Midweek Mixes (08/11/23)
A run-down of some of the mixes and radio shows that have been soundtracking my existence – from the box-fresh to the tried-and-tested – all guaranteed to brighten up your week.
This week’s Midweek Mixes features radio shows by artists I admire, recorded in response to the Israeli government and military’s bombardment of Gaza and the endorsement this bombardment continues to receive from leaders in the EU, US and Westminster.
As the heads of the IASC — which represents 18 humanitarian agencies including the WHO, World Food Programme and UNICEF — put it in their joint statement the other day:
We renew our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held hostage.
Civilians and the infrastructure they rely on – including hospitals, shelters and schools – must be protected.
More aid – food, water, medicine and of course fuel – must enter Gaza safely, swiftly and at the scale needed, and must reach people in need, especially women and children, wherever they are.
We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It’s been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now.
These past few weeks, the dissonance of daily life lived in a world where our political leaders fail to uphold these basic human principles — for many, nothing new — has been painful and disorientating. There is a generalised sense of outrage in the air. Hearing people using music to channel this pain and outrage into something meaningful and powerful — expressions of solidarity, calls for collective action, moments of catharsis — helps.
CCL - liquidtime for Palestine
This show features music by Palestinian producers CCL met when they performed at Exist Festival, an events series connecting artists, musicians, DJs and curators from Palestine to their peers around the globe. There’s ambient, hip hop, industrial, and a beautiful extended meditation on what sounds like an oud. This show doubles up as a tribute to the founder of Exist, Odai Masri aka Oddz, who died unexpectedly earlier this year.
CCL includes a list of actions on the show’s page on the Refuge Radio site.
Kiernan Laveaux - Live on NTS (28/10/23)
Kiernan dedicates this show to worldwide solidarity with people in Palestine, The Congo, Sudan, Armenia, Haiti — and anywhere people are being oppressed by Western-backed violence. In her words, the show features “some music I personally love that speaks against the ills of the world & some that speaks to us continually finding our positioning within that”.
Kiernan bookends things with Larry and Janet’s separate takes on the theme of ‘State Of The World’, with the rest of the show staying in that late 80s/early 90s low-slung dub/post-punk/trip-hop vibe (Smith & Mighty and Maximum Joy both appear twice), with some newer tracks (Golden Teacher, Doc Sleep) creatively slowjammed to fit.
Sofie K - Work Out (Dabke Disco Special)
An hour of straight-up Dabke bangers from Sofie K — if only all wedding DJs played like this! I regularly hear a dembow-like swing to these tracks and occasionally, like on Maher Halabi’s ‘Ya Zareef Atool’, there’s a truly gnarly 80s chug to them. This, of course, is what Sofie is all about and you can hear her bringing Arabic music into her DJ sets — check her live recording from Corsica Studios, which I covered in Midweek Mixes last year.