splice? And will AI ever create anything as meaningful as Mr Blobby? These questions and more on a slopulent edition of No Tags.We’re not pretending to be experts here – just listen to that new No Tags theme song for proof! – so we’d love to hear from people who either work in AI or operate in a field that’s started to feel the slop. If that’s you, drop us an email or a comment. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

52: Will the AI slopwave ruin music for good?

And they said music journalism was dead. It’s list time, losers!When it comes to round-up episodes we like to draft in No Tags’ very own fifth Beatle, Henry Bruce-Jones. Minimal intro required here: we discuss our favourite music of 2025 so far, from the new wave of weird UK rappers to the changing faces of mainstream pop – plus rap oldheads, surveillance electro, minimal techno reboots and more. We didn’t include any of the records already discussed on the pod this year – including aya’s hexed and FKA twigs’ Eusexua – but they’re all still in the running for AOTY, of course.Below is a time-stamped rundown of everything we discussed, so feel free to skip ahead if certain corners aren’t your bag. We like to see No Tags as a conversation between us and you, so let us know your own most loved (and most hated) releases and trends of the year in the comments below, or maybe drop us a reply on Insta or send an email?If you like what we’re doing on No Tags (over 50 episodes deep now!), a really helpful way to support is by leaving us a rating on your podcast app of choice, or leaving us a review over at Apple Podcasts. You can also like or share this post on Substack, which makes a big difference – and if you really love the pod, you can subscribe to our paid tier for £5 per month. Thanks to this month’s new subscribers!Running orderPop Corner (07:40)Rap Corner (38:25)The UK ‘Underground’ (1:05:22)Dance Music Corner (1:27:04)Percies (1:41:42) Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

51: The best music of 2025 so far

Who’s on your Mount Rushmore of pop?That’s the question of the week. After welcoming Jeff Weiss back to London for a live show about his tremendous novel-slash-memoir, Waiting For Britney Spears, we got to thinking about our own pop album percies. 2007’s Blackout is certainly up there – ‘a lost weekend of one-more-gram indulgence’ that ‘embodied the hedonistic sleaze of the late Bush years,’ as Jeff sums it up in the book.Waiting For Britney… is a celebrity biography like no other – a gonzo account of Jeff’s time as a rookie in the world of Hollywood gossip rags, back when celebrities still had mystique and Brit still had a full head of hair. There is scandal and there are laughs, but never at the expense of its stricken central character. The words ‘leave Britney alone!’ never sounded more reasonable.At the end of June, Jeff blessed us with his presence at Young Space in East London, where we talked to him about paparazzi, poptimism, fedoras, K-Fed, and the chaotic energy of LA in the early 2000s, the era that feminism forgot. Plus, a working theory: why Britney, Kanye and Trump are the quintessential 21st century Americans. If you like what we’re doing on No Tags, please forward this email to someone else who’d like it, subscribe on your podcast app of choice – or better yet, leave us a nice review. And if you’re really into what we’re doing, please consider subscribing to our paid tier for £5 per month. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

50: Jeff Weiss is still waiting for Britney Spears

It’s Glastonbury weekend, and we’re back with the Big Questions.Not a sentence we expected to be saying on No Tags, but we kick off by talking about Will Smith – specifically his recent appearance with London streamer du jour DJ AG. The Fresh Prince is in the middle of a generationally cringe promo run and we’ve been wanting to discuss AG’s streams for a while now, so these two forces colliding over a dubstep remix of the Men in Black theme felt like the perfect opportunity.If you’re looking for something more high-brow, well, you still have to get through Tom’s full review of the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll – aka Final Destination: Cotswolds. Once we’re through that, it’s onto higher ground, debriefing recent experiences at Polyphonic Eating with Yu Su, Warp Records’ ‘happening’ at The Barbican and a No Tags night out at Corsica for Hodge and Peverelist. Music writers who still go to clubs? Perish the thought!We always say it, but if you like what we’re doing on No Tags, please do rate and subscribe on your podcast app of choice – or better yet, leave us a review. This stuff really does help. And if you’re really into what we’re doing, please consider subscribing to our paid tier for £5 per month. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

49: When does a simulation become a dystopia?

We talk about festivals a lot on No Tags, and usually the negative stuff: monopolisation, bad owners, overpriced cheesy chips. But good can still prevail, and are hopes are pinned on Field Maneuvers: an LED beacon of hope in the darkness, and an event that puts the comfort and enjoyment of ravers first. Perish the thought!In this episode, FM organisers Henry, Ele and Leon explain how they’ve just about stayed afloat for 12 years – or is it 13? They can’t quite remember. We talk about building a rave utopia from scratch, the influence of free party culture on FM, adapting to festival life as new parents, and the momentum behind the current boycott of KKR-owned festivals. There’s also a story about duck poo.Before that, Chal and Tom talk about the lack of muckracking journalists in the music industry, following on from the latest First Floor newsletter, and get into a stack of listener emails on side-of-stage access, babushka hoods, Afrohouse and Keinemusik. We’ve had some golden feedback emails lately – please keep them coming!If you’re a fan of No Tags and want to show us some love, please do drop us a like and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Substack. And if you really like what we’re doing, please do consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 per month. Planning, recording, editing and transcribing these regular podcasts is a pleasure but it’s also a lot of work, and your support truly does make a difference. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

48: How (not) to run a DIY festival, with Field Maneuvers

What connects Adonis resident Grace Sands, the free party explosion of summer '91, Deleuzian dancefloor philosophy, and the annual Gloucestershire cheese-rolling competition?It's this episode of No Tags, obviously, but the connecting tissue goes much deeper, we promise. The last third of the show contains our recent conversation with Grace Sands – house DJ, free party originator, icon of London's queer underground – live in Sheffield on 9th May. In a compact Q&A before a screening of Free Party: A Folk History hosted by No Tags and local heroes Gut Level, she set out some of the early ideals of a scene which changed the course of British dance music.We talk about our own reactions to the film, a superb documentary charting the UK’s free party movement in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, featuring members of UK soundsystems like Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Grace's alma mater DiY.Before all that, for the first hour of the show we respond to some excellent listener feedback on recent pod topics, including who exactly goes to see Keinemusik and what makes the perfect night out. Inspired by one Taganista in particular, Chal expands her recent theory of rave with an important third axis from wiggy theorist Gilles Deleuze. Show us another podcast whose listeners write in about Plato and Love Island!As ever, if you want to support what we’re doing on No Tags, please do drop us a like and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Substack. You can also subscribe to our paid tier, which costs £5 per month. Planning, recording, editing and transcribing these regular podcasts is a pleasure but it’s also a lot of work, and your support truly does make a difference. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

47: Free parties, rave theories and a moment with Grace Sands

Rave royalty on No Tags this week as we’re joined by Paul Woolford.We’re both drawn to artists who are driven by a compulsion to put art into the world at all costs – and 25 years into his career, Woolford (AKA Special Request) seems to be more driven than ever. In the last six years he’s released six albums and countless singles and remixes, and he still tours relentlessly – from seasons in Ibiza to grubby late-nighters at the White Hotel.He’s also constantly collaborating – who else can you name who’s worked with Novelist, Diplo, Alison Goldfrapp and MK? And that’s how we introduced him on stage at the British Library earlier this year, where he joined us for a live conversation as part of AVA London.Housekeeping! If you’re into No Tags, you can show your support by liking our posts on Substack. Or why not forward this email to a friend who’d enjoy it? You can also leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or chuck us a like on Spotify. Or if you’re feeling particularly generous (or just flash – we’ll take either), consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs less than a pint per month and gives us the financial and spiritual fuel to keep planning, recording, editing and transcribing these regular podcasts. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

