Podcast
Unsung Podcast
Hosted by Unsung Podcast · EN
If there was a definitive discography of classic albums, what should be in it? Hosts Mark Fraser and Chris Cusack, plus the occasional guest, discuss and dissect perceived classic albums to decide which albums would make this list. We also interview amazing artists, do genre deep dives and throw a journalistic lens on musical topics you might not know much about.
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IN SESSION: Mark Davyd from the Music Venue Trust Talks About How PRS for Music Refuse to Show Artists The Money
3d ago00:58:04Tap to summarizeIn this interview, Mark Davyd, founder and CEO of Music Venue Trust, mentions the "famous" and famously misattributed Hunter S. Thompson quote about the music industry. It goes "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."It's now common knowledge that Thompson didn't actually say this, or at the very least if he did it wasn't about the music industry. Mark acknowledges as much in this interview. And yet, it remains a perfect summation of the music industry at large even today, and in this interview Mark expounds upon that at length.In April 2026 he unleashed a series of 4 Substack posts which shone a light on the dodgy dealings of the UK's performing rights body PRS for Music. In them, he details how each year millions of pounds earmarked for artists who perform in grassroots music venues is "held" by PRS because they are unable to attribute it to anyone — ostensibly because many of the artists who are due it have never signed up to PRS, and thus the money goes unclaimed. After 3 years, this money is then distributed to the largest music publishers and most successful songwriters in the world.The true figure is difficult to ascertain due to the opaque nature of PRS' reporting, but it is estimated to be around £18m — more than the combined profit generated by all 800+ grassroots music venues in the UK each year. What's happening is, in effect, a reverse Robin Hood scenario where huge amounts of money are being transferred to the most high-profile, wealthiest musicians and publishers.In this episode we dive deep into those 4 articles with Mark, getting to the heart of all that is rotten with the current PRS model, the organisation's response, and some suggestions for how it might be fixed.You can read Mark's articles here: Part 1: https://markdavyd.substack.com/p/prs-for-music-and-the-grassroots Part 2: https://markdavyd.substack.com/p/prs-for-music-and-the-grassroots-5a0 Part 3: https://markdavyd.substack.com/p/prs-for-music-and-the-grassroots-618 Part 4: https://markdavyd.substack.com/p/prs-for-music-and-the-grassroots-3d9 Highlights:00:00 Grassroots Cash Grab00:24 Meet the Hosts01:46 What Music Venues Trust Does03:30 COVID Crisis Response07:23 Venue People Helping Venues09:16 Why PRS Matters Here12:45 How PRS Works16:02 Unclaimed Royalties Problem21:35 Archaic Setlist System23:22 Tariff LP vs Tariff P27:35 Real World Money Example30:40 Show Me the Money32:00 Unclaimed Royalties Black Box32:58 Venue Economics And Losses34:00 Rules Court Case And Publishers35:53 Broken Reform Promises39:20 Why PRS Won't Change42:00 Estimated Bills And CCJs44:44 Scale Of Grassroots Impact48:18 Audio Recognition Solution55:08 PRS Rebuttals And Backlash59:16 Wrap Up And Where To Read
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IN SESSION: An Interview with the Lord of the Logos, Christophe Szpajdel
2w ago01:10:57Tap to summarizeYou might think you don't know Christophe Szpajdel's work. You almost certainly do. The Emperor logo. The Metallica Mankind clip. The Rihanna lettering that went a hundred feet high at the MTV VMAs. If you've spent any time near heavy music, his hand has been on things you've stared at without knowing his name.This week we sit down with the man known as Lord of the Logos — Belgian-born, Devon-based, currently on shift at the Co-op — to talk about a career that has produced somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 logos, and counting. We get into his early years doodling in school notebooks in Liège, the Art Nouveau obsession that underpins everything, and how a chance encounter on the Tube ended with his work displayed at one of the biggest awards shows on the planet for £500 — a fee he only learned was for Rihanna after he'd already quoted it.We cover the Emperor logo that defined his reputation, the Metallica commission that required him to draw at Heathrow five hours before a flight to Japan, and the Foo Fighters Christmas jumper that was a mutilation of his work, and what he did about it. We also discuss the readability question that divides the scene, the three-month creative block triggered by a South Korean band, his forestry degree and why nature sits at the centre of everything he makes, and the political stance on Ukraine that has cost him ten logos in one go.The question running through all of it: how does someone this prolific stay original?Highlights 00:00 Intro 01:00 Meet Christophe Szpajdel — Lord of the