SURPRISE.FM: live radio from Moscow

Hooold...

Dusting off the needle…

SURPRISE.FM

Where the scene files its tapes.

Moscow's clubs, labels and festivals, an hour each.

SURPRISE.FM works less like a station with residents than like a switchboard for a whole scene. The slots belong to the institutions themselves: Arma17 and the Outline festival take hours, so do the labels Gost Zvuk and Private Persons, and so do neighbouring radio projects — OTO, KURS, Renegade Radio Camp, Underground Experience. Alongside the broadcasts it runs releases and podcasts of its own, which is why a set heard on air one week often turns up later as a record with a catalogue number.

A single month carries dozens of Moscow DJs and producers, label heads and club residents among them, with back-to-back sets for good measure. The house vocabulary runs from drone and ambient through electro, acid, dub techno and footwork out to deconstructed club and gabber, which is a fair description of what actually airs over the course of a week.

More like this

GermanyBerlin

Kunststaub FM

Nine lives, one bassline.

United KingdomLondon

Subtle Radio

Run on love and low end.

NetherlandsAmsterdam

Amsterdam's Most Wanted

Still illegal in spirit.

Hong KongHong Kong

HKCR

The scene the skyline hides.

FranceParis

E-Kwality Radio

An association, not an algorithm.

ColombiaBogotá

Mad Radio Bogotá

The moodiest room in the chain.

United StatesSan Francisco

program audio

Three days a week, doors open.

electronic

RussiaMoscow

UBFM

Loud opinions, louder kicks.

Hong KongHong Kong

FM BELOWGROUND

The luxury district's blind spot.

FranceMarseille

Ola Radio

Plural by design, loud.

BelgiumBrussels

Kiosk Radio

No following required to belong.

United StatesDetroit

Deep Space Radio

Machine soul, first hand.

GreeceAthens

Parea Radio

Radio as practice, not output.

CyprusNicosia

Barking Cats Radio

Small island, deep crates.

AustriaVienna

Radio Rudina

Run on friendship, not formats.

ColombiaBogotá

REC Radio Electrónica Colombiana

Nobody here is an import.

electronic

GermanyBerlin

THF Radio

Runway closed, radio open.

NetherlandsEindhoven

RARARADIO

Disorder, neatly timetabled.

GermanyDüsseldorf

Callshop Radio (Düsseldorf)

Local scenes, long-distance call.

BelgiumGhent

Black Teeth Radio

A label with a transmitter.

Moscow, Russia

SURPRISE.FM

Where the scene files its tapes.

Moscow's clubs, labels and festivals, an hour each.

SURPRISE.FM works less like a station with residents than like a switchboard for a whole scene. The slots belong to the institutions themselves: Arma17 and the Outline festival take hours, so do the labels Gost Zvuk and Private Persons, and so do neighbouring radio projects — OTO, KURS, Renegade Radio Camp, Underground Experience. Alongside the broadcasts it runs releases and podcasts of its own, which is why a set heard on air one week often turns up later as a record with a catalogue number.

A single month carries dozens of Moscow DJs and producers, label heads and club residents among them, with back-to-back sets for good measure. The house vocabulary runs from drone and ambient through electro, acid, dub techno and footwork out to deconstructed club and gabber, which is a fair description of what actually airs over the course of a week.