Line Noise Podcast

Welcome to a special extra bonus edition of Line Noise. This is an interview I recorded with Tom Lea, the founder of Local Action, one of my - and I hope your - very favourite electronic music labels, home to T Williams, Finn, Jordan, UNIIQU3 and so much more. Tom was in Barcelona for a Local Action 10th anniversary party and we talked about what the last decade has meant for Local Action, how to find artists, mission statements and more. This interview first aired on Radio Primavera Sound’s daily show, The Daily Review. But I think it is very Line Noise friendly. I hope you enjoy it.

Today on Radio Primavera Sound we welcome Mike Paradinas a producer, label owner and promoter of talent quite beyond compare. As µ-Ziq Mike has been one of the most important artists in experimental electronic music over the past three decades, while his Planet Mu label has been host to an outrageous run of talent, from grime to dubstep, footwork to pop. His excellent new EP Goodbye is out now and his classic Lunatic Harness album is getting re-released later this year. We talked about jungle tekno, recording drunk, the pleasures and pains of running a label, The Auteurs, missing out on raving and Aphex Twin.

If you, like us, are slightly overwhelmed by the sheer number of acts playing at Primavera Sound 2022, then this special episode of Line Noise may be for you. Ben Cardew and Johann Wald take you through their selection of the best electronic acts playing the Barcelona festival, from legends to locals to the freshest new talent.

Subjective are Goldie and James Davidson, a drum and bass super duo whose new album The Start of No Regret is a gem of soul, rave, beats, hip hop, indie and jungle. Ahead of the release of their new album, Ben Cardew interviewed the band for a special two-part Line Noise. Part two is with the legend that is Goldie, without doubt one of the most important figures in the last four decades of British music. Conversation ranged from David Bowie to Rob Playford, Thailand to indie.

Subjective are Goldie and James Davidson, a drum and bass super duo whose new album The Start of No Regret is a gem of soul, rave, beats, hip hop, indie and jungle. Ahead of the release of their new album, Ben Cardew interviewed the band for a special two-part Line Noise. Part one is with James Davidson, who first came to our attention as half of DJ / production duo Ulterior Motive. He talks about working with Goldie, engineering his way out of traps, the state of drum and bass and so much more. Part two, with Goldie, follows in two weeks.

Today on Line Noise we welcome Danish DJ - and now producer - Courtesy, whose debut EP, Night Journeys, a work of gloriously ambient trance, is out now. We talked about the musicality of trance, deconstructing dance classics, life without kick drums and music in Greenland.

This week on Line Noise (in a crossover episode with The Weekly Review), we welcome DJ Lag a South African DJ, producer and legend of gqom music. We talk about working with Beyoncé, the global reach of gqom, a Rosalía crossover, Sinjin Hawke, amapiano and Lag speaks for the first time about the situation with will.i.am and Ice Drop.

Today on Line Noise we welcome a house music producer of rare pedigree: Roy Davis Jr., a man who started out in Phuture, recorded for Thomas Bangalter’ Roulé Records and produced the garage anthem Gabriel. We talk about what makes Chicago different, recording with Phuture, DJing with Daft Punk, his new Wind of Change EP and becoming a garage super star.

Jersey Club Queen UNIIQU3 joined Ben Cardew in the RPS studio to talk microdosing her love, blowing up Jersey Club, the bed squeak sound and lockdown creativity.

Today on Line Noise we are joined by the enigmatic figure who is The Secret DJ, a DJ, journalist and author, who is now onto his third book: Tales from the Booth, in which dozens of DJs from around the world relate their own true stories of DJ life. Our interview touches on everything from the dance music bust of 1999 to the serious problems in the club world, giving a fascinating insight into someone who has been there and done it all.

On today’s show we are joined by Nicolette, who is one of the very best vocalists in electronic music and a brilliant producer and lyricist to boot. Her debut album, Now Is Early, was one of the first jungle albums, combining hardcore with jazz, soul and so much more; she recorded vocals for two Massive Attack songs on their second album Protection; and her second solo album Let No-One Live Rent Free in Your Head is an utter lost classic. She has a new album, The Infinitive, coming out soon. And she joined us to talk torch songs, jungle, anarchy and so much more.

Today we have an exceptionally distinguished guest on Line Noise in the form of Wolfgang Flür, a German musician who was LITERALLY in Kraftwerk. He has a fantastic new solo album coming out on March 4, called Magazine 1, and he talked to us about recording with Juan Atkins, his parents’ views on Kraftwerk, acting and singing; Magazine 2 and a whole load more. And he ends with a lovely and very moving story about an unexpected meeting with Florian Schneider in a Düsseldorf cafe in 2016. Enjoy what we humbly think is a very special episode of Line Noise.

Danny L Harle returns to Line Noise, in a show recorded live at the Primavera Weekender. Ben Cardew is joined by Johann Wald, Mar Vallverdú and their hardcore idol, Danny L. Harle, to talk Harlecore, inclusive makina and being the man of the moment.

This month our guest on Line Noise is one of the founders of techno music, a house music pop star and ceaseless innovator: Kevin Saunderson, aka E-Dancer, Inner City et al. Ben Cardew spoke to him to mark the release of a new E-Dancer record, Re:Generate, which sees a new generation of techno artists take on his work. Naturally, we ended up talking about Detroit, Wee Papa Girl Rappers and Idris Elba. Plus: would Larry Levan play E-Dancer?

​Marie Davidson returns to Line Noise, in this special bonus episode recorded live at the Primavera Weekender, where she played with l’Oeil Nu. Ben Cardew asks her about left turns, Montreal DIY and making music with a sly sense of humour.​

Manchester ambassadors Space Afrika (aka Joshua Inyang and Joshua Reid) join Ben Cardew on Line Noise to talk UK energy, Honest Labour and love.

Few albums divide opinion like Human After All, Daft Punk's third long player. Derided on release in 2005, it marked a critical and commercial low for the duo, only to be swiftly rehabilitated when Daft Punk used large segments of HAA on their Alive 2006 / 7 tour. In this special episode of Line Noise Ben Cardew, your regular host and author of Daft Punk's Discovery - The Future Unfurled, speaks to CK303, the DJ behind the brilliant Teachers mixes, about Human After All. Is it a 'bad' album? Was it a necessary one? Is it the anti-Discovery? Or did Daft Punk just mess up? Includes CK303's special Human After All / Marquee Moon mix.

This month on Line Noise, we welcome John Beltran, a producer from Lansing Michigan who has been making quality electronic music for more than 30 years now, both under his own name - notably the classic Ten Days of Blue album - and as Placid Angles, whose excellent album Touch The Earth was released earlier this year. We talk about keeping fresh after three decades in the game, children, Paul McCartney and making music for Oprah.

German techno legend Moritz Von Oswald is our very special guest on Line Noise this month, as we celebrate the release of Dissent, the new album by his Moritz von Oswald Trio. He talks about visiting Stockhausen in his studio, working with Tony Allen and Juan Atkins, his history with dub techno and collaborating with Laurel Halo and Heinrich Köbberling on the new album.

In the fourteenth and final in a series of special miniature podcasts devoted to Daft Punk's Discovery, Ben Cardew examines track 14, Too Long. Ben Cardew's book about Discovery, Daft Punk’s Discovery - The Future Unfurled, is available to pre-order now. https://velocitypress.uk/product/daft-punk-discovery-book/