Music For Small Audiences
117 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month 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.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
MFSA017: Decompression Expression
July 14, 2014 09:31 - 1 hour - 220 MBIf we are to maintain balance, then for every period of tension there must be a release. But if life is about growth, about finding your limits and pushing beyond them, and building new settlements beyond ones existing barriers, then must we not also dig ever deeper into ourselves when it comes time to take a break? This mix is Episode 017 of Music For Small Audiences, and it is the product of a recent decompression session – a moment of clarity after the end of another semester of study (m...
MFSA016: Hario Syphon
June 09, 2014 00:20 - 3 hours - 351 MBWhere to start? I spent a lot of quality time with a Sony Playstation during my undergraduate days. The James Bond-esque spy shooter Syphon Filter was a brilliant game, but I always wondered about where they came up with the name for the Syphon Filter virus around which the game was built. I suspected it was something a Japanese game designer came up with having seen the words syphon and filter together in the context of coffee making techniques. I have had my horizons expanded in recent we...
MFSA015: The Deep End
May 04, 2014 10:58 - 2 hours - 268 MBA wise man once said that the real purpose of setting a goal is what it makes you while you are pursuing it. We become our future selves through the challenges we encounter - which in many cases are the challenges we set up for ourselves. Per aspera ad astra et cetera, right? Sometimes being thrown in the deep end is the only way to fly, if you will excuse the mangled metaphor. I have spent most of the past week feeling very much like I had been thrown in the deep end (mostly in a good way),...
MFSA014: Mumm’s The Word
April 14, 2014 12:27 - 2 hours - 221 MBI have often thought aloud that I would rather be busy than bored. In that context, the past few weeks have been quite enjoyable. Work and school are both meters-pegged-to-the-red in terms of workload as I write this, but as I see it you are never too busy to celebrate successes when and where they come along. Episode 014 of Music For Small Audiences is the fruit of a little celebration, a Friday night in with a bottle of French bubbles and a box of new tunes. Deep and groovy with a positive ...
MFSA013: The Romance Of The Telescope
March 25, 2014 09:25 - 1 hour - 187 MBSome things in life get more interesting the further away you get from them. Other things move so quickly that if you blink you can miss them. Perspective is everything - and while we all view the world through our own unique lenses, I think most would agree that there is an exciting and ephemeral magic in getting up close and personal with a fast-moving thing, be it a bird, plane, or person. Fleeting moments strung together make a story - and as a recently reformed dynamic duo once observed,...
MFSA012: Hotter Than It Should Be
March 09, 2014 00:35 - 2 hours - 234 MBSometimes just a little bit is enough - and sometimes too much is OK too. It is true with hot sauce, and it is true with life. Episode 012 of Music For Small Audiences is deep and moody mix. It gets its name in part from my ability to sometimes go hard on capsaicin-based condiments, and in part from the string of very warm late summer days we enjoyed here in Melbourne during the week this mix was put together. It runs two hours and twelve minutes long, and if you have enjoyed my podcasts so f...
MFSA011: Car Fire At Night
February 25, 2014 11:32 - 2 hours - 277 MBAnd so it is that Episode 011 of Music For Small Audiences is upon us. Here we have a two-and-a-half hour mix of melodic grooves - at once both sparse and emotive, with an easy beginning, a bouncy middle, and a thought-provoking exit. In here you'll hear a bit of progressive house, a little bit of the more mainstream stuff, and a whole lot of love. Mixed live in Richmond, Australia in the heat of the southern summer.
MFSA010: Australia Day
January 25, 2014 14:37 - 2 hours - 238 MBThis is Episode 010 of Music For Small Audiences. Here in Australia, we are in the middle of a long weekend, thanks to a statutory holiday called Australia Day. It is a long-running tradition that the radio station triple j counts down its "hottest 100" every Australia Day counting down the hundred biggest tunes of the year. With that in mind, to celebrate having made it to ten podcasts, I thought I would pull together a bit of a hit parade of my own. It's not really a countdown, but a trip t...