Logos 04:00 Logo Count and the Goal of 20,000 by 2030 06:00 The Process Explained 09:00 The Unsung Logo and Chris's Tattoo 10:00 Background: Belgium, Poland, Ukraine, Devon 11:00 The Co-op Day Job and Why It Works 13:00 Side Projects: Murals and the Polish Calendar 17:00 Musical Influences: Kiss, Motörhead, Celtic Frost 19:00 First Logos and Early Career 21:00 The Emperor Logo 25:00 Chilean Influence: Rick Zuniga 26:00 Nature, Art Nouveau, and the Forestry Degree 28:00 Best Work Comes from Anger or Obsession with Death 29:00 Symmetry, Creative Block, and the Client Problem 33:00 Live: Working Through the Drag Logo 38:00 The Readability Debate 43:00 The Rihanna Story 47:00 Metallica at Heathrow 53:00 The Foo Fighters Bootleg Response 54:00 The Mandy Soundtrack 57:00 AI and Market Saturation 59:00 Ukraine, Politics, and the Russian Flatmate 01:02:00 Losing Ten Logos Over a Political Stance 01:03:00 Black Metal, Church Burnings, and Forbidden Fruit 01:08:00 The Trump/Putin Artwork 01:09:00 The Books: Lord of the Logos, Archaic Modernism, Oracles in Black
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Are Cabaret Voltaire Britain's Most Pioneering Electronic Act? (Side B) with P6 from Stretchheads, Desalvo and OMO
Jun 102:10:28Tap to summarizeIn our previous episode, we went deep into the history of Cabaret Voltaire and their importance to UK industrial and, latterly, dance music. Now, we follow the trail we laid therein by taking a journey through the band's extensive discography, really fleshing out how they went from a Sheffield attic in 1973 to a Patagonian field site recording lizards for David Attenborough. Along the way, we take in televangelists, voodoo, Charles Manson samples, Velvet Underground covers, a near-miss with Todd Terry, and a Taylor Swift pressing-plant mix-up that turned a forgotten ambient track into a viral curiosity decades later.Phil Eaglesham (aka P6 - ex-Stretchheads and De Salvo, current OMO frontman) returns to bestow upon us his encyclopaedic knowledge of the band and British industrial music. We start in 1974 with the lo-fi bedroom experiments of Cabaret Voltaire 1974–76, work through the rough-edged early Rough Trade EPs, the spring-reverb wilderness of Three Mantras and Voice of America, the cult monument that is Red Mecca, and the band's stylistic pivots through Hai!, 2x45, The Crackdown, Micro-Phonies, The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, Code, and beyond. We also pick at the more controversial late chapters, including the major-label years, the slightly-too-late acid house pivot, and Richard H. Kirk's solo reactivation of the name.Along the way, we explore the band as a video production company that happened to make music; their roles as curators and tastemakers via Double Vision; the Burroughs-and-televangelism worldview that made them frighteningly prescient about Reagan-era Christian nationalism; and their unsung debt to Black American music and dub. Chris also offers a wider reflection on what it means to lose the egoless purity of your earliest creative work as ambition and industry pressures take hold.We get deep in the weeds talking about the producers they worked with (Flood, Adrian Sherwood, John Robie, Marshall Jefferson); the labels (Rough Trade, Some Bizzare, Virgin, EMI, Mute); their collaborators and contemporaries (DAF, Wire, Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA, Soft Cell, New Order, The Shamen); and the bands that lifted from them wholesale (Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, The Rapture, White Zombie, and a generation of Glasgow acts you've heard but can't quite place).It all culminates in us taking a closer look at Eight Crepuscule Tracks, a record that Phil thinks is their best and a very pure statement of what the band can and did achieve. We also settle upon what is perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from the Cabs' music: the importance of never compromising on your vision. By entering the belly of the beast and somehow remaining intact, they became one of the rare bands in this corner of music history whom nobody has a bad word for.Highlights00:00 Intro01:18 Welcome Back, Phil02:46 1974–76: Egoless Experimentation04:51 Bedroom Records06:30 Extended Play and DAF07:37 The Velvet Underground Cover08:26 Nag Nag Nag10:20 Van With a PA11:38 Three Mantras12:24 Mix-Up14:50 William Burroughs16:48 Voice of America19:35 Peter Care and Double Vision21:41 Red Mecca24:25 Encyclopaedia Bands27:36 Hai!29:36 2x45 in New York32:07 Sheffield's Family Tree32:55 Chris Watson Leaves36:16 The Crackdown42:23 Micro-Phonies46:38 Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord49:48 Drinking Gasoline51:45 Code54:58 Listen Up and Reissues57:12 Groovy, Laidback and Nasty1:00:15 Body and Soul1:03:56 Shadow of Fear1:04:51 The Taylor Swift Accident1:08:27 Richard Kirk's Death1:14:50 Bus Shelter Bashes1:19:58 Sincerity vs Seriousness1:25:00 Debt to Black Music1:29:00 Eight Crepuscule Tracks1:51:00 Why Everyone Loves Cab Vol1:58:36 Coming Soon: Coil?!
