Category: Jägermeister

Grassroots Music Fund was a £2.25 million funding scheme by Arts Council England, which aimed to support England’s music and multi-art venues that were at risk of insolvency due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reform Radio was one of the many venues that received this fund which was used to upgrade the live room’s kit.

With help from the Arts Council England Fund, Reform were able to create a Jäger x Reform stage at this year’s virtual presentation of We Out Here Festival. As reported in DJ Mag, Resident Advisor and The Vinyl Factory, Reform Radio teamed up with the crew at Giles Peterson’s We Out Here Festival and Worldwide FM, to throw a digital festival to raise funds for Black Lives Matter associated charities.

The weekend was successful in safely programming over 20 hours of live music, poetry, dancing and DJ sets from over 20 Manchester based artists. The festival on a whole was filled with a massive array of the arts; music, films, panels, workshops, kids activities and more.

DJ Paulette who blessed the Jäger x Reform stage with her high energy house set participated in a brilliantly insightful panel discussion about racism in music industry, action and change with Jenna G and Pops Roberts from Lovescene.

The broadcast alone was an all time highlight for us at Reform. However we are extremely pleased to inform everyone that the festival crowdfunder raised £7,508 for the charities People Dem, Tomorrow’s Warriors, Black Cultural Archives, Black Minds Matter, Abram Wilson Foundation and The Black Curriculum (special mention to Mr Scruff & MC Kwasi for their final fundraising drive, extending their set for donations).

Thanks to Jägermeister & Arts Council England for helping make this happen, as well as We Out Here for the opportunity. There are many more who we wanted to thank that could fit here, so see our full post on Facebook. 

Please also head to the document that was created to support all the artists that played.

Rhythm Lab is an opportunity for up and coming artists to team up together to produce original tracks.

Remote Rhythm Lab 2020

Remote Rhythm Lab is a project in which we have partnered Manchester based artists with four artists from around the world, challenging them to explore virtual methods of collaborating and creating music. The project was made possible with support from Arts Council and Jägermeister.

The four tracks were released on Friday 19th June 2020 on Bandcamp – 100% of all Bandcamp and Rhythm Lab’s share of sales on the day were donated to NAACP Legal Defence Fund in support of the BLM movement. You can listen to these tracks on Bandcamp and Spotify.

Each of the artists involved have documented their experience, offering an insight into how music production can transcend borders. The image above is a still from episode 3 from music producer Imaginary Part who spent lockdown residing in Yorkshire.

EPISODE 1: Angel Bat Dawid & Berry Blacc

Chicago based composer, clarinettist, pianist and vocalist Angel Bat Dawid paired with vocalist and hip-hop/Jazz producer Berry Blacc.

Despite the physical distance between them, their creative spirits clearly aligned in their emotive encapsulation of the current moment with their tribute to ‘George FLoyd’

EPISODE 2: Contours & KMRU

Contours – whose sound explores the spaces, rhythms and textures that sit between House, Jazz, Afro, Latin, broken-beat and Hip Hop – will collaborate with KMRU, a field and sound artist, producer based in Nairobi renowned for his evocative electronic music.

Watch how they overcame the distance beteeen them of over 6000 miles, to create a bridge between their musical worlds, resulting in ‘Portals’

If you want to see the other episodes for this project, head to reforms youtube channel here.

Rhythm Lab Volume 1 2018.

The original Rhythm Lab in 2018 took five pairs of musicians and producers into the studio to give them the space collaborate.

Episode 1 : Denis Jones and Luke Leadbelly

The Ninja Tune affiliated Denis Jones partnered with exciting new bass influenced producer Luke Leadbelly.

Episode 2: Sam Healey and Feral Mittens

During day two, prolific jazz man Sam Healey met with experimental noise maker and experienced collaborator Feral Mittens.

For more episodes, head on over to the Reform Radio Youtube Channel here, and once gain head to Bandcamp or Spotify to listen to the tracks produced!

Co-Lab Theory is a collaboration project, creating trios out of eight upcoming artists paired with eight different music industry mentors and eight varied visual artists. Made possible by support from Jägermeister and Arts Council England, each trio created an exciting, original audio-visual work.

Industry mentors involved with the project include the pioneering production duo Swing Ting, internationally renowned creative Mr Scruff and spoken word artist Malik Al Nasir, mentee of the late Gil Scott Heron.

The project has provided a fantastic opportunity for young, upcoming music and design talent to learn from experienced music industry professionals as well as reap the rewards of being associated with such renowned creatives, profile-wise.

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With the project now complete, the tracks and audio-visual pieces have been released by Rhythm Lab and Reform Radio. You can listen to all the tracks on Bandcamp and all other major platforms.

If you want to get a glimpse into the production process, head over to our Youtube channel to watch the Co-Lab Theory documentary series!