MFSA009: Don’t Forget The Vouchers
January 13, 2014 20:51 - 2 hours - 236 MBSummer is well and truly here in Melbourne, with today being the start of a forecast four day heat wave with temperatures in the 40C+ range. Here's hoping my air conditioner can cope. Episode 009 of Music For Small Audiences is called Don't Forget The Vouchers, and it is a collection of beautiful melodies - some simple, and some complex. For as long as I've been listening to music my preference has been for beat-driven melodies (as my family, who will readily recall my favourite marching ba...
MFSA008: How Many Watts Is That Lightbulb?
January 03, 2014 08:15 - 2 hours - 232 MBHappy new year! The start of a new calendar year is always an exciting time. The past twelve months have been exceptionally pleasant for me, and hopefully they've been pretty good for you too. This is Episode 008 of Music For Small Audiences, and it's called How Many Watts Is That Lightbulb? It's just over two hours long, and it's a largely instrumental mix of groove-driven progressive house and melodic techno, punctuated with regular deep dives down to the slow-and-low and a couple of very e...
MFSA007: A Girl With A Bicycle
December 17, 2013 19:51 - 2 minutes - 243 MBThis is Episode 007 of Music For Small Audiences. It's a two hour and twelve minute mix, and it gets its name from the fact that, well, I like the idea of a girl with a bicycle. Bicycles are a unique form of transportation - fun and practical, they give you both independence and fitness. I like both of these traits in people. Hope you enjoy the mix!
MFSA006: Six Dishes Beats Four Decks
December 04, 2013 07:33 - 1 hour - 171 MBEpisode 006 of Music For Small Audiences is called Six Dishes Beats Four Decks. It's a 90-minute mix of groovy tunes. The name comes from the acknowledgement that we are all good at different things, and from the understanding that anything we put our mind to and practice consistently, we will get at least passably good at. There are times - such as when I am hungry - that I wonder how much better I would eat if I put as much time in to learning to cook as I have in to learning to mix music t...
MFSA005: Free And Clear
November 23, 2013 07:33 - 1 hour - 153 MBEpisode 005 of Music for Small Audiences is called Free And Clear. It was recorded as a live set a few days ago, and the title and content reflect my mood this week, having finished a rather challenging semester of study. Now, with the southern summer rolling in, the days are getting longer and the sunsets pinker, and I am feeling the relief of not having to juggle work, study and personal priorities until the fall semester starts up in late February. This mix is 83 minutes long in total. Th...
MFSA004: Sun in the Evening
November 17, 2013 02:39 - 224 MBEpisode 004 of Music For Small Audiences was mixed live a few weeks ago, during the first week of Daylight Savings Time here in Australia. With the arrival of Daylight Savings Time, the sun returns to the evenings, opening up a whole world of weekday evening options. Spring in Melbourne being what it is, the weather changes quickly. 'Four seasons in a day' is a well-worn cliche that actually describes the variability pretty well. One of the more unusual weather phenomena we seem to see durin...
MFSA003: Fonda and the Five Minute Banana Bread
November 10, 2013 04:20 - 231 MBThis is Episode 003 of Music for Small Audiences. I have called it Fonda and the Five Minute Banana Bread. Fonda is a Mexican restaurant. Five minute banana bread is troublesome, because it doesn't take long to make and tastes very, very good. My intention in making these podcasts available was to showcase a broader side to my musical tastes. This mix covers a lot of ground in this regard, starting with laid-back electronica and working its way through some downtempo grooves of varying inten...
MFSA002: The Heater Is On Wheels
November 02, 2013 11:21 - 231 MBEpisode 002 of Music For Small Audiences is called "The Heater Is On Wheels". It is just under two hours in length, and while it covers plenty of ground in terms of tempo and energy level, it's underpinned throughout by warm and creatively tuned melodies and expressive grooves. I have always enjoyed the interplay between electronic and acoustic instruments, and particularly the less-than-perfect timing and tuning that any 'real' instrument has as a result of its real-ness. To me, some of the...
MFSA001: Back From Aireys Inlet
October 26, 2013 00:21 - 146 MBThis is episode 001 of Music For Small Audiences. It is a live set recorded last month after a particularly nice weekend away on Australia’s southern coast, in a little town called Airey’s Inlet on the Great Ocean Road, about two hours west of Melbourne.