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Are Cabaret Voltaire Britain's Most Pioneering Electronic Act? (Side A) with P6 from Stretchheads, Desalvo and OMO
May 1800:57:10Tap to summarizeCabaret Voltaire are no one thing. Depending on which corner of the internet you found us from, you might know them as the caustic Sheffield noise act who preceded post-punk, the sinister electro-industrial outfit with a penchant for evangelical samples and anti-fascist agitprop, or the dancefloor-adjacent act who fetched up on Factory's Belgian satellite label and made something close to club music. You're all correct.This week, we have a guide. Phil Eaglesham — P6, former front person of Stretchheads and De Salvo, current singer in OMO, musical walking tour operator, man of broad and alarming musical learnings — is here to help us navigate one of the most complex and wilfully uncommercial bands to come out of the UK, via their transitional compilation Eight Crepuscule Tracks.We trace the band's origins in a Sheffield attic in 1973, chart their debts to dub, Black American music, and the sci-fi soundscapes that shaped a generation of working-class ears, and make the case that Cabaret Voltaire — despite their apparent difficulty — were one of the most industrious and fundamentally political bands of their era. We also get into their time at Western Works Studio, which functioned less like a recording facility and more like the gravitational centre of an entire Sheffield scene; their complicated relationship with Rough Trade; and their connections to Joy Division, Lydia Lunch, Clock DVA, and the bands that would become the Human League and ABC.Along the way, Phil brings original artefacts including a signed 1979 TG/Cab Vol/Rema Rema poster from Tottenham Court Road, and the original 12-inches the album is built from. We also ask what would have happened to Cabaret Voltaire without punk — and conclude they'd likely have ended up an academic footnote rather than a foundational text. Highlights: 00:00 Intro03:56 Meet Phil Eaglesham07:47 P6 — The Name and the Character09:29 Queer Identity in the Industrial Scene12:55 Pseudonyms and Rockism17:44 Cabaret Voltaire: The Basics22:32 Sheffield, Western Works, and the Scene25:18 Rough Trade, The Fall, and Being Prolific29:10 Working-Class Roots and Industrial Culture32:33 Sci-Fi Soundscapes and Electronic Prehistory35:11 Musique Concrète to Cab Vol: How Close Were They?36:13 Dadaism, Situationism, and Confrontational Art38:40 Punk's Effect on Audiences (Not Just Music)40:11 The Counterfactual: Cab Vol Without Punk41:43 Black Music, Funk, and the DNA Nobody Talks About43:39 New Wave, No Wave, and New York Connections46:29 Factory Records, Crépuscule, and the Belgian Connection47:49 Original Artefacts: Posters, 12-Inches, and History50:31 Why Eight Crepuscule Tracks?52:54 Looking Towards Next Week and Outro
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Did Hollywood Kill Jóhann Jóhannsson?
