essay
Techno and the Chinese Century: 'The Last Year of Darkness' in review
This 2023 film about club culture and queer nightlife in Chengdu, China, is a compelling watch—and an eye-opening one.
Chris Zaldua
Writer, music liker, sometimes event producer. Bay Area-based.
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interviewWords With: James Whipple (Hesaitix, M.E.S.H.)
Musical hiatuses, production flow, artistic growth, connecting with listeners, doing your own thing.
recordsNine Records I Loved in 2024
Hesaitix; Thomas Bush; Daria Lourd; V/Z; Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance; Young Echo; TRii Group; Danny Daze; Dregs.
recordsLook Back: Icee Hot, a Bay Area Club Culture Moment
An interview with San Francisco club organizers Icee Hot, originally published in 2015.
interviewWords With: Kiernan Laveaux
Growing up queer and trans in Ohio; DJing as an artform; music as a communal force and conduit for love and joy.
recordsNow Listening: Charles A.D., False Aralia, 29 Speedway, Daisy Moon, Fergus Jones
Home-listening techno-house; micro-dub minimalism & phantom acoustics; body music as tesseract; techno-pop obsessions; bass music as galaxy.
recordsLook Back: Superpitcher — "Hollywood"
Mentioned: The Postal Service, 12-LP albums, Pachanga Boys, Burning Man, $1500 records, Brian de Palma's "Body Double," Philip Glass, Sufjan Stevens, philosophical inquiry, Ship of Theseus.
essayLongform: A Spectre is Haunting Electronic Music
Marx would surely have loved the club, but would have been aghast at the economic conditions therein.
interviewWords With: Ani Phoebe
Hong Kong, pop-up vending, records as journaling, cultural currency, sustainability, retail as cooperative ecosystem.
recordsNow Listening: A New Industrial Roundup
For New Industrial artists and labels, the refusal to be categorized is the category.
interviewWords With: Autechre, Vol. 2 (2015)
The complete transcript of my 2015 conversation with Autechre, published for the first time—in two parts.
interviewWords With: Autechre, Vol. 1 (2015)
The complete transcript of my 2015 conversation with Autechre, published for the first time—in two parts.