A chunky episode, this, as we tackle the last fortnight of music news. We mull over Charli XCX’s Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, a star-studded remix album that reworks the original from the stems up. If these are Brat Summer’s dying embers, then it’s a flame that struggles to consistently flicker – but the bright spots are very bright indeed. We pay tribute to Ka, the Brooklyn rapper who died earlier this month aged 52. A proudly independent artist, Ka eschewed...

On October 2, Amy Lamé stepped down from her post as London’s first Night Czar. Lamé had faced constant scrutiny since taking the job in 2016, especially following her chunky pay rises – most recently she was earning £132,846 a year in a period when the city’s venues have been struggling to survive. But Lamé’s achievements have also been defended by people deeply involved in the city’s nightlife. One of those defences came last week from Party Lines author Ed Gillett, who argued in the...

Vivian Host’s rave credentials go deep. Much deeper than we realised in fact, and we’ve been friends with her for over a decade. There are several entry-points through which you could have discovered Vivian. Maybe it’s her podcast, Rave to the Grave, where she interviews DJs, dancers and ‘freaks of all ages’, from legendary house vocalist Barbara Tucker to performance art pervert Kevin Carpet. In Vivian’s words, RTTG exists to document ‘a vital and resonant global (sub)culture that has often...

With festival season over, it's time we investigated a story that’s been on our minds all year: has the bubble burst? In March it was reported that 21 UK festivals had already cancelled, postponed or closed in 2024. By the end of summer that number had risen to over 50. Industry bodies blame rising costs, which is doubtless a factor – but what else might be at play here? A small cluster of dominant companies contributing to an oversaturated festival landscape, perhaps? Or are festivals simply...

We’ve not interviewed too many DJs so far on No Tags, so when we do, it’s a safe assumption that a) we’ve watched them play a few times, and b) they’re pretty tasty at it. OK Williams falls into both categories. We’ve seen her DJ multiple times and have never failed to leave the dancefloor refreshed. But she’s also one of our favourite dance music personalities, as evidenced on her regular NTS show (and, OK, her Twitter account) where she exhibits the sort of energising but healthily...

Regular No Tags listeners will notice that we often talk about living through several revivals at once, but indie sleaze is one that doesn’t seem to be going away. So why indie sleaze, and why now? And what do people actually mean when they talk about an indie sleaze revival in 2024? For this episode, Chal and Tom dug out their skinny ties and shutter shades (not to mention some brutal photos from the depths of their personal Facebook archives) to try and figure out whether this is a genuine...

On No Tags 25, we meet Jonny Banger: T-shirt hustler, avant-bootlegger, visionary rabble-rouser, DJ battle champ and bossman of the anarchic anti-fashion brand Sports Banger. From a certain angle, it can seem like the clothes are the main event at Sports Banger, from the original Free Tulisa tee and bootlegged NHS logos to wearable inflatables and a Chanel toilet seat headpiece. Naturally, Jonny has been asked a lot of questions in previous interviews about his designs and his philosophical...

If four generations make up a family, then how many podcast references to the early 2010s make up a revival? We confront the spectre of 2011 from a few different angles in this episode, but particularly via dance music, where it feels like the anthems of the early 2010s, not to mention the top tier of DJs, are yet to be replaced. Is that down to nostalgia for the music itself? A lack of inventiveness plaguing the decade since? Or have we entered a period in history where we’re living through...

This week, Henry Bruce-Jones joins us to run down the best music of 2024 so far. With the caveat that we didn't think it was worth revisiting the albums we've already discussed (and Brat summer's over anyway, babes), we start with the gaseous moods of Naemi, Bianca Scout and Chanel Beads. Are we in the midst of a brave new wave of shoegaze, or has the NTS early morning schedule pumped one too many Cocteau Twins songs into the water supply? We compare and contrast Erika de Casier and Clara La...

We’ve become so accustomed to bad news that Labour’s landslide victory in the UK general election has been a hard one to process, despite it being a dead cert. The Tories are actually gone? Can it be real? So this week we decided to piece together our memories of the last 14 years of cuts, corruption and chaos, and see if we can identify the sound of Tory Britain.  We’ve spent most of our music careers toiling under the long shadow of George Osborne’s turbo-cuts to public spending – not to...

This time we’re joined by Meaghan Garvey, author of America’s #1 vibes-based newsletter, SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE, and one of the best writers in the game. Meaghan started off as an illustrator, laundering a semi-successful weed-dealing operation through an Etsy empire before becoming better known as a music journalist. Whether writing pin-sharp profiles of megastars like Lana Del Rey and T-Pain or getting deep in the DIY weeds, Meaghan has long been a BS-free voice in a sea of mediocrity. And...

A fairly big topic this week, as Tom and Chal investigate the issue of payola in underground music. Does it exist? Well, kind of - but not in the way you might think. Some background: in our Fish56Octagon episode, Tom mentioned that he was pretty sure that Fish was being seeded and potentially paid to play people’s music. A couple of people got in touch to confirm that the first part of that at least was true, and it got us thinking: accusations of money changing hands for coverage are still...

