After a while of silence regarding sound system culture events and parties, Romania steps out with a festival dedicated to this music - DubCamp festival 24-26 of June. We had our moments. The sound system on the streets of Bucharest during Street Delivery at the beginning of 2010, One Love Festival, Subsonic Festival, Reggae Pon di Hills, and some other small gatherings pinpointed the first local steps in the sound system culture.

We begin the series of ” A look inside the online radio stations” with Xanthe Fuller - Creator Marketing & Partnerships Director at Mixcloud, and broadcaster at Soho Radio. We have chosen to begin with Xanthe as we consider her one of the informal pillars of Black Rhino Radio. She is one of the first people that promoted and supported us in building the station.

Released on the 12th of March by On the Corner Records, the debut album of Guedra Guedra is massive. Concept and music blend in spiritual polyrhythms that take over the dancefloor.

Released on 26 of February on Bind Colour, Ink Project's new album explores a wide range of tempos and genres. Producer Jez Lloyd sails on complex rhythms, introducing, one by one, the story chapters with the help of versatile voices of Coreysan, Fifi Rong, and Yazmyn Hendrix.

EVA808's 'Sultry Venom', released on the 18th of December on Innamind Recordings, comes after the hype the artist has raised in the last years with tracks like Prrr (2017), Pink Uzi Gang (2018), and Exchange (2020). Not a stranger to other tempos, Eva delivers not a concept record, but a collection of tracks and emotions.

Launched at the beginning of 2020, DNO Records announces its 4th vinyl release, signing five tracks from the Belgian duo, The Untouchables. Kate and Ajit don’t need much of an introduction as they are producers with strong releases to show their versatility. Part of the Samurai Music family, The Untouchables constructed their unique sound where elements of jungle and dub are forming a bridge under 170 BPM productions.

Beyond, the latest release of Egopusher comes with an eerie approach to synth and drums. Beyond, the title track of the album invites the listener to a meditative state and, slowly, starts to unveil the different layers of electronic sensations.

Last month Dub Pistols released their ninth studio album - ”Addict”, through Sunday Best Recordings. A collection of 11 tacks marks 20 years of Dub Pistols and over 35 years for Ben Ashworth in the music industry, the mastermind behind the productions of Dub Pistols.

Fast, on target, meaningful, the modern UK hip hop is a pledge to consistency. With the commercial focus on grime, hip hop artists were able to play and explore without the pressure of 1 mill copies. In the UK hip-hop, there is no fight for who’s the king. There is no king. There is only the oppression of Babylon and the fight against it.

Before the world went silent, at the beginning of March, I attended Ghent Dub Club #3, a two sound system session put together by Indica Dubs and his crew. With Danman as his guest MC, Indica put up a strong lineup by inviting the mighty Channel One Sound System.

Calm, always smiling, with a ritualistic approach to music, Swiss musician and composer Nik Bärtsch is a thrilling individual. Fascinated about his organically interwoven textures from jazz, funk, new music and minimalism, the interview explores his search for new and his dive into sound development.

Once I have past the festival gates, 20 meters from the camp site, the bucolic grounds unfurl to reveal a playground for both grownups and children. Between people playing with frisbees, children running in all directions and dogs roaming free, the only gripe you could have is that you will not have the time to discover all that Smida has to offer.

Following the evolution of dubstep and the new wave of artists we invited the Croatian producer Egoless for an interview to discuss about his vision of music, the way he embraced this sound and introduced his musical punk background into the 140BPM productions.

Radikal Guru's discography boasts highlights that include his debut LP ‘The Rootstepa’ and the mighty "Dread Commandments" 12inch, or his second LP ''Subconscious'' that includes dancefloor killers like Stay Calm ft. YT or Warning ft. Echo Ranks. In 2016 he released his third studio album "Dub Mentalist" including more exciting collaborations and soundscapes.

Like most of the independent labels, Dancehall Tradition is also founded by the passion and love for music. The interview with Sheba is following the label mission, collaborators and future plans in the amazing world of reggae music.

After five years since his latest album release Fennesz has returned to  Touch label with a new release, Agora. Due to be released on the 28th of March, this album finds the composer returning to his roots with a minimal production setup and a focus on manipulated and mangled guitar riffs and synths.

After almost 50 years of a solid reggae genre where the harmony, rhythm, percussion and sounds where well established comes a new approach. Straight from the mother island of Jamaica, a new concept is born – the reggae revival. A term coined by Protoje, Chronixx and Jah9 to help them better market their sound.

The 25 years old, Camden born, Ocean Wisdom, impressed me since his debut album in 2016. With Chaos 93’ Ocean announced his future supremacy. He brought something new – a really fast flow, a good understanding of both hip hop and grime and a dedication to work.

Looking at the world of music one could live a feeling of hope. There are a lot of good musicians, passionate promoters and public eager to hear new sounds. Of course, things don’t move always as fast as we would like, but still, things are changing for the best for those who work and follow their path.

Gabriela and Cristian Fierbinteanu explore the pop genre beyound the common definition. With strong messages and a militant atitude, the duo speaks about the liberation from corporations and the discover of the inner self. Their is show is often accompanied by dance performance giving the audience a more intense perception of their message. 

Fine It’s Pink is a band that experiments with each release, adding layer and layer of musical influences upon their compositions. They have performed all over the country opening for artists such as Tricky, Nadine Shah, Daughter, Sevdaliza, to name a few.

Disturbing the Comfortable - Comforting the Disturbed is On-U Sound's motto, Adrian Sherwood’s longstanding label. Recurring through our interview is the theme of avoiding musical safe explorations, taking the audience out of their comfort zone and the demystification of music through the lack of enthusiasm from music lovers.

The forth episode of our talk series with people involved in the music industry is focusing on the activity of Control Club. Our discussion with the co-owner and artistic director of the club, Florin Oslobanu, is gravitating around subjects such as club's artistic direction, its vision about dancefloor music and marketing strategies.

In a time when clubs are closing or are being shut down by different state policies we wanted to bring more focus upon the work of club owners and managers. For our third episode we have invited Raluca and Andrei Șoșa, owners of Expirat Club.

For the second episode of our Black Rhino Talks we invited Cage, founder member of Sweet Damage Crew and co-owner of the graffiti Corner Shop. Our discussion follows the raise of one of the most productive graffiti crew in Romania - Sweet Damage Crew

Black Rhino Talks are an open and friendly space dedicated in sharing knowledge, ideas and opinions.  With these series we aim to bring more focus on people and projects, from within the creative industries, who managed to leave a blueprint in their field of work. For the first episode we have invited Tudor Chiliman, co-organiser of Waha Festival.

One can refer to Marius Costache as a studio engineer or a music producer, but I prefer to describe him as a man who sounds different. His passion regarding sound transcends the modern thin line of musical genre and steps into the world where sonic laws are meant to be just an example.