May 401:22:15Tap to summarizeWe don't often cover classical or neoclassical music, as it’s a wee bit out of our wheelhouse. But that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy it—often, our entry into that world is via film soundtracks. Jóhann Jóhannsson is a perfect example, having scored some of the most iconic films of the last 20 years.However, that’s only part of the story. Jóhannsson also released a series of acclaimed solo records; this week, we’re focusing almost exclusively on that solo output, while also providing an account of his life, his key cinematic works, and his tragic passing in 2018.We chart his path from early days in indie bands to the cross-genre think tank Kitchen Motors, and his meteoric rise as a composer for films like Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, and The Theory of Everything (for which he won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination). From there, we take a closer look at his solo discography, including IBM 1401: A User’s Manual (built from his father’s vintage computer recordings), Fordlandia, and the short-film soundtrack And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees, as well as posthumous releases like Gold Dust.We cap things off with a discussion regarding his death and the question of whether the pressures of Hollywood played a role in his demise, before focusing exclusively on his 2016 masterpiece, Orphée.00:00 Intro03:56 Meet Jóhann Jóhannsson07:47 Early Life And Indie Bands09:29 Labels And Influences12:55 Chris' Hildur Guðnadóttir Facebook Scam Story17:44 Solo Albums Breakdown22:32 IBM 1401 Masterpiece25:18 Fordlandia And Later Works29:10 Film Breakthrough And Awards32:33 Blade Runner Score Rejected35:11 Blade Runner Score Shakeup36:13 Zimmer Versus Vangelis38:40 Jóhann Interview Clues40:11 Who Made The Call41:43 mother! And The Scrapped Soundtrack43:39 Experimental Sound Design46:29 Final Projects And Legacy47:49 Last And First Men50:31 Posthumous Releases52:54 Death And Tributes55:39 Did Hollywood Kill Him58:48 Orphée Album Deep Dive01:08:32 Why His Music Matters
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Rock and Roll Killing Machine by Drowningman
Apr 2001:18:39Tap to summarizeThis week, we're talking about two things we think are quite interesting. First off, we chat about the early mathcore/metalcore band Drowningman and reflect on why they never quite reached the heights of their peers, such as Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan—bands they often found themselves touring with in the late 90s and early 00s.While that story is compelling in itself, Drowningman can also count themselves among the artists who tried to sabotage a contractual obligation to a record label. As the story goes, they hit the studio with Kurt Ballou (Converge, God City Studios) to record a very weird album, tentatively titled Best Album Ever. The record was never officially released; it was allegedly created with the sole intention of being purposefully bad in order to satisfy, and terminate, their two-album contract with Revelation Records. In the end it never saw the light of day.This got us thinking about other artists who have tried to escape their contractual obligations. We use this lens to take a wee sojourn into the annals of music history, unearthing stories of several big-name artists who tried, and sometimes succeeded, in doing something similar.We hope you enjoy! Highlights:00:00 Intro01:27 Skipping the Discourse01:56 Viral Bands Debate02:59 Patreon Pitch05:37 Awkward Party Exits06:17 Meet Drowningman08:19 Origins and Scene12:00 Early Releases Breakdown16:07 Rock and Roll Killing Machine Era21:07 Later Records and Fadeout24:47 Did They Deserve Bigger27:05 Contractual Obligation Albums35:38 Ozzy Contract Loophole36:25 Speak of the Devil Drama38:05 Ozzy Album Aftermath38:57 Neil Young vs Geffen39:49 Beach Boys Owed Album40:55 More Contract Escapes42:40 Sisters of Mercy SSV45:46 More Obligation Oddities47:43 Rolling Stones Provocation50:31 Zappa Lather Bootleg51:25 Prince vs Warner Saga57:42 Drowning Man Review59:32 Track Highlights Breakdown01:02:56 Final Verdict and Wrap01:06:21 Outro and Thanks
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FROM THE VAULT: Corollaries by Lubomyr Melnyk
Apr 1301:34:36Tap to summarizeThis week's episode is another FROM THE VAULT as we travel back to one of our (sadly) many episodes that were recorded during the pandemic. This one is actually a condensing of two episodes on the weird/genius/odd/interesting music, and personality, of pianist Lubomyr Melnyk. Enjoy!Chris has been chomping at the bit to do this Lubomyr Melnyk album for a while. In fact, some may even remember that he brought it up during our Pandemic Mixtape. Well, the time has come to finally tackle this post-classical/minimalist work and in doing so we absolutely had to cover his…interesting thoughts on musical philosophy. Which cascades into his questionable thoughts on the actual science of how sound works. Which takes us down a big old rabbit hole, as I’m sure you can imagine.All of this to say that it takes us a while to get to the album as a result. Also, the dude’s done like 20+ albums (although we don’t cover all of them) so that’s another whole thing we had to deal with.We also talk about continuous music (the genre he reckons he’s in…of which he is the only practitioner), his incredible piano playing speed and a bunch more things.Our voyage into continuous music comes to a close as we dig into Lubomyr Melnyk’s eighteenth (!) album Corollaries. For the unfamiliar, Melnyk categorises his style as being something almost beyond classical music, yet this release sees him team up with neoclassical composers Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick. This album seemed to give Melnyk a new lease of life; upon getting together with Frahm and Broderick he stated “Where were you in my thirties?”, a statement that stands in stark contrast to his general aversion to playing with other musicians in the years before.There’s a lot to be said about Melnyk’s playing, and I think we cover most of that in the episode. Once again, potato quality audio from Mark but hey, it isn’t terrible.
