Exotica Radio: live radio from Malta

Hooold...

Dusting off the needle…

Exotica Radio

No such thing as far away.

Tropical disco, Afro boogie and funk from every latitude.

Exotica started in 2018 as a run of multi-genre parties, became a short-lived pirate transmitter, and settled into a stream that has never had more than one person behind it. Miguel Angelo Ferreira does the digging, the sequencing and the broadcasting, and the station has moved with him from Portugal to Romania, the Philippines and now Malta — travel being the method rather than an interruption to it. Independent labels and artists post records in, and the fifth birthday was marked with events in Malta.

Every track is pinned to a world map by where its artist comes from, so an afternoon reads as a route: cumbia out of Colombia, salsa from Willie Colón and Celia Cruz, Afrobeat from Kaleta & Super Yamba Band, French boogie edits from the Funky French League. Daylight hours stay gentle and the selection climbs toward the floor once it is dark, which is the whole shape of the day.

More like this

FranceToulouse

Campus FM

Since 1982, still on campus.

GhanaAccra

Sounds of Africa

Preservation with a backbeat.

Netherlands's-Hertogenbosch

Disco Factory

For people who kept the sleeves.

BeninCotonou

Made In Bénin Radio

Nothing here crossed a border.

TunisiaTunis

Misk FM

Tunis with the news turned off.

NetherlandsAmsterdam

RAZO

Zuidoost speaks for itself.

FranceLyon

Jazz Radio Afro Jazz

Africa swings, always did.

FranceParis

Le Grigri

Superstition you can dance to.

United StatesAustin

KOOP 91.7 FM

Off the air by dark.

United StatesMiami

Jolt Radio

Miami without the velvet rope.

JapanFukuoka

City Pop One Tokyo

Ten songs, then ten more.

United KingdomLondon

Street Sounds Radio

Where the compilations went next.

ColombiaMedellín

Mad Records

The bin the DJs raid first.

FranceIgny

Radio GoodLife

Twenty-one years, one format.

United KingdomLondon

Jazz Funk Soul Radio

Crate-diggers passing the baton.

United StatesDetroit

Blue Moon Radio

New hands on an old lineage.

United KingdomStockport

Disc Break Radio

A 2002 club night that came back.

CanadaMontréal

WEFUNK Radio

Two diggers, still no filler.

United KingdomLondon

ThamesFM

Everyone brings their own crate.

United KingdomBrighton

1BTN 101.4FM

Run by the people who press it.

Malta

Exotica Radio

No such thing as far away.

Tropical disco, Afro boogie and funk from every latitude.

Exotica started in 2018 as a run of multi-genre parties, became a short-lived pirate transmitter, and settled into a stream that has never had more than one person behind it. Miguel Angelo Ferreira does the digging, the sequencing and the broadcasting, and the station has moved with him from Portugal to Romania, the Philippines and now Malta — travel being the method rather than an interruption to it. Independent labels and artists post records in, and the fifth birthday was marked with events in Malta.

Every track is pinned to a world map by where its artist comes from, so an afternoon reads as a route: cumbia out of Colombia, salsa from Willie Colón and Celia Cruz, Afrobeat from Kaleta & Super Yamba Band, French boogie edits from the Funky French League. Daylight hours stay gentle and the selection climbs toward the floor once it is dark, which is the whole shape of the day.