DJ Mag • 9th October 2025

Gaza flotilla: Berlin venue Oyoun founder released from Israeli prison as Björk calls for "safe return" of detained childhood friend

Despite threats, she said the crew maintained radio contact with Israeli forces, insisting their mission was legal under international laws including the San Remo Manual, the Geneva Convention, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Around 2 AM, she said Israeli forces boarded their boat. “Dozens of soldiers pointed guns at us with lasers on our chests. They took over the boat, kidnapped us, and brought us to Ashdod port.  “We endured severe dehumanising violence, physical and...

DJ Mag • 3rd October 2025

Berlin arts venue Oyoun founder Louna Sbou detained after Gaza flotilla intercepted

Louna Sbou, CEO of Berlin cultural venue Oyoun, is among 450 international activists detained after Israeli naval forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla on Thursday, 2nd October. The flotilla was carrying essential supplies to Gaza, including baby formula, medicine, and clean water. In a pre-recorded Instagram video, Sbou said: “If you see this video, I have been abducted by the IOF or similar and have been taken to Israel against my will.” She urged the German government to act immediatel...

DJ Mag • 9th September 2025

Berlin arts venue Oyoun founder joins Global Sumud Flotilla for Gaza

The CEO of Berlin-based BIPOC arts collective and venue Oyoun has joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.  Artistic director Louna Sbou will sail with more than 50 vessels in the largest civilian-led maritime convoy in history. It unites global networks like the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and the Global Movement to Gaza, carrying trained crews and volunteers, including skippers, medical staff, humanitarian aid workers, content creators and public fig...

DJ Mag • 28th August 2025

New sound system musical explores London's 1970s Black power movement

The production has set this intention with a programme of school workshops in collaboration with HighRise Theatre and the Black Cultural Archives. "The aim is to inspire young people to continue the fight against oppression while learning to protect themselves – to find the balance and make the right choices about when to stand and fight and when to safeguard their humanity," said Klein-Mekongo. Shaw builds on this ethos with a score inspired by the energy of the Black Panthers. Reflecting on wh...

Resident Advisor • 12th August 2025

New book Minor Keys investigates gender inequality in electronic music · News ⟋ RA

Resident Advisor • 23rd July 2025

Beatport launches mobile stage to support emerging DJs amid venue closures · News ⟋ RA

Resident Advisor • 13th July 2025

Read a Q&A with Brixton Academy founder Simon Parkes about new London play, Brixton Calling · News ⟋ RA

DJ Mag • 2nd July 2025

Smash Repression: how Italy’s free party scene is fuelling a protest movement

Basslines pierce the air and coloured smoke swirls skyward as the sun breaks through the clouds over Lake Garda in Brescia, Italy. It’s Saturday, 10th May, and in the lakeside town of Desenzano, thousands of peaceful protestors have gathered around stationary rigs for the Garda Street Parade. They’re preparing to march alongside sound system crews Circus Bandits and Red Moon Music in the name of social justice and against state repression.  It’s a scene that’s becoming increasingly familiar in I...

Resident Advisor • 16th June 2025

Just 22 percent of 2025 Ibiza bookings are female or gender fluid artists, new study finds · News ⟋ RA

DJ Mag • 22nd May 2025

Peshay leads fight against "copyright abuse" following legendary mix takedowns

A Change.org petition was launched by Pye and Peshay earlier this month, calling for an end to “abusive copyright strikes on legacy music”. As well as linking to a video showing Shazam-based evidence that ‘Links’ was created by The Chameleon, aka Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton, the petition calls for penalties to be given for repeated fraudulent copyright claims, and for reforms to YouTube’s counter-notification process. At the time of writing, the petition has been signed over 2,300 times.  S...

DJ Mag • 19th May 2025

Play inspired by 1992 rave at Castlemorton debuts this summer

A play about the infamous rave at Castlemorton in 1992, told from the perspective of the area’s locals, is set to premiere in the nearby town of Malvern this summer. The Last Free Rave is the work of first-time playwright Rachel Tobin and will debut on Saturday, 9th August at the Coach House Theatre as part of the Malvern Ink and Curtains Festival. Tobin, who's lived on Castlemorton Common for 20 years, told DJ Mag that the production opens with voice recordings of locals reflecting on the free...

The Guardian • 15th April 2025

‘His delivery cut through class barriers’: Moby, Mala and other musicians on working with Benjamin Zephaniah

Tuesday marks the 67th birthday of the late Benjamin Zephaniah – revolutionary poet, playwright, musician and fearless voice for social justice – following the inaugural Benjamin Zephaniah Day held over the weekend at Brunel University. But while he is widely celebrated for his work in literature and activism, Zephaniah’s influence on music remains relatively overlooked.Emerging from the dub poetry scene, Zephaniah channelled personal experiences of systemic racism and state violence into intell...

Resident Advisor • 8th April 2025

A Guy Called Gerald kicks off residency at Brazil's largest indigenous gathering · News ⟋ RA

A Guy Called Gerald is playing a residency this week at Brazil's largest indigenous gathering.

Resident Advisor • 18th March 2025

São Paulo's D-EDGE criticised for hosting speaker who urged sexual abuse survivors to 'forgive' · News ⟋ RA

Iconic Brazilian venue D-EDGE is facing backlash after hosting an evangelical service where sexual abuse survivors were urged to forgive their abusers.

Resident Advisor • 7th March 2025

Massive Attack, The Avalanches transmit music to the moon for new London art installation · News ⟋ RA

Massive Attack, The Avalanches, Klein, Pussy Riot and more have transmitted pieces of original music to the moon as part of a new art installation in London. Piccadilly Un:Plugged, a free public exhibit running at Piccadilly Circus through March 8th, is the brainchild of Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian—founder of NASA’s International Space Orchestra and a designer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

Rolling Stone UK • 7th March 2025

How music is responding to right wing populism

I never quite anticipated witnessing firsthand the impact of far-right ideologies on some twenty-something-year-olds in the UK. Hearing young people rant about ‘unskilled migrants’that are ‘leeching off the system and giving nothing back’? It’s a reality that hit home when the offspring of an old friend sent me a flood of right-wing propaganda – including an invite to a far-right march and a collection of grimy mugshots of alleged Asian grooming gang members.Further conversation revealed deep-se...

Resident Advisor • 1st March 2025

Nightlife has an official seat at the UN—what do artists want to see happen next? · News ⟋ RA

The International Nightlife Association (INA) has a new seat at the United Nations, and with it the opportunity to potentially influence UN policy.

openDemocracy • 13th January 2025

Turkish pushback survivor wins landmark case against Greece

A Turkish asylum seeker and pushback victim has won a legal battle against the Greek government after taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights.The landmark victory announced Tuesday concerns Ayşe Erdoğan, a 34-year-old maths graduate, who was 'pushed back' to Turkey from Greece in 2019. There she faced persecution and imprisonment over alleged links to the Gülen movement, which Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, holds responsible for a coup attempt in 2016. This event trigger...

Resident Advisor • 10th December 2024

Berlin venue Oyoun to be evicted after year-long legal battle against 'state intimidation' · News ⟋ RA

Berlin arts and culture group Oyoun is being evicted from its premises at the end of the month, following a year-long legal battle to stay in the building.

Resident Advisor • 2nd December 2024

'A step closer to dictatorship': Sound systems take over streets in Italy to protest controversial security bill · News ⟋ RA

Sound system crews swamped the streets of Modena and Palermo on Saturday to protest Italy's controversial new security bill (DDL 1660), which critics say will erode fundamental civil liberties and human rights.