Category: blog

Rhythm Lab Records have been working on an extremely insightful project over the past month. Our sister label brought together two artists to create multiple tracks and explore themes of race and music through a group interview.

In order to explore how the music scene has changed over the years, the two artists were chosen with the aim to bring an individual who has vast experience in the music scene and another who is newer. Representing the younger generation was Ethan Hill, a Manchester based Hip Hop producer who, through his production, focuses on bringing soulfulness to the British Hip Hop scene. Completing the duo was legendary MC Madrush, one of Manchester’s leading DnB artists with a career spanning over 20 years.

The documented production process and conversation has resulted in the creation of Episode one: “I Just Love How Black It Was!”. The short documentary focuses on the interviews led by Rhythm Lab press officer Iyun (LINTD), which explored the history of Shebeens, scared Jungle promoters and the restrictive violence of the home office.

Watch the full documentary below.

Also out now is Corrupt Clarity, the 3 track EP created during this project. The EP brings together the past and the present of the magic that Manchester’s black music scene offers. Listen to the full EP below.

To coincide with National Mentoring Day, a group of high profile Manchester-based youth organisations organised a series of events to launch Manchester as the UK’s first city of mentoring.

‘Manchester Youth: Get Ahead with Mentoring’ was a youth panel discussion part of this series, created to promote the benefits of mentoring and the different mentoring offers in Manchester. The live streamed discussion hosted by Aisha Williams featured One Million Mentors Mentee Reece, EY Foundation Mentee Adeeba and Power2 Mentor Dylan.

Watch the full event below.

CEO of One Million Mentors Alveena Malik talks on the importance of having mentoring opportunities. “The pandemic has disproportionately impacted young people’s life chances, and especially those from disadvantaged communities. The time is right to invest in and strengthen Manchester’s existing mentoring provision, so that there is a clear pathway of support that enables young people, via trusted adults, to access local opportunities, and increase social mobility.”

Building on this point, Regional Manager of Greater Manchester Sara Belhay explains why they decided to hold this event in our space. “It was important to host the youth panel discussion at Reform Radio, one of the members of Manchester’s Mentoring Network, to amplify youth voices, demonstrate the impact of mentoring, and showcase the collaborative spirit amongst mentoring providers in the city.”

If you are interested in hosting your event at Reform Radio, please get in touch. We offer video/audio recording and live-streaming services.

On the 28th of Oct we broadcasted the live launch of the Sickbabe Podcast from Contact Theatre.

Created by artist Suriya Aisha, Sickbabe is a podcast series of funny, frank chats with fellow #Sickbabes who exist and resist everyday with invisible physical health conditions.

This brand new podcast series droped on Thursday 28 October as a special release alongside Black Gold Arts Festival. To celebrate this, Suriya and friends hosted a relaxed and friendly in-person launch event at Contact. This event was captioned using Otter.ai.

Sickbabe Podcast is produced by She Wants a Dog, a new podcast producer, and supported by Contact and Arts Council England.

Listen to them all here or via Spotify.

Every month we are promoting events hosted by our very own residents. Scroll down to find out what events are taking place this October.

Supernature on Sunday: 6th Birthday Party

Supernature Disco is a DJ collective that is truly dedicated to the party, playing everything from disco to house. When listening to their shows on Reform or being at their parties, expect to start throwing shapes without realising it. Listen back to their latest show via the player below.

Supernature is celebrating their 6th birthday this Sunday. The free entry event will be taking place at the Kable Club on 24th October from 3PM-8PM. Head down this weekend to catch house and disco tunes provided by Supernature residents and Matthew Rothery (Kiss Me Again). Head to Supernature’s socials to hear about their other upcoming events.

Emfor (M4) Launch Party w/ Walton

Tom2Trax‘s newly launched Emfor (M4) events is hosting a night at Stage and Radio this Thursday from 11AM-4PM.

Aside from co-running M4, Tom2Trax runs the ALLTRAX event series and has a show on Reform where he takes you full width across the dance music spectrum, showcasing forthcoming releases, just-pressed records and forgotten classics.

Headlining this event is Manchester’s very own Walton, a DJ that has released countless low-end, high-energy and earth-shattering tracks on Hyperdub, Tectonic and German heavyweight Ilian Tape.

M4 residents Tom2Trax & Nat Fanuel will open and close the night, bookending the main performance with plenty of varied, exciting and cutting edge UK sounds.

Purchase tickets here.

