In this episode Jeremy and Tim complete our mini-series on the opening of Studio 54. They discuss links between underground and mainstream both generally and specific to 1977 NYC, consider the importance of celebrities to the Studio project, and interrogate the velvet rope. We hear about Bianca Jagger’s birthday party, spend more time thinking about Richard Long and his sound system designs, and ask who really is a native New Yorker?

We’ll be away for the summer holidays, but will be back with more music, sound systems and counterculture in September. For now, why not dig into our back archive of bonus episodes on by becoming a patron at patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Sweet Cream - I Don't Know What I'd Do 

Olympic Runners - Keep It Up 

Odyssey - Native New Yorker 

Le Pamplemousse – Le Spank 

The Trammps - The Night The Lights Went Out 

In this episode Jeremy and Tim walk us past the velvet rope and into opening night at Studio 54. They introduce us to Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, the two businessmen who owned the club, as well as to the often overlooked Carmen D’Alessio, who’s taste and art world connections were crucial to the look and feel of the party. Through these characters and more we get to learn about the founding of Studio 54.

We also hear discussions on Muzak, eclecticism, returning champion Nicky Siano, and the aesthetics of ‘smoothness’. Tim and Jeremy interrogate the surprising links between Downtown and Midtown, explore how journalists tried to understand the Studio 54 phenomenon, and contemplate whether they even like disco anymore.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

The Ritchie Family - Brazil 

Anthony Whyte - Block Party (A Walter Gibbons Mix) 

Chic - Dance Dance Dance 

Santa Esmeralda - Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood 

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole thing and a lot more besides, head to Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons’ episode we conclude our trio of episodes on Glam Rock.

Tim and Jeremy pick up where they left off with a walk on the wild side. This leads to a discussion of the relationship between Lou Reed, Bowie and Iggy Pop in the early 70s. They discuss the undisputed glam anthem Cum on Feel the Noize from Birmingham’s finest Slade, replete with its football terrace chant and fist-pumping energy. And on the mellower side, explore the idea of glam as torch song, with entries from international treasure Elton John and a return to the show for Roxy Music.

Jeremy and Tim conclude the episode with an acceptance of the might of Queen and a brief scintilla of postmodernism - much more of that to follow.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side

David Bowie - Moonage Daydream

Slade - Cum On Feel The Noize

Suzi Quatro - Glycerine Queen

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache

Queen - Killer Queen

In the second episode of our third series, Tim and Jeremy describe a psychedelic aesthetic appearing in the transformative and rapturous musics of the American Black church, Rastafarian Jamaica and Nigeria, with reference to Gospel, Juju, Reggae and Funk. They counterpoint this with a strain of musical antipathy with roots in Plato and iterating in radical Protestant tendencies throughout history, while also pointing up the specific and slightly scary millenarianism to the utopias imagined through the tunes discussed.

Tim and Jeremy also spend a good amount of time on the West Coast Acid Rock scene, contemplating the edginess of the sound and it's representation of paranoid psychoactive experiences; the musical expressions of Caribbean Brits in the early '70s; and touch some more on Afro-Futurism, with specific reference to the playful childlike energy of space-facing Parliament-Funkadelic.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.  Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Mahalia Jackson - A City Called Heaven
The Staple Singers - This May be the Last Time
The Voices of East Harlem - Shaker Life
Love - Revelation Santana - Toussaint L'Ouverture
Cymande - Dove
King Sunny Adé - 365 Is My Number / The Message
Nairobi Sisters - Promised Land
Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child)

and some reading for this week's episode:

Jayna Brown, Black Utopias: Speculative Life and the Music of Other Worlds, Duke UP 2021
Christopher Waterman, Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music, University of Chicago Press, 1990
Craig Werner, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America, Canongate 2002

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music has been on their turntables recently.  

In line with the themes of our new series, Tim and Jeremy have been on an Afro-Psychedelic tip recently. In this show they discuss the relational philosophies of early '70s anti-colonial Africa, the UK's brilliant current strain of psychedelic jazz, and link Floating Points' new release to Vangelis, prog rock and 'Hooked On Classics'.

We also hear excerpts from the only record Hendrix ever produced, consider the importance of vocal records to a party, and hear some sublime House selections to lift your spirits as the weather gets colder.  This is part of a rough series of more conversational, unplanned episodes reflecting on what's been on our record players recently and what we've been up to that we'll be releasing to patrons to say thank you for your support.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.  

The tracks discussed are:

Miriam Makeba - I'mm You'mm We'mm
Floating Points - Promises mvt. 4
Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday People
Bunn Debrett Quintet - Someday
Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys - Track in A (Nebraska Nights)
Soma World - Want This (feat. Falle)
Phenomenal Handclap Band - Judge Not (Ray Mang Special Mix)
Guided Souls - Freedom's Light
Sofia Kourtesis - La Perla

Love is the Message returns with series 3! In our last cluster of episodes, Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert took a deep look at the musical, social and political currents flowing through New York City from the late '60s to around 1975. This time, they're turning their attention outwards, expanding their analysis of this crucial period of time to include South America, the Caribbean, West Africa and parts of Asia.

