Music For Small Audiences
115 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago -Australian-Canadian DJ Matthew Belleghem brings to this podcast 35+ years of experience as a curator of engaging and eclectic electronic music.
Having spent time as a nightclub DJ, music producer, synthesizer salesperson, record shop clerk and dance music journalist, his tastes range from the underground progressive house music that Melbourne is world renowned for, through to ambient, new wave, nu disco, trip hop, trance, techno, downtempo and psychedelica. While new genre names seem to crop up each year, contemporary music journos might also use terms like 'organic house' or 'melodic techno'.
Talk free and mixed live in Melbourne, Music For Small Audiences is a guided exploration through the most colourful corners of his music collection, and is perfect for high fidelity headphone and living room listening.
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Episodes
MFSA115: A Thought Indoors
February 09, 2024 10:47 - 3 hours - 402 MBNever trust a thought that occurs indoors, the saying goes. We are into the final third of summer here in Australia, and at the risk of tempting the sun gods, I daresay the weather has started to stabilise – as far as Melbourne weather ever does, anyways. The combination of pleasant weather and still-long-enough evenings makes for plenty of time to be outdoors and introspective, while the ever-shortening days also serve as a reminder that soon enough we’ll be back to heaters and scarves. S...
MFSA114: The Present Future Dynamic
December 28, 2023 23:50 - 5 hours - 558 MBAs the year comes to a close, it seems natural to reflect on the year that has passed, and where it has taken us. Are we where we intended to be? Where we wanted to be? Or are we somewhere else, somewhere better defined as the logical destination given the decisions we made over the course of the year? So I suppose too that it’s natural to cast a critical eye to the year ahead. What needs to change – and what needs to continue – if we are to hit closer to the mark of optimistic intent, com...
MFSA113: Live At The Candy Factory
November 03, 2023 06:54 - 4 hours - 507 MBI have recently returned from a few weeks in Canada. The trip included a weekend with some very good friends, during which I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to play an extended set on what is probably my favourite pair of speakers in the world. Set up well in a great sounding loft conversion in Toronto’s inner west, it was a chance to reconnect, recharge, and recycle the same stories that seem to get funnier each time they are told. This is the live recording of the set that ...
MFSA112: Subclinical
August 31, 2023 11:54 - 4 hours - 494 MBI’ve long been intrigued by the end user experience of modern medicine, and what can at times feel to the layperson like a focus on only fixing what is broken. If we are unwell past a certain arbitrary threshold, we receive medical intervention until we are back to baseline. We heal, we rehabilitate, we repair, and we focus on eliminating the negative to bring things back to where they should be, wherever ‘should’ is, and that’s it. If the symptoms aren’t serious enough to warrant intervent...
MFSA111: Leaving The Right Things Undone
July 15, 2023 00:01 - 5 hours - 571 MBMuch has been said about the importance of time management. When time is tight and competing priorities overlap, it can be easy to succumb to a sense of guilt that things may be missed or not prioritised appropriately. I had a bit of an epiphany from an article I read a few years ago – a lightbulb moment after years of reflecting on how to best manage my time, where I realised that it was just as much my energy that I needed to better manage. Doing stuff is hard, and is made harder by not...
MFSA110: What If It All Works Out
June 24, 2023 11:59 - 2 hours - 356 MBNegativity can be seductive. As we get older, our awareness seems to build about just how much can go wrong at any given moment – personally, professionally, geopolitically, economically, and physically. It’s easy to be fearful, and the more acutely aware we are of the worst case scenario, the more tempting it can be to jump at shadows or assume the worst. Having taken a month long break from running on account of a strange feeling in my left knee, it was a huge relief to get back out in r...
MFSA109: Frame Of Reference
April 30, 2023 12:48 - 5 hours - 581 MBWe all have our idiosyncrasies. Two of mine are closely related, in that I love a good quotation, and I am a sucker for a good cliché. In both cases, I like to think of them as bits of distilled wisdom that have stood the test of time. But as Abraham Lincoln once dryly noted, the problem with looking up old quotes on the internet is that you can never be too sure if they have been attributed correctly. With that said, it has been a really interesting couple of weeks, both for me and for so...