Steam Radio 1st Birthday ft. Mina & Bryte (Live), Skittles (Live) Murder He Wrote, Cartridge & More

Host of A MENINA DANÇA Hannah O’Gorman is the Programme Director for a community radio station called Steam Radio. The radio station based above the Old Abbey Taphouse is turning 1, and to celebrate this Birthday they are hosting a day and night event on Friday 29th October.

Kicking off at 7PM and closing at 4AM, the birthday event’s line up is packed full of amazing artists and genres from across the UK and globe. Afrobeat queen Mina will be linking up with Ghanian vocalist Bryte to bring you a full live set delivering gqom, funky, afro house and amapiano. Canadian-born, Manchester-based AYY DEN will be providing UK Funky and garage influenced beats alongside Murder He Wrote.

See the flyer below for the full line up and purchase tickets here.

Reform resident Tom2Trax has released Finding My Sound, a short documentary film reflecting on his recent endeavours to find his own unique sound in production.

Tom2Trax is a Manchester DJ and producer, who runs his eclectic ALLTRAX event series, and co-runs his newly-launched EMFOR (M4) events. You can listen back to his latest Reform show Full Width W/ Tom2Trax via the player below.

Despite nailing down his gritty, bass-inflected sound for his DJ sets, he felt that he hadn’t quite achieved this in his productions. Tom explains, “Ever since playing in bands as a teenager, and later recording into software and making music, I’d always dabbled in production. More recently, I had gotten my own material near complete, but I never had the knowledge to get my tracks ‘release ready’ through proper mixing and engineering.”

Tom decided to apply for the Arts Council DYCP funding programme to take his production to the next level. This funding programme offers grants to cultural and creative practitioners who want to take time to focus on their creative development. He found out about this programme through one of Reform’s regular social Zoom calls organised during lockdown. This particular one was hosted by Tom Northey, the director of Con Brio, who has a background in arts education, charity management and social enterprise, having worked for a number of national arts organisations and charities. 

In Tom2Trax’s words, “Reform had been really good at keeping all their resident DJs connected. We had social Zoom calls and were always kept up to date with the latest opportunities that might benefit us. It was during one of these Zoom calls that I heard about DYCP. When I went away and looked into it properly I knew I had to apply, even though it was going to be incredibly competitive. Reform held a call with all the residents who wished to apply, and this knowledge sharing session helped me understand the types of ideas that the Arts Council were looking for.”

Tom’s successful application led to a 6 month long project of learning and experimenting. Tom built a home studio, connected with mentors including Chris Massey from Sprechen, and learnt the ins and outs of mix downs, engineering sounds and arrangement tips. The project resulted in the creation of Tom’s first ever single, which will be released next year on Sprechen Records.

Finding My Sound documents this process through 1-1 interviews with Tom himself and his creative mentor Chris Massey. While Tom opens up about his production history and musical influences, Chris Massey brings an interesting perspective as a teacher.

The reflective interviews are accompanied by shots of Tom’s new home studio and his musical influences, one being Manchester’s cityscape. Multiple panning shots capture Manchester’s post-industrial buildings and cultural landmarks such as Piccadilly Records.

Watch the full documentary below.

Reform residents Juke Joint are finally back in the club space bringing you a night filled with 160bpm rhythms at YES.

Juke Joint are Manchester’s first dedicated footwork and juke promoters, bringing you the very best news, mixes, releases and events from the world of these genres. Their monthly show on Reform Radio provides the very best in juke/footwork and everything 160bpm. Listen to their latest show below.

The first to grace this line up is Itoa, a producer that has been releasing footwork, juke and jungle informed club tracks since 2013 – most recently with a number of 12’’s on the legendary Exit Records. Itoa will undoubtedly be bringing his deadly energy to the basement of YES.

Next on the line up is Reform’s resident Ani Klang, an artist that really needs no introduction. She is a true pioneer in experimental club music, creating apocalyptic soundscapes packed with tension, mystery and sudden bursts of chaos.

The final artist to wrap up this line up is Harka. He is most known for his Hybrid footwork productions, pulling influence spanning across the ocean of the UK’s bass music scene and melding them with the Chicago Footwork sound.

Of course, the Juke Joint duo will be warming up the dance floor with their usual 160 sets. The event is tonight (15/10) from 11PM – 4AM in the YES Basement.

Reform Radio’s sister label, Rhythm Lab Records, are to host a night on the 21st October from 7:30pm-11:00pm. The event will be filled with sets from previous Rhythm Lab artists and a special guest Samrai from Swing Ting. The gig will take place at Night & Day Cafe, found in the bustling hub of the Northern Quarter.

