No Tags

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

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

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

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