If I Speak – with Moya Lothian-McLean and Ash Sarkar

If I Speak

05: Are we trapped in a fantasy?

04: Can you teach an adult to have empathy?

03: The dating trap

02: Is my long-distance relationship doomed?

01: Should I give my mum an allowance?

Moya and Ash talk to Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies, about why we crave external validation yet hate to be perceived. Plus: advice for a listener who got engaged while drunk.

Come and see If I Speak live at the London Podcast Festival on 15 September! Tickets available from kingsplace.co.uk now.

Got a problem? Tell us: ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Music by Matt Huxley

17: Feeling seen w/ Nicola Dinan

Tracklisting 
Ø - Ilta (Sahko Recordings, 1996)
Ovïd - Sharp Thorns (Captured Visions, 2022)
Erosion - Erosion 3 (Chain Reaction, 1997)
Pendle Coven - Golden Hadron (Modern Love, 2007)
Mathimidori Ft. Shoco - Akari (Echochord, 2020)
Jason Letkiewicz - Emergent Ray I (Jungle Gym Records, 2022)
Emre Girginkaya - Denyd (Laboratorio Palestro, 2024)
Chantssss - Yr Lyf (Theory Therapy, 2024)
SND - 23 (SND, 1999)
Substak - Whispering In The Dark (Secuencias Temporales, 2025)
Javier Marimon - Ds24X1 (Accents Records, 2024)
Strategy - Petrichor (Strategy’s Unlimited Editions, 2024)
Beppu - Religious Dub (Part 2 Demdike Stare Remix) (Organic Analogue, 2025)
Andy Stott - See In Me (Modern Love, 2007)
Bas Dobbelaer - Rise (Something Happening, Somewhere, 2023)
Jichael Mackson - Welcome (Ilian Tape, 2024)
Purelink - Personal Velocity (Knekelhuis, 2022)
Ovatow - Frustrations Dub (Harbour City Sorrow, 2023)
Jas Shaw - I Sing The Senses Electric (Delicacies, 2024)
Rrose x Bob Ostertag - Shadow Pocket (Variation One) (Eaux, 2011)
Gez Varley - Adieu (Force Inc, 2001)
Uon - Kissing (Motion Ward, 2017)
HVL - Repeated Eye Contact (Bassiani, 2019)

Take a Trip with Volte-Face

Phantasy’s long-running mix series continues apace with a contribution from a key figure in London’s electronic and alternative underground, Casper Clark. Perhaps best known under his former Volte-Face alias, this wide-ranging hour finds Clark reigniting his fundamentally eclectic sensibility, seamlessly blending records from Black Merlin, Idjut Boys and The Parallax Corporation, spanning twenty-five years of music at the authentic margins.

 PHANTASYMIX 52 by Casper Clark is available to stream now from Apple Music and on Soundcloud, alongside dozens of mixes from the label archive.

“I started DJing nearly 20 years ago, at least partially inspired by the way Erol used to play at Trash and later Bugged Out and beyond. I was lucky enough to book him over the years at our Adventures In The Beetroot Field parties as well as Field Day and even the Lock Tavern, which I used to programme back then. As I drifted more towards exploring techno under my Volte-Face moniker, our paths diverged somewhat, and a few years went by when I didn't bump into him or see him play all that often. So this mix feels like a homecoming of sorts, and an expression of a rekindled musical freedom and a cherished friendship. I even managed to squeeze in a track by Tiga, who was another formative influence for me. I hope it's as fun to listen to the mix as it was to make it.” - Casper Clark

PHANTASYMIX 52: Casper Clark

For RA.1000, DJ Sprinkles' first mix in over a decade is a powerful meditation on the genocide in Gaza.

Dance music often relies on simple narratives: release, escape, unity. But those narratives can often feel inadequate, and even at times, hollow. Or, as Terre Thaemlitz might bluntly put it, just "shitty."

For her first mix in around 15 years, Terre Thaemlitz AKA DJ Sprinkles, challenges us to think differently. "I felt this 1000th podcast should reflect the moment in which it was made," she told us in her Q&A.

And what is this moment? Every day since Israel's 2023 assault on Gaza began, an average of 28 children have been killed. That's an entire classroom, every day, for over 600 days (at the time of writing). It's a staggering figure that only captures a fragment of the listless cruelty imposed on the strip.

Faced with such a genocide, what can music really do? How political can it truly be?  For their RA.1000, Thaemlitz gives us an unflinching rebuke to the idea that music should provide escapism. The mix weaves ambient fragments and jazz passages, woven around samples from Israeli media and the voices of outspoken Jewish critics like Gabor Maté and Norman Finkelstein. 

The result is not just a protest, but a document of our time. For Terre Thaemlitz, music is never just music. Her RA.1000 serves as a reminder that in an age of relentless suffering, the most political act is to reject the illusion of escape, and search for something greater.

Read the interview and find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1013. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Terre Thaemlitz / DJ Sprinkles

In the latest episode of #RedHacks Joana Ramiro talks to Novara Media co-founder Aaron Bastani about the importance of independent grassroots media.

17: Feeling seen w/ Nicola Dinan

Novara Media

Related tracks