The final instalment in our series of live radio shows on east London station NTS concludes with someone who can certainly teach us a thing or two about music, Anna Meredith. Hugely respected in classical music, she is the former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, prompted many a chin-stroke with her performance at the 2008 Last Night of the Proms and has helped to bring classical music to a new generation of listeners.
More recently Meredith has turned her considerable composition talents to the grey area between indie, electronica and, um, hair metal. “I don’t want to write music that people are enduring just to get to the Elgar in the second half,” she said in a recent interview. Cue her acclaimed debut album, Varmints, which came out earlier this month on the indie label Moshi Moshi and was named Best New Music by Pitchfork. It deploys maximalist, Hudson Mohawke-style horns and 80s video game sounds to grandiose effect.
- Richard Dawson on the naked voice
- John McEntire on Chicago’s music scene
- Stewart Lee on standup comedy and punk
- Ben Beaumont-Thomas on crate-digging labels
- Fat White Family on outsider ballads
- Bobby Gillespie on cheating songs
- Alexis Petridis on glam rock
- Neneh Cherry on jazz as rebellion
- Matthew Herbert on rhythm