We're back with the second part of our conversation with GG Albuquerque, our expert guide to the new-new wave of Brazilian funk. This time we find out about how bailes operate inside the favelas, Brazil’s love-hate relationship with funk, oppressive policing, grime connections, regional DJ cultures and more. We also carve out the minimum possible amount of time to discuss Brat, once again, and GG has put together a funk playlist of personal favourites and hidden gems. Bosh. Remember you can...

We’re witnessing a breakthrough moment (again) for Brazil's funk scene, an ever-expanding universe of bone-shaking low-end, CDJ theatrics, synesthetic drug cocktails, barking MCs, extreme production choices and a fuckton of wraparound sunglasses. It's incredible music, but it's not always easy to keep up with what's going on, so in this episode – the first of a two-part interview – we speak to GG Albuquerque, a journalist and researcher from Recife, who last year accompanied São Paulo’s DJ K...

Some say that algorithmic content has fragmented our social media feeds to the point that we no longer exist in a shared culture. Others say, ‘Has anybody else noticed that bald dude in a dressing gown all over Instagram suddenly?’ We think you know who we mean, but either way, let us introduce you to the one-man DJ phenomenon that is Fish56Octagon. Who is the Fish? What does he want? And what can he tell us about music in 2024? In this episode, Tom and Chal talk about the sudden rise of the...

As if we hadn’t gorged enough on lore last week, this time we welcome one of electronic music’s boldest world-builders, Iglooghost. Iglooghost’s new album Tidal Memory Exo takes place in a punk-dystopian vision of a British seaside town that’s been cut off from the rest of society. It even comes accompanied by an online forum where users debate the politics and micro-genres of the local “tidal scene” (sporestyle, tektonikore, foamtek) and an online marketplace where people sell mysterious sea...

We’re still reeling from last week’s Reynoldsmania, but in the wake of our conversation with the great music scribe about the past and future of electronic music, this time we’re firmly in the present. First, Chal puts forward a thesis about the genre trend of the moment – a movement that brings together Taylor Swift, Disney Adults, A. G. Cook and Warhammer freaks. Welcome to the lorecore era. Next, we wade knee-deep into the sludgy waters of NYC band Couch Slut’s new album You Could Do It...

For millennial music journos like us, Simon Reynolds is one of the Goats.  He’s a writer best known for his era-defining book on dance music, Energy Flash and the ultimate history of post-punk, Rip It Up And Start Again. But there’s barely a genre that Simon hasn’t touched, from hip-hop, shoegaze and glam rock to pivotal essays on Auto-Tune, “conceptronica” and the hardcore continuum. Reynolds’ newest book is a collection of essays, interviews and reviews on the idea of “futuromania” –his...

No Tags is going weekly! Since launching last year we’ve managed to stick to an episode every fortnight, but the time feels right to try and make things more frequent. So in that spirit, we’re going to be recording more regular Tom-and-Chal-only episodes. Anything you particularly want us to tackle in these? Email, comment or DM us. This week: we tackle Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee and the revelation that Pitchfork isn’t only still going, is still able to break albums! Is it the best...

Without Jamaican sound system culture, much of the electronic music we love wouldn't even exist. So why is it so often underrepresented when we talk about dance music history? To tackle this and more, we brought in author Marvin Sparks, one of the UK’s preeminent experts on reggae and dancehall. We also had topical news to cover: Vybz Kartel, currently serving a life sentence in prison, had his murder conviction overturned last month. As is often the case, press coverage of the appeal has...

It’s a question that crops up a lot: how do musicians move into video game soundtracking? Lena Raine is one of the most respected game composers on the circuit, capturing the imagination of millions with her work for Minecraft and Celeste, one of the key indie games of the last decade. Often with No Tags, we try to focus on people who haven’t had their story adequately told. That’s not the case with Lena. She’s given many interviews, and she’s always an excellent subject. But we wanted to ask...

Dr Robin James is a philosopher of sound studies whose Twitter presence and blog, It’s Her Factory, are reliable sources of galaxy-brain takes on the discourse, from Taylor Swift Studies to “Brexit techno”. We asked Robin to share some of her latest thinking on the forces that are changing how we listen to music, from vibes-based listening and the secrets of the Spotify algorithm to the connection between ‘90s alt-rock and the 2020s manosphere, as well as her recent book on American radio,...

Look – chances are you’ve never heard of Gavin Douglas. But if you’ve had even one ear to what’s been going on in UK radio over the last decade, you’ve definitely felt his impact – as a curator, radio programmer, trainer and mentor. Snoochie Shy, Jeremiah Asiamah, Jamz Supernova, Tash LC, JK & Bempah, Reece Parkinson and CassKid are just a handful of the country’s prominent radio hosts that he’s had a role in developing, and that’s before getting into his wider roles as Reprezent Radio’s...