MFSA108: Why Not Both
February 22, 2023 09:31 - 2 hours - 255 MBA commonly accepted definition of sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future. So how then to make a future worth waiting for, without shortchanging our ability to fully seize the present moment? There are many tradeoffs and worse in daily life as we try to ensure that today is OK while not robbing ourselves of tomorrow. Stay up late or get up early? Smash the fun button, or play it safe? Keep your eye on the prize, or sit bac...
MFSA107: Some Colours Have No Names
January 22, 2023 07:43 - 4 hours - 501 MBThe summer holiday period is drawing to a close here in Australia, and we have just come back from a few weeks travelling through New Zealand’s South Island. The landscape is extraordinary to the point of being mind expanding, and every day was a reminder of just how beautiful the world can be. We were fortunate to have had excellent weather, meaning plenty of time to hike and bike and further explore a very special corner of the world. Travel is often an opportunity for personal growth. I...
MFSA106: That Little Bit Further
November 06, 2022 09:14 - 4 hours - 542 MBThere is something exciting about covering new ground. The transition from known to unknown brings with it a sense of renewal and energy, and it can be quite fun to explore that little bit further, and to cover a little bit of new ground at the edge of a previously understood boundary. One of the things I quite like about Melbourne is the quiet sense of perpetual renewal I feel when exploring it. While the city’s infrastructure is not perfect, it gets incrementally better each year. The pa...
MFSA105: Tin Roof Rusted
September 18, 2022 10:39 - 4 hours - 493 MBIt has been an unusual weekend. It has been an unusual year. Springtime in Melbourne often brings a bit of rain. With another La Nina apparently on the horizon, we have seen quite a bit of rain already. So much so, in fact, that it has exposed the failings of our second story roof drainage system. Not a fun way to spend the weekend. While there is plenty of truth in the old adage that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself, there is an added element of excitement and ...
MFSA104: Days Go By
June 19, 2022 10:03 - 3 hours - 451 MBWinter has arrived in Melbourne. To me that means short days, falling leaves, and the occasional smell of a wood stove across the city at night. It can be easy at this time of year to withdraw a little bit, to bunker down and count the days off until warmer weather returns. Of course winter here means summer somewhere else. As is the case with many things, where one is experiencing the sunset, another is experiencing the sunrise. Nothing lasts forever, and we all get only as long as we get...
MFSA103: Your Call Is Important To Us
May 04, 2022 12:23 - 460 MBCoordinating travel, as with coordinating a lot of things these days, involves a lot of time waiting on hold on the telephone. As such, I am becoming something of a hold music aficionado. On many recent calls the music has been punctuated with a repetitive series of apologies explaining that, due to the pandemic, hold times are longer than they might otherwise be. If the past two years have taught me anything, it is the extent to which a pandemic involves an awful lot of waiting, and more th...
MFSA102: The Spirit Of Radio
February 24, 2022 09:21 - 565 MBAs I grew up my two older sisters were a constant source of musical guidance and inspiration, taking me to concerts, bringing me records from overseas school trips and keeping me up to speed on the hottest bands across the genre that was then called New Wave. Throughout our early years growing up in suburban Toronto, one radio station in particular was held high as the mythical point source from which all good music came. That station was CFNY, 102.1 FM. Following on from high school some y...
MFSA101: A Soft Landing
December 29, 2021 06:39 - 3 hours - 425 MBAh yes, life in a pandemic. I suppose every now and then life throws up a bit of turbulence, and so this is our time. But what is the difference between flying and falling, really? There are some parallels shared with the difference between drowning and waving. Beyond that, falling also carries with it a sense of inevitability, of a ballistic trajectory, of a future impact. No wonder that dreams of falling are so common, or so confronting. At a time when friends and family can feel so very...
