Sokratous 26, in Omonoia at the dead centre of Athens, was running as a musicians’ building since the early 2000s โ empty offices from the 1970s gradually converted into rehearsal rooms across four floors, a process that took years and no planning beyond the basic necessity of somewhere to be loud.
At its fullest, it housed 15 to 20 bands and somewhere between 60 and 70 people, not counting visitors. Jazz players, d-beat punks, everything between. You could play as hard as you wanted, all night and day. Somebody holding an instrument was an automatic point of connection: band members swapped, gear got shared, people learned new instruments in adjacent rooms. At one point, bands on the fourth floor collected donations to fix a leaking toilet. Everyone played a set. The toilet got fixed, then broke again within weeks. Nobody much cared by then.
Falooda found their space in that building, and wrote every track on their debut LP inside it.
The band formed in 2022, starting from conversations between Manolo and Loverman about jamming. The name came from a Mughlai cold dessert โ rose syrup, vermicelli, milk, sweet basil seeds โ chosen to reflect the blend of elements in their music. The original line-up was Loverman (also of Kalong) on vocals and synthesizer, Luku Luku Miu Miu (Kalong, The Great Black Shark, x-N’ Cheezed) on drums, Themis Vasiliou (Sons of Zevedeus, Vasilaraps) on guitar, and Manolo on bass.
After the demo recordings, Vasiliou and Manolo left; Grivoorm (The Great Black Shark) moved in on bass and Stavriky joined on guitar. Then Charlie Arizonas โ a friend of Luku Luku Miu Miu, previously of Frames โ arrived with a tenor saxophone, played a few shows, and stayed. The band has taken to calling it “terror saxophone.” That detail requires no further commentary.
The 2024 demo was released with cover art by Dimitris Armenakis: three Falooda glasses, each one representing a track โ “Bottleneck,” “Orizuru (ๆ้ถด),” and “Boolean Religion,” alongside a fourth, “Disaster Recovery.”
All three main tracks were re-recorded for the LP.
Then the eviction notice came. The rooms at Sokratous 26 had been sold, most likely to be converted into tourist accommodation โ another address absorbed into the broader gentrification reshaping central Athens. One month to clear out. Equipment that had been sitting in those rooms for years had to be packed and moved. Some bands dissolved outright.
The first-floor collective Shockrates 26.1, which had hosted DIY shows in the building, was already long gone by that point โ the rest of the floors had been operating as rehearsal space only.
Before they were out, filmmaker Irene Chatzi came in to document what was left. Loverman knew her through work โ he had animated sections of her previous film, “On Lavender,” a documentary exploring multiplicities of gender identity in Greek society, directed by Chatzi and Makis Evangelatos. The idea of filming at Sokratous had been circling for a while, with gentrification already visibly encroaching. Then the timeline collapsed and everything had to happen fast.
“The shooting of the documentary was quite hectic,” Loverman says. “While one band’s interview was being filmed, another room was being emptied at the same time. It was heartbreaking, especially for those for whom Sokratous had been a second home for more than ten years. You could feel that it was truly the end of an era.”
The documentary, titled “Hearing Noise,” was directed by Chatzi and featured each band reflecting on the meaning of the space and the wider neighbourhood. A still from it was selected for Agora Boost at the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival โ the development strand for projects in progress. It’s produced by Eirini Chatzi, Dimitris Armenakis, and Maria Dakanali under Art Yard Productions; Loverman is co-producing alongside Dakanali and is also animating several shots. Tracks from “Recipe for Concussion” feature in the film. It’s due in 2027.
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The LP itself was recorded at B12 by Greg Sk in March 2025 โ the same studio where Kalong’s EPs and The Great Black Shark’s LP were tracked previously โ with Dimosthenis Varikos as production assistant. Grivoorm mixed and mastered it. The cover art was built again from Armenakis’ base, but this time every member contributed, making it a collective effort.
The image is a cake, which maps directly onto the album’s logic: “Each cake slice is like one of its tracks,” Loverman says, “made of numerous ingredients and different from the next. We wanted to capture the blend of heterogeneous elements coexisting on this album.”
Falooda self-released “Recipe for Concussion” on March 1, 2026. Twelve tracks, 27 minutes. The three demo tracks open the record, then the LP expands outward โ experimental noise rock into fast-paced punk into ska passages, with Arizonas’ saxophone threaded through.
The titles do a fair amount of thematic signposting on their own. The album’s concerns are explicitly stated โ technological authoritarianism, existential anxiety, personal loss, emotional growth in the wake of the pandemic years โ but the writing doesn’t lean into its own heaviness. There’s an upbeat current in it, and a strain of dark humour.
“In an age of geopolitical intensity, fake news, and digital delirium,” Loverman says, “multiple factors shape a person in the 21st century, and as a band we feel that we want to address sociopolitical issues alongside more personal stories.”
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Falooda are currently inactive. Three members โ Loverman, Grivoorm, and Stavriky โ relocated to a rehearsal space in the southern district of Athens and have been operating since 2025 as the slime punk trio Grelch. Grivoorm left the bass and moved to the drum kit โ he began learning drums, as Loverman notes, “due to the lack of drummers for his projects.”
Stavriky compensates for the absent bassist by running his guitar through an octaver splitter pedal that simultaneously feeds a guitar amp and a bass amp. Grelch’s debut LP, titled “The Art of Gardening,” is planned for later this year. A handful of Falooda tracks have made their way into Grelch’s live sets. The door to more Falooda activity โ another record, more shows โ remains open.
For shows, the circuit has included DIY spaces in and outside of Athens, alongside Greek bands Rita Mosss, Chronoboros, Brizolitses, and Axaireutoi, as well as international acts including Whores.
The wider Athens DIY infrastructure is under genuine pressure: collectives like Punk Against Capitalism, Pull the Plug, and Idrima 2.14 continue to host concerts, but gigs are now subject to early-finish restrictions, and police pressure on free expression in urban spaces is a consistent feature of the current climate. “One could say that the scene is shrinking,” Loverman says, “but it still has a strong core of people fighting for it.”
Athens underground โ bands and collectives worth knowing:
Rita Mosss โ Noise Punk, Athens
ฮคฮฃฮฮ โ Post-Punk, Athens
Futile Mating Tactics โ Experimental/Post-Metal, Athens
Mothership Mercury โ Psychedelic/Post-Rock, Athens
Gynoid โ Noise Rock/Post-Hardcore, Athens
Jorhe โ Post-Metal, Athens
Laou Menos โ Drone/Electronic, Larissa
Collectives: Punk Against Capitalism / Underground Union Crew / Three Lines
“Recipe for Concussion” is out now on Bandcamp.
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