Line Noise Podcast

Today on Line Noise our guest is Hubert Blanc-Francard, known to French house fans worldwide as Boombass, a fabulous producer in his own right and also one half of Cassius. We talked about his recent EP, WWWipeout, about the influence of the Playstation, Philippe Zdar, the French Touch, hip hop, MC Solaar and more. This is actually the last Line Noise of the season, so have a lovely summer and see you in September for more interviews, weird noises and nonsense. Photo by Matthieu Couturier.

This week our guest on Line Noise is Shawn Reynaldo, radio host, journalist, founder of the influential First Floor newsletter and now author, with the release of First Floor Volume 1 by Velocity Press. We talked about the challenges of electronic music journalism, what he’s learned about music from writing the book, artists as interviewers, public debate, streaming, second thoughts and a lot more.

Ben Cardew caught up with house legend K'Alexi Shelby to talk about the early days of Chicago house, his incredible mentors and keeping it nice and rough. His recent EP BM11 was released on Bad Manners Records on May 26. Photo by Marie Staggat.

On this week’s Line Noise, Ben Cardew spoke to Danny Briottet, one of three members of London’s Renegade Soundwave, a hugely influential electronic music group, who combined punk, electro, dub, indie, hip hop and industrial into a splendidly strange mixture that blew up raves, ignited college radio in the US, influenced The Prodigy and even translated into chart hits. You have almost certainly heard their best-known song, The Phantom, but each one of their four albums is very much worth your while. We spoke about coming up in London, sampling The Clash and internal tensions. I hope you enjoy it.

Ben Cardew welcomes his old Line Noise cohort, Pitchfork contributing editor Philip Sherburne, to look back on the first day of Sónar 2023 and look forward to what is to come at the Barcelona festival, including personal recommendations. Philip also talks about the Balmat label he runs with Albert Salinas and his Futurism Restated newsletter.

Ben Cardew interviewed Chicago's finest, Jana Rush, at Primavera Sound 2023 to talk footwork, depression, jazz and so much more.

On today's Line Noise, Johann Wald and Ben Cardew welcome British electronic music wizard James Holden to the RPS studio, ahead of his Barcelona gig. We dig into "trance" versus trance, utopia, playing the hits, Madonna, Max/MSP and more, in a wide-ranging interview.

Ben Cardew and Johann Wald pick over the best electronic music from the 2023 Primavera Sound line up, from legends to new acts, locals to weirdos. It's all there to help you get ready for the festival.

On today’s episode I spoke to someone who has truly done it all: Richard West, aka Mr. C, an MC, rapper, DJ, producer, label manager and nightclub owner, who started out in London’s club scene in the early 1980s, got involved in acid house, joined The Shamen and became a pop star, and then went back to the underground, running the Plink Plonk and Superfreq labels, and also London club The End. He brings tales of acid house, pop madness and going underground.

This is a special miniature edition of Line Noise to celebrate the 10th Anniversary edition of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. Ben Cardew, author of Daft Punk's Discovery - The Future Unfurled, discusses the new re-edition of RAM, what works, what doesn't and what it tells us about the original album. Plus: what on earth is Prog-Some Access Memories?

On this week’s Line Noise I spoke to masterful French producer Étienne de Crécy, a man who has made not one but two of my favourite house music albums ever, in the form of Motorbass’s Pansoul and his own Superdiscount. I spoke to him at the Nitsa club in Barcelona, just before he DJ-ed, on the Flashback tour, playing only vinyl. We spoke about hip hop, the much missed Philippe Zdar, filesharing and so much more. Photo by Marie de Crécy

Our guest on Line Noise this week Is Eddie Fowlkes: a man whose handprints are cemented on the Detroit Historical Museum's Legends Plaza as a techno music pioneer; a producer whose first record was released in 1986 and who has been DJing since the 1970s. He told Ben Cardew about clubbing with Frankie Knuckles, his role in Juan Atkins's legendary Deep Space DJ collective and being overlooked for his role in inventing techno.

Ben Cardew welcomes dub legend Mad Professor, a man who has worked with everyone from Lee “Scratch” Perry to Sade, onto Line Noise, ahead of his performance at the Jazztronica festival in Barcelona this weekend (April 22, 2023). They talk about the inspirational Scratch, remixing Massive Attack, dub as social commentary, white privilege and the lasting impact of dub.

Ben Cardew invited French house hero Folamour to the RPS studio to talk about his love for 1980s indie, Oasis, "that" ABBA moment, playing drums, the House of Love and - above all - his new album Manifesto.

Often on Line Noise we speak to artists who are in their imperial phases; but we also love new acts too, which is why it was a pleasure to speak to LaMeduza, a vocalist, songwriter, producer and - above all - junglist, based in Geneva. She first came to my attention with her vocals on the Subjective album, The Start of No Regret in 2022; and has just released her debut solo single, the LaMeduza EP for Overview music, which combines the fiercest jungle beats with the sweetest melodies. She was in Barcelona to appear at Nitsa with Phase, the drum and bass producer with whom she has frequently worked, although we caught up via Zoom, to talk flamenco jungle, working with Goldie and the importance of a good song.

Line Noise typically concerns itself with electronic music. But we couldn’t resist the opportunity to have a word with two genuine musical legends. Noah Lennox, better known as Panda Bear, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and co-founding member of the band Animal Collective; Pete Kember, also known as Sonic Boom, is a psychedelic pioneer, guitarist, producer and vocalist, known for his work with Spacemen 3 and Spectrum. Together, they made one of our favourite albums of 2022, with the gorgeous Reset. We met them in Barcelona, before their brilliant gig, to talk about intros, Pete’s (lowbrow) love of Queen, a stage show, children, appearing on the Simpsons and working with Daft Punk.

On today’s Line Noise we speak to Nathan Fake, an English electronic music artist of the highest quality. His new album, Crystal Vision, is released on April 7 and it is a fantastic piece of work; we spoke about Crystal Vision, about Norfolk, rave, Autechre, sampling and lasting 20 years in electronic music.

On this week’s Line Noise Mar Vallverdú and Ben Cardew spoke to Singaporean songwriter and producer yeule, a non-binary cyborg entity who makes sparkling cyber pop. The interview took place at the Primavera Weekender, in yeule’s bungalow, which they had made up to look very yeule indeed. We talked about Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto, glitch feminism, hikikomori and more, in what was a fascinating 20 minutes. Picture by Sharon Lopez.

This week our guest on Line Noise is Barclay Crenshaw better known as Claude VonStroke, an American music producer, DJ, record label owner and festival organiser, whose kids still aren’t impressed by all his achievements. We talked about his favourite labels, the importance of record labels themselves, Dirtybird’s proudest moment and the one that got away, working with Green Velvet and how to introduce your kids to good music.

Today on Line Noise we bring you an interview with someone who has been making music for almost 40 years: Sean Spencer aka DJ Spen, a king of soulful and gospel house - although as we will discover later, he doesn’t particularly like to talk in terms of musical genre. We talked about remixing Diana Ross, joining the Basement Boys, working with Crystal Waters, the oddness of Milli Vanilli covering your work, hip hop’s relationship with house and so much more.