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Fluid Exchange

Music

Fluid Exchange is a series of conversations hosted by Charlie Looker and M. Lamar with culture makers from the worlds of music and art. Looker and Lamar begin this first season drawing from their vast connections from touring and performing music internationally. They seek conversations that offer insight into the political and cultural context in which people are making art, music, events or parties. We are especially interested in what subculture means in the digital age. M. Lamar is a composer who works across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical becomings. Lamar holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and attended the Yale School of Art, sculpture program, before dropping out to pursue music. Lamar’s work has been presented internationally, most recently at Old First Church San Francisco,The Meet Factory in Prague, The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, National Sawdust New York, The Kitchen New York, MoMa PS1’s Greater New York, Merkin Hall among other venues. Charles A. Looker has been active in underground music circles for the past decade as a composer, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. His music brings together diverse influences and styles including metal, pop, industrial, early music, experimental and classical composition. Born and based in New York City, he has received commissions from various ensembles, however most of his output has been with his own bands.

Location:

United States

Description:

Fluid Exchange is a series of conversations hosted by Charlie Looker and M. Lamar with culture makers from the worlds of music and art. Looker and Lamar begin this first season drawing from their vast connections from touring and performing music internationally. They seek conversations that offer insight into the political and cultural context in which people are making art, music, events or parties. We are especially interested in what subculture means in the digital age. M. Lamar is a composer who works across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical becomings. Lamar holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and attended the Yale School of Art, sculpture program, before dropping out to pursue music. Lamar’s work has been presented internationally, most recently at Old First Church San Francisco,The Meet Factory in Prague, The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, National Sawdust New York, The Kitchen New York, MoMa PS1’s Greater New York, Merkin Hall among other venues. Charles A. Looker has been active in underground music circles for the past decade as a composer, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. His music brings together diverse influences and styles including metal, pop, industrial, early music, experimental and classical composition. Born and based in New York City, he has received commissions from various ensembles, however most of his output has been with his own bands.

Language:

English


Episodes

"Juvenile B" (anonymous guest)

8/8/2018
"Juvenile B" is the pseudonym we’ve given our anonymous guest, a brilliant American musician who performs creative, non-ideological re-workings of the music used by certain extremist groups for recruitment/propaganda purposes. We talk with him about the scales and modes of various world musics, shock value, and ideology. NB: Neither our guest, nor anyone at Fluid Exchange supports extremism or terrorism of any kind.

Duration:01:03:43

Wolfe Barrett aka Drrty Pharms

8/1/2018
Wolfe Barrett is the most controversial guest we have had on Fluid Exchange. Barrett is a pariah in the New York DIY scene and we wanted to get at just what it is that makes them so hated by so many people. CW many will be disturbed by much what is expressed in this episode. We at Fluid Exchange in no way support the actions expressed by Barrett.

Duration:01:33:14

M Lamar

7/25/2018
Another special duo episode, this time with Looker interviewing co-host M. Lamar, a composer who works across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical becomings. Lamar expounds on being an 8-year-old opera fanatic, individualism and politics in his work, and what it means to be “free”.

Duration:01:55:50

Queer Trash

7/18/2018
Queer Trash is a curatorial platform organized by Eames Armstrong, Michael Foster, and Richard Kamerman, as a framework for queer experimental performance practices across live disciplines. Looker and Lamar talk with QT about their relationship to the noise and improv scenes, what they look for in the artists they present, and various meanings of the word "queer".

Duration:01:29:57

Penny Arcade

7/11/2018
Penny Arcade is a true New York legend, a prolific performance artist, actor, and playwright whose work has been a fixture of the downtown scene and the worldwide experimental arts scene since the early 80s, having already worked with Andy Warhol, and John Vaccaro's Playhouse of the Ridiculous, in the 60s and 70s. Looker and Lamar talk with Penny about the erasure of history, the value of apprenticeship, and Gay Shame.

Duration:01:26:39

Charlie Looker

7/4/2018
A special duo episode where Lamar interviews co-host Charlie Looker, composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with the bands Psalm Zero, Extra Life, and ZS, as well as his chamber music. The two discuss John Zorn, their personal interpretations of the word "bourgeois", and why it's an exciting time to be making art as a white male.

Duration:01:37:55

Dreamcrushr

6/27/2018
Luwayne Glass (aka Dreamcrushr) has been active as a producer and performer of harsh electronic music in the US and global underground since the early 00s. Looker and Lamar talk with Luwayne about sneaking out to punk shows at a kid, their “ho phase”, and the both the usefulness and problems with their self-coined genre description, “Nihilist Queer Revolt Musik”.

Duration:01:28:24

Zohra Atash

6/20/2018
Zohra Atash is a singer, songwriter and musician whose projects include Azar Swan and Religious to Damn. She is also an irregular columnist at Slutist. Looker and Lamar talk with Zohra about her Afghani family’s turbulent story, her rich perspectives on various vocal techniques from around the world, and the importance of discipline, and craft.

Duration:02:13:18

Sam Hillmer

6/13/2018
Sam Hillmer is a musician, artist, and curator living in Brooklyn NY. He is the creator of seminal Brooklyn noise band/chamber ensemble ZS, the You are Here Festival (aka the maze) which he conceives and produces with his visual art duo Trouble, and outsider hip hop moniker Representing NYC. Looker and Lamar talk with Sam about running venues in New York, the internet and social space, and being open to bad experiences on tour.

Duration:01:33:06

Manuel Gagneux

6/6/2018
Swiss musician Manuel Gagneux is the lead singer, guitarist, and mind behind the new rising band Zeal & Ardor, where he combines elements of black metal, electronic, and traditional black American music. Manuel talks with Looker and Lamar about the problem with calling artists "problematic", Negro spirituals, and his personal relationship with Satanism.

Duration:00:58:59

Robert A.A. Lowe

5/30/2018
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe makes music under the moniker Lichens, using voice and modular synthesizer to create spontaneous compositions that explore the physicality of sound. He is also a member of revered psych/doom metal band OM. Looker and Lamar talk with Robert about his roots in the 90s midwest avant rock scene, the electricity, nature, and the meaning of “immersive” music.

Duration:01:18:48

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix

5/23/2018
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix is a New York composer, guitarist, vocalist, and writer, who leads the band Liturgy, makes electronic music under the name Kel Valhaal, and enraged many people in the black metal scene a few years back with his unsolicited philosophical essay "Transcendental Black Metal". Looker and Lamar sit down with Hunter to riff on the ahistoricization of culture, nihilism vs. humanism in music, and the unlikely intersection of rap music and medieval chant as influences.

Duration:01:13:39