Passive/Aggressive

Jacques Attali – An introduction to Noise: The Political Economy of Music

Feature Most read November 21 2019

Essay by Macon Holt Before he was the head of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, and before he was an economic advisor to French president François Mitterrand, Jacques Attali wrote a strange book that was hugely influential within peculiar circles—“Noise: The Political Economy of Music (Bruits: essai sur l’economie politique de la musique)”. The book appeared in French in the late 1970s ...

Læs resten

Make it Weirder – The Copenhagen Scene from an International Perspective

Feature Most read November 18 2019

By Ivna Franic The periodic excitement over locally specific music scenes appears to be alive and well, having successfully survived the beginning of the Internet age and the still rising tendency of geographically displaced scenes. It would be a stretch to say that the functioning of local scenes has not at all changed, but despite the fact that the ability to publish music releases and build up an international fanbase have become easier, reliance on the immediate ...

Læs resten

Anyines – Record Labels in the Age of the Platform

Feature Most read November 11 2019

Interview by Macon Holt  The small Copenhagen music platform, Anyines, was founded in 2017 by long-time members of the Danish electronic (is there any other kind) music scene, Villads Klint (Minais B) and Aske Zidore (An Gella). Based out of the administrative building for a former maintenance facility for the Danish State train company DSB, the locations of their studio has the same atmosphere ...

Læs resten

Johan Carøe – There is no need to resist imperfection

Kritik November 6 2019

Johan Carøe ”zenmetal” (No Technique, 2019) – review by Wieland Rambke There is something hypnotic about the sound of sound on warped tape: When the recording begins to warble, and both speed and pitch start stumbling, a sort of micro-tuning of time is taking place. The medium itself is loosening up, it is letting go. The press text for “zenmetal”, Johan Carøe’s debut EP out on Copenhagen-based ...

Læs resten

Puce Mary + Drew McDowall + Kali Malone + Manisdron – Reliable Noise (live report)

November 4 2019

Kali Malone Percy x Knife Fest, October 24th at Mayhem, Copenhagen – live report by Ivna Franić, photo by Jakub Jezný A few days before Halloween Percy Records and Knife Magazine joined forces with Alice for a night potentially dark and full of terrors, with a heavy bill featuring Puce Mary, Drew McDowall, Kali Malone and Manisdron. (The second part of their mini festival was set ...

Læs resten

Passive/Aggressive #8 – Scenic Capitalism, Nostalgia Machines and the need for Interpretative Communities, to be released in November

October 28 2019

The eighth annual, international Passive/Aggressive zine is set to be released in November as part of the program for Gong Tomorrow 2019. The zine opens with a critical essay on Brian Eno’s notion of the scenius from a materialist perspective and arguing instead for Kodwo Eshun’s conception of Interpretative Communities. Unlike the scenius, which foregrounds the capacity of this social form to produce ...

Læs resten

Pretty Nihilist Pop – Defending Charli XCX against her devotees

Feature October 18 2019

By Mandus Ridefelt When Charli XCX released “Charli” in September 2019, it was her third full-length album and her first after the 2016-17 mixtapes, “Vroom Vroom”, “Number 1 Angel” and “Pop 2″, that had defined her as an artist”. Particularly, the ingeniously titled “Pop 2”, which established Charli XCX as a central figure to what commonly was referred to as the “future of pop”. ...

Læs resten

“Sonic Warfare” – An Introduction to Steve Goodman’s vibrational ontology

Feature Most read September 24 2019

Essay by Macon Holt In 2009, the producer, label owner (Hyperdub), philosopher and reluctant academic, Steve Goodman (Kode 9), released a book that would transform the philosophy of sound and, in turn, open up whole new avenues for sonic investigation through both theory and practice. The book was “Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear” from MIT Press. Structured as a sonic focused ...

Læs resten