Netil Radio Weekly
#068
Words
Happy new year and welcome back,
Hope you all survived new year’s celebrations, broke the resolutions the very next day and are holding tight for the same same, but different year coming.
Seeing the “maths” pitchspeech of our polished and smooth first oligarch PM yesterday reminded me of the Czech documentary “Šmejdi” (a very poetic Czech word for crooks) about manipulation and the humiliation of “product demonstration excursions for seniors”. In this 00s phenomenon from the Czech Republic, seniors were taken on excursions where they bought non-functional saucepans, unusable vacuum cleaners, "wool" blankets and bio-lamps for thousands of pounds. In exchange for their ID cards, confiscated by sellers, many have signed loan contracts. Despite their shocking experiences, the elderly repeatedly took part in these events in a bid to escape their loneliness, or because they couldn’t say no to the offers. It’s an accurate metaphor for our current political momentum. Despite our shocking experience, we repeatedly choose the wrong leaders in a bid to escape our loneliness and inability to say no.
It would be funny if politics didn’t affect society so much. When politicians go wild, what do we expect from ordinary people? There were times when conservative politics offered a clear and coherent vision of society. Regardless of our opinion on that matter, or the actual outcome, the difference between that and the emptiness of today’s conservative politics is enormous. Two realities. The alternative reality of the perfect smile, cliche theorems and infinite growth mantras based on oppression, is hypnotising the masses so they can escape the actual reality, in which the Ponzi schemes of the alternative reality are destroying everything that still makes sense. Pure chaos – and the perfect environment for “šmejdi”.
We can see it everywhere, and the music industry is no exception. Those with more likes than skills are becoming cheerleaders. The key to understanding is the understanding of conflict of interest. As in politics, it creates unfair conditions and leads to inequality and divided communities. Just as we can’t expect hedge fund managers to understand the difference between managing profits and managing to serve, we can’t expect DJs to do a good promotion job or vice versa. So many managers believe that being a politician is the way to success. So many DJs believe that being a promoter is the way to further their DJ career. And while clubbers have to experience promoters focused on their own gigs, asking local DJs to “bring people” for them, so they can enjoy drinking champagne in the DJ booth, the real talents have to hide in dark corners of illegal raves and small studios of internet radio stations.
Cheerleaders act as politicians, conmen as visionaries, and together they’re delivering their broken version of the alternative reality in full power. Lucky for us, there’s a strike action calendar available, so we can support the fight unions are fighting for us right now without any disruption. Let’s be honest... It’s time to prepare for a general strike and early general election combo. As always, the supporting soundtrack can be found here.
Thank you for reading and stay connected
Miro
Competition
✨Competition time✨ We’re happy to announce that Aboutface’s An Ocean of Ink in a Single Drop is back for a second season on Netil Radio starting 1st February 2023 at 3pm, and we’re doing a record giveaway for best dream content submission!
Those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, AOOI is a radio show that uses live improvised flutes, guitars, electronics and sound design, alongside creative writing, spoken word and poetry, to create a live radio-narrative inspired by a unique conceptual theme for each episode.
For the first show, Aboutface wants to centre the first episode's around the dreams of Netil Radio’s listeners. This can just be simply a description of any dream you have had, or if you want to go deeper, a dream description following the process of dream incubation - send it over to newsletter@netilradio.com
Best dream description will win a Netil radio tote bag, and a vinyl & digital copy of Ben’s Coordinates 1 & his latest album The Water That Glows Like Dancing Glass Cuts Crimson.
Competition closes on February 13th.
Listener's dream content will also be used to influence the show with song selection, field recordings and live performances, including some being recited and recorded by a voice over artist. Don’t worry, we’ll keep the dream’s anonymous
Read back the full story behind Ben’s creative process and journey in our special edition Netil Radio Stories
Happy dreaming!
New Music
Hot tips from our residents
Tadan / area127 - 2nd Sunday of the month 10pm-12am
✧ Solarhythm - Agápē - Navigare Audio ✧ Aa Sudd - Pushedd - Midgar Records ✧ Slacker - Damage To Be Undone ✧
TSUNIMAN / PLASMA - 1st Sunday of the month 10pm-12am
✧ Omformer - TRANS009 ✧ Basis Change - Impetus - Circular Limited ✧ Akob - Anthropocene - Lowless ✧
Martin Eito / Domingo - 4th Thursday of the month 11am-1pm
✧ Various Artists - RWR001 - Red Waxxx Records ✧ Jeigo - Cerulean EP - Air Miles ✧ Valentina Magaletti - A Queer Anthology of Drums 异鼓选 ✧
That’s all for this week, stay tuned
NR team
London’s community voice, broadcast live from a converted shipping container atop of Netil Market - project facilitated and supported by Eat Work Art