Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a podcast about all things music. For the occasion of Le Guess Who’s 15th Edition, we pay tribute to DJ Fitz- the man, the legend, the only artist to have been on every single lineup. 

In this final episode of the series (revisit the first part here), we follow Fitz to Berlin and beyond, where he co-founds Kreuzberg venue West Germany, labors to propagate Turkish psych on dance floors across all Hipsterdom, and fully evolves into DJ Fitz-  festival DJ extraordinaire. 

Reflecting from present-day Portugal, Fitz shares his insights on what it means to be in the scene for 25 years, the lessons learned along the way, and what we get wrong about the relationship between the underground and big investment.

Featuring interviews with:
Paul Carlin, co-founder West Germany; Severin Most, City Slang; James Hakan Dedeoğlu, Bantmag; Kelman Duran, Producer; Eric Copeland of Black Dice, Sanae Yamada of Moon Duo; Brad Truax, Jeremy Glover & DJ Fitz. 

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Music:  Moon Duo - Planet Caravan
Audio Post-Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Jasmine Pasquill
Image: Gonçalo Duarte

This episode concludes the Big Playback podcast series, (for now), and we’d like to say a special thank you to everyone who participated to make this project possible. 

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a podcast about all things music. For the occasion of Le Guess Who’s 15th Edition, we pay tribute to DJ Fitz- the man, the legend, the only artist to have been on every single lineup. 

In this two part series we dig first into Fitz’s illustrious past in NYC as a DIY show organizer who, along with his Mighty Robot crew, were co-responsible for some of the most exciting early gigs of bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, and Liars, laying the foundation for a soon-to-be-exploding-Brooklyn. 

Hear their eyebrow raising adventures told in their own words, as they describe trailblazing a scene when Williamsburg was still the Wild West, and fill in a few gaps on the days of  Meet Me in the Bathroom.

In Part 2 we will follow Fitz to Berlin and beyond, where he co-founds Kreuzberg venue West Germany, labors to propagate Turkish psych to dance floors across all Hipsterdom, and fully evolves into DJ Fitz-  festival DJ extraordinaire and occasional tag team partner of actor/DJ Elijah Wood & Zach Cowie, as Wooden Wisdom.

Reflecting from present-day Portugal, Fitz shares his insights on what it means to be in the scene for 25 years, the lessons learned along the way, and what we get wrong about the relationship between the underground and big investment.

Featuring interviews with:
John Fitzgerald/DJFitz, Co-founder Mighty Robot & Twisted Ones Production. Etain Fitzpatrick, co-founder of Mighty Robot AV Squad, co-founder of Secret Project Robot; Jeremy Glover, Sound engineer, Mighty Robot;  Rachel Nelson, co-founder Secret Project Robot;  and Erik Zajaceskowski- co-founder Mighty Robot & Secret Project Robot. Brad Truax (Interpol, Soldiers of Fortune, Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue). 

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post-Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Jasmine Pasquill
Image: Gonçalo Duarte

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled For the Record, exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.

In this series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.

While it may seem like a coincidence, we must remember that ‘records’ are in fact, just that: records- documents… testimonials. They’re meant to capture a moment, to tell a story. Which if you think about it, makes every record collector an archivist of sorts. The question is just how much the collector shapes the work in how they present it-the story of course is in the hands of the storyteller.

Part 4: Khalab
Italian DJ and producer Khalab represents one take on the question of working with archival material from the perspective of the musician. In consistent conversation with archival material for years, his 2018 release 'Black Noise 2084', was the result of 2 years of research into the sound archives of the Royal Library of Belgium. Originally approached for a simple remix project using their historical recordings, Khalab declined, opting instead to use the archive as the departure point for a reflection on the afrocentric future of music, over a series of collaborations with contemporary musicians of color.

His subsequent release with M’berra Ensemble, 2021’s 'We Are M’berra', is a joint collaboration with musicians living in a refugee camp on the border between Mali and Mauritania.

Host of 'The Big Playback' is Margaret Munchheimer, an American visual artist and writer living in the Netherlands, and veteran Le Guess Who? supporter since 2012.

Credits
Production: Margaret Munchheimer & Le Guess Who?
Audio Post- Production: Francisco Marujo
Artwork: Marishka Soekarna

Featured track
Beat Tape - DJ Khalab