Show Description

RADIO IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Relays and radio-friendly mixtapes curated by Radio is a Foreign Country. Please read below for more information. Send us your correspondance at info@radioisaforeigncountry.org.  
RADIO IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY
https://www.radioisaforeigncountry.org
Night recordings from the forests of old Borneo. Early synth cassettes from the Maghreb. Gypsy puppet theater orchestras from Azerbaijan. Electric thumb pianos blasting from homemade P.A. systems in the streets of Kinshasa. An obscure gong record from the mountains of Vietnam. A rare 1950s recording of catfish trumpets in the Amazonian Lowlands. A beggar lady’s song recorded in a desert oasis town somewhere in China. A Minangkabau shortwave broadcast from Sumatra. The sounds of taxi music and traffic jams in Cairo …
These are just some of the sounds you might encounter on RADIO IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit radio platform and mixtape series that exposes listeners to obscure regional folk and pop music from the global hinterlands. Our collections feature cut-ups of international radio broadcasts (AM, FM & shortwave), field recordings, ethnographic film, vintage records & cassettes, and digital ephemera from the far reaches of the internet. Our mission is to explore forgotten and new ways of making radio and to facilitate greater access and exposure to sounds and music not sufficiently documented by industrial music curation. 
RIAFC began life in 2018 as a homemade mixtape series. Since then, we have collaborated with private collectors, field recordists, ethnomusicologists, archives, and small, independent labels to produce over 90 curated mixtapes featuring rare ceremonial, folk, and pop music. In April 2021, we launched our 24/7 internet radio stream, on average, we attract 3-5,000 listeners per week. RIAFC also broadcasts on terrestrial radio station WXDR 99.1 FM (New Orleans, LA) (2018 – Present) and, until recently, Resonance FM 104.4 FM (London, U.K.) (2018-2021). RIAFC has been featured by Attic Magazine (Bucharest, Romania), Radio Garden (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the Shortwave Shindig, EastEast Radio (Moscow, Russia) Movement Radio (Athens, Greece), Landline Newsletter (Seattle, WA), Radio WORM (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Noods Radio (Bristol, UK) Aquarium Drunkard (Los Angeles), dublab (Los Angeles, and WIRED Magazine’s Gadget Lab (San Francisco).