Nina Franklin aka Lupini aka ambient gf is a Liverpool-located vegetarian. She is part of the studio furniture at Melodic Distraction and co-runs a party called ATHE that places womxn and artists of colour centre stage in the techno/club/electro/hardcore continuum. She hosts DJ Workshops for Womxn and is in the process of writing up A Guide to Promoting for Womxn. She has been generously described as an “administrator of the Liverpool music scene.” Having poked her fingers in clubs, bars, radio stations and venues.
Veering from club-ready to home-listening in a heartbeat, her taste is always unexpected. Her show ‘Club Dread’ on Melodic Distraction focuses on club-ready yet sludged out sounds, and her long-standing residency on Netil’s flagship weekly show ‘Kaleidosound’ is a home for more gentle, psychedelic sounds, from dub to artpop, with fixtures of “avant-garde” and “experimental” home listening thrown in.“
As well as founding both the femme-forward esoteric techno night, ATHE, and her deep listeing sound project, HEAVY TEXTURE, Lupini was also station manager at Melodic Distraction Radio for years. With one foot in the club and the other in the home hifi, her sets drift from lilting ambient (under her HEAVY TEXTURE project), to mutant swung techno, breakbeat, electro and bass-heavy sounds (as ATHE) all the way through to dub-wise sludge, techno dancehall, new wave and postpunk in her daytime pursuits.This eclecticism is reflecting in the artists she's played alongside, on the one hand playing alongside experimental icons like Terry Riley, Lucretia Dalt, Laila Sakini, Joanne Robertson, Serpente and Clair Rousay, and just as deftly slipping into the club alongside Roza Terenzi, Josey Rebelle, Nkisi, Helena Hauff, Batu, Call Super. You never know what you'll get, but you can be sure it'll be a little bit sweet, a little bit sad and a little bit silly.
Lupini is also a Hope Works/No Bounds Resident for 2024! A huge talent, watch this space...
