June 3, 2025

NHAM Update Opus 6 (A Whole Lot of F’s Given Edition)

🚨 Stop the press! Major NEWS! 🚨

Radio Free Fedi has announced Radio Free Fedi Fest 2025, #RFFF25 for short, a month long artists’ streaming series in July!

Check out the initial list of participants, including @shannoncurtis, @futzle, @controlfreak, @bgm (and yours truly 😅) among others, on party.radiofreefedi.net.

And if you scroll down the list, you probably won’t fail to notice the following announcement:

Our friends at NHAM will be conducting a music panel / Q+A event, details pending.

Details pending indeed (and a double dose of anxiety in my case). What should we talk about? What do you want to know about NHAM? Do you have any ~~gripes~~ constructive criticism? Suggestions? Ideas? For the site, for the stream, for championing indie artists and music?

Let us know by pinging Sam (@ethicalrevolution) and/or sknob (@sknob) on Mastodon with the hashtag #RFFF25, and we’ll do our best to conquer our stage fright and respond during the livestream.

In the meantime, and as if all this wasn’t enough excitement, the @radiofreefedi Hamster has also resurrected the legendary RFF Comfy Channel in the lead up to RFFF25, a lovely present to the community! (I’m listening to it as I write these lines).

Thank you, dear 🐹!

WATCH

While we’re on the subject of live-streaming, be sure to watch Lorenzo’s Music (@lorenzosmusic) interview with Gabe Kangas (@gabek), the maintainer and primary developer of Owncast, the free and open-source live video streaming software that, you guessed it, powers RFFF25!

You also won’t want to miss @lorenzosmusic’s interview with Keith Marshall (@keefmarshall) of Pretentions Incongruity, Misaligned Aardvarks and bonkwave fame.

(Speaking of which, rumor has it that a major bonkwave release is imminent!)

REVIEWS

Something we (OK, I) failed to mention in our last update: we published our first non-English-language review, and we hope it will be the first of many! So brush up on your Spanish and/or fire up a translation tool (no LLM’s please, we frown on them in these parts), and be sure to read Música de Ida y Música de Vuelta by @Langile. It’s a truly lovely musical ride.

Don’t be shy, send us your REVIEWS. They don’t have to be long or sophisticated (although they can also be both of course). In fact, why not take @prinlu@0x.trans.fail’s idea to heart:

“instead of year-end spotify wrap or weekly posts of your listening stats, why won’t you rather write three sentences (or paragraphs) about that album that moved you last year/month/week?”

We’ll gladly publish the ones about indie releases!

LISTEN

The new month ushers in a new mixtape, and a very special and touching mixtape it is! Sam (@ethicalrevolution) has cooked up a Next-level Happy Anniversaire mix for his dear friend Martin, including an original track written for the occasion by Secret Deal, Sam and Stefan’s not so secret band, among other delightful surprises. 🫶

RELEASES

So much cool music to discover and look forward to, including the latest releases featured on NHAM by:
@babumenos
@ferociousdesigns
@futzle
@herr_irrtum
@james@musicians.today
@liedersaenger
@melondruie
@muz4now
@prestonoutatime
@RobertaFidora
@SamanthaJaneSmith
@SeaFury
@sjwallin
@sknob
@stefan
@timerival
@wibi
and radio shows by @axwax, @CCirco and @xylander over on @audiointerface

So no excuses! Ditch those evil streaming platforms (they’re all evil), and subscribe to RSS feeds here and elsewhere, like those on Mirlo (@mirlo) and Bandwagon.fm, listen to the RFF Comfy Channel all through June, get into the habit of tuning in to NHAM Mixtape Radio and other groovy stations like Not What I Call Radio Bonk Wave, support the artists with a kind word or some coin if you can, and spread the word far and wide that indie fedi music is where it’s at!