Name: 201, AK Thompson on radical activism looking beyond social reforms by Free City Radio in Free City Radio program
Duration: 30 min

A playlist of all the Free City Radio episodes, this is a weekly podcast produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff in Montréal. 

Free City Radio is also a community radio show that broadcasts 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays.

Free City Radio program

Recorded between the 9th and the 15th of October in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. The material is raw and unprocessed.

MARDIN - Coffe Grinder

LIKE!

IRAQ FOREVER (prod. Sandhill)

SUPPORT FOR GAZA: 
https://siliconerecords.bandcamp.com/album/artists-without-borders

tunnel (rmx) - Artists Without Borders

Friend / bandmate / composer / Tehrantologist @mahmoodschricker (@linkmusiclab, Toronto) presents an hour of deep jazz cuts, postmodern classical, his recent soundtrack work for "Fremont", and other musics of the Persian diaspora.

VHM Projekt - The Second One (In Four Movements) [Self-released, 2016]
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou - Der Heimatlose Wanderer [Unknown, 1963]
Alice Coltrane / Pharoah Sanders / Joe Henderson - Ptah, The El-Daoud [Impulse, 1970]
nour - Never Saw Me Smile [Self-released, 2022]
Shaho Andalibi / Aria Rostami / Naghmeh Farahmand - Beshno Az Nay [Link Music Lab, 2020]
Mahmood Schricker - Globe Scene [Fremont, 2023]
Alireza Mortazavi & Carson Teal - Underground Flights [Link Music Lab, 2023]
Soft Verdict - Gorf [Les Disques Du Crépuscule, 1982]
Lera Lynn - My Least Favourite Life [Harvest, 2015]
Negar Bouban - The Last Turn [Self-released, 2011]
Elsa Maurus - Auf Dem Wasser Zu Singen [Sony Classical, 1996]
Laurie Anderson - Washington Street [Nonesuch, 2001]

Days Of Steam 010: Mahmood Schricker

On this edition we speak with scholar activist AK Thompson. The conversation revolves around the importance of looking critically at the lack of radical thinking within the public expression and action of many important social movement demands in the west. AK speaks on the ways that the reform oriented frameworks for social action, largely developed in the late 19th and early 20th century do not speak to the urgent need for radical change that exists today, from climate justice, to the extreme colonial violence that persists in places like Gaza. 

Here are links to two collections of works by AK out on AK Press

Premonitions
Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt
https://www.akpress.org/black-bloc-white-riot-anti-globalization-and-the-genealogy-of-dissent.html

Premonitions 
Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt
https://www.akpress.org/premonitions.html

Music on this edition is by Anarchist Mountains. 

Image from the Institute of Anarchist Studies page: https://anarchiststudies.org

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

201, AK Thompson on radical activism looking beyond social reforms

Intense introspections from beau mensch of many hats Simon St-Louis (Système (Loose Screws x Air Supply) x Moab x Necklace) - restrained guitars and drum machines crawl inexorably along the Bowery, plaintive abstractions for the soul, suffocating Southern ambience, inverted psychedelia, staring at the horizon a la récherche du temps perdu

Jackie-O Motherfucker - The Cage [2000, Ecstatic Peace!]
Troth - Kind Of Cure [2021, Digital Regress]
Hysterical Love Project - Glass (I Want More) [2021, Self-released]
Joanne Robertson & Sidsel Meineche Hansen - Doll [2021, Tenderbook]
Megabasse - Dark [2023, All Night Flight]
Ben Bondy - Pool [2023, Good Morning Tapes]
Niecy Blues - The Nite B4 [2023, Kranky]
Rat Heart Ensemble - Liar’s Eye [2023, Shotta Tapes]
A Bad Diana - Chant d’Amour/Da Mort [2007, United Jnana]
Unknown Artist - Unknown Track [Unknown Year]
Mark Fry - Rehtorb Ym No Hcram [1972, IT Records]
Hizumi Hirakawa - 太陽の彼方* (Movin’) [2021, Pink Layke]
 * taiyō no kanata (au-delà du soleil)

Days Of Steam 011: Faux Sommets

a mix dedicated to 2023, some of the music that I played most and that best captures the spirit of the year for me

