resident focus

Resident Focus: The Anxious Beat

Creating a space for nuggets of musical history to get the exposure they deserve, The Anxious Beat details the experiences of practitioners working tirelessly within Detroit, with no ego attached just raw interviews and great music. Here’s a brief look into this essential program.

Words Noods Editorial Published 28.01.21

By now I’m sure we’ve all seen the numerous documentaries detailing the various virtuosos Mid West America has blessed us with. From Charlie Parker to Juan Atkins to Prince and Bob Dylan it’s been a crucible catalysing many seminal scenes we all honour and revere. Punk, Hardcore, Blues and Motown but of course, beloved to many of us dance floor fiends is the hallowed grounds of Chicago and Detroit, of which sadly most of us have a précis depth of historical knowledge. If only someone could detail the nooks and crannies providing a voice to the people responsible for keeping the scene alive, working tirelessly, largely unrecognised… Enter The Anxious Beat.

Mona found her home in the musical scenes of Chicago and Detroit via a steady trip through the likes of Raymond Scott and Daphne Oram through to Legowelt and Dutch Electro, eventually uprooting herself from her home in Malmoe to get closer to the music she’s passionate about. The Anxious Beat Director started originally as the moniker of Mona’s collaboration with friend and mentor Erotek a.k.a. DreBrown who sadly passed away in 2019. Through the grief and as a means to give tragedy a purpose she channelled her energy into promoting the people she was was familiar with both through prior interest and by encountering artists at Detroit underground gem The Bassment (Detroit Promo TV), various bars, clubs and record shops as well as of course through her own show. From here The Anxious Beat was re-birthed into the radio series we have the pleasure of hosting now.

Since it’s start she has had the pleasure of talking to so many people in the scene from Scan 7 to Detroit In Effect, B. Calloway to 12 Tech Mob and DJ Roach. It’s hard to pin down the best of all these shows as they each shed a different but shared perspective on their respective areas. If you’ve been following the show since it’s move to Noods you may not have heard some of the older shows she’s been putting out since 2019, here’s a choice three selected by yours truly for a good afternoons worth of quality musical content and history. But of course head over to the archive for a real deep dive!

Detroit In Effect

“This session packs exclusive, never-before-told details about the tight knit duo as well as personal and vividly described stories about the early club days of Detroit, The Men You’ll Never See, legendary mixtapes, The Motown Museum, anecdotes from the M.A.P. lounge and how Paul McCartney can prevent you from breaking furniture.

This month’s program also has a mind bending, creative DJ Mix by monster skilled DJ P-Dog a.k.a. The Turntable Bully of D.I.E./M.A.P. Records which is gently sandwiched in between part I & part II of the interview.”

B. Calloway

Retreat Radio · The Anxious Beat #8 w/ B. Calloway (30/05/20)

Label:

Digital

“We start off with one of Calloway’s latest releases on wax, acid ghetto and fu**-everything-anthem ‘Party ‘N Bullshit’, also heard in Jensen Interceptor’s dope ass set at last years Boiler Room x Glitch Festival. Calloway begins his story by expressing his love for all different styles of music, the Jeopardy theme song and just about everything else, as long as it sounds good.

We get to learn more about his beginnings, starting out messing around with a couple of tape decks and a record player in his moms basement and how he met Ade’ Mango Henderson Mainor (Mr. De’ of Electrofunk Records) at his favourite record store, who later came to take him under his wing. Our conversation also touches on the meaning behind the freaky-bass and multi-transitional track ‘Workout and Stack Paper’ from Calloway’s 3000 B.C. EP, record store vendettas, tap dancing grace of Fred Astaire and Sammy Davis Jr.’s philosophy behind “not looking up to, nor down on nobody”. Calloway then treats us to an hour plus dance mix of reckless mayhem, so take a moment, let loose, enjoy and just “dance like ain’t nobody lookin’…”

The A.M.

“The Anxious Beat invited rave veteran, electro/techno appreciator and classically trained violinist The A.M. to the studio. This episode starts off with Ann-Marie’s perhaps first serious encounter with music, a journey which begins when she hears classical violin for the first time at a very early age, to years later when she discovered house music by listening to Detroit radio station WJLB late at night, accompanied by her younger sister, writer, host and DJ of Underground & Black blog, Ash Lauryn.

Taking a bit of a different route than her sister, The A.M. has come to favour the darker, harder category of electronic music, Detroit electro and techno being her preferred weapon of choice. Frequently attending parties and underground raves throughout the years undeniably shaped the ears of The A.M., providing her mixes with that unique Detroit funk, hard-hitting no-bullshit aesthetic. Our conversation also touched on finding a sense of home in the rave scene, overcoming fears and insecurities, the lack of division in the dance community in the past compared to today, Movement Festival (DEMF), losing younger siblings at massive underground parties and embracing your darker side, and much more. The A.M. takes over the second part of the program, showing us just how dark, deep and bottomless the rabbit hole really is.”