An intimate portrait of East London’s underground music scene

We have nev­er been exposed to so much music. New tech­nol­o­gy has allowed more of us to cre­ate music than ever before. You no longer need an expen­sive stu­dio set-up – all you need is a lap­top or even just a smart­phone. It has nev­er been eas­i­er to share your music with the world or dis­cov­er musi­cians from around the globe, with over 100,000 songs now released each day.

But despite music being more inter­na­tion­al – and more online – than ever before, local scenes are still inte­gral to music. Live venues, stu­dio spaces, net­works of musi­cians and the cre­ative ecosys­tems they fos­ter remain fun­da­men­tal to sup­port­ing new artists, devel­op­ing audi­ences and catalysing the evo­lu­tion of new genres.

The Rest Is Noise is a cel­e­bra­tion of East London’s music scene and an explo­ration of the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges that face emerg­ing musi­cians today. Direct­ed by Fran­cis­co Mazz­iot­ti, the short doc­u­men­tary takes an artist’s eye view, fol­low­ing three up-and-com­ing musi­cians: TIMAN­TI, a DJ and pro­duc­er from the UK; QUEEN KALTOUM, an Ital­ian-Moroc­can Neo Soul and Jazz singer-song­writer; and mul­ti­cul­tur­al indie rock band Kōya Bel­har­ra.

“Lon­don is a melt­ing pot of cul­tures and pos­si­bil­i­ty – there is nowhere quite like it,” TIMAN­TI explains. ​“The diver­si­ty of peo­ple across all com­mu­ni­ties is unmatched. It’s the only city that I’ve found in all my explo­rations where you can be com­plete­ly your­self and cham­pi­oned for it. You’ll always find peo­ple that are on your vibe and if you’re open to cre­at­ing your own wave, there are enough open minds that will be able to relate to it in some way and join that cur­rent with you. You can also find the most unusu­al tal­ents here and every­one has such a dri­ve to cre­ate. The ener­gy is inspir­ing and contagious.”

It would be hard to find a city that has made a big­ger impact on the evo­lu­tion of mod­ern music as Lon­don. The British capital’s mul­ti­cul­tur­al mix has helped pro­duce many of its own home­grown gen­res over the years, such as dub­step and grime, and Lon­don remains a vital cen­tre of musi­cal inno­va­tion and exchange. In fact, London’s rep­u­ta­tion for music was one of the few things that Fran­cis­co knew about the city before he moved here from his native Buenos Aires, Argenti­na, five years ago.

“I set­tled in Hack­ney and start­ed expe­ri­enc­ing much more live music, dis­cov­er­ing gen­res, artists, clubs and mak­ing friends involved in music,” Fran­cis­co explains. ​“Lon­don is effer­ves­cent and the ener­gy it car­ries is mag­netis­ing. It lives in a state of con­stant evo­lu­tion that feeds from peo­ple from all over the world. But the thing that sur­prised me the most is London’s pow­er of rein­ven­tion. So many bangers and so much music his­to­ry has been made here for decades but it’s not over, apparently.”

After mak­ing fic­tion and music videos, Fran­cis­co decid­ed that his first for­ay into doc­u­men­tary would be a cel­e­bra­tion of the under­ground music cul­ture of his adopt­ed home of East Lon­don. ​“I want­ed to offer the audi­ence a sen­so­ry expe­ri­ence, to wit­ness the eclec­tic feel­ing the music scene has in this par­tic­u­lar part of the world,” Fran­cis­co explains. ​“It’s filled with pace, rhythm, diver­si­ty, it’s thrilling and explo­sive. London’s music scene can also feel a strange place at times, inter­con­nect­ed in an infi­nite net­work so big that you can’t seem to grasp it. But at the heart of it, there are peo­ple and their stories.”

QUEEN KALTOUM is a singer-song­writer born and raised in Italy, with Moroc­can her­itage flow­ing through their veins. Since mov­ing to Lon­don five years ago, they have found inspi­ra­tion in a vibrant com­mu­ni­ty of musi­cians cen­tred around East Lon­don venues such as The Jago and The Orii Jam at Colour Factory.

“There’s a lot of strug­gle you go through while liv­ing here but that’s the only way for me to feel accom­plished and to tru­ly have a clear vision of my career,” QUEEN KALTOUM explains. ​“The only way for me to stand out is to first of all be absolute­ly hon­est with exact­ly what I want to achieve. Music is engraved in me and it always be part of who I am. But I feel like I have a mis­sion to rep­re­sent peo­ple who look like me: Women, Non-Bina­ry, Black, Ital­ian, Moroc­can, etc. That’s some­thing I have in mind every­day. There­fore my job at the moment is to work on who I am as an artist, keep writ­ing songs and be bru­tal­ly hon­est and unapologetic.”

QUEEN KALTOUM is host­ing their own event called Orii: The Queer Takeover in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Orii Com­mu­ni­ty in Hack­ney Wick on Novem­ber 27. ​“It’s an event that aims to pri­ori­tise and cel­e­brate queer indi­vid­u­als, pro­vid­ing a safe space where they can freely express them­selves,” they explain. ​“With an empha­sis on inclu­siv­i­ty, accep­tance and a mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence, I envi­sion a night that leaves atten­dees feel­ing empow­ered, serene and enriched.”

One of the biggest rea­sons behind East London’s vibran­cy is its open­ness to a wide range of iden­ti­ties. There has been a lot effort made in recent years to ensure line-ups are more diverse and there are more oppor­tu­ni­ties for Women, Trans and Non-Bina­ry musi­cians and Musi­cians of Colour. But of course, there’s always more to be done to ensure that every­one feels wel­come and includ­ed – which will add even more to London’s kalei­do­scop­ic musi­cal offering.

“I can only speak from an elec­tron­ic music stand point and from my own expe­ri­ence but I feel this is an area that still needs work,” TIMAN­TI explains. ​“I have seen quite a few ini­tia­tives try and change the nar­ra­tive, such as Sisu Crew; oth­er projects I work direct­ly with such as Hun­ni Sound and Future 1000; and my own project, Tri­belife, which cham­pi­ons mar­gin­alised gen­ders. Most of these projects are run sin­gle-hand­ed­ly by artists such as myself (Tri­belife), Kii­mi (Hun­ni Sound) and Jaguar (Future 1000), so the projects are lim­it­ed to our cur­rent capac­i­ties and with­out huge fund­ing. It would be great to see more arts fund­ing shared with­in this sec­tor and also men­tor­ship pro­grams to sup­port artists that might not have access to equipment.”

Lon­don has lost 35% of its grass­roots music venues since 2007, accord­ing to data from the May­or of Lon­don. Afford­able prac­tice and stu­dio space is also increas­ing­ly hard to find. The work of open­ing space for emerg­ing artists from all back­grounds becomes more dif­fi­cult when the num­ber of places to play is shrink­ing. Many have pre­dict­ed the decline of Lon­don as a musi­cal and cul­tur­al hub over the years. But as The Rest Is Noise doc­u­ments, Lon­don con­tin­ues to be one of the most diverse, inno­v­a­tive and excit­ing places to make and enjoy music any­where in the world – thanks to the ener­gy and hus­tle of its musicians.

“Luck­i­ly, music in Lon­don seems to be very much alive,” Fran­cis­co reflects. ​“But the rules are chang­ing and I hope that this film shines a light to every­one who can relate to this feel­ing, as I do.”

The Rest Is Noise is writ­ten and direct­ed by Fran­cis­co Mazz­iot­ti with cin­e­matog­ra­phy and pro­duc­tion by San­ti­a­go Bernal­do De Quiros.

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