In this opening episode of the series, Tim and Jeremy are exploring American examples of Afro-Psychedelia. They begin by defining the term, alongside its close cousin Afro-Futurism. They then discuss the psychedelic experiences of a number of Black American musicians, and interrogate the often misrepresentative history of Black America's involvement in Acid culture. Taking in great musicians like Sun Ra and Hendrix, Tim and Jeremy talk about how both Ancient Egypt and outer space recur as images of alternative and utopian possibilities, and consider the esteem with which jazz musicians of the time held Indian Classical music. We end the show by thinking about the different yet huge legacies of John and Alice Coltrane as spiritual musical innovators.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Sun Ra - Space is the Place
Robert Johnson - Crossroad Blues
Sun Ra - UFO
John Coltrane - Om pt.1
Jimi Hendix - Valleys of Neptune
Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only LITM Extra episode. To hear the whole thing, as well as conversations between Tim and Jeremy about what they've been listening to, intermittent lectures, listeners' questions and more, visit www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 a month.

Continuing our ongoing patrons-only reading series, Tim picks up where he left off in his 2004 book 'Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture 1970-1979'. I'm sure you'll all have heard him reference the book the show, and many of you will have read it, so here we present a reading series of the book to compliment the Love is the Message project.

In Chapter 1 part 2, we hear about 'Le Club' and the first discotheques of New York; how a converted church came to be known as The Sanctuary nightclub, and how Francis Grasso scored the gig of DJing there; and we dig into the NYC underbelly to hear about the involvement of the Mafia in the gay bars and clubs of Manhattan.

Thank you for your continued support of the show - we couldn't do it without you.

Expect to hear much more from the book in the coming months, as well as more patrons-only content and a new series of the main show.

Tune in, turn on, get down!

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole thing, along with accessing lots more LITM Extra content, go to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 per month.

In this patrons-only episode of LITM Extra, Tim and Jeremy take questions from you, the listeners. They talk about the portrayal of disco as synthetic music, the misplaced protest of rock musicians and fans against the genre, and dig into the odd phenomenon of the novelty disco single.

Tim and Jeremy also share with us the system components David Mancuso used at the Loft, including amps, turntables and cartridges, and respond to the accusation of retro behaviour.

And to close out, we hear some of our favourite modern disco remixes and learn the how to talk about bangers in Seventies lingo.  

Tracklist:
Rick Dees - Disco Duck
Gorillaz - Dare (DFA Remix)
Sandy's Gang - Hungry (Sean P Re-edit)
Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face (Kon's Duet Mix)
Sister Sledge - Lost in Music

We've unlocked this patrons-only bonus episode from August, in which Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. To hear more of these conversations, along with book readings, lectures, Q&As and (soon) interviews, become a patron from £3 per month by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Tim and Jeremy discuss New Orleans hip hop, big edits of legendary tunes, reissue culture, online digging, playfulness in music, and getting back into the saddle of DJing again.

This is part of a rough series of more conversational, unplanned episodes reflecting on what's been on our record players recently and what we've been up to that we'll be releasing to patrons to say thank you for your support.

The tracks discussed are:

Mario Rui Silva - Kazum-zum-zum
Sylvester & the Hot Band - Southern Man
The Invisible Session - People All Around the World, Can Make It
Butch - LSD-25
79ers Gang - 79ers Bout to Blow
Ash Ra Tempel - Ain't No Time For Tears (The Sacred Rhythm Mix)
Muckers - Out of County

If you like the clips we played, we'd encourage you to support the artists and buy the tracks, most of which are available on bandcamp, starting with Out of County! https://muckers.bandcamp.com/releases

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

This is the an excerpt from the audio of our first patrons-only 'Live Conversations' between ourselves and our patrons, which took place over Zoom on the 10th September. To hear the whole thing, and to participate in the next one, along with accessing lots more LITM Extra content, go to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 per month.

Tim and Jeremy discussed and took questions on Acid, Ecstacy, and the 'downer' drugs; talked about the particulars of the Japanese listening bar culture and it's impact on both their own soundsystem and David Mancuso; and gave their top tip on what is the best amplifier for the Klipshorn speakers.

We also chatted about the role of early internet culture, hear a funny anecdote about David being trolled on Deep House Forum, and reflect more broadly on the Love is the Message project.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tune in, Turn on, Get down!

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only LITM Extra episode. To hear the whole thing, as well as conversations between Tim and Jeremy about what they've been listening to, intermittent lectures, listeners' questions and more, visit www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 a month.

In first of an ongoing patrons-only project, Tim reads from his seminal 2004 book 'Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture 1970-1979'. I'm sure you'll all have heard him reference the book the show, and many of you will have read it, so here we present a reading series of the book to compliment the Love is the Message project.

In Chapter 1 part 1, we hear about David Mancuso's childhood in the children's home in Utica, New York; his early employment after leaving home; and his first forays into throwing parties in the mid-1960s, featuring two recurring characters from our show, Timothy Leary and Richard Long.

Thank you for your continued support of the show - we couldn't do it without you.

Expect to hear much more from the book in the coming months, as well as more patrons-only content and a new series of the main show.

Tune in, turn on, get down!

In the final episode of our second series, Tim and Jeremy turn to 1974 to consider the emergence of disco as a discernible and self-conscious genre. Does genre allow people to define themselves through the music they listen to, and to consider themselves part of a (physical or imagined) community? Or is genre simply a cynical tool of division promoted by a rapacious media and music business that stifles creativity and interaction?