MFSA100: Gudaseya
November 20, 2021 05:15 - 5 hours - 652 MBAs I write this I am just over three hundred kilometres from home. May not sound like much, but after an extended pandemic and all of the restrictions that come with, even a little bit of travel is a really big deal. The past few weeks have been a reawakening of sorts. Social reconnections, the relaxation of restrictions, and a new sense of freedom and possibility for space and place. Seeing old friends in person again. Travelling to the places that we had always meant to see. Revisiting t...
MFSA099: Too Late To Leave
September 17, 2021 10:46 - 3 hours - 348 MBWhether we are talking about social gatherings or impending natural disasters, there comes a point at which leaving is no longer an option. A point when, to paraphrase an old movie quote, there can be no turning back, and there is no choice but to ride it out. Whether bunkering down or busting a move, once the decision to stay is made, the die has been cast. Once those present have made the commitment to stick it out and see where it all ends up, there is a bit of peace provided, because th...
MFSA098: Second Shot
August 09, 2021 11:24 - 2 hours - 337 MBI love a good World War II documentary. While the world is today a very different place, there is still so much from that era that rings true, including the misplaced optimism in 1939 that suggested ‘the boys will be home by Christmas’. Similarly, when the global pandemic started here in the twenty-first century, there was a sense that things would return to normal within some reasonable period of time. And yet, here we are. As children in the back seat during road trips of interminable len...
MFSA097: Dark And Long
June 21, 2021 11:19 - 3 hours - 369 MBIt is the start of the longest night of the year here in Melbourne as I write this. As you may infer from the titles of my podcast episodes over the years, I have a recurring interest in the pivot points, the transitions, the turning points, the fulcrums, the thresholds, the apexes, the zeniths and the nadirs, and the point at which ebb becomes flow. Raised as I was with equal-tempered reverence for astronomy and astrology, the solstices hold a particular mystique for me. For many years, I...
MFSA096: Push Hard But Go Easy On Yourself
May 22, 2021 09:46 - 2 hours - 253 MBI am not a fast runner, but I like to run. After so many cancelled events it was great to again run in an organised event last weekend. It was a road run along the Great Ocean Road on the southern coast of Australia. The weather was wet but not rainy, with the run highlighted by an improbable number of seaside rainbows. Fittingly, the pub in which I had my celebratory post run beer bills itself as the southernmost pub on the Australian mainland. Running long distances has a way of letting ...
MFSA095: Get The Balance Right
April 11, 2021 05:18 - 3 hours - 358 MBWhile the whole world may be going through a global pandemic, the experience of every country and every individual has been different. As my good friend Dan has put it, we may all be riding out the same storm, but we are definitely not all in the same boat. We have each had our own unique difficulties and quiet victories over the course of the past year, and we have each found our own way of coping with the circumstances that have been thrown at us. For me, keeping things on an even keel ov...
MFSA094: Have To Get To
March 30, 2021 12:02 - 2 hours - 234 MBFun means different things to different people. An activity that one person sees as an exciting adventure – say free solo rock climbing, slam poetry or building a ship in a bottle – another is just as likely to see as profoundly terrifying, unpleasantly fiddly, or excruciatingly boring, with each the others nightmare. The extent to which a given commitment is seen as an opportunity or an obligation is really just a function of perspective, appetite and appreciation. Even the most arduous jo...
MFSA093: A Place That May Not Exist
February 11, 2021 09:02 - 2 hours - 236 MBWhile the events of the past twelve months have provided plenty of reasons to be pensive, persnickety and petulant, I am feeling optimistic and inspired at the moment. It has been a year of limitations, worries, uncertainty and introspection, but as the calendar year ticks over and we try to imagine a new post-pandemic normal, I cannot help but feel a sense of optimism for what urban professional living and working will look like if and when we get to the other side of all of this. As a wh...
MFSA092: Out And Back
December 30, 2020 07:49 - 3 hours - 355 MBI enjoy long distance running with good music as a physical and psychological release. In particular I like the out-and-back style run, heading out to a distant point and then turning around to head home. Running out, there is a sense of adventure and commitment, knowing that every km out is a km that will need to be covered again on the way back home. More often than I should probably admit, I make a bit of a banking airplane figure with outstretched hands and some verbal sound effects as ...