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FROM THE VAULT: Never Better by P.O.S
Apr 601:01:28Tap to summarizeTHIS WEEK ON FROM THE VAULT we revisit episode 25 and our dive into Never Better by P.O.S. It's a great example of what this podcast does best, and we hope you dig this episode if you haven't heard it before. In the intro Mark talks a little about what's happened to P.O.S since too, specifically around the allegations made against him in 2020, his apology, and where he is now. Original shownotes follow:Folks, we did it. We managed to find a hip hop record that Chris Cusack enjoyed. We're fairly sure that this is one of the signs of the apocalypse so we're probably just going to end the podcast here. Thanks to everyone who listened.Joking aside though, this is a screamer of an album. People have been drawing comparisons between punk and hip hop since...well, forever. The line between the two is drawn pretty clearly on this album. P.O.S himself was a punk kid, but growing up in the cultural and musical melting pot that is Minneapolis meant that there was a great deal of other influential music lurking just around the corner. Indeed, the diversity of the artists that come from the city is telling of the city's cultural and creative landscape. And did we mention that it was the home of Prince, perhaps one of the masters of genre-hopping?This is P.O.S third album, and like every album before or since, it's a singular musical, tonal entity in his oeuvre. He's artist that never wants to cover the same ground twice, and whilst we all couldn't necessarily agree on if each of his records are successful at melding together as many disparate influences as this one, we all certainly agreed that this is his best work. And we all agreed that this should indeed make it into our discography of unsung classics.
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The Band That Made One Album About the End of the World (Then Disappeared)
Mar 3101:13:57Tap to summarizeYou may be shocked to hear that Lift to Experience made one album. One. A ninety-minute double CD concept record about the apocalypse, set entirely in Texas, written by three boys from Pentecostal and Baptist backgrounds who genuinely believed they had something to say to God. And then, more or less, they vanished.In this episode we cover the Texas Jerusalem Crossroads in full — the vision behind it, the religious fervour that powered it, and the question of whether you need to share any of that fervour to find the record genuinely moving. We'd argue you don't, and the band themselves seemed fairly relaxed about that.We also get into the wider story, which turns out to be just as compelling as the music. The album that couldn't be bought in its home country for years. The label that mixed it without the band present and broke their hearts. The tour that never happened. The beard competition. The sandwich grill.Along the way we ask a question that feels increasingly relevant right now — what does it actually mean when Americans start singing about Texas as the site of the final battle between good and evil? In 2001 it seemed like a grand artistic conceit. In 2025 it feels a little different.Is the Texas Jerusalem Crossroads the unsung post rock record with actual things to say? We think so. But it's a ninety-minute album, so you've got time to make up your own mind.Highlights:00:00 Intro and Whether We’re Actually Living in the End Times03:11 Album Introduction04:46 Millennium Anxiety09:17 Band Origins11:19 Sound and Influences12:22 Post Rock With Vocals?!17:33 Name and Release19:48 Religion and Meaning25:46 Art Versus Belief29:46 Lyrics and Apocalypse32:00 Track Highlights33:51 Shoegaze Favourite Track34:50 Dynamics of Cloud Nine36:27 Maximalist Texas Vibes37:03 Album Art Joke Explained38:56 Religion and Tech Rants40:53 UK Success US Absence44:22 Recording Struggles and SXSW Myth49:19 Bad Mix and Band Fallout53:17 Aftermath and Cult Legacy56:02 Reunion and 2017 Reissue59:41 Remix Reviews and Changes01:02:42 Apocalypse Talk and Final Thoughts01:07:45 Outro
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FROM THE VAULT: Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Mar 2301:30:48Tap to summarizeThis week we're throwing back to June 2018, when this pod was only six months old. Things were simpler - the research was less onerous, episodes were shorter (this would easily be a two parter these days), Dave was still part of the crew and the world wasn't ending...Godspeed You! Black Emperor don't really do brevity. They do epic, sweeping, often joyous, always elaborate, suites of music that are designed to move you. They're thorough, crafting songs with painstaking attention to detail.In keeping with the spirit of the band, we thought we'd do the same, so we present to your our longest episode yet. But trust us when we say that it's probably up there with our most interesting listens.We dive deep into the band's back catalogue, stopping along the way to talk about the politics of the band and yes, we do offer a take on some thorny subjects. With this band it's something that can often be inseparable from the way their music, and image, is presented, so it had to happen.The Foo Fighters Nexus also returns (jingle pending) and Chris has a full on GY!BE superfan nerdgasm, while Weaver whacks his politics degree on the table and Mark takes issue with the label "post-rock".This is a fun and captivating listen.We understand that the title of "best Godspeed album" is a contentious one, so we're intrigued to see if people agree with our decision to include this in our canon Unsung classics.
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