Tim and Jeremy also consider our present moment of algorithmic listening and Spotify playlists, the performance of sexual pleasure in music, Eurodisco, the importance of strings to the disco sound, and dip into their record bags for a selection of dancefloor fillers fit for this bumper 12" edition of the show.

We'll be taking a short break, but will be back in less than a month to begin a new series, leaving the Anglophone world for the shores of South America, the Caribbean and Africa. In the meantime, expect some more patrons-only content to tide you over.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

South Shore Commission - Free Man (Franscois K Remix)
Carol Douglas - Doctor's Orders
Disco Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes - Get Dancing
Gladys Knight - Make Yours a Happy Home
Eddie Kendricks - Date with the Rain
Ultra High Frequency - We're on the Right Track (Tom Moulton Remix)
Silver Convention - Fly, Robin, Fly
Shirley & Company - Shame, Shame, Shame
Ramsey Lewis - Sun Goddess

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy explore one of the most important musical currents of the early '70s, Feminist Soul. Beginning with Aretha Franklin, they situate the music of these powerful, articulate and conscious female performers within the Women's Liberation and Black Power movements, alongside the scholarship of Simone de Beuvoir and Angela Davis, and in relation to the girl groups of Motown and the mid-'60s.

Through lyrical, musical and cultural analysis, Tim and Jeremy also consider the explicit revolutionary subjectivity of Nina Simone, marvel at the potency of Marlena Shaw, and link these musics with the Loft, the Gallery, and the emerging Disco scene.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Nina Simone - Revolution
Spanky Wilson - Sunshine of Your Love
Marlena Shaw - Liberation Conversation
Marlena Shaw - Woman of the Ghetto
Little Sister - You're The One
The Three Degrees - Dirty Ol' Man
Labelle - What Can I Do For YOu
Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different
The Pointer Sisters - Yes We Can Can

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole show, and a whole lot more besides, head to Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to sign up.

In this patrons’ episode we move into the second of three episodes on Glam. The third part of this trilogy will be dropping in your feed sooner than our normal schedule so hold tight for that.

Tim and Jeremy discuss that big beast of British rock, Roxy Music. They consider Brian Ferry’s cultivation of a White British vocal style, the effects of art college on this and so many other contemporaneous UK bands, Ferry’s eventual styling as ‘Frank Sinatra in quotation marks’, and the emergence from within Roxy of one of the most influential producers of the Twentieth Century - Brian Eno.

Also in the episode the guys go deep on Ziggy Stardust and unpack the desire of so many 70s musicians to just be taken seriously. Plus, the shadow of Dylan, Cornelius Cardew, and more Marc Bolan. 

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Roxy Music - Re-Make/Re-Model

Roxy Music - Virginia Plain

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust

T.Rex - Children Of The Revolution

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment.

Tim and Jeremy discuss New Orleans hip hop, big edits of legendary tunes, reissue culture, online digging, playfulness in music, and getting back into the saddle of DJing again.

This is part of a rough series of more conversational, unplanned episodes reflecting on what's been on our record players recently and what we've been up to that we'll be releasing to patrons to say thank you for your support.

The tracks discussed are:

Mario Rui Silva - Kazum-zum-zum
Sylvester & the Hot Band - Southern Man
The Invisible Session - People All Around the World, Can Make It
Butch - LSD-25
79ers Gang - 79ers Bout to Blow
Ash Ra Tempel - Ain't No Time For Tears (The Sacred Rhythm Mix)
Muckers - Out of County

If you like the clips we played, we'd encourage you to support the artists and buy the tracks, most of which are available on bandcamp, starting with Out of County! https://muckers.bandcamp.com/releases

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy get ready to make you sweat with an extended length episode for maximum dancing. Starting with Soul Brother Number 1 James Brown, Tim and Jeremy chart this history of Funk, from its roots in Soul and R'n'B, via it's adoption by the Panthers and Black Power, and on to the psychedelia of Funkadelic. We also hear the source material of some of the most samples breaks ever, moonlight in some film criticism, and freak out to some serious lysergic experiences.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:
James Brown - Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud
Marva Whitney - It's My Thing
Sly & The Family Stone - I Want to Take You Higher
Chigaco Transit Authority - I'm A Man
The Meters - Cissy Strut
Funkadelic - Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow
The Lumpen - Free Bobby Now
Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft
The Undisputed Truth - Ball of Confusion
Lyn Collins - Think (About It)

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy consider the emergence of Disco as a recognisable and distinct sound in the period 1973-75. They grapple with the problems of codifying a genre, showing how genrefication can limit previously open spaces of possibility, and talk about to what extent the participants in the nascent scene saw themselves as part of a single project.

Tim and Jeremy also discuss the lush orchestrations of the Philly Sound, the machinic pulse of the four-to-the-floor drumbeat, the development of remix culture as a way of sculpting tracks more appropriate for the dancefloor, and finish up with the coronation of Gloria Gaynor as the first Queen of Disco. Plus: the Disco swear word!

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

The O'Jays - Back Stabbers
Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes - The Love I Lost
Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need a Change of Mind
MFSB - TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)
George McCrae - Rock Your Baby
Don Downing - Dreamworld (Tom Moulton Mix)
BT Express - Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) (Tom Moulton Mix)
Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye (Tom Moulton Mix)

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy consider the numerous musical and cultural currents of the early '70s that fed into the emergence of 'Disco' as a genre. They discuss the important antecedents of Soul and Rhythm and Blues, consider the yearning, future-facing qualities of Gospel, the musical influence of the Latin community in the city, and the imminent insistence of Funk.