MFSA091: Renormalisation
November 24, 2020 12:20 - 2 hours - 250 MBIn audio editing terms, normalisation is something you do to a recorded signal in order to proportionally recalibrate it, so that the loudest peak in the program material corresponds to the highest signal intensity possible without distortion. You do not actually lose anything in the process. It is just that the levels are reset to a new standard. With our very last active COVID case here in Victoria given a clean bill of health and released from the hospital this morning, the second wave o...
MFSA090: Inbetween Days
November 06, 2020 11:34 - 2 hours - 333 MBEarly November 2020. Not quite summer in Melbourne, but certainly not winter. Yesterday I wore a scarf over my sunburn. We are not quite free of restrictions here, but certainly not as held back either. We have spent more quality time with friends over the past week than we did during the six months prior, but while things are improving they are far from normal. There are still no jet planes in the sky. The counting of votes from an American election has been going on for a number of days...
MFSA089: It Happens Quickly
October 08, 2020 09:07 - 3 hours - 391 MBHemingway once said that big things happen slowly at first, but then suddenly. Time itself has felt a little weird in recent weeks, a mix of slow and sudden that has felt more than a bit bananas. Hard to believe that our city has been in some stage of restriction or lockdown for seven months now. Thankfully, daylight savings changes have bought us an extra hour of evening sunshine here in Melbourne, and as the days continue to lengthen I feel like we have finally returned to the stage where...
MFSA088: Symbolism
September 16, 2020 09:18 - 3 hours - 376 MBThe first few days of spring have arrived here in Melbourne, and with it has come a sense of renewal and energy. The days are getting longer, minute by minute. Slowly but surely the weather is warming. The trees are starting to blossom. The birds are busily staking out their territory for the coming summer, while the city itself starts to slowly awaken and lockdown restrictions begin to relax. When movement is restricted, it is easy to draw deep meaning and morals from the sorts of things ...
MFSA087: Of Limitation And Possibility
August 04, 2020 12:33 - 2 hours - 303 MBMelbourne is in to a Stage 4 lockdown as I write this. This includes the closure of all nonessential businesses, an evening curfew, a heavy police presence and serious penalties for being anywhere other than home without a valid reason. It seems to be making the news worldwide, based on the condolences and words of support that are coming through. There are pretty clear restrictions as to what we can do, and where we can do it. Limiting, yes, but also inspiring in a way because it gives us ...
MFSA086: Fool Me Twice
July 09, 2020 10:40 - 3 hours - 371 MBI keep a lot of lists. One of them is called Things I Already Know. It is reserved for things that I have very clearly learned, the hard way, and then seemingly forgotten, only to be reminded all over again the next time it happens. Nobody likes to step on a rake or slip on a banana peel twice. I have recently made a new addition to the list as a result of unexpected household events. This new entry reminds me that where it comes to household plumbing, while preventative maintenance may be...
MFSA085: A Welcome Distraction
June 07, 2020 05:28 - 2 hours - 238 MBThe reticular activating system is a short, pencil-sized piece of the brain located just above where the spinal cord is attached to the brain. It acts as the gatekeeper of information between most sensory systems and the conscious mind. It decides what needs our attention and what can be safely ignored, and highlights the things in our universe that align with its priorities and concerns. Fight or flight, when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, and all that sort of stuff...
MFSA084: Tomorrow Is For A Lot Of Things
May 09, 2020 08:12 - 2 hours - 347 MBIt has been a few months now that social engagement has been curtailed. Australia has managed things well by the look of things, with intergovernmental cooperation sustained, and policy decisions driven by science and fact, rather than ideology or ignorance. For the moment, we remain in a state of suspended in home animation, ready to take flight when the moment is right, but happy to chill in the meantime. While we are not out of the woods yet, there is definitely a light at the end of th...
MFSA083: Stronger Where It Was Broken
April 22, 2020 00:32 - 2 hours - 356 MBAfter a bone breaks, there is a short period of time during the reparative stage of the healing process where the area around the fracture is stronger than it was before the injury. Having broken a few bones over the years, this period of extended staying at home feels a bit like a period of recovery after an injury. There is reduced movement, a focus on wellness, and a paradoxical sense of both peace and impatience towards an anticipated return to something approaching normalcy, while also...
