[Read in full on NHAM]

What Community Looks Like – RFFF25 Review

It’s always the way when you go to a festival, isn’t it? – That it takes a good while to acclimatise back in to normality again. Well now that the dust has settled and we’re back to at least some sense of normality let’s look back on the amazing month of July, the whole of which was set aside for Radio Free Fedi Fest 2025.

We must begin by showing our gratitude to @radiofreefedi for coming back from the sunset to galvanise the community once more and again be a beacon for highlighting the depth of talent in the Fedi music scene. Huge appreciation to the Hamster for powering that wheel all month long.

The Festival kicked off way back on the first of July with a typically outstanding performance from @shannoncurtis and @hilljam in which they performed their 80’s Kids live show especially for us. Fresh off touring the show they recreated the set from their basement, including the full light show and treating us to insights in to their workings with a Q+A after the set. The pair are without doubt masters of their crafts, and they combine those crafts perfectly to give us maximum joy. The 80s Kids tour is going on the road again soon. Check out the 80skids.live tour dates page to see if they’re coming to a town near you!

Speaking of Q+A, the next day was our turn to get on the stage. @sknob and I (@ethicalrevolution) answered some of your questions in between presenting my 13th NHAM mixtape, which was put together as a showcase of RFFF25 – 12 songs from 12 of the artists that were to perform over the month. I was so grateful to sknob for his expertise in putting together the technical and aesthetic aspects of the show, and of course for the moral support. If you missed it we did manage to record the show which you can catch up on here.

On the third day of the event Damon Thomas (@ruralgloom) performed with spoken word. I was still backstage chatting to all the groupies that had assembled from our show so I missed it but Deb was there and she said, “Damon Thomas read excerpts from his Southern Gothic written works, in his gentle understated style, a thoroughly relaxing vignette of small-town life and growing up in the US South. We were left with images from a delightful time capsule of little people looming large in little places.”

Next to perform was @fluffy and it was a performance the likes of which I’d never seen before: A fully blown VR performance in which the Fluffy that we saw was an animated critter on an animated stage in an animated venue with an animated guitar! The set is available on demand and you can follow Fluffy to be notified of future live performances, as we were informed that this critter from Seattle performs relatively regularly.

Then came @lislegaard who was an absolute delight. Kristoffer totally took us down in to full relaxation zone before belting us out with the booms and glitches in a really epic performance which combined amazing sounds and visuals. You can catch the show again on Kristoffer’s Hyper8 page. And he’s another to keep an eye on for future streams.

Next up was my NHAM co-conspirator @sknob. The master songwriter’s gig from the Rugged Scrublands somewhere in the South of France is also available on demand. In it he opened up by playing through his current EP, “Cities” before going through a rendition of some of his bonkwave tracks and playing covers of other Fedi musicians including @futzle, @keefmarshall and even 8 year old me!

The baton was then passed to Fedi superstar and regular streamer @meljoann who combined wit, wizardry and wickedness (in the good sense!) despite having to take a call from her therapist (former talk show host, Dr Synergy Myers) during the show. This set wasn’t recorded but Meljoann is prolific when it comes to livestreaming. Just follow @relay to keep in the loop with future performances.

On July 12th Pulu (@ahihi) put on a show-stopping performance of beautiful sounds and quality beats in an incredible method of performing via multi-computer set up on a balcony by some woods in Helsinki. Rather than try to go in to the detail of the music production, for which I still can’t quite fathom, you can check it out for yourself via the recording of the stream. One particularly incredible moment in the show for me was when the bird song samples were being played and outside my own window behind me real birds were echoing the same calls to give me proper surround sound!

The next night @jimpurbrick defrosted his Moogs for Remember Glaciers’ first 100% solar powered telling of Duncan Porter’s tale of two visits to the Rhone glacier. An eye opening storytelling of the demise of glaciers for many in the lobby. While this particular show was not recorded, there is a version available from his Gravitons Festival 2024 set.

As we came towards the middle of the month Grüezi Sexgott (@DePemig) moved their weekly live streamed jam session over to the Radio Free Fedi stage as we dimmed the lights, heightened the haze and mellowed in to a smooth and funky improv set from the accomplished four-piece. They play every Tuesday at 9pm Swiss time.

