Over the weekend, Ben Perkins released the third installment of Another Subculture through his Malicious Telecommunications label. The tape, touted truthfully as “London’s most popular cassette magazine,” benefits the newly opened DIY Space for London, a cooperatively-run venue and social center located in South London.
Another Subculture 3 features exclusive tracks from SEMI and the rather devastating No Form side-project Bad Manifest, punctuated by interviews conducted on-site during DIY Space for London’s first three months of operation. Interview subjects include Tom Hall of No, Sheer Mag, and, as heard in the online preview, Priests‘ Katie Alice Greer.
Greer and Perkins compare the realities of autonomous show spaces on either side of the Atlantic, broaching the topic of DIY venues’ frequent role as gentrification accelerants. “The way to counter that… [is] you make your space a community center that acknowledges the existing community,” Greer says. “And then it becomes a useful tool rather than this weird, alienating force in the community that’s acting against it.”
In addition to hosting all-ages concerts and meetings, DIY Space for London includes a record store and cafe. Predicated on mutual aid and cooperation, membership is low-cost and, like 924 Gilman St. Project in Berkeley, guarantees a voice in how the space is operated, according to its mission statement.
The cassette, limited to a 100 copies, is available here.
Below, preview Another Subculture 3 and revisit Nozin’ Aroun’, Ben Fordree’s recent video zine similarly centered on London’s contemporary punk scene.