46: Paul Woolford is peaking

Tom and Chal emerge from a proper-large-’avin-it May bank holiday weekend with a desire to explain the perfect clubbing experience. Borrowing a few ideas from Friedrich Nietzsche, we sketch out two divergent tendencies in club culture and talk about the countless variables that accelerate our rave engines. Got feedback? Obviously please write in, DM or voicenote us with critiques of our emergent theory and your Most Transcendental Rave Experiences.After that we’ve got our film corner in its usual place, including a moment for Danny Dyer’s Marching Powder. And it's your last chance to grab a ticket for No Tags live in Sheffield this Friday, 9th May! We’ll be screening Free Party: A Folk History at the Showroom cinema before interviewing Adonis resident DJ Grace Sands, followed by a party at Gut Level.Drop us a like and a review on Apple and Spotify. If you get a kick of what we’re doing here on No Tags, consider throwing us a fiver a month – or spread the gospel to your friends. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

45: What makes the perfect night out?

We’re back! And booting off a busy season of No Tags content by speaking to 'professional music fan' Derrick Gee. You’ve likely come across Derrick on your feeds already. He’s a beacon of sophistication in the murky waters of social video, and a true enthusiast for music of all kinds – from audiophile sound systems to viral TikTok trends to his favourite bossa nova recordings. He’s racked up millions of views, toured Japan and America, lured huge names onto his YouTube show – and done it all by focusing almost exclusively on music outside the mainstream. So is he a music journo? A critic? A content creator? Derrick dialled in from Sydney to talk to us about his curious content niche and how he earns a living from loving music.If you continue to get a kick of what we’re doing on No Tags, consider throwing us a fiver a month – or spread the gospel to your friends. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

44: Derrick Gee, the internet's most professional music fan

There was only one topic we could tackle this week. The argument boiling over around Boiler Room and the BDS movement is one of the most divisive and emotionally charged intra-scene disputes we’ve seen in a long time.There’s a lot being said in public and in the comments, with much of it relegated to Instagram Stories with a 24-hour timer. So in the spirit of our mission statement – chronicling underground music culture – we’ve attempted to document what’s been going on, provide some vital additional context, and offer our own thoughts on what’s at stake.In this episode we look at the relationship between Boiler Room and its owners – the global events company Superstruct and the private equity giant KKR – and their connections to Israeli tech firms and the Palestinian-led boycott movement. We talk about Boiler Room’s recent statement of solidarity with Palestine and the resulting backlash from fans, DJs and former BR employees, as well as Ben UFO’s defence of the platform, which triggered its own, unusually fierce backlash.Can Boiler Room consider itself part of the boycott on Israel? What’s the right way for DJs, fans and BR employees to show solidarity with Palestine? Why has BR received so much flak compared to the 70-odd other brands and festivals in Superstruct’s portfolio? Can dance music be mobilised into a force for change? And what can Boiler Room – or any of us – practically do in a landscape where private equity firms have their claws in everything?If you’re enjoying No Tags, thanks – we really enjoy making it. But we’d love you to help us out by leaving a review on your go-to podcast app, which really does help visibility. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue planning, recording and editing these regular podcasts. It also gives you a discount on our book. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

43: Should dance music boycott Boiler Room over Palestine?

We’re pretty confident about slapping the “AOTY contender” badge on this one: aya’s second album hexed! is out on Hyperdub next week, and it has blown our tiny minds to pieces.The South London artiste joined us in the No Tags “studio” to reveal the pills, thrills and bellyaches behind the phenomenal follow-up to 2021’s im hole. We talked about shaking off the curse of drink and drugs, embracing her teen metalcore past, putting worms in your mouth in the name of Art, and just who is the best aya on Discogs?We also debated donk as worship music, her plans to be the next Prince, and of course her favourite film.Dive in – but before you do, final call for No Tags with Paul Woolford at AVA London tomorrow! We’ll be joined by AKA Special Request for a conversation at 1pm in the British Library’s Knowledge Centre. Taganistas get a 20% off code. Skive work and pop down? We’ll have a few No Tags books for sale too.If you’re enjoying No Tags, that’s just GREAT. We really love making it. Why not rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice? We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue bringing you these regular podcasts (and it gives you a discount on our book.)  Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

42: Between two hardcores with aya

No guest this week, but plenty of meat as we take our previous episode with Spotify chronicler Liz Pelly as a jumping off point to talk about the idea of independence.We use the word ‘independence’ a lot on No Tags without really investigating what we mean by it. In a era when the major labels are all stake-holders in the biggest streaming platform on Earth, and are hoovering up indie labels and distributors like never before, how feasible is it to operate as a truly independent artist – whatever that means? And how can the term ‘independent’ apply to indie labels with multiple offices and millions in the bank as well as one-person DIY operations?To explain, we think about the important history of independent distribution, catch up with the latest music biz headlines affecting independent artists, and ask ourselves… have the major labels simply won at this point?It’s a little lighter elsewhere, as we talk ghosts (4:15) and debrief Anora’s Oscar sweep (49:52), followed by some thoughts on The Brutalist, Nosferatu and 1971’s The Working Class Goes to Heaven.If you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue bringing you these regular podcasts (plus it gives you a discount on our book.) Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

41: Major labels are hoovering up what's left of independent music

No journalist has contributed more to our understanding of the streaming era than Liz Pelly.A contributing editor at The Baffler and a lifelong DIY scene participant, she’s been investigating the inner workings of Spotify since 2016, writing a series of increasingly alarming stories that exposed the streaming giant’s black box of profit-seeking operations: mood-based playlists filled with mysterious fake artists, lean-back listening, algorithmic curation and ‘streambait pop’.Her journalism has provided us with an arsenal of terms to better understand Daniel Ek’s dismal vision of context-free listening. And now she’s expanded her work into a new book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.It’s essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we came to live in a world where ‘coastal grandma’ is a genre and where ambient electronica playlists are filled with cheap stock music by unknown artists.We asked Liz to explain the pivotal moments in this decade-long transition, whether Spotify has changed the sound of the underground too, and what Daniel Ek’s endgame might be. Get your hard hat on.Elsewhere in this week’s episode, Chal runs down the best music she saw on a trip to Ljubljana’s MENT festival (3:49), we talk the films that could potentially tank a new relationship (9:47), Tom highlights a new release on CDR’s Pathways programme (13:00) and we even briefly discuss get-rich-quick schemes. Niche music recs and iffy financial advice? It could only be No Tags.As ever, if you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and offers you nothing but the warm glow of philanthropy and a discount on our book – the second pressing of which is finally out now!  Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