Then came @alexglow. What a performer. Alex was so relaxed; at times moving; always fun; with quite beautiful playing; and being very clever all rolled in to one concert. She played covers and originals, taking requests too, of any song so long as it was about space. It’s something she does on Sunday’s over on spacesongsunday.com

I tried but largely failed to tune in to @axwax whilst on a coach. Fortunately it was made available to catch up on. With graphics that bounced in time with the music and an impressive rack of machines, synths and a big red button AxWax powered through some classic acid, techno, hip-hop and of course bonkwave. Donning his 80s Kids t-shirt in the sweltering Spanish heat, the ever delightful Axel played an encore of 20 minutes or so after the main set while we awaited the second act of the night…

Back home by this point I was able to enjoy @Jazzaria from the comfort of my own sofa. We watched an animated keyboard playing the notes that were improvised from prompts from the in the lobby which included 80s sitcoms, nightly news, small mammals in fancy hats, tramping cats and 80s detectives. It was quite something seeing vague concepts being brought to life by the sounds of a keyboard.

Then on July 23rd we witnessed @conniptions being brilliant with a large 4-stringed instrument, brilliant with a small 8-stringed instrument, brilliant with a regular 6-stringed instrument and even being brilliant on the magic trumpets. All on his actual birthday – inviting all of us festival goers to his party of left-field anti-folk – as we bopped along and celebrated with him. More from the creations of Fit and the Conniptions can be found here.

Next came ‘A Christmas in July Wasted’ with Deb Pickett (@futzle). The set up was as smooth as the performance as Deb beamed across the globe from Victoria, Australia. With lyrics and chord progressions often too clever for me Deb went down like a plump chap in a red suit down a chimney – with a bang and full of treats and gifts!

With the month drawing out we turned our gaze over to Toronto in Canada where @bgm performed from a basement with a low ceiling. Sadly he was too good that the hour whizzed by in an absolute flash. A highly accomplished musician and video maker, bgm did not disappoint.

What was disappointing, however, was that this was to be my last show. I had to leave the festival early for other commitments so I hand you over to sknob to run through the final three events…

Thanks Sam. Well, I’m not used to this exercise, but I’ll try to do the artists justice.

After a few words of introduction, Calin Dica aka @akash literally blew our socks off as soon as we heard the first notes of his spectacular guitar playing. Expertly jumping from his guitar to his electronic gizmos with dizzying precision and grace, and even surprising the audience with some epic guitar solos, Calin Dica/akash treated us to a barrage of pure energy in song form. I think it’s safe to say we were all flabbergasted when he told us this was the first time he’d ever performed his music in a solo set. Catch up on demand.

What can I say about nightmother aka @alisynthesis. I discovered her music only recently thanks to Sam, and to say that I’m a fan would be the understatement of the year. In fact I probably shouldn’t be allowed to review her set at all, but here we are, and here we were, teleported into her beautiful studio filled with too many knobs and dials to count (and a couple of totally oblivious dogs on a comfy looking couch). If you think you know synthesizers and electronic music, think again. The sounds that Alison conjures out of her machines is glorious, as is her singing. In fact, the chat which is usually full of wisecracking banter was stunned into silence on several occasions. I do have one complaint though. The set was way too short. Alison, we want more! Catch up on demand.

Synth music can also be gloriously harsh and furious. Just ask @controlfreak. Sorry, I don’t speak genres, but this absolutely ferocious set (showcasing the darker side of oontz as he eloquently puts it) was exceptional not only for its stunning and sometimes disturbing visuals, but also for its uncompromising original pieces old and new, its spectacular remixes of @shannoncurtis, and for its real drums played on an actual, real, physical drum kit! And when you thought you couldn’t be any more delightfully surprised, controlfreak got up and actually sang for us, well, beautifully (if he’ll pardon the expression), bringing RFFF25 to a perfect conclusion. Back to you Sam.

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again, and again. We’re forever grateful for Radio Free Fedi and this month was a perfect exemplifier as to why. It’s about the @music and the artists but it’s not just about the music and the artists, it’s about the community. And this, THIS, showed just what community looks like.