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40: All the things Spotify didn't want you to know but Liz Pelly found out
No journalist has contributed more to our understanding of the streaming era than Liz Pelly.A contributing editor at The Baffler and a lifelong DIY scene participant, she’s been investigating the inner workings of Spotify since 2016, writing a series of increasingly alarming stories that exposed the streaming giant’s black box of profit-seeking operations: mood-based playlists filled with mysterious fake artists, lean-back listening, algorithmic curation and ‘streambait pop’.Her journalism has provided us with an arsenal of terms to better understand Daniel Ek’s dismal vision of context-free listening. And now she’s expanded her work into a new book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.It’s essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we came to live in a world where ‘coastal grandma’ is a genre and where ambient electronica playlists are filled with cheap stock music by unknown artists.We asked Liz to explain the pivotal moments in this decade-long transition, whether Spotify has changed the sound of the underground too, and what Daniel Ek’s endgame might be. Get your hard hat on.Elsewhere in this week’s episode, Chal runs down the best music she saw on a trip to Ljubljana’s MENT festival (3:49), we talk the films that could potentially tank a new relationship (9:47), Tom highlights a new release on CDR’s Pathways programme (13:00) and we even briefly discuss get-rich-quick schemes. Niche music recs and iffy financial advice? It could only be No Tags.As ever, if you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and offers you nothing but the warm glow of philanthropy and a discount on our book – the second pressing of which is finally out now! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe
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39: Big Beat Cinema²: Bigger, Breaksier, Uncut
Still high off the fumes of January’s first Big Beat Cinema episode, we return to the scene of the crime this week for a follow-up film special with Finn, Manchester’s very own pope of trash.In this episode, we start by diving into your feedback, ranging from literary theory to eyewitness accounts from big beat OGs. We expand the official BBC canon with even more movies, including Go, Twin Town and The Bourne Identity.We then go deeper, asking what Big Beat Cinema tells us about life in the ‘90s and ’00s, how class fantasies and lad’s mags shaped the subgenre, and whether that UK government anti-piracy ad is a forgotten classic of the movement. Finally, we try to locate the last gasp of BBC and explain why Moby and Fatboy Slim fell out of favour with Hollywood.If you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue braving some of history’s greatest slop to bring you these regular podcasts – not to mention honing our amateur Photoshop skills. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe
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38: How umru laid the building blocks of hyperpop
A jam-packed episode of No Tags this week, but we had a lot to catch up on. Central Cee’s debut album Can’t Rush Greatness is out (02:56) and it’s UK drill’s biggest album to date, almost by default. Eusexua (10:07) might be the record that finally sells us on FKA twigs? And we talk about the grey zones of desire in Babygirl over in film corner (18:32).But then onto the main event: we’re joined this week by NYC DJ and virtual pop architect umru (30:09). A key member of SoundCloud’s class of the mid-2010s, umru officially graduated to the hyperpop top tier in 2017 with his work on Charli XCX’s game-changing Pop 2 mixtape. He’s since worked with the likes of Hannah Diamond, Tommy Cash, Hyd, Dorian Electra and more while releasing his own music on PC Music and, this year, LuckyMe. He’s also one of our favourite DJs, with an anything-goes approach that feels firmly in the legacy of faves like Total Freedom, Evian Christ and Ryan Hemsworth. We also talked about his past life running parties on Minecraft, leak culture, pop’s Splice era, and the link between PC Music and Pirates of the Caribbean.A little housekeeping: after a small delay the second pressing of No Tags: Conversations on underground music culture should be arriving in the next week, so if you missed out the first time, head to Shopify to place your order.In the meantime, if you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue planning, recording, editing and transcribing podcasts like this one. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe
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37: Big Beat Cinema
This week we kick off the first ever No Tags film season! Based on an original idea by DJ and NTS host Finn, Big Beat Cinema is our attempt to identify and decode a much-loved and entirely made-up micro-genre.We begin by outlining the core canon and basic tropes of BBC, paying particular attention to the ultra-stylish heist movies of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s – think Ocean’s Eleven, Mark Wahlberg’s The Italian Job, Snatch and even The Matrix.We also try to explain why big beat – the sample-flipping, chart-dominating, Hawaiian shirt-wearing sound of the millennium – became so integral to these movies’ portrayal of cool guys pulling off implausible heists.From zany editing to Junkie XL, from Paul Oakenfold to the politics of cool, and from Skint Records to the correct shade of denim, this first episode lays out the core principles of BBC.Let us know what you think in the comments – including on our Letterboxd list, where you can check out the full selection of BBC contenders, from Shallow Grave to Kneecap. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe
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36: God did not intend his creation to go raving in IKEA
Heaving ourselves into 2025 like a rebuilt BILLY with half its dowels missing, No Tags returns to its usual schedule.We kick off with a journey to the North Circular, where London’s biggest club is under investigation following two drug-related deaths and an alleged stabbing. Following the recent revelations about Drumsheds in Jim Waterson’s excellent London Centric newsletter, Tom and Chal ask: why is it so hard to have a realistic conversation about safety in clubs?Next we indulge in one of our favourite anorak pastimes – arguing about arbitrary historical groupings of underground records! We contend that 2013 was the best year for album releases so far this century, with DJ Rashad, Oneohtrix Point Never, Sky Ferreira, Kanye West and Dean Blunt among the strong portfolio of evidence.Finally, an announcement! ‘Tis the season for hibernating in front of the TV and racking up those numbers on Letterboxd, and in that spirit we are proud to present – adapted from an original opinion by DJ and friend-of-the-show Finn McCorry – the first ever No Tags film season! Introducing: Big Beat Cinema. Look out for that next week.In the meantime, if you enjoyed this episode of No Tags, please do rate, review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice, as it does really help. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and helps us continue planning, recording, editing and transcribing these regular podcasts – or in the case of next week’s episode, will go towards renting some seriously ropey turn-of-the-noughties films. Swordfish, anyone? Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe
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