40: All the things Spotify didn't want you to know but Liz Pelly found out

Still high off the fumes of January’s first Big Beat Cinema episode, we return to the scene of the crime this week for a follow-up film special with Finn, Manchester’s very own pope of trash.In this episode, we start by diving into your feedback, ranging from literary theory to eyewitness accounts from big beat OGs. We expand the official BBC canon with even more movies, including Go, Twin Town and The Bourne Identity.We then go deeper, asking what Big Beat Cinema tells us about life in the ‘90s and ’00s, how class fantasies and lad’s mags shaped the subgenre, and whether that UK government anti-piracy ad is a forgotten classic of the movement. Finally, we try to locate the last gasp of BBC and explain why Moby and Fatboy Slim fell out of favour with Hollywood.If you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue braving some of history’s greatest slop to bring you these regular podcasts – not to mention honing our amateur Photoshop skills. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

39: Big Beat Cinema²: Bigger, Breaksier, Uncut

A jam-packed episode of No Tags this week, but we had a lot to catch up on. Central Cee’s debut album Can’t Rush Greatness is out (02:56) and it’s UK drill’s biggest album to date, almost by default. Eusexua (10:07) might be the record that finally sells us on FKA twigs? And we talk about the grey zones of desire in Babygirl over in film corner (18:32).But then onto the main event: we’re joined this week by NYC DJ and virtual pop architect umru (30:09). A key member of SoundCloud’s class of the mid-2010s, umru officially graduated to the hyperpop top tier in 2017 with his work on Charli XCX’s game-changing Pop 2 mixtape. He’s since worked with the likes of Hannah Diamond, Tommy Cash, Hyd, Dorian Electra and more while releasing his own music on PC Music and, this year, LuckyMe. He’s also one of our favourite DJs, with an anything-goes approach that feels firmly in the legacy of faves like Total Freedom, Evian Christ and Ryan Hemsworth. We also talked about his past life running parties on Minecraft, leak culture, pop’s Splice era, and the link between PC Music and Pirates of the Caribbean.A little housekeeping: after a small delay the second pressing of No Tags: Conversations on underground music culture should be arriving in the next week, so if you missed out the first time, head to Shopify to place your order.In the meantime, if you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue planning, recording, editing and transcribing podcasts like this one. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

38: How umru laid the building blocks of hyperpop

This week we kick off the first ever No Tags film season! Based on an original idea by DJ and NTS host Finn, Big Beat Cinema is our attempt to identify and decode a much-loved and entirely made-up micro-genre.We begin by outlining the core canon and basic tropes of BBC, paying particular attention to the ultra-stylish heist movies of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s – think Ocean’s Eleven, Mark Wahlberg’s The Italian Job, Snatch and even The Matrix.We also try to explain why big beat – the sample-flipping, chart-dominating, Hawaiian shirt-wearing sound of the millennium – became so integral to these movies’ portrayal of cool guys pulling off implausible heists.From zany editing to Junkie XL, from Paul Oakenfold to the politics of cool, and from Skint Records to the correct shade of denim, this first episode lays out the core principles of BBC.Let us know what you think in the comments – including on our Letterboxd list, where you can check out the full selection of BBC contenders, from Shallow Grave to Kneecap. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

37: Big Beat Cinema

Heaving ourselves into 2025 like a rebuilt BILLY with half its dowels missing, No Tags returns to its usual schedule.We kick off with a journey to the North Circular, where London’s biggest club is under investigation following two drug-related deaths and an alleged stabbing. Following the recent revelations about Drumsheds in Jim Waterson’s excellent London Centric newsletter, Tom and Chal ask: why is it so hard to have a realistic conversation about safety in clubs?Next we indulge in one of our favourite anorak pastimes – arguing about arbitrary historical groupings of underground records! We contend that 2013 was the best year for album releases so far this century, with DJ Rashad, Oneohtrix Point Never, Sky Ferreira, Kanye West and Dean Blunt among the strong portfolio of evidence.Finally, an announcement! ‘Tis the season for hibernating in front of the TV and racking up those numbers on Letterboxd, and in that spirit we are proud to present – adapted from an original opinion by DJ and friend-of-the-show Finn McCorry – the first ever No Tags film season! Introducing: Big Beat Cinema. Look out for that next week.In the meantime, if you enjoyed this episode of No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice, as it does really help. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue planning, recording, editing and transcribing these regular podcasts – or in the case of next week’s episode, will go towards renting some seriously ropey turn-of-the-noughties films. Swordfish, anyone? Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

36: God did not intend his creation to go raving in IKEA

December comes but once a year, and sneaking in at the very last point we could probably get away with… it’s No Tags’ 2024 round-up!Joined by regular guest Henry Bruce-Jones in what’s becoming a bit of a list-making tradition, we run down our favourite music of the year and tackle some of the year’s big consensus releases – good and bad.Minimal intro required, really, but below is a timestamped run-down of everything discussed – so if Rap Corner’s not your vibe or you simply can’t hear the B-word one more time, we’ve made it easy to skip ahead.This episode also closes the first full year of No Tags! Thanks to all of you for tuning in, especially our paid tier, those of you who came to our recent live show, and those of you who bought our book. The first edition is already sold out (!) but we’ll be printing a second edition in January 2025, and pre-orders for that are up now. It’s been a pleasure, see you in January.Running order:2024 consensus picks (04:15)Dance music corner (26:30)Something is vibing in the state of Denmark (56:54)Underrated Pop (01:02:39)Rap Corner (01:15:03)One instrument in a really big room (01:40:15)Marg.mp3 faves AKA What is this new vocal style? (01:43:32)Assorted percies (1:48:52) Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

35: The best (and worst?) music of 2024

What do The Simpsons, Dawn of the Dead and the Facebook page for Tom and Chal’s former employer have in common? They’re all overrun by zombies.Prompted by the publication of No Tags’ first physical book, in this episode we return to our long-held worry about disappearing archives. As older platforms fade away, can we be bothered to start again with the latest social media fads? Will gated micro-communities be the saviour of underground scenes, or just a cul-de-sac? And what the hell happened to The Simpsons?We take a detour into the history of the zombie in folklore and popular culture for answers, before a speed run through films, tunes and extracurricular updates, from Predator and Wild Things to Scooter, Pa Salieu and Blumitsu live.You can pre-order No Tags: Conversations on underground music culture now. Come down to the free launch party at in Dalston on 3rd December with Kode9, Flo Dill and music from Jennifer Walton! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

34: Zombie Nation is the artist, not the song

We trailed ‘big things coming’ on our last episode, and would you look at that – the big thing has come. Or is available for pre-order, at least.That’s right, it’s our first ever book. Titled No Tags: Conversations on underground music culture and designed by All Purpose Studio, this hefty tome (350+ pages) compiles every interview to date on No Tags, edited transcripts of the best of Chal and Tom’s non-guest conversations, and specially commissioned essays from four of our favourite writers and thinkers: Eris Drew, Chris Zaldua, Henry Bruce-Jones and Ray Philp. The book is available to pre-order now. We’ll also be launching the book with our first live show in London on 3rd December, taking over Ridley Road Market Bar. On the night we’ve got Kode9 giving his new talk on Sonic Warfare for the first time in the UK, celebrating a new release of his seismic 2009 book about acoustic force and the ecology of fear.We’ll also be recording a live episode of No Tags with everyone’s favourite breakfast host Flo Dill, morning doyenne of NTS Radio. Plus we’ll have music from Jennifer Walton – not only one of our favourite artists, but the wizard behind the No Tags theme tune. Entry is free, simply hit ‘Interested’ on the event page.There is also a podcast this week. We introduce the book before getting into some of our favourite recent releases (The Cure, mediopicky, Dubbel Dutch and Toma Kami) and dissecting the long-awaited debut album by Two Shell. There's also some film chat (Lords of Dogtown, Kneecap, The Florida Project) and a debate over the key historical entries in the Florida Film canon. We are confident that No Tags is the only podcast where Toma Kami and Wild Things get discussed in the same breath – and if that doesn’t count for something in 2024, what does? Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

33: The No Tags book is here!