MMXXIII

TRACKLIST

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet - “[Tuning]” (The Lab, San Francisco, CA May 2023)
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown ~ “Scaring the Hoes” (Scaring the Hoes)
Matana Roberts - “no way chastened” (Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden…)
Blockhead featuring Armand Hammer - “Give Thanks” (The Aux)
Nappy Nina feat. Moor Mother - “Stone Soup” (Mourning Due)
Aho Ssan feat Nicolas Jaar - “Le Tremblement” (Rhizomes)
Giuseppe Ielasi - “A3” (Down on Darkened Meetings)
Andrea Belfi - “setteottavi” (Eternally Frozen)
Tim Hecker - “Anxiety” (No Highs)
Alexander Grawoig  - “Movement 3” (So Little Remains)
Moor Mother, Nicole Mitchell, Nduduzo Makhathini - “One for Archie”
Roper Williams feat. Fatboi Sharif - “Hooptie” (Infinity Victory Loop)
Statik Selektah feat Pos. of De La Soul - “Round Trip (for Dave)” (Round Trip)
Cruel Diagonals - “Intuit Sensate” (Fractured Whole)
Joni Void - “Negative Loop” (Everyday is the Song)
Dustin Wong - “Elegant Stumbler's Atelier” (Perpetual Morphosis)
KING VISION ULTRA + Desde - “Cold Hex” (SHOOK WORLD)
Chuquimamani-Condori - “Engine” (DJ E)
Fatboi Sharif x Roper Williams feat ft. E L U C I D - “Scrabble Board Pieces” (Planet Unfaithful)
Irreversible Entanglements - “root = branch” (Protect Your Light)
jaimie branch  - “world war ((reprise))” (Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (​(​world war​)​))
Flora Yin Wong - “Nectar Dripping” (Cold Reading)
d/p/i - “drogado” (Maldita Vita)
Kofi Flexxx feat. ganavya - “increase awareness” (flowers in the dark)
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet - “Seen from above”  (The Lab, San Francisco, CA May 2023)
billy woods x Kenny Segal- “houdini” (Maps)
liv.e - “our father” (Girl In the Half Pearl)
MIKE, Wiki, and The Alchemist  - “mayor’s a cop” (Faith is a Rock)
KVU + lord kayso - “media training” (SHOOK WORLD)
H13R (maassai and JWords) feat Quelle Chris - “down down bd” (Headspace)
Fielded feat Pink Navel (prod. by Kenny Segal) - “The Way It is” (Plus One)
matana roberts - “how prophetic” (Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden…) 
B. Cool-Aid (Pink Siifu & Ahwlee) feat Quelle, Denmark  - “Brandy, Aaliyah” (Leather Blvd.) 
KMRU - “room” (glim)
Lucy Liyou - “april in paris” (Dog Dreams)
MIKE feat. Earl Sweathshirt - “plz don’t cut my wings” (Burning Desire)
SEC_ - “orogenesi” (Tutto A Posto Niente In Ordine) 
Lorraine James - “Fruit 1”  (5 a day)
AGF - “MOVEbuild” (poemproducer)
sharif x dove - “think pieces” (Decay)
danny brown - bass jam (Quaranta) 
Child Actor - “wife was adopted” (AJAI II instrumentals)
Armand Hammer feat Pink Siifu and Moor Mother  - “Don’t Lose Yr Job” (WBDTS)
Liv.e (prod. MNDSGN) - RESET! (Girl In the Half Pearl)
Shapednoise feat. Armand Hammer - “Family” (Absurd Matter)
KVU + Nakama. - “Swing!” (SHOOK WORLD)
aesop and woods - “Living Curfew” (Integrated Tech Solutions)
woods and aesop - “waiting around” (Maps)
KVU + maassai - “clean facelift” (SHOOK WORLD) 
Armand Hammer (prod. Kenny Segal) - “Total Recall” (WBDTS)
Matana Robets - “But I Never”  (Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden…) 
Off World - “Orientation” (Off World 3)
AGF - “fieldWORK” (poemproducer)

best of 2023 mix

thenewobjective presents MMXXIII

Asphalt

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from long time Vancouver based community activist Garth Mullins about the project Crackdown, which is a podcast that explores the voices of drug users and particularly the intersections of community activism in Vancouver around the voices of drug users as an important element within broader movements for progressive social change in the city. Info on the podcast here:

https://www.crackdownpod.com

Music on this edition is Passage by Anarchist Mountains. The image is from the Crackdown podcast. Thank you to my friend, the journalist Dawn Paley, for suggesting the idea of highlighting Crackdown project on this program.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

212, Garth Mullins on drug user activism and organizing in Vancouver

On this edition of the program we hear from Palestinian sound artist and musician Byjayr. This interview was originally included in a major broadcast for Radio AlHara in Bethlehem, but I thought it would be also important to share this conversation as a stand alone exchange. Byjayr (Jeena) speaks about her creation process, journey as an artist and shares reflections on the critical importance of speaking up for Palestine today.