MFSA082: Bon Voyage
April 02, 2020 22:24 - 3 hours - 338 MBWhat an extraordinary time we are living through. With a global pandemic raging, it seems the whole world is focused precisely on a single little organic particle. I have high hopes that the collective undivided attention of the best and brightest minds on earth will bring us through the current storm of uncertainty, despite what feels at the moment like considerable turbulence and disruption. While settling in to close quarters for an extended period of time with limited provisions may no...
MFSA081: Mud From The Mallee
February 17, 2020 09:58 - 1 hour - 218 MBMelbourne summers seem to go on forever, with plenty of sunshine and long warm evenings. Unfortunately, the winters seem to go on forever too. Even before coming to Australia, I often thought that the length of a year felt like exactly the amount of time one can remember what a season feels like, so that when each one comes it feels like a distant but not quite forgotten memory. As the old saying goes, what goes up must come down. It certainly seems to have been true through the summer of s...
MFSA080: Introduced Species
January 28, 2020 10:43 - 3 hours - 393 MBAnd so it is now 2020. It has been an interesting few weeks here in Melbourne. Australia has been making headlines around the world due to a particularly severe bushfire season, and there have been a few days of smoke across the city that made things all feel a bit surreal. On a personal level, multiple overseas visitors have helped see the local sights through a fresh lens, while a minor knee injury has meant a bit less movement than might have originally been anticipated. Recent weeks ha...
MFSA079: And Yet Somehow
November 26, 2019 11:48 - 2 hours - 220 MBRecent weeks have shown me just how much things can change quickly. From moves across the globe to changes in fortune and circumstance, it seems that for many people close to me, recent events have served up a decidedly different state of affairs. From flights to fights to crashes and funerals, these events, while unconnected, seem to collectively reinforce the fragile, ephemeral nature of the current state of play. Is time precious? Is life short? Where does one differentiate between an ex...
MFSA078: What To Compare It To
November 17, 2019 20:07 - 2 hours - 220 MBIn recent weeks we have been watching a thought provoking TV series focused on time travel, and how the choices we make set us on certain paths. Having finished the second season of the series, one line in particular sticks out – the observation that every choice for something is a choice against something else. When in the thick of things with a given set of circumstances it can be easy to feel limited, constrained or stuck on a track towards an unintended destination. Sometimes a good bit...
MFSA077: Where Things Are
October 20, 2019 02:18 - 3 hours - 368 MBI read once that being organised means that where things are suits what those things mean, so that each thing takes as little psychic energy as possible to find when it is needed, while not being in the way. With spring arriving to Melbourne, the days are getting longer and the weather more variable. As such it feels like a great time to get a bit more organised, and to make sure everything at home has an appropriate home of its own. With a bit of motion and a bit of consideration, we can ge...
MFSA076: Portland Street Friday Night
September 15, 2019 10:06 - 2 hours - 272 MBWe recently returned from a very special overseas trip that included a weekend stop in Toronto. For a trip full of highlights, one of the absolute standout evenings of the entire adventure was a Friday evening spent downtown in the Toronto Fashion District. It was a pleasantly warm summer evening, with great music, great food, great company, a splash of suspiciously good champagne and a particularly good sound system. Friendships were refreshed, stories told, and bonds strengthened across th...
MFSA075: Finding A Local
June 30, 2019 19:51 - 2 hours - 258 MBFor the four years we lived in Richmond, we lived in the shadow of the London Tavern, an old school pub full of character and charm. Great beers, decent food, a lovely beer garden, and just a few steps down the street from where we lived. We got to know it very well. Settling in to South Yarra, we have yet to settle on a place that we can call our own to such an extent. There are plenty to choose from, from traditional to stylish to upmarket to wowzers, and perhaps it is the incredible rang...