Truly an artist who needs no introduction to the No Tags universe, Midland is also one of the nicest people we know in this bottomless viper pit called dance music.Harry Agius has been a constant presence on the dancefloor since we were first finding our feet as music writers, and we’ve followed him every step of the way – from his early run of steppy house records on Aus Music and Phonica, to ‘Final Credits’ mania in 2016, and his current incarnation as something of a grande dame of gay club culture.That role is one he’s grown into slowly but surely, as he explains to us in this episode, and it blossoms into something very special on his debut album Fragments Of Us. It’s far from your typical wham-bam, nine-tracks-and-an-ambient-interlude dance music long-player. Constructed around gay voices past and present – including ‘80s artist and Aids activist David Wojnarowicz, mould-breaking Black filmmaker Marlon Riggs, and Luke Howard of London institution Horse Meat Disco – it’s a genuinely personal record that’s also a kind of time capsule for future generations.We talked to Harry about growing into his identity as a gay DJ, the many, many reasons to turn down a gig, and whether Arthur Russell would have liked dubstep. Plus, he loves his films! We get an excellent recommendation and confirmation, if it were needed, that he’s #PartyGirlHive.As ever, if you enjoyed this episode of No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your go-to podcast app, as it does really help. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue planning, recording and editing these (often long!) podcasts. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

32: Midland is reborn and jamming with Arthur Russell

A chunky episode, this, as we tackle the last fortnight of music news.We mull over Charli XCX’s Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, a star-studded remix album that reworks the original from the stems up. If these are Brat Summer’s dying embers, then it’s a flame that struggles to consistently flicker – but the bright spots are very bright indeed.We pay tribute to Ka, the Brooklyn rapper who died earlier this month aged 52. A proudly independent artist, Ka eschewed industry conventions to build one of underground hip-hop’s most committed fanbases – an example to us all. We also remember Jackmaster, whose influence both onstage and behind the scenes helped define an era of British club culture, and we grapple with how to eulogise those who’ve done harm.Next we get into Chal’s recent essay for The Quietus about the current state of the dancefloor (have we truly lost dancing? And is it Tinder’s fault?), before finishing on the brilliant new album from Oklahoma dirtbags Chat Pile. Plus, the usual film chat to close.As ever, if you enjoyed this episode of No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your go-to podcast app, as it does really help. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs a mere £5 a month and helps us continue planning, recording and editing regular podcasts.Timestamps01:03 Brat and it’s completely different…18:33 Ka28:32 Jackmaster44:10 Is everyone talking about dancing, rather than doing it?56:42 Chat Pile59:40 The obligatory films bit Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

31: No tags and it's completely different but also still no tags

On October 2, Amy Lamé stepped down from her post as London’s first Night Czar. Lamé had faced constant scrutiny since taking the job in 2016, especially following her chunky pay rises – most recently she was earning £132,846 a year in a period when the city’s venues have been struggling to survive. But Lamé’s achievements have also been defended by people deeply involved in the city’s nightlife.One of those defences came last week from Party Lines author Ed Gillett, who argued in the Guardian that London nightlife could end up poorer for Lamé stepping down. In this episode we’re joined by Ed to get the real tea on what Lamé was up to during her eight years in the post, how her job compares to similar roles in other cities, why she was so heavily criticised by the rightwing press, and whether it was worth having a Night Czar in the first place.Like No Tags? Give us a rating or review and hit that subscribe button on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider signing up to our paid tier, which costs 0.04516% of Amy Lamé’s salary per month and helps us continue hosting and editing regular podcasts like this one. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

30: Amy Lamé, we hardly knew yé

Vivian Host’s rave credentials go deep. Much deeper than we realised in fact, and we’ve been friends with her for over a decade.There are several entry-points through which you could have discovered Vivian. Maybe it’s her podcast, Rave to the Grave, where she interviews DJs, dancers and ‘freaks of all ages’, from legendary house vocalist Barbara Tucker to performance art pervert Kevin Carpet. In Vivian’s words, RTTG exists to document ‘a vital and resonant global (sub)culture that has often been ignored, dismissed, trivialised and poorly documented.’ Amen!Or maybe you know Vivian through her journalism? A former editor-in-chief of both Thump and XLR8R, she also hosted Red Bull Radio’s Peak Time show, once the internet’s best resource for audio interviews with unsung heroes from countercultural scenes across the world.Or maybe it’s simply through throwing parties and DJing under the name Star Eyes. After breaking through as a teenager Vivian spent the late ‘90s and early 2000s becoming one of the most prominent jungle DJs on the West Coast (she may have both been the first woman from LA regularly playing jungle at parties, and one of the first people full-stop to play UK garage in the States). After relocating to New York in 2004 she co-founded Trouble & Bass, a party and record label with an anything-goes approach to genres – far from common 20 years ago. T&B were also the first crew to book grime artists in New York. There are a lot of firsts in Vivian’s catalogue.In this episode we naturally talk about the current state of play in LA, but we also go back to Vivian’s formative years exploring the city’s nitrous-fuelled punk and rave scenes, how she navigated the world of jungle as a teenager, San Francisco’s ‘90s free parties, and being held up at gunpoint by dodgy club owners in New York’s wild mid-2000s. It’s Vivian’s story, but it also doubles as an education on how raving evolved in the US throughout the 1990s and ‘00s. By the end of the interview we were equal parts inspired, envious and exhausted.As ever, if you enjoyed this episode of No Tags, do consider rating, reviewing and subscribing on your podcast app of choice, as it does really help. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs a humble £5 a month and helps us continue hosting, editing and transcribing extensive interviews like this one. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

29: Vivian Host has caught every beat

With festival season over, it's time we investigated a story that’s been on our minds all year: has the bubble burst? In March it was reported that 21 UK festivals had already cancelled, postponed or closed in 2024. By the end of summer that number had risen to over 50.Industry bodies blame rising costs, which is doubtless a factor – but what else might be at play here? A small cluster of dominant companies contributing to an oversaturated festival landscape, perhaps? Or are festivals simply falling foul of the strategy they’ve employed for years: pushing up live fees to price out their competition?More importantly, how many of these events are actually any good?For positivity’s sake we also spend some time shouting out the festivals we loved this year. Turns out that with clever booking and some attention to detail, you can still put on events that offer an alternative to the homogeny.If you enjoyed this episode of No Tags, we’d love you to spend a minute rating, reviewing and subscribing on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier – cheaper than cheesy chips. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

28: Why has the festival bubble burst?