Music on this edition is Passage by Anarchist Mountains.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

213, Musician Byjayr on creative music and Palestinian voice

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from Indigenous artist and musician Status/Non-Status. For more information about the work of this important artist working today visit: https://www.statusnonstatus.com

Music on this edition is by Status/Non-Status. Thank you to my friend Jessie Lauren Stein for helping to set up this interview!

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

214, Status/Non-Status artist interview

AGF is a powerful poemproducer. She first described herself in these terms on a track of that title from Westernization Completed, her Ars Electronica winning breakthrough album. Poemproducer became her “internet name,” and has come to stand in for her idiosyncratic approach to vocal-based electronic music. Last November, AGF quietly released Poemproducer, almost exactly 20 years after Westernization Completed. Channeling her internet name into her first proper solo studio album since SOLIDCITY (2017), Poemproducer is built around mutating bass, freeplayed rhythms, and subtle field recordings. We discuss the evolution of her musical practice, her interest in pedagogy, feminism, collective politics and much more. 

TRACKLIST
ARTIST – “TITLE” (ALBUM, LABEL, YEAR)

AGF  - “Oops for understanding iii” (Words Are Missing, AGF Producktion, 2008)
SP Intro
AGF - “SKINgame”  (Poemproducer, AGF Producktion, 2023)
AGF - “POEMproducer” (Westernization Completed, Orthlorng Musork, 2003)
AG.F3 & SUE.C - “Lazy” (MINI MOVIES, Asphodel, 2006)
AGF - “Thoughts On Rojava feat. Zeynep Kurban, Dilar Dirik, Zaher Baher, Havin Guneser, Memed Aksoi” (Music, Awareness & Solidarity w/ Rojava Revolution, female:pressure, 2016)
AGF - “background & processes ⇻ explained by AGF” (rec-on : feminist sonic technologies, 2023)
AGF - “recon - rec-on.org ƒollow @reconsonic” (Soundcloud, 2021)
Laub -  “Wortspur” (Filesharing, Kitty-Yo, 2002)
AGF - “fieldWORK” (Poemproducer, AGF Producktion, 2023)
Sonic Wilderness - “Medley” (DOCUMENTATION: #SONICWILDERNESS #NUSASONIC Yogyakarta, Indonesia 2018)
Antye Greie-Ripatti - “mycelium sonicification video clip” (Vimeo, 2017)
Audience Participation - “Collective Mycelium Hum” (SonicEX10sion, AGF Producktion, 2018)
AGF - “sideNESS” (Poemproducer, AGF Producktion, 2023)
AGF - “Live excerpt” (Presented by Non-Event and the Goethe-Institut Boston, November 18, 2023)
AGF - “FIREmushroom” (DISoriented MINDsets, 2017)
KING VISION ULTRA feat. Dreamcrusher - “UNTRAPPINGS” (SHOOK WORLD, PTP, 2023)
Moor Mother - “Deadbeat Protest” (Fetish Bones, Don Giovanni, 2016)
AGF - “MIGration” (SOLIDICITY, 2017)
AGF - “Chorizon” (Westernization Completed, Orthlorng Musork, 2003)
AGF - “Source Voice” (Beatnadel, AGF Producktion, 2011)
AGF - “words are useless” (Words Are Missing, AGF Producktion, 2008)
RyJ - “RyJ [excerpt]” (Studio Mix, 2014)
RyJ / Nicki Minaj (Pickle Juice Mix, 2012)
J Dilla - “Bounce” (Beat Tape #3, 2002)
AGF - bassPOETess (Poemproducer, AGF Producktion, 2023)
Vladislav Delay - “Ele” (Ele, Sigma Editions, 1999)
Craig Armstrong x AGF - “Remix of Memory Takes My Hand” (Memory Takes My Hand - Exhibition Music, Chester Music Ltd., 2006)
AGF - xenakISS (Poemproducer, AGF Producktion, 2023)
The Lappetites - “Avoiding Shopping” (Before The Libretto, Quecksilber, 2005)
Dadub - “Life (Rrose Remix)” (Preternity, Stroboscopic Artefacts, 2013)
AGF - “BONUS_ Westernization Continued 2013 [excerpt]” (Westernization Completed, 2003/2013)
AGF - “şamaran [kurdish]” (uttu EP, 2023)
PINKCOURTESYPHONE + KID CONGO POWERS - “Inflame (Sludge Dub)” (Move To Trash, 3particles, 2015)
Kevin Richard Martin /  KMRU - “If (Dub)” (RESIST COLONIAL POWER BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, PTP 2024)
Ka Baird - “Gate VI” (Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos, RVNG, Intl., 2024)
AGF - “Regional Distinctions” (Futurism Ain't Shit To Me, Kyo, 2004)
—-
Sound Propositions is written, recorded, mixed, and produced by Joseph Sannicandro.