MFSA074: The Cost Of Comfort
June 22, 2019 07:16 - 2 hours - 218 MBIt is the winter solstice here in Australia as I write this, which means short, cold days and a lot less sunshine than one might like. Cold weather often leads to contemplation, and having moved into a new home earlier this year, we are now assessing how to balance heating levels, taking into account comfort on one hand and the cost of energy on the other. With modern electricity providers able to provide hour by hour readings, a logging thermometer has given us the chance to experiment with...
MFSA073: For A Future Road Trip
April 22, 2019 02:54 - 2 hours - 322 MBI have many fond memories of road trips over the years. Some were with family, some were with friends, and some by myself. Whether flying solo or with a copilot alongside, a journey by road can be a transformative experience. For every road trip I can remember, music was a big part of the experience. There is nothing like a big chunk of seat time with good tunes and good scenery to stimulate conversation, introspection, perspective and reflection. The nature of road trips is that they often...
MFSA072: The Future In Detail
March 30, 2019 00:15 - 3 hours - 352 MBFunny how the future keeps showing up. There are a handful of books I buy and shove into the hands of anyone who will take a copy. One of these is by Daniel Gilbert, and it is called Stumbling On Happiness. One of the key themes throughout the book is how we imperfectly perceive the future, and by extension how we imperfectly relate to our future selves. As Gilbert sees it, we tend to believe that who we are at the moment is the final destination of our becoming. As such, present day us sets...
MFSA071: Cool Change
January 16, 2019 11:27 - 2 hours - 231 MBThe weather can change quickly in Melbourne, particularly when a cool change comes through. So it was on the day this mix was recorded. It was a Friday evening in early January 2019, after a day spent at the beach (Jan Juc). The mix itself was recorded live in the hours after an obscenely hot summer day quickly transposed into a mild evening, thanks to a typically Melburnian temperature drop of fifteen degrees in thirty minutes. This mix also came hot on the heels of a fantastic New Years ...
MFSA070: Westside
December 16, 2018 08:05 - 1 hour - 207 MBLast weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to play some house music for a housewarming party celebrating the newly expanded home of two very good friends. Located in the inner west, this groovy pad was once two separate residences, which through some creative design work now works as a beautiful single home. The party was fantastic, and the setup superlative, from the lamb on a spit through to the top range Pioneer hardware set up in the DJ booth. As a get together it was one we had been...
MFSA069: Return to South Yarra
December 02, 2018 07:55 - 2 hours - 238 MBFinding a place to call home is never easy. Putting roots down means taking a chance, joining a community, and committing to the transition from transient to resident. With that in mind, I am exceptionally excited to be moving back to South Yarra in 2019, to call our new house our new home. As a suburb South Yarra has a bit of everything, close to the city but with plenty of parks and quiet pockets, while our new home has everything we need for the years to come. While Richmond has been goo...
MFSA068: Milestones
October 27, 2018 06:56 - 2 hours - 247 MBWe measure progress in increments. Major life events stand as demarcations, with time able to be divided into before and after. As a recreational long distance runner, I know that it sometimes takes everything we have to make it around the next bend. Other times, the distance seems to fly by in the background, while mind and body are at peace and at ease. Either way, a kilometre is a kilometre, and the distance must be covered one step at a time by putting one foot in front of the other, for...
MFSA067: Castlemaine
September 09, 2018 07:15 - 2 hours - 325 MBWe spent a recent weekend in the town of Castlemaine, ninety minutes outside of Melbourne. It was a lovely, rustic weekend with a bit of fresh air and a bit of adventure, and it was a fitting way to cap off the transition from winter to spring. My mother has long espoused travel as a catalyst for personal growth. While we were not away long and were not especially far from home, the distance and experience was enough to help drive a meaningful shift in perspective. It also served as a helpf...
MFSA066: The Past Is A Foreign Country
August 05, 2018 00:51 - 1 hour - 232 MBI read somewhere that our memories change every time we recall them. Each time we remember something it seems we are reassembling the story anew, distorting and reshaping the past through the influence of present day emotions and values. English philosopher John Locke posited that our identity only persists as far back as we can remember. But basing our idea of who we are on a foundation of distant, intangible, and evolving recollections is hardly a recipe for certain self identity. Perhap...