Participant Records present RICHIE CULVER - Countryside Brain Meat

CLOT Magazine

Next on our Mixtape series is by the one and only Richie Culver. We published an interview with him a few weeks back, and he so generously offered us a mixtape. A selection of drifty suggestive tracks of artists he's been recently interested in, and the perfect companion for the entertaining read that his interview is. Culver has been this semi-outsider, self-taught artist figure in the UK and a few capitals scattered around the world, gaining recognition with his pungent view of "existence" and observation of human behaviour (a lot of it autobiographical). Conceptual, but at the same time direct and full of a minimalistic force, a big part of Culver's work lies in his relationship with technology, the advent of social media, and how antagonistic forces around these affect human interaction, new forms of linguistics and communication, and new levels of cultural symbols, signs and signifiers. A frustrated musician, as he frequently recalls himself (and who isn't, I may dare to say…), music and sound is where he is keeping a lot of his artistic focus at the moment. And he seems to be as prolific as with other different types of media and artistic forms. He'll be releasing his first solo album in the following months; he's also very recently released an EP in collaboration with electronic musician Pavel Milyukov (aka Buttechno), that is receiving a lot of attention from the press as his preceding Blackhaine collab 'DID U COME YET / I'M NOT GONNA CUM. Texts and spoken words have long been central to Culver's practice, and in his audio pieces, these sometimes become the starting point for his compositions. Other is recorded noises or recited words. Culver is also putting his energy into his record label (and creative studio) Participant, which he runs along with filmmaker William Markarian-Martin. The label is where he's been releasing his own material (including a compilation on tape format of his "Full musical archive 1999-2019", and more recently releasing other artists' music, like the phenomenal DRONE OPERATØR latest release. About the mixtape, and especially when asked about the title, Culver shares that he travels to the English countryside often with his family: When I go there, I give my phone to someone, and they give it back to me when we arrive home. The mix is a reference to my brain finding it's self again. When I'm in London, I'm not sure my brain is operating in a healthy way. We all know it's the new normal now with phones etc… But having a week or a few days with no screens or laptops is the most freeing thing ever. I feel I owe it to myself to let my brain meat thaw in the countryside every now and then (and once again, don't we all do, don't we all? :) ) For tracklist please check https://www.clotmag.com/audio-visual/clotmix/clotmix-participant-records-presents-richie-culver