We’ve not interviewed too many DJs so far on No Tags, so when we do, it’s a safe assumption that a) we’ve watched them play a few times, and b) they’re pretty tasty at it.OK Williams falls into both categories. We’ve seen her DJ multiple times and have never failed to leave the dancefloor refreshed. But she’s also one of our favourite dance music personalities, as evidenced on her regular NTS show (and, OK, her Twitter account) where she exhibits the sort of energising but healthily realistic attitude that, frankly, more DJs could do with cultivating. Who knew there could be a link between having an engaging personality and making people dance?We sat down with OK Williams for a solid 80 minutes to talk, well, a lot. Is this one of No Tags’ more forensic and focused interviews? No. Is a it a lot of fun? Undoubtably. But OK Williams offers as much insight as entertainment. We talked through her formative raving years, the musical awakening she found in queer clubs, her secret background in journalism (awkward!), her relationship with Andrew Weatherall, and some big picture questions on DJs as public figures and their responsibilities.If you like what we’re doing at No Tags, please like, rate, review or subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice – in their own abstract ways, these things help. You can also support the show in a more literal way via our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and really helps us keep bringing you these podcasts and transcripts. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

27: What would OK Williams do?

Regular No Tags listeners will notice that we often talk about living through several revivals at once, but indie sleaze is one that doesn’t seem to be going away. So why indie sleaze, and why now? And what do people actually mean when they talk about an indie sleaze revival in 2024?For this episode, Chal and Tom dug out their skinny ties and shutter shades (not to mention some brutal photos from the depths of their personal Facebook archives) to try and figure out whether this is a genuine musical revival or a cynical move from struggling millennial marketeers to reanimate an era when they were still relevant. And are we dealing with nostalgia for a genuine scene here, or simply a yearning for a time when city-focused alternative scenes were actually realistic and accessible? And is there actually a much more interesting scene from this era that we could and should be excavating instead?In summary, this is an episode where we evoke both Mark Fisher and Agyness Deyn – a No Tags manifesto if ever there was one. Enjoy! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

26: What the hell was indie sleaze?

On No Tags 25, we meet Jonny Banger: T-shirt hustler, avant-bootlegger, visionary rabble-rouser, DJ battle champ and bossman of the anarchic anti-fashion brand Sports Banger.From a certain angle, it can seem like the clothes are the main event at Sports Banger, from the original Free Tulisa tee and bootlegged NHS logos to wearable inflatables and a Chanel toilet seat headpiece. Naturally, Jonny has been asked a lot of questions in previous interviews about his designs and his philosophical take on bootlegs and infringement. But there’s another side to the Banger story that hasn’t been excavated: obviously, the music.Flipping through Sports Banger: Lifestyles of the Poor, Rich and Famous, the book that charts the first decade of the project, you can find musical references on almost every page: pilfered record label logos, Skepta in a postie’s hi-viz jacket, descriptions of his studio’s fine-tuned sound systems, playlists of tunes that inspired the Sports Banger runway shows, and even allusions to Jonny’s previous life in the UK rap scene.We invited Jonny to go deep into the musical side of his story, from tape packs to free parties to the “shit mix jar” that collected fines in the first Sports Banger studio. He told us about his teenage years as a scratch DJ, his previous life as a club booker on Brick Lane, his ravey links with Swamp 81, School Records, Shangri-La and his own Heras label, and how he finally fell in love with free parties. And, most exciting for our resident KLF dweeb, he gave us a hint of what to expect from Sports Banger’s forthcoming collaboration with K2 on the People’s Pyramid.It’s been a wild ride, and he’s got the stories to prove it.If you enjoyed this big fat interview episode of No Tags then we implore you to press all the buttons and like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. You can also support us in a material manner via our paid tier. It’s £5 a month, and it helps us keep doing whatever it is we’re doing. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

25: Jonny Banger, folk hero and rave lifer

If four generations make up a family, then how many podcast references to the early 2010s make up a revival?We confront the spectre of 2011 from a few different angles in this episode, but particularly via dance music, where it feels like the anthems of the early 2010s, not to mention the top tier of DJs, are yet to be replaced. Is that down to nostalgia for the music itself? A lack of inventiveness plaguing the decade since? Or have we entered a period in history where we’re living through multiple revivals at once?We also talk about something genuinely brand new: Hit Em, the internet’s genre-of-the-moment. This absurdist microgenre was invented on Twitter last Monday, discussed in our recording on Wednesday, and has since been covered in The Fader, NPR and The Guardian. Maybe it’ll all be over by next week. Twitter being used for good? Now that does feel like a throwback to 2011.We also chat about Jane Schoenbrun’s new film I Saw The TV Glow, and particularly its staggering musical moments. We doubt anyone’s 2024 bingo card had Alex G, Yeule, Phoebe Bridgers and Fred Durst in the same room, let alone coalescing into some of the year’s most must-see cinema.As ever, if you like what we’re doing on No Tags then please like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice, and if you really like what we’re doing, consider supporting us via our paid tier. It’s only £5 a month, and seriously helps us keep doing what we’re doing. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

24: The spirit of 2011 is haunting dance music

This week, Henry Bruce-Jones joins us to run down the best music of 2024 so far.With the caveat that we didn't think it was worth revisiting the albums we've already discussed (and Brat summer's over anyway, babes), we start with the gaseous moods of Naemi, Bianca Scout and Chanel Beads. Are we in the midst of a brave new wave of shoegaze, or has the NTS early morning schedule pumped one too many Cocteau Twins songs into the water supply?We compare and contrast Erika de Casier and Clara La San’s throwback R&B styles, and dive into some of the year’s most interesting hip-hop records with both feet: They Hate Change, Jawnino, and Cooper B. Handy & Surf Gang.In club corner we celebrate recent releases by Facta, Parris, Emma dj, Verraco, Less-O, Jabes, SOPHIE and Actress (his best album in years?). We get into the various sides of Mica Levi and Henry goes deep on recent efforts by Nudo, Hafeez and NMNL.Finally, we close on some of our most bonkers Bandcamp discoveries of the year. Unfamiliar with Lust$ickPuppy, FIN and Phil Geraldi? No matter – these are the sort of discoveries that, in Chal’s words, are a reminder that we love music. Jaded insiders? Us? Never!If you like what we’re doing on No Tags then please like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice, and if you really like what we’re doing, consider supporting us via our paid tier. It’s only £5 a month, and seriously helps us keep doing what we’re doing. Enjoy! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

23: The best music of 2024 so far

We’ve become so accustomed to bad news that Labour’s landslide victory in the UK general election has been a hard one to process, despite it being a dead cert. The Tories are actually gone? Can it be real? So this week we decided to piece together our memories of the last 14 years of cuts, corruption and chaos, and see if we can identify the sound of Tory Britain. We’ve spent most of our music careers toiling under the long shadow of George Osborne’s turbo-cuts to public spending – not to mention Brexit batshittery, the crazy days of Corbynism, the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster and Black Lives Matter, and of course the lockdown years and attendant Covid conspiracies. But the politics of austerity Britain also changed the nation’s musical culture, and in this episode we talk about the dominance of festivals at the expense of clubbing, the sound of the student protest movement, the emergence of drill in the hollowed out communities of South London, and the political backlash to the five-headed monster of Cameron, May, Boris, Truss (lol) and Sunak. We also have a think about why Keir Starmer seems to have forgotten his musical roots, and what we might expect from a Labour government that’s appointed Lisa “Towns” Nandy as culture minister.Remember that this Saturday 20th July we’ll be in Glasgow for a live No Tags experience, hosted by Feena and Wheelman at Glasgow University Chapel! Tickets are available on the door, or you can sign up for membership of the Events Research Programme for just £3.50. If you like what we’re doing on No Tags then please like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice, and if you really like what we’re doing, consider supporting us via our paid tier. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

22: So what was the sound of Tory Britain?

