S3 E5: Susanne Bartsch

In this episode, Diplo discusses how growing up across America’s South shaped his eclectic perspective, his thoughts on cultural appropriation in music, and how he believes the internet has amplified the reach and potential of subculture.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we dig deep into queercore, the contemporary value of shock and the line between arthouse and porn with modern cinema’s queer punk provocateur, Bruce LaBruce. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She is a party producer and community organiser who has been responsible for some of the most memorable nights – and looks, for that matter – that the Big Apple has ever seen. This week, we speak to New York’s quasi-official queen of clubs, Susanne Bartsch, about a life lived at the heart of the party, and her new book, Bartschland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 4 of the i-Dentity podcast, we’re joined by fashion designer and subculture connoisseur Martine Rose, known around the world for her distinctly London vision. Martine discusses her extraordinary career, unconventional upbringing in South London, and why subculture and nightlife will always be a focus of her work. “The feeling that I get on the dance floor hasn't changed. It's completely electrifying. I still feel like a 14-year-old standing outside of Strawberry Sundae. It genuinely feels like that.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we’re back with none other than James ‘Jeanette’ Main, the former Boombox host and East London nightlife legend. In the mid-2000s, he became the so-called ‘door girl’ for Richard Mortimer’s Sunday evening club night Boombox, known by the moniker of ‘Jeanette’. One of a handful of nights in the East End, it sparked a renaissance in queer London nightlife and marked a shift in the city’s creative centre, playing host to fashion designers, musicians, artists, art students — and indeed the occasional icon — who all had to pass Jeanette to get to the dancefloor.As he puts it: “Subculture is doing what you can’t help not do, doing what is burning inside you, and finding others who have the same burning desire as you.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, legendary British artist Cosey Fanni Tutti joins us to discuss her lifelong commitment to counterculture, and five decades of breaking down boundaries through her subversive multidisciplinary art practice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

i-Dentity podcast is back, and this series we’re dedicating each episode to an artist we feel truly personifies subculture. Kicking it off is seminal photographer and documenter, and long-time contributor to i-D, Liz Johnson Artur.Listen to the first episode of our new series, where Liz discusses her aversion to being described as a ‘street’ or ‘club’ photographer, her ever-expanding Black Balloon Archive, and why legendary club-night PDA will always be one of her favourite nights in London history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are closing out series two with the defining QTPOC subculture, ballroom.'Serve’, ‘read’, or ‘throwing shade’ – whether first heard from the lips of queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race, or from sassy teens on TikTok, these terms have become part of English slang. But if you were to ask the lion’s share of people using them where they originally came from, we’d wager that most wouldn’t be able to tell you.Its roots extend back as far as the late 1960s when, in response to racism they experienced in the white-dominated drag pageant scene, Black trans queens Crystal and Asia LaBeija made the bold decision to found a by-us-for-us space. Initially incubated in community halls and nightclubs across Harlem and Downtown Manhattan, ballroom has gone on to inform contemporary culture across the globe – not just nightlife, but also music, fashion, television and language itself. But conversations around appropriation and compensation have reached a flashpoint, with members of the scene calling for acknowledgement, fairer treatment and a deeper understanding of ballroom’s history.In this week’s episode of i-Dentity, we join i-D’s senior fashion features editor Mahoro Seward, as they speak with Alex Mugler, a legendary voguer and choreographer, on the infrastructure of the ballroom community; Venus X delves into the story behind, GHE20G0TH1K, the club night she co-founded, while also unpacking the the exploitative nature of ballroom’s relationship with the culture mainstream; MikeQ, one of the eminent producers of vogue beats and globally esteemed DJ, explores the development of ballroom music and his experiences at the early GHE20G0TH1K’s parties; and Ricky Tucker, a New York-based writer, academic and ballroom superfan gives us the backstory on ballroom’s history and enduring capacity for liberation.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shaved heads, wrap-around Oakleys, neon tracksuits, Alpha Industries bombers and Nike trainers. This is the story of how hardcore changed contemporary fashion for decades to come.In this episode, Mahoro Seward, i-D’s Senior Fashion Features Editor, speaks to Ari Versluis, the photographer behind Exactitudes, the emblematic image series that first typified the gabber look and brought it to the world, and a former gabber himself. Lis Rutten, an Amsterdam-based casting director and former model, discusses for the gabber look has influenced fashion’s masculine ideal, while Henrike Naumann, a German artist who has explored gabber culture extensively in their work, unpacks its enduring legacy, both in the arts and on the ground.Host: Mahoro SewardScripting: Mahoro Seward, Amelia PhillipsResearch: Eleanor GribbinResearch Assistance: Alexia MarmaraArt Direction: Calum Glenday and Aleksandra TalachaProducer: Amelia PhillipsAudio Producer: Robin LeeburnProduction: Podmasters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is alté, you ask? Well, let’s start by saying this: it’s probably easier to describe it in terms of what it isn’t than what it is. In the years since the West African subcultural movement has come to global prominence – say, over the past five years or so – it’s often been erroneously tagged as a music genre, pioneered by the likes of Cruel Santino, Odunsi The Engine, Lady Donli and Grammy Award winner Tems. The thing is, though, there are as many interpretations of the alté sound as there are artists associated with it, with the influences you’ll pick up on in tracks by any of the above spanning R&B, hip-hop, synthpop, house… and then some. Indeed, alté is so much more than a sound, it’s a fully-fledged lifestyle – a way of being that’s expressed as much through style and art as through music, and that has come to define what Nigerian youth culture looks, sounds and feels like today. As Ashley Okoli says, it's "literally just vibes."Increasingly, alté artists are ascending to global stages – see Tems' collaboration with Rihanna, performed at the 95th Academy Awards no less. Alté is no longer a traditional subculture, but a globally influential style and identity that everyone wants a piece of. In this episode, Mahoro Seward, i-D’s Senior Fashion Features Editor, speaks to Odunsi the Engine, a music producer who’s been at the forefront of the alté scene since its earliest days; Ashley Okoli, a stylist and creative director who’s collaborated with the likes of Mowalola and Victoria’s Secret, unpacks the central importance of fashion in the alté lifestyle, while Teezee, a musician, record label head and founder of rhizomatic cultural platform Native, discusses the ethos at alté’s heart and how it’s going global.Host: Mahoro SewardScripting: Mahoro Seward, Amelia PhillipsResearch: Niloufar HaidariResearch Assistance: Alexia MarmaraArt Direction: Calum Glenday and Aleksandra TalachaProducer: Amelia PhillipsAudio Producer: Robin LeeburnProduction: Podmasters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.