The first from the line up is Samrai, co-founder of the legendary club night, label and Manchester institution that is Swing Ting . Below is his latest track with Farah Ahmad Khan from their project Planet-People-Power. The project explores Black, Indigenous & South Asian diaspora experiences in relation to climate change, touching on intersectional environmentalism, environmental inequality and the ecological interconnectedness between Manchester and the Global South.

Also on the Night & Day bill is Manchester based Hip Hop producer and flautist Sutty. Check out her soulful encapsulating performance at Reform’s stage at this year’s We Out Here: Online & On Air to get the flavour of what to expect on the night.

Next up we have Kahreign who has been making noise for a while now across Manchester and beyond. They have an eclectic sound that effortlessly ventures into house, synth-pop & GQOM. Kahreign recently combined their hypnotic style with producer and DJ Shauna’s high energy beats on their release Underdog.

Finally, we have China Lilly and Sindysman completing the line up. The two artists have previously joined forces on Dream Culture, a track created through the label’s Sonic Synthesis series. The series invites two artists that have never worked together to create singles independently and then swap their audio stems to rework each other’s tracks into a unique piece of music.

Purchase tickets for Rhythm Lab’s Night & Day event on the 21st October here.

Reform Radio and BBC 6 Music’s collaboration has finally been announced. Reform’s new BBC 6 show, The People’s Party, will be hitting the airwaves on 29th October from 7PM – 9PM (BST).

Produced by Reform Radio and hosted by composer, producer and DJ Afrodeutsche, the brand new Friday night show promises to be an energetic celebration for the end of the working week. A place for everyone to enjoy, share their passion for music and enter the weekend smoothly. 

The show will reflect Reform’s ethos as a Manchester City Council Cultural Partner, working at the roots to promote and develop new talent.

Please send your music recommendations and ideas regarding possible radio show features to music@reformradio.co.uk.

Raise the Bar is a video series that showcases artists delivering freestyles on Reform Radio’s shows.

The fourth episode of Raise the Bar presents FLISS, an R&B singer who performed an effortless and harmonious freestyle on Jorgy and Cheech’s latest show.

FLISS’s freestyle will be premiering on 30th September at 8PM (BST) on Reform’s Youtube.

Listen to the full episode below.

Showcasing Manchester’s best in culture, arts and creativity, the People’s Culture Awards celebrates Manchester’s creative heroes. Among awards like Best Performance, Best Event and Young Creative of the Year, Reform have been nominated for the Community Choice award.

Reform Radio have been recognised for helping young people across Manchester through 618 sessions covering employability, digital and creative skills. Reform’s free wellbeing support for their session’s participants and over 300 DJ’s has also been a contributing factor to the nomination.

Click here to learn about other nominees & to cast your vote.

Reform Radio have put together a selection of take over shows to celebrate the launch of the brand new website. Expect a wide variety of artists across the globe, from Mancunian Mr Scruff to Ok Sure based in Australia.

The special take over series kicked off on the 9th of September, with shows from Alga-rhythm’s, Mr Scruff, Yacre and DJ Raph hitting the airwaves so far. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to these shows, you can listen back at Reform’s Mixcloud.

To wrap up the celebration, we have two more shows coming up from OK Sure and QQ Circe. Ok Sure will be playing electro, techno and house on the 22nd September from 10 to 11 PM and QQ Circe’s show will be airing on the 27th September from 8 to 9 PM.

Tune in at Reform Radio.

The full ‘giRLs’ compilation has been released by our sister label, Rhythm Lab Records.

The compilation features collaborations made possible by the Rhythm Lab International Women’s Day Fund supported by Arts Council England.

The 3 tracks were born out of Rhythm Lab’s ‘giRLs’ series, a project that facilitated release-ready collaborations between women who have never met before by providing space, resources and time.

6 amazing Northern women artists participated in this project: Kahreign, Shauna, Sutty, Migixhi, Martha Pryer and NIIX.

Head to all major platform’s to listen to the compilation.

Hosted by DJ Paulette, the live stream was an in-depth discussion with Trip City author Trevor Miller and DJ/Producer A Guy Called Gerald.

10 randomly selected members of the public were also able to watch the rich discussion in person.

The conversation delved into how the story came to life, the thought process behind the novel’s soundtrack, and the memories the two artists have surrounding the creation of the book.

The event was wrapped up with an exclusive DJ set from A Guy Called Gerald.

Watch the full live stream via the video below or head to Reform’s Youtube Channel.

This event was in partnership with ShinDigger.