This time we’re joined by Meaghan Garvey, author of America’s #1 vibes-based newsletter, SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE, and one of the best writers in the game. Meaghan started off as an illustrator, laundering a semi-successful weed-dealing operation through an Etsy empire before becoming better known as a music journalist. Whether writing pin-sharp profiles of megastars like Lana Del Rey and T-Pain or getting deep in the DIY weeds, Meaghan has long been a BS-free voice in a sea of mediocrity. And ahead of the curve, too – she broke up with Drake in 2015.In 2020 Meaghan launched SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE, a Substack that’s somewhere between a confessional travel diary and a photo album of nostalgic Americana. Recent editions include a rundown of Milwaukee’s oldest dive bars, a crash course in train-hopping and a visit to House on the Rock, “Wisconsin's tweaked-out Graceland.”When she returned to Pitchfork for a flagship review of Charli XCX’s Brat, we knew the timing was right for a No Tags interview. We talked about stan culture, the pantomime of vulnerability in modern pop music, nostalgia for 2011, learning how to write about yourself, and searching for honesty while fleeing from the discourse.Plus, Tom and Chal report on more examples of payola in underground music and get into the Glastonbury debate: should people be losing money to play it? Why is it so crowded? Is Glasto finally… cooked?Hit that like, smash that share, bosh that review, and be free. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

21: Meaghan Garvey, America's #1 vibes-based journalist

A fairly big topic this week, as Tom and Chal investigate the issue of payola in underground music. Does it exist? Well, kind of - but not in the way you might think.Some background: in our Fish56Octagon episode, Tom mentioned that he was pretty sure that Fish was being seeded and potentially paid to play people’s music. A couple of people got in touch to confirm that the first part of that at least was true, and it got us thinking: accusations of money changing hands for coverage are still pretty rife in dance music discourse, and we’ve not really seen this publicly investigated before.Given that we’ve both offered quite a lot of our adult lives to cultivating the content farm, we figured we were in a good position to talk about this topic: notable examples of it we’ve seen in our careers, how prevalent it is or isn’t in the music press, and what it tells us about both the current climate of music media and its uncomfortable relationships with advertising and creative agencies. Plus: the story of a certain disgraced record label once pulling its advertising from FACT over a middling album review.Elsewhere, we address recent accusations of a No Tags anti-baldness agenda, talk the first music from SOPHIE’s forthcoming posthumous album and celebrate an all-timer of a victory lap in the form of Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out concert. Cool underground dance recommendations? Who needs those when you have a roomful of NBA players and California gang leaders dancing on the grave of Drake’s reputation.As ever, if you like what we’re doing on No Tags then please do like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice, and if you really like what we’re doing, consider supporting us via our paid tier. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

20: Does payola exist in underground music?

We're back with the second part of our conversation with GG Albuquerque, our expert guide to the new-new wave of Brazilian funk.This time we find out about how bailes operate inside the favelas, Brazil’s love-hate relationship with funk, oppressive policing, grime connections, regional DJ cultures and more.We also carve out the minimum possible amount of time to discuss Brat, once again, and GG has put together a funk playlist of personal favourites and hidden gems. Bosh.Remember you can find the full transcripts in the newsletter if you subscribe to notagspodcast.substack.com!And if you like what we’re doing on No Tags, it's time to follow, rate and review, and have a think about joining our paid tier.  Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

19: The expanding universe of Brazilian funk, part 2

We’re witnessing a breakthrough moment (again) for Brazil's funk scene, an ever-expanding universe of bone-shaking low-end, CDJ theatrics, synesthetic drug cocktails, barking MCs, extreme production choices and a fuckton of wraparound sunglasses.It's incredible music, but it's not always easy to keep up with what's going on, so in this episode – the first of a two-part interview – we speak to GG Albuquerque, a journalist and researcher from Recife, who last year accompanied São Paulo’s DJ K on tour in Europe.We begin with a dive into the trajectory of funk over the past decade, from KondZilla to 150 to bruxaria, with detours into music distribution, DJ culture, the pacification of the favelas and the real favourite tipple of funkeiras.Tom and Chal also get into the Warhammer mailbag with internet thinker Jay Springett and, inevitably, take a moment for Brat.If you like what we’re doing on No Tags, please do all the good things: follow, rate and review on your podcast app of choice, correspond with us on Substack, and consider subscribing to our paid tier. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

18: The expanding universe of Brazilian funk, part 1

Some say that algorithmic content has fragmented our social media feeds to the point that we no longer exist in a shared culture. Others say, ‘Has anybody else noticed that bald dude in a dressing gown all over Instagram suddenly?’ We think you know who we mean, but either way, let us introduce you to the one-man DJ phenomenon that is Fish56Octagon. Who is the Fish? What does he want? And what can he tell us about music in 2024? In this episode, Tom and Chal talk about the sudden rise of the country’s biggest DJ-influencer, how club culture has become dependent on social-first Moments™, and how Fred Again walked so Fish96Octagon could… swim.Plus, Tom recommends Danish producer Astrid Sonne, Chal reports back on cult classic movie Party Girl, and we have further thoughts on Billie Eilish’s SoundCloud takeover.We’re still gathering your communiques for our mailbag episode, so send any feedback, questions or topics you’d like us to talk about via email or the Substack comments section.As ever, if you enjoy what we’re doing on No Tags, please do follow, rate and review us and consider subscribing to our paid tier to help keep this show on the road. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

17: Fred Again walked so Fish56Octagon could swim

As if we hadn’t gorged enough on lore last week, this time we welcome one of electronic music’s boldest world-builders, Iglooghost.Iglooghost’s new album Tidal Memory Exo takes place in a punk-dystopian vision of a British seaside town that’s been cut off from the rest of society. It even comes accompanied by an online forum where users debate the politics and micro-genres of the local “tidal scene” (sporestyle, tektonikore, foamtek) and an online marketplace where people sell mysterious sea creatures and offer theories about their origins, among many other diversions. Something else that interested us about the project is that while Iglooghost’s early releases took place in full-on fantasy world, recently he’s started creating parallel universes based in Britain, bringing his lore-making closer to his own reality. Prior to Tidal Memory Exo, he created a whole world around “Lei Music” – a supposedly ancient musical style performed to summon “strange, squeaking entities” in rural Dorset, the part of south-west England where he grew up.Naturally we spoke to him about all that and about lore in general, as well as getting his insights on the ever-changing nature of the online experience, his obsessive fans, TikTok as a ghost town, and the risk of world-building becoming too cynical. Never go full Marvel, basically.As ever, if you enjoy what we’re doing on No Tags, please do follow, rate and review on your podcast app of choice, correspond with us on Substack, and consider subscribing to our paid tier. Now that we’re weekly, £5 a month works out to less than £1.20 per episode, which is basically a bag of crisps these days – and it really does help us out. Thanks for listening/reading! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