Sound Propositions S04e05

SP* Episode 35: DIS/CONTENT - with AGF [podcast]

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear a recording of a panel discussion that took place at Concordia University in Montreal, entitled Voices of the Immigrant Workers Centre. The panel focuses on the grassroots organizing in one of Montreal's former garment districts in the city around supporting garment sector workers at Lamour Inc. who were facing mass layoffs. This panel highlights a campaign that took place at a grassroots level, largely outside of the formal labour sector and took place at the intersection of many points of systemic violence targeting workers, all of whom were racialized immigrant textile workers. Information on this panel can be found here:

https://storytelling.concordia.ca/event/voices-of-the-immigrant-workers-centre

On the program we hear from the event host Lauren Laframboise, IWC activists and organizers Yumna Siddiqi and Mostafa Henaway, as well as the host of this program, Free City Radio, Stefan Christoff. 

Background information on the oral history interview series that aired on Free City Radio for this project to document the campaign that the Immigrant Workers Centre organized to support Lamour Inc. workers can be found here:

https://deindustrialization.org/voices-of-the-iwc

Stefan's work on this event was supported by the Social Justice Centre at Concordia University and took place at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS).

The accompanying photo was taken by Amru Salahuddin.

Music on this edition is Passage by Anarchist Mountains. 

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

215, Voices of the Immigrant Workers’ Centre

I first encounter Stefan though through Casa Del Popolo, the Main’s main den of épatering the bourgeoisie since the 90s, when they booked me for what was only the second Days of Steam night after the first at Rye Wax. The old booth was set up like you were in a chapel, dim as hell for me but enough of a remove from the audience without being too removed. They’re a longtime organizer in Montréal activist circles, the mind of @freecityradio, with a CV too long to summarize here but one that shows genuine belief and investment in the causes he champions. I’d seen them years back before we knew each other, as part of the city’s experimental undercurrents, with releases of introspective piano for Howl Arts alongside local luminaries Sam Shalabi and Peter Burton and mainstays d’la marge like Aural Canyon and Beacon Sound. Tapestries of field recordings and plunderphonics, part of a long tradition of musique actuelle in the city without intentionally trying to be so. The mix he sent over is almost entirely as of writing recent pieces, with compositions (what they all feel like more than ‘pieces’ or ‘tracks’) from Berkeley, Brooklyn, Brazil, Houston, Jaffa, Milan, Montréal - the sound of the uncertainty and rage of the now, but never restoring to despondency, moreso righteousness.

"It is my pleasure to share these tracks with you. On a basic level these tracks were shared mostly by friends in the context of exchanges and ongoing collaborations with folks in cities all over the place, around creating content for Radio AlHara in Palestine and beyond. I love that this mix jumps between vibes and styles. I also included a couple of tracks from recent releases that I worked on. I hope you enjoy the mix. – Stefan."

Notnef Greco - Scooter Riding in Bombay [2024, Sublamental]
Grimório de Abril - A Torre Poligonal do Astrólogo Caldeu [2024, Subliminal K7]
Matteo Uggeri - ...for You Bleeding Goddess [2024, 13 Records]
Totenbaum Träger - Fleur de néon VI [2023, Cuchabata]
Stefan Christoff - Guitar in Griffintown [2024, Cuchabata]
Matteo Uggeri - ...for Daughters and Sons [2024, 13 Records]
Stefan Christoff - Chalga Remixed [2024, Samizdat]
Grimório de Abril - The River Used to be a Signal  [2024, Municipal K7]
Stefan Christoff - In Burgas [2024, Samizdat]
Azraq - Baby Please Don't Go [2021, self-released]
Badawi - A Curse on All Murderers (Extended Dub) (excerpt) [2024, self-released]

Days Of Steam

Days Of Steam 013: Stefan Christoff

Free City Radio explores the intersection of social activism and the arts.

The weekly program features interviews on contemporary political currents in Montréal, Canada and around the world, highlighting creative voices involved in struggles for transformative social change. 

This Free City Radio page also features contemporary music mixes contributed to stations around the world. 

The 30 minute weekly Free City Radio is produced and hosted by Stefan Christoff and airs weekly on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Tuesdays at 1pm. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays.

201, AK Thompson on radical activism looking beyond social reforms

Free City Radio

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