Hextape’s new concept album >:) (‘angry smiley”) scatters the listeners across 35 mins of chopped up jungle, footwork, techno, noise, and classical cello directly inspired by the solo rave-like experience of an MRI machine. The sounds of an MRI usually evade recording, as electrical equipment interferes with the magnetic functions of the machine, yet produce a constant stream of electrical noise as it uses electro-magnetic and radiofrequency waves to create resonant imaging of a subject’s body. Upon realising the MRI produces music that could rival some of the best sound artists of our time, whilst being inextricably ephemeral and unique to the patient’s body, Hextape approaches their memories of the sound like a recitation from an oral culture.

Drawing on the artist’s experience both as a patient and as a guest researcher at the Melbourne Brain Centre, >:) imagines a secret world of sanctioned and pirate radio stations only audible inside the scanner, conveying the siren song of the hospital both inward (to the listener) and outward (to the rave).

Released 11 November, 2022 on Powertrip. Reviewed here in Verve.
Mixing: Hextape and Tig Kokiri
Mastering: Andrew Huhtanen McEwan
Artwork: Photography and styling by Chelsea Farquhar, graphic design by Daria Healy Koljanin, Hextape logo by Dominic Sargent.

Thank you to the Melbourne Brain Centre, The Development Lab, Arts House, Arts NT, Rebecca Glarin, Samaan Fieck, the Wheeler and Coolhaas families, Jesse Sullivan, Rach Kendrigan, and everyone else who helped out.

This album was recorded and produced on the unceded lands of the Gadabanud, Kaurna, Nukunu, Kokatha, Arabana, Latje Latje, Gunai-Kurnai, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people.

Magnetic Rave launch, Narrm