16: Iglooghost, rockpooling for subgenres in a parallel world

We’re still reeling from last week’s Reynoldsmania, but in the wake of our conversation with the great music scribe about the past and future of electronic music, this time we’re firmly in the present.First, Chal puts forward a thesis about the genre trend of the moment – a movement that brings together Taylor Swift, Disney Adults, A. G. Cook and Warhammer freaks. Welcome to the lorecore era.Next, we wade knee-deep into the sludgy waters of NYC band Couch Slut’s new album You Could Do It Tonight, a must-listen for fans of metal and hardcore’s scuzzier side, equal parts uncomfortable and funny. We chat about why bands like Couch Slut feel so refreshing compared to so much of the extreme music that came before them.Speaking of humour, is Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess the messy pop masterpiece we so desperately need in 2024? Maybe not, considering it actually came out last year, but we only just discovered it and we’re both obsessed. Old school FACT fans might remember our love for Miley’s Bangerz era and Sky Ferreira’s Night Time, My Time, and this LP is in that lineage, offering ridiculous tunes and modern dating advice to boot.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing us on your podcast app of choice. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

15: Learning to love lorecore

For millennial music journos like us, Simon Reynolds is one of the Goats. He’s a writer best known for his era-defining book on dance music, Energy Flash and the ultimate history of post-punk, Rip It Up And Start Again. But there’s barely a genre that Simon hasn’t touched, from hip-hop, shoegaze and glam rock to pivotal essays on Auto-Tune, “conceptronica” and the hardcore continuum.Reynolds’ newest book is a collection of essays, interviews and reviews on the idea of “futuromania” –his word for electronic music’s obsession with the manifesting the future. Futuromania kicks off in 1977 with Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and sweeps up half a century of electronic genius, with writing on household names (Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Future), underground icons (Acen, The Mover, Omni Trio) and nebulous trends like the ambient revival.Unsurprisingly, we couldn’t squeeze all of that in a single episode. But we did talk to Simon about the lure of accelerationism, dance music’s middle-aged desires, Daft Punk’s yearning for the “mass synchrony” of the ‘70s, the uncanniness of Boards of Canada, and how he learned to stop worrying about retromania and start loving Dry Cleaning. Plus: he gave us the scoop on his next book! We think it’s an exclusive!!Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing us on your podcast app of choice. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

14: Simon Reynolds, futuromaniac

No Tags is going weekly!Since launching last year we’ve managed to stick to an episode every fortnight, but the time feels right to try and make things more frequent. So in that spirit, we’re going to be recording more regular Tom-and-Chal-only episodes. Anything you particularly want us to tackle in these? Email, comment or DM us.This week: we tackle Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee and the revelation that Pitchfork isn’t only still going, is still able to break albums! Is it the best long-player since Fetch the Bolt Cutters, or is its success simply nostalgia for the last embers of the pre-streaming age?We bed-rot with claire rousay and her new album sentiment, perhaps the most 2024 album of 2024 so far. It all boils down to porn bots and the numb, over-scrolled horniness of existing online in 2024.There’s also thoughts on Coachella, the haunted nostalgia of the modern-day festival circuit, and why there might be more DJ sets like that Grimes disaster-class to come. Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing us on your podcast app of choice. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

13: Cindy Lee, claire rousay and the haunted, horny sound of now

Without Jamaican sound system culture, much of the electronic music we love wouldn't even exist. So why is it so often underrepresented when we talk about dance music history?To tackle this and more, we brought in author Marvin Sparks, one of the UK’s preeminent experts on reggae and dancehall.We also had topical news to cover: Vybz Kartel, currently serving a life sentence in prison, had his murder conviction overturned last month. As is often the case, press coverage of the appeal has been meagre, so we asked Marvin to explain just why this ruling is so important, and how Vybz Kartel became the most important dancehall artist of the 21st century.Marvin’s also on form when it comes to the big picture stuff: dancehall’s influence on all the music you love, the problems with its press coverage in and out of Jamaica, and his expertise in a genre that, as he puts it, music fans don’t care nearly enough about.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

12: Why Vybz Kartel is the most important Jamaican artist of the century

It’s a question that crops up a lot: how do musicians move into video game soundtracking?Lena Raine is one of the most respected game composers on the circuit, capturing the imagination of millions with her work for Minecraft and Celeste, one of the key indie games of the last decade.Often with No Tags, we try to focus on people who haven’t had their story adequately told. That’s not the case with Lena. She’s given many interviews, and she’s always an excellent subject. But we wanted to ask some practical questions: just how does a musician enter the world of video games? And what do they need to know about pitching, contracts, copyright and the difference in process between releasing recorded music and working for video games? It’s an interview of two halves: the first serves as a practical resource for musicians, but in classic No Tags style, the second half goes somewhere else entirely, with Lena on fine form tackling Gamergate, the evolution of the modern internet (not familiar with the theory of the Cozy Web? You soon will be) and the sale of Bandcamp. She saves her most righteous response for the coming of AI, though – that’s worth the price of admission alone.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

11: Lena Raine and the quest for the cosy web

Dr Robin James is a philosopher of sound studies whose Twitter presence and blog, It’s Her Factory, are reliable sources of galaxy-brain takes on the discourse, from Taylor Swift Studies to “Brexit techno”.We asked Robin to share some of her latest thinking on the forces that are changing how we listen to music, from vibes-based listening and the secrets of the Spotify algorithm to the connection between ‘90s alt-rock and the 2020s manosphere, as well as her recent book on American radio, The Future of Rock and Roll: 97X WOXY and the Fight for True Independence. Oh, and Dude Wipes.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

10: Dr Robin James, vibes philosopher

Look – chances are you’ve never heard of Gavin Douglas.But if you’ve had even one ear to what’s been going on in UK radio over the last decade, you’ve definitely felt his impact – as a curator, radio programmer, trainer and mentor. Snoochie Shy, Jeremiah Asiamah, Jamz Supernova, Tash LC, JK & Bempah, Reece Parkinson and CassKid are just a handful of the country’s prominent radio hosts that he’s had a role in developing, and that’s before getting into his wider roles as Reprezent Radio’s former Head of Music and Radar Radio’s former Director of Radio. Put simply, the contemporary UK radio landscape looks very different without him.So where did Gavin’s journey start, and how did he get here? As we find out on this episode, it’s one heck of a redemption story – from scoring interviews with Destiny's Child and Mariah Carey and becoming the golden boy of Birmingham's '90s pirate radio scene, to reinventing himself after being let go by the BBC in the late 2000s.Gavin has given very few interviews in his life, so we jumped at the opportunity to tell his story on No Tags. We get into a lot of big picture questions – what is the future of Black British radio? Should radio playlists exist? Does radio still even matter? – while getting the inside scoop on his time at the BBC, Reprezent and Radar. There’s also some great insight into the history of Birmingham’s pirate radio scene and its political impact on the city in the 1980s and 1990s, which is really worth sticking around for.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

