Noise, power, and Minneapolis: Gabriel Mendel interview (Part 2)

Noise, power, and Minneapolis: Gabriel Mendel interview (Part 2)

From Phantom Power by SpectreVision Radio

January 30, 2026 · 51 min

About this episode

Gabriel Saloman Mindel discusses the intersection of noise, power, and protest in Minneapolis amidst current events.

The year is off to a very disturbing start thanks to ICE’s violent paramilitary incursion in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Minnesota citizens have responded with mass protests and direct action, much of it sonic in nature—with the sound of whistles alerting neighbors and making life harder on ICE. This episode, we speak with an expert on noise, power, and protest who also happens to live and teach in Minneapolis: Gabriel Saloman Mindel. Gabriel is one half of the Noise band Yellow Swans. Last month, we discussed the aesthetics and politics of noise music. This month, Gabriel discusses settler-colonial ways of treating the land, humans, and the soundscape in service of capital and political power, as well as noise, protest, and political power in the troubling context of current events. This episode features an interview we did in November and excepts from a follow-up in December, after the ICE incursion began. If you’d like to hear the full conversation about Minneapolis, we’ll be dropping it in our members feed. (If finances are an issue, just drop us a line an we’ll get you access.) Gabriel has an MFA from Simon Fraser University and a PhD in the History of Consciousness from UC, Santa…

People in this episode

Guest: Gabriel Saloman Mindel

Topics covered

  • noise
  • protest
  • political power
  • settler-colonialism
  • Minneapolis
  • direct action

Keywords

  • ICE
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • mass protests
  • sonic action
  • noise music
  • politics
  • capital

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Yellow Swans, Simon Fraser University, UC, Santa Cruz

Books & works: Kits Beach Soundwalk, 1999

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