EMOM – Electronic Music Open Mic

The first EMOM event took place in early 2017 in Manchester. Since then the nights have taken off across the United Kingdom and also in Australia. The concept of these nights is simple, they provide a meeting and performance space for electronic musicians of all styles and persuasions.  A typical night could include everything from techno through to experimental and ambient music, from chiptune through to live coding and looping, field recording and industrial. The choice of technology is also wide ranging; lap tops, iPads and mobile phones are welcome, as are drum machines, synths, groove boxes, sequencers, samplers, modular set ups, keyboards, DJ decks, and analogue and digital devices of all kinds.

“The beginnings of the EMOM movement was like turning over a stone and finding this whole new world of music making underneath. You have to understand that at this time acoustic singer songwriters and indie bands were the mainstream order of the day. Of course electronic music was everywhere too, but there was little in the way of grass roots happenings or opportunity to develop the craft. Playing live was a real challenge for electronic musicians.” Excerpt from Electronic Music Travels by Martin Christie (forthcoming release)

But the EMOM movement is more than a series of events, it is a community through which creative people can share ideas, collaborate, swap gigs, release music and essentially have fun. A compilation album was released on the Manchester label You Might Not Like this and two further releases involving a double CD are planned for early this year. The albums feature many of the artists who have played and been involved in the EMOM nights.