09: The most important voice in UK radio you've never heard

Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson has had a monumental impact on the last decade of dance music, first by disrupting a male-dominated industry through the agency Discwoman, and then by creating a new, dedicated zone for Black artists with Dweller, an annual festival that takes place across various venues in New York each February.And all without ever lowering herself to the status of a DJ.With the peak of Discwoman press hype now a distant pre-pandemic memory, we thought it’d be a perfect time for a No Tags interview with Frankie. We’re not really in this game to speak to amoebic newcomers about their career hopes – you’ll find plenty of that in what remains of the music press. Instead we wanted to talk to Frankie as a seasoned veteran of rave, and as someone who’s both seen and enacted immense change in the scene, even helping overturn NYC's racist "cabaret law".Ahead of next week’s Dweller festival, we talked to Frankie about the need for Dweller and the unique family atmosphere at their parties, as well as the underground films the platform has curated for a season on The Criterion Channel. We also discuss why Dweller recently cancelled a showcase of Black artists at Berghain, the state of NYC nightlife, and how raving brought a shy, scared teenager out of her shell.Plus: her favourite films about white men in crisis. Enjoy!Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

08: Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson on Dweller and making actual change

The Large is a perfect example of the sort of figure we want to talk about on No Tags.She’s been a savvy behind-the-scenes operator for over 15 years, coming of age in London’s late ‘00s DIY clubbing era as a promoter, DJ, radio host and blogger. It was in the early part of the next decade, however, that she came into her own at Mixpak, the New York-based label that did more than any to connect the dots between the Caribbean, the UK and US in the 2010s. As label manager, Suze worked with Vybz Kartel, Murlo, Jubilee, Palmistry and more – but none made as seismic an impact as Popcaan, whose first two albums had Suze at the helm.Her crowning glory however, came in the summer of 2016 when Mixpak (and a weighty extended crew) triumphed in London’s Wembley Arena at Red Bull’s flagship Culture Clash event, to a global viewing audience of millions. As we find out in this episode, Suze was at the heart of that success, organising hundreds of exclusive dubplates and guest appearances to leverage their soundclash victory, including Spice, Popcaan, J Hus, Tony Matterhorn, Sneakbo, Kranium and Drake.We spoke to Suze about her decade in NYC, the mechanics of releasing music in 2024, the inside scoop on Culture Clash, dancehall’s historical relationship with the US-UK press machine, the emergence of Latin America and Korea as global pop music forces, the difference between drunk crowds and ketamine crowds, and much, much more.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

07: The Large, soundclash champion turned industry oracle

It’s been a bad week for music journalists. Anna Wintour kept her sunglasses on to inform Pitchfork staff of their absorption into men’s magazine GQ, while FACT Magazine – alma mater of both yours truly – quietly announced the end of an era, with the mix series closing down and editorial scaling back.Nothing lasts forever, but we were still jolted by FACT’s announcement (especially when it got completely buried by the Pitchfork story, lol). So we looked inside our hearts and did the only thing we know how to do: record an emergency podcast about it.As guest, we brought in Henry Bruce Jones – who has capably helped steer the ship at FACT since 2018, including curating the website’s beloved mix series – to perform a biopsy of the last 15 years of online music journalism and help us predict the next phase.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

06: Music journalism, the final farewell tour

Jeff Weiss is probably the best music writer we’ve got. We admire him not only for his radiant and voluminous prose – 8,000 words on the Grateful Dead, anyone? – but his willingness to put gumshoe to pavement in order to dig up the real story. That investigative instinct has placed him at the forefront of American rap scenes for the best part of two decades, from exposing the white devilry of Post Malone to reporting the killing of Drakeo The Ruler. The LA native has many strings his to bow: running the peerless rap blog Passion of the Weiss, launching a magazine, campaigning against predatory media barons, and writing a forthcoming novel about Britney Spears.We had a lot to talk about, so we invited him on the show to dissect a topic close to our hearts: the collapse of the music industry ecosystem. But fear not, we also have a laugh about the 2010s blog era, the hyper-regionalisation of rap, huffing the fumes of the ‘90s, Andre 3000’s surprising media illiteracy and a lot more.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we’re @notagspodcast everywhere) or rating and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

05: Jeff Weiss, reporting live from the fall of Rome

Are end of year lists over?This year it felt like end of year season came and went with minimal impact and minimal consensus. So why was that? Falling in the middle of a global crisis obviously doesn’t help, but even outside of the news context — and frankly that’s never stopped musicians tooting their own horns before — 2023’s parade of end of year lists really did feel like a damp squib. We also tackled the year’s objective stand-out hits (‘Sprinter’, ‘Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2’), the music that had a global impact but was ignored in most editorial lists (‘Water’, amapiano in general), the impact of NTS Radio on people’s tastes, dance music’s ups (Nikki Nair) and downs (Bandcamp), Chal’s #JusticeForPadam campaign, the post-millennial vibe shift, and some of our own favourite records, radio shows and films to come out this year.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) — or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

04: Are end of year lists over?

A true DJ’s DJ, CCL is typical of the kind of artist we both admire: someone with reassuringly broad taste, a lifelong affinity with the underground and a winningly self-deprecating sense of humour.After obsessing over their recorded mixes for ages we realised we knew almost nothing about Ceci the person. Turns out, there’s much to tell – with past lives in Moscow, Rome, Bristol and Seattle, their life story veers from elite dance schools to cider-swilling student nights via stints as a festival booker, trainee coder and crisis hotline staffer.We sat down with Ceci between two London gigs for a great IRL conversation, going deep on the intricacies (and flaws!) of Rekordbox, the politics of DJ collectives, the dynamics of queer dancefloors, the importance of digital archiving and more, all threaded through their unique life story.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) — or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

03: CCL, international selector of mystery

For the second episode of No Tags, Chal & Tom meet Nick Boyd and Tony G, the duo behind one of the underground’s best dance labels.We talked about why a record label in 2023 needs to do more than just release good record, the increasing corporatisation of the underground, acid epiphanies, Boiler Room, the music press and this episode’s main theme: the network of underground dance music in North America that ultimately drives Nick and Tony's mission. This is the Sorry Records story to date — but it’s also much more than that.Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) - or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

02: Sorry Records, keepers of the dance music flame

For the first episode of No Tags, Chal and Tom meet JK & Bempah, hosts of NTS's go-to rap show and true scholars of street music. Early champions of everyone from Pop Smoke to Jim Legxacy, their weekly radio show is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in rap music from either side of the Atlantic. We spoke about their story so far, the Met Police’s treatment of drill artists, whether Central Cee can go all the way, the lack of breakout stars in 2023 and something called The Theory of Him, which you’ll just have to let them explain. Thanks for listening to No Tags. If you like what we do, consider following us on Substack and social media (we're @notagspodcast everywhere) - or rating, subscribing and reviewing No Tags on your podcast app of choice. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe