FEMWAV wishes to spotlight trans/cis women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people giving shape to or finding shape from the Indian electronic music scene. These are producers, DJs, agents, engineers, visual artists, tastemakers, artists managers and other cultural stakeholders that give the scene its life-force, through movements visible or invisible. Every month, we invite them to create a mix for us to transmit their hopes, desires, anger, discontent; their pick off the spectrum of human emotions.
Number 3 in our monthly running series of exclusive mixes is by artist and activist Fadescha, who's been touring, promoting, and DJ'ing all year while queering the Delhi nightlife as best as she can by co-creating safe and inclusive spaces.
In early 2019, Fadescha engaged with the nightlight and music scene in Beijing via "The Nightlife Residency II" organized by i:projectspace and The Neighbourhood in collaboration with China Residencies, Zhao Dai and M Woods. During this, she played at Dada and Zhao Dai, and collaborated on her track "Gost Market" - a track that also appears early on in her mix for FEMWAV, along with several other homegrown producers' work - with local producers Puzzy Stack and Yun Ling. In addition, she produced a few hours of music, and performed live for a VR Rave by chinese artists duo Hyperbation, Hyperbody IV: The Hyperrave of Queer Maximalism. She also organized a "Sound Walk at Night", exploring the field of Sanlitun, Tiananmen Square and the Night Market in Beijing.
In September 2019, Fadescha was invited by 'Museum of Impossible Forms' to participate in a festival "Today Is Our Tomorrow" in Helsinki, Finland. Her talk "Party, a Tool for Care" focused on community care through party as an artistic and political site. She also performed at Kaiku as Redrum.
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| Photo by Abhineet Dang |
This characteristic gutsiness is on full display on her mix for FEMWAV, with witty nods to a variety of genres that are often derided, but are inextricable from the roots of raving.
"I am interested in Wildness. Here wildness not only in terms of the kind of sound but also about context and authorship. "Galat" by Ahmer Javed gives some context to that, there are other artists also that are more homegrown. While playing internationally I make sure to play some psychedelic with techno, cause I feel a lot of our electronic music roots and raves come from there."
In absence of a warehouse big enough to contain the sounds in her mix, please break open the nearest good pair of headphones.
In Oct-Nov, 2019, Fadescha can be found at Parramatta Artists' Studios in Sydney as an artist-in-residence exploring the nightlife, community and queer spaces in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane - collaborating and building towards a festival to be held in March 2020.
Written by Uvika Wahi
