Talking with artist Bridget Chappell – raver, musician, writer and organiser – who makes frenetic and febrile electronic music as Hextape. In 2020 they released Undertow, which blends sonified data from the City of Melbourne’s Open Data Platform with Melbourne’s public sound sculpture, the Federation Bells.

Stu Buchanan talks with artist Bridget Chappell – raver, musician, writer and organiser – who makes frenetic and febrile electronic music as Hextape, and has been organising parties in drains, observatories, and other fascinating locations for many years. In 2020, they released their debut album under their own name titled Undertow, which blends sonified data from the City of Melbourne’s Open Data Platform with Melbourne’s public sound sculpture, the Federation Bells. The result is an ‘aural painting’ which pulls focus on colonial responsibility, the climate crisis, policing and surveillance, with a generous dose rave of nostalgia and vapourwave added to the mix.

Brought up in Canberra, now resident in Melbourne; Bridget has a diverse practice that also encompasses writing, teaching and curating, as well as sound art for installations and performances; most recently for their first solo exhibition No Comment, which investigated the science of phase cancellation and its potential role as an act of sonic resistance.

Music featured in this episode:

  • Hextape – I Just Wanna Race (Friendships Remix)
  • Hextape – Yubaba
  • Hextape – 200 Fast 200 Furious (Corin Remix)
  • Hextape – Revenge (Gabber Modus Operandi Remix)
  • Bridget Chappell – Elizabeth Street
  • Mark Temple – The Sound of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome
  • Bridget Chappell – Freshwater Falls

bridgetchappell.com

Published on 12 July 2021.

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