Tim and Jeremy also consider the important role of romance, eroticism and sensuality on this developing musical form, discuss the appeal of longer tracks to dancers and DJs, and end with a friendly disagreement over that age-old question: what was the first disco record?

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Erma Franklin - Piece of my Heart
James Brown - Sex Machine
The Doobie Brothers - Long Train Runnin'
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up
Joe Bataan - Latin Strut
Osibisa - Survival
Barry White - I'm Gunna Love You Just a Little Bit More, Baby
Ultra High Frequency - We're on the Right Track

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy are exploring the emergence of 'loft'-style living in downtown New York in the early '70s. Set against a backdrop of deindustrialisation and middle class flight to the suburbs, they detail how artists, bohemians and party hosts moved into these vacated loft spaces, affording them the space and time to exhibit their art and - crucially - throw parties.

Tim and Jeremy discuss David Mancuso's first party venue, at his loft space at 647 Broadway, along with some of the other parties which took his loft style, such as Nicky Siano's The Gallery and the more exclusive Tenth Floor. We hear some of the biggest records from these parties, consider the changing demographic makeups of their clientele, and finally ask: were these experiments in alternative styles of living inherently political, or were they opening themselves up to cooption by capital?

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Stevie Wonder - Living for the City
Barrabas - Wild Safari
Patti Jo - Make Me Believe In You
Brenda Holloway - Just Look What You've Done
The Temptations - Law of the Land
Suicide - Ghost Rider

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy finish their three-part overview of the transition from a Fordist to a Post-Fordist world by examining the period 1973-75. They cover the OPEC oil crisis, rising inflation worldwide, and the breakdown of the Bretton Woods Agreement, all of which served to puncture the post-war mood of endless growth and prosperity.

Tim and Jeremy also discuss the sense of pessimism that set into some music of the time, detail the emergence of the Salsoul label with its new dancefloor-focused sound, and bring some of Antonio Negri's ideas to bear, analyzing the pivotal role of workers and artists in forming a new culture.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache
The Joneses - Love Inflation
New York Dolls - Looking for a Kiss
The Supremes - Stoned Love
The SalSoul Orchestra - You're Just The Right Size
Archie Bell and the Drells - Dance Your Troubles Away

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy continue their in-depth look at the economic, social and musical transformations of post-Fordism, focusing specifically on the years 1970 to 1972. They discuss the tedium, boredom and conformity many experienced during the post-war period, and the myriad ways people pushed back through art, inspired by a romantic vision of the expressive artist and new set of democratic demands from workers, hippies, black radicals, feminists and more.

We also hear about the resurgent economies of Japan and Germany, the ripple effects of the cybernetic revolution, the development of the Technics turntable, and the emergence of the synthesiser, and interrogate the charge that hippies should be held responsible for the advent of neoliberalism.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:
Stevie Wonder - Big Brother
Isao Tomita - Imagine
Isao Tomita - Snowflakes Are Dancing
Giorgio Moroder - Automation
Soft Machine - The Soft Weed Factor
The JBs - Gimme Some More

Love is the Message: Music, Dance & Counterculture is a new show from Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert, both of them authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Tune in, Turn on and Get Down to in-depth discussion of the sonic, social and political legacies of radical movements past and present, from the 1960s to today. Starting with David Mancuso's NYC Loft parties, we’ll explore the countercultural sounds, scenes and ideas of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy begin the first of a three part series-within-a-series connecting the dots between Motown and Salsoul. We start with Fordism, Antonio Gramsci's term for both the industrial practices of Henry Ford and the wider post-war settlement in which they occurred.

Tim and Jeremy discuss how the experience of Ford's production lines inspired Berry Gordy to create Motown Records, the groups and solo acts birthed by the label, and the emergent cultural norms they both expressed and reacted to. We also hear about the changing patterns of employment for musicians in the post-war era, the bohemia of Jazz and the Beats, and the imminent, embodied and sexual power of Funk.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Ike Turner & His Kings of Rhythm - Rocket 88
The Miracles - I Got a Job
Martha and the Vendellas - Third FInger, Left Hand
Lennie Tristano - These Foolish Things
Bob Dylan - Times They Are A Changing
The Shangri-Las - I Can Never Go Home Anymore
James Brown - Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. Tim and Jeremy discuss Afro-psychedelia, chill out rooms and ambient music, and how best to use the sound system at the start of a party. They also talk about rock & roll, contemporary harp, and give as a taste of a new label reissuing some of the earliest dance edits from Francois K and Walter Gibbons.

The two tracks discussed are:
Noel Brass Jr - Prism Jousting
Marty Wilde - Jezebel
Mary Lattimore - Jimmy V
Sunshine Sound - I Feel Love Medley (Francois K Edit)  

If you like the clips we played, we'd encourage you to support the artists and buy the tracks, most of which are available on bandcamp. And be sure to check out Moonshine Sound for more historic reissues: https://moonshinesound.bandcamp.com/music  

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

In this episode Jeremy and Tim are joined by writer, historian, and friend of the show Simon Reynolds to discuss British musical trends of the 1970s and his life as a music journalist. Simon is arguably the most important music critic writing today, having penned seminal books on post-punk, electronic dance music, feminist rock and much more. In this interview he mostly talks about his most recent book, ‘Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century’, sharing stories from his childhood interest in the decadent world of Glam.

The three discuss how so many artists came to aestheticise a rejection of suburbia, the purply gauze of Top of the Pops, and thinking the Situationists were a band. They unpick how Punk is imagined and historicised versus how it was experienced, how Simon came to reappraise the 60s against a hostile critical culture, and consider the role of the music press historically and today.

For patrons, our extended edition also includes a discussion around Simon’s 2011 book ‘Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to its Own Past’. Tim, Jeremy and Simon recount the particular conjuncture from which the book arose, tease out its key theses, and apply those to contemporary music culture.

Simon Reynolds is the author of ‘Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock’, ‘The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock 'N' Roll’ with Joy Press, ‘Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture’, ‘Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984’, ‘Bring The Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip-Hop’, ‘Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past’ and ‘Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century’. His next book, ‘Futuromania: Electronic Dreams from Moroder to Migos’ is forthcoming.

Tracklist:
Scott Joplin - The Entertainer
Ian Dury & the Blockheads - Plaistow Patricia
The Rezillos - Top Of The Pops
The Specials - Ghost Town

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy continue their two-part look at early DJ practices. They consider the role played by the personality-focused radio DJs of the late '60s, interrogating the relationships between these radio jocks, the party DJs, and the record companies, and the conditions that led to the establishment of the NYC Record Pool.

Tim and Jeremy also take an in depth look at other aspects of DJ culture, including early mixing techniques, beat juggling and turntablism, as well as charting the history of the first dancefloor-focused remixes. Finally, they consider whether the figure of the DJ - branded, mobile, and able to process large amounts of musical information on behalf of a paying public - prefigures the ideal neoliberal subject.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:
Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's Theme
Manu Dibango - New Bell
Incredible Bongo Band - Apache
Rare Earth - Happy Song
The Glass Family - Smoke Your Troubles Away
Jakki - Sun Sun Sun (Walter Gibbons Remix)

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy turn their attention to the wheels of steel, and the inhabitants of late 1960s and early 1970s New York who played them. We hear about the overwhelmingly Italian American young men who first pioneered the scene, the various public discotheques in which they performed, and the numerous technical innovations which advanced the craft.

Tim and Jeremy also contrast the emergent New York scene with the soundsystem culture of Jamaica by considering the extent to which both could be thought of as assemblages of dancers, DJs, MCs and equipment, and share how rudimentary advances in beatmatching and mixing laid the groundwork for what we would consider today as the DJing archetype.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:
The Chamber Brothers - Time Has Come Today
The Upsetters with Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Black Panta
Chicago - I'm A Man
Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need a Change of Mind
The Joneses - Sugar Pie Guy
Zulema - Giving Up

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy are tuning in and dropping out as we talk all things Acid. We hear a history of the psychedelic movement within the Anglophone world, taking in the accidental maiden trip of chemist Albert Hoffmann, the activities of Timothy Leary at Millbrook and the Merry Pranksters on their Magic Bus, and The Beatles' musical rendering of the classic trip.

Tim and Jeremy also consider how dancing is incorporated into the Acid experience, with a grateful nod to the role played by the Dead and their sound engineer Owsley Stanley, and draw out the tensions between the post-war consumer culture and the emergent psychedelic movement that rendered Acid such a uniquely potent political - as well as pharmacological - phenomenon.

Note: At Love is the Message, we don't encourage our listeners to take Acid, which is of course illegal! Also, more prosaically, in this episode Jeremy refers to Ralph ‘Metzinger’ - he is of course talking about Ralph Metzner, the American psychologist and not Thomas Metzinger the contemporary American philosopher.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar - Raga Palas Kafi
The Grateful Dead - Alice D. Millionaire
The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
Country Joe and the Fish - The Acid Commercial
Country Joe and the Fish - Colours for Susan
Charles Earland - Leaving This Planet

In the first episode of our new series looking in depth at the transformative decade of 1965-75, Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the pivotal position of New York City in the 1960s. They contrast the emergent New York with the fading Paris as centres of cultural and political life, taking in such important assemblages as the Greenwich Village Folk scene and Andy Warhol's Factory. Tim and Jeremy also discuss the contrasting schools of Jazz during the period - free, bebop and cool - and consider how the changing demographics of the city, forever a melting pot, led to the introduction of salsa to the New York audiences. The episode also takes in the various manifestations of the aesthetics of minimalism across the city, and ties it all back to David Mancuso's ear for the perfect lyric.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

If you've enjoyed the show so far, please do tell your friends and share on social media – it really helps us spread the show to a bigger audience. We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz (part one)
Joan Baez - Joe Hill
The Velvet Underground - Heroin
Lamonte Young - 31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM
Ray Barretto - Acid
Miles Davis Quintet - Stuff
James Brown - Think (Live at the Apollo Volume 2)
Petula Clark - Downtown

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. We had planned to listen to 6 or 7 tracks, but the conversation was flowing and so we only managed 2.  Tim and Jeremy discuss the British jazz revival, taking in labels like Gilles Peterson's Brownswood and venues like the Total Refreshment Centre; their own recent experience of throwing parties in East London; developing a more global musical palette than that offered by David Mancuso; and the changing patterns of migration that feed into interesting syntheses of international musics.

This is the first of a rough series of more conversational, unplanned episodes reflecting on what's been on our record players recently and what we've been up to that we'll be releasing to patrons to say thank you for your support.  Hold tight for news about a live seminar series with Tim and Jeremy - more info when we have it.

The two tracks discussed are:
Lokkhi Terra mmets Dele Sosimi - Afro Sambroso
KOKOROKO - Abusey Junction

If you like the clips we played, we'd encourage you to support the artists and buy the tracks, both of which are available on bandcamp.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

In this final episode of our introductory series, Jeremy and Tim dig into why the 1970s was such a crucial decade for political, social and musical innovation. Challenging the negative image of the ’70s so popularly held, they discuss the crucial importance of the era's global anti-colonial movements, and its liberation struggles around gender, sexuality and race, which found expression in music through punk, disco, afrobeat, reggae and proto-rap.

Tim and Jeremy also take on the thesis that the Counterculture of the late ’60s and early ’70s served purely as a precursor to neoliberalism, arguing that countercultural movements represented a genuine rebellion against the rigidity and conformity of the postwar settlement. Finally, with an eye to the dancefloor, they discuss how the decade saw the emergence of the DJ, and later the remixer, and the technical innovations both of early mixing and of the 12" single.

We're now taking a couple of weeks off, after which Love is the Message will return with a new series of 8 episodes, looking in depth at the period 1965–1975 with all the good musical, political and social commentary you'd expect. 

If you've enjoyed the show so far, please do tell your friends and share on social media – it really helps us spread the show to a bigger audience. We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but Tim, Jeremy and producer Matt have all been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic, so if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Cristina - Disco Clone
Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
Machine - There But For The Grace Of God, Go I
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Mirage 
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Brian Eno - Music for Airports pt1
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Burning Rubber
Dinosaur L - Go Bang

In this week's episode, Tim and Jeremy are discussing love as the central affect of countercultural dance practice. They talk about the heteronormativity of the post-war period and the queerness of many male '60s pop singers, the religious antecedents to both the anti-war and the psychedelic movements, and the embrace of love as a universal force in both rock and jazz music of the period. They describe a continuum of dancefloor experience that runs from spiritual rapture to eroticised mating ritual, and place the collective experience of shared ecstacy through dance along that time. Finally, Tim and Jeremy recount the special place David Mancuso held for songs about love, and reflect on how Coronavirus has deprived us of that special type of dancefloor friendship.

Join us next week as Tim and Jeremy ask - why the '70s?

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at patreon.com/lovemessagepod

Tracklist:
Big Mamma Thornton - Hound Dog
Elvis - Hound Dog
Love - Alone Again Or
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme pt1, Acknowledgement
Weldon Irvine - Love Your Brother
MFSB - Love Is The Message
Donna Summer - I Feel Love

In this week’s episode, Tim and Jeremy chart the emergence of the dancefloor as a site of important cultural practice. From the frigid discotheques of the 1960s to the wild abandon of the all night dancing that would explode in popularity just a few years later, we hear how the role of the DJ changed in both technical innovation and relationship with the crowd, the types of people who were heading onto the dancefloors of the early 1970s, and the repressive society they were seeking to cast off. Tim and Jeremy also discuss David Mancuso’s early audiophile experiments, the parallel sonic explorations also taking place in the sound systems of Jamaica, and draw similarities and differences between dancing and another ’70s activity, jogging.

Join us next week as Tim and Jeremy ask - is love really all you need?

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at patreon.com/lovemessagepod

Tracklist:
Babatunde Olatunji - Jin-Go-Lo-Ba
Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need a Change of Mind
The Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte Dub
Chuck Mangione - Land of Make Belief
Taana Gardner - Work That Body

This week Tim and Jeremy recount their personal journeys across the dancefloors of the UK and the USA, talk about how they came to work together, and their first time meeting David Mancuso. They recall how - after playing in London for the first time - David would join Tim and Jeremy in eventually hosting four UK Loft parties a year. They discuss the difficulties of finding an appropriate venue and sound system, the effects of hearing David’s selections in the flesh, and why balloons are always better than lazers.

Jeremy's 3 hour postmodernism lecture, mentioned in the show, can be found here: https://culturepowerpolitics.org/2020/12/20/what-is-or-was-postmodernism-3-hour-version/

Join us next week when we'll be talking about DJing and the dance floor as forms of cultural practice.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at patreon.com/lovemessagepod

Tracklist:
Patti LaBelle - Spirit’s In It
Nuyorican Soul ft Jocelyn Brown - It’s Alright, I Feel It
Larry Spinosa - So Good (Club Experience Mix)
Aora - Out Of The Rain (Dubaholics Vocal Mix)
Moloko - Forever More (Francois K Remix)
Stevie Wonder - As

This week Tim and Jeremy take us back to Valentine's Day 1970 for the very first of what would become a 50 year era of David Mancuso's Loft parties. They consider David's childhood experience of collectivised living while in care; the important antecedents found in the rent party scene and the '60s psychedelic culture of the melting pot city of New York; Tim recounts the origins of David's interest in audiophile sound; and the pair ask whether creating a space of freedom on the dance floor can be seen as a form of molecular politics.

Join us next week when Tim and Jeremy talk about meeting David, working with him to throw the first UK Loft parties, and forming their own party collective, Lucky Cloud Sound System.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at patreon.com/lovemessagepod

Booker T and the MGs - Melting Pot
Alice Coltrane - Journey In Satchidananda
Dorothy Morrison - Rain
War - City, Country, City
The Equals - Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys
Manu Dibango - Soul Makosa

UNLOCKED - We've made public this previously patrons-only episode following the death of Can singer Damo Suzuki. If you'd like to become a patron, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

W do you call it? Krautrock, space rock, the Great Komische Music? It’s all German to me. In a little under two hours the guys cover the history of post-WW2 Germany (East and West), anti-Communist geopolitics, what you want to hear when you’re tripping, Pop Art, post-rock and playfulness, all in reference to the music of Can, NEU!, Ash Ra Tempel and more.

We hear about the characteristics of the German counterculture from which many of these players came, the various tendencies of revolutionary European socialism, the Green Party, and the problems of De-Nazification. We consider the avant-garde compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen, the impact of American acid rock, Ancient Egypt, and the many ways James Brown’s funk filtered into the motor rhythms of Dusseldorf 1971. More than anything, we survey a formidable body of work that is at once mesmeric and danceable - both things we like here at Love is the Message!

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Books:
Julian Cope - Krautrock Sampler: One Head’s Guide  to the Great Kosmische Musik
David Stubbs - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany

Tracklist:
Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary - Timeship
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Spiral (Realization A)
Amon Duul ii - Yeti (Improvisation)
Ash Ra Tempel - Amboss
Kraftwerk - Stratovarius
Tangerine Dream - Genesis
Tangerine Dream - Flute Organ Piece
Can - Halleluwah
NEU! - Hallogallo
Can - Moonshake
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Harmonia & Eno '76 - Atmosphere
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express

In the second of two episodes on Counterculture, Tim and Jeremy leave the '60s and move through the rest of the 20th Century, identifying the countercultural characteristics of reggae, punk, hip hop, house, techno and drum & bass. They cover the anti-imperial and anti-colonial sentiment of Rastafarianism, the simultaneous emergence of DJing in both Kingston and New York, and discuss the ambivalent political status of Punk. We also dig into the historiography of House and Techno, and consider the idea and potentiality of 'the machine' for the creators of these musics, asking: can the embrace of pleasure alone ever change the world?

Join us next week as we go back to Valentine’s Day 1970 and the very first Loft party.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at patreon.com/lovemessagepod

Jonny Osborne - Truth and Rights
Patty Smith - Free Money
Talking Heads - Remain In Light
The Clash - (White Man) in Hammersmith Palais
Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body
Rhythim is Rhythim - It Is What It Is
A Tribe Called Quest - I Left My Wallet In El Segundo
Roni Size - Brown Paper Bag

In the first of two episodes on Counterculture, Tim and Jeremy focus on the late ’60s and early ’70s – a period of exceptional cultural and political activity in the UK and the USA. They discuss the emergent New Social Movements, how Rock was institutionalised as the sound of the counterculture at the expense of other genres, the limitations of Timothy Leary’s invitation to ‘tune in and drop out’, the under-appreciated importance of Miles Davis and Jazz to the moment, and whether love really is all you need.

Join us next episode for part 2, where we’ll look at countercultural tendencies in Reggae, Hip Hop, Punk, House and Techno.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at patreon.com/lovemessagepod

Tracklist:
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze (live)
The Youngbloods - Get Together
The Grateful Dead - Birdsong (live)
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Love is the Message: Music, Dance & Counterculture is a new show from Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert, both of them authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.

Tune in, Turn on and Get Down to in-depth discussion of the sonic, social and political legacies of radical movements past and present, from the 1960s to today. Starting with David Mancuso's NYC Loft parties, we’ll explore the countercultural sounds, scenes and ideas of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

In this introductory episode, Tim and Jeremy set out some of the major themes and moments the project will encounter, as well as introducing themselves as thinkers, dancers and friends.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Become a supporter by visiting our Patreon at www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Tracklist:

The Beatles - All You Need Is Love
Exuma - Exuma, The Obeah Man
MFSB - Love is the Message
Blaze - Brand New Day
Can - Future Days

Welcome to Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture, a new podcast from academics, DJs and soundsystem owners Jeremy Gilbert and Tim Lawrence. Join us for a long and winding journey through David Mancuso's legendary Loft parties in NYC, via the countercultural musical expressions of acid rock, jazz, reggae, hip hop and jungle, and to the early '00s, when Tim and Jeremy started hosting their own parties. Expect political discussion, detailed analysis and deep tunes.

Be sure to subscribe to this channel to get the first episodes as soon as they're published.

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole thing, plus dozens of hours more discussion and conversation, head to patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons’ episode we continue our look at musical currents of the 1970s by pulling on our platform boots, pasting on some eyeliner and getting ready for Glam Rock. In the first of two episodes, Tim and Jeremy excavate the pre-history of this strange trans-Atlantic phenomenon, which expresses both fascinating cultural insights and some pretty bad music (to our ears). Tim and Jeremy discuss the concept of glamour itself, the glamorous side of Hippy culture, and clothing and makeup as forms of self-expression. They also get stuck into 60s Garage Rock, focusing on The Stooges and The Velvet Underground, to consider ideas of decadence, masculinity, mass culture, Warhol and more, before - via a detour through the singular artistry of David Bowie - teeing up two recognisable faces of early Glam: Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper. Next episode we’ll be continuing on to Roxy Music, the New York Dolls, later Bowie, Slade, and the legacy of this strange musical force. Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist: The Pleasure Seekers - What a Way to Die The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs The Stooges - TV Eye Alice Cooper - I’m Eighteen David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World Alice Cooper - School’s Out T. Rex - Hot Love

Books: Philip Auslander - Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music Simon Reynolds Book - Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century Colin Campbell - The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism

To hear an extended version of this conversation, become a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this episode Jeremy and Tim are joined by historian and New Yorker Kim Phillips-Fein to discuss a crucial event in the Love is the Message story: the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis. Kim’s book ‘Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics’ is widely regarded as the definitive text on the matter, so she was the perfect person to talk to, and she brought some great music recommendations to boot.

The three discuss both the long- and short-term backdrop to the crisis, charting how the city’s unique social democratic municipal system of rent controls, hospitals and education changed across the twentieth century, before examining how the centre of international capital came extremely close to bankruptcy. Kim explains the financial mechanisms which animated the crisis and the political choices that precipitated it. She elucidates President Ford’s predicament during the crisis, the effects of ‘white flight’, and reminds us that New York was itself an industrial city rapidly de-industrialising. 

This being Love is the Message, naturally we also hear about the extraordinary cultural creativity of the time and examine its material causes, including changing democraphics and the transformation of Soho. Finally, Tim Jeremy and Kim consider what happened next, and how the fiscal crisis has been historicised to serve a particular ideology.

Kim Phillips-Fein is the Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University. Her book ‘Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics' was named a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for History. She is also the author of ‘Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan’.

Tracklist:

Television - Venus

The Dils - Class War

The Rolling Stones - Shattered

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole show, plus much more, head to Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

On this festive edition of What We’re Listening To, Jeremy and Tim share selections from their turntables alongside thoughts on religion, atheism, death - and Blondie. We hear psychedelic jazz from north India and northern England, a brace of uplifting Gospel anthems from Pastor T.L Barrett, and some free-wheeling spiritual jazz from the Bronx via Puerto Rico. A smattering of seasonal song is dispersed throughout the selections, and with an eye on the horrors of the last two months in the Middle East, an uplifting call for peace to sign off on.
We will be taking a short break for Christmas and New Year but will be back in mid-January with more LITM. Tune in, turn on, get down…

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Manish Pingle - Raga Puriya Kalyan
Erobique (ft. Florence Adooni) - Mam Tola
Matthew Halsall - An Ever Changing View
Pastor T.L. Barrett And The Youth For Christ Choir - I Shall Wear a Crown
Pastor T.L. Barrett And The Youth For Christ Choir - Jingle Bells
Blondie - Yuletide Throwdown
Antonio Ocasio ft. Nina Hadzi Antich - That Something
Alfredo Linares - La Musica Por Dentro (Remixed by Jose Parla & Phenomenal Handclap Band)
Joseph Macwan - Climb That Mountain (3AM Mix)
Mike Anthony - Why Can't We Live Together

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, and much more, head to Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this episode Tim and Jeremy begin a series of shows for patrons that flesh out some of the other musical currents of the UK and Europe in the late 60s and early 70s, beginning with… well, what do you call it? Krautrock, space rock, the Great Komische Music? It’s all German to me. In a little under two hours the guys cover the history of post-WW2 Germany (East and West), anti-Communist geopolitics, what you want to hear when you’re tripping, Pop Art, post-rock and playfulness, all in reference to the music of Can, NEU!, Ash Ra Tempel and more.

We hear about the characteristics of the German counterculture from which many of these players came, the various tendencies of revolutionary European socialism, the Green Party, and the problems of De-Nazification. We consider the avant-garde compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen, the impact of American acid rock, Ancient Egypt, and the many ways James Brown’s funk filtered into the motor rhythms of Dusseldorf 1971. More than anything, we survey a formidable body of work that is at once mesmeric and danceable - both things we like here at Love is the Message!

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Become a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

For rights reasons, we can only play excerpts of the tracks we discuss. However, if you'd like to listen along in full, with updates every episode, follow our Spotify playlist at: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ZylmJYk5SxyyTI2OQp0iy

Books: Julian Cope - Krautrock Sampler: One Head’s Guide  to the Great Kosmische Musik David Stubbs - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany

Tracklist: Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary - Timeship Karlheinz Stockhausen - Spiral (Realization A) Amon Duul ii - Yeti (Improvisation) Ash Ra Tempel - Amboss Kraftwerk - Stratovarius Tangerine Dream - Genesis Tangerine Dream - Flute Organ Piece Can - Halleluwah NEU! - Hallogallo Can - Moonshake Kraftwerk - Autobahn Harmonia & Eno '76 - Atmosphere Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, plus much more, sign up at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons episode, Tim and Jeremy continue their investigation into the musical cultures of Europe and the UK of the 1970s. For this show, pull on your wide-leg jeans, pop a dexy and talc the floor, because we’re talking Northern Soul. We hear about Mod culture, subcultural theory, Quadraphenia, and clubs like the Twisted Wheel, the Wigan Casino and the Blackpool Mecca. Tim and Jeremy excavate a particular wistful, romantic and nostalgic affect to the mid-60s Soul music that fuelled these all-night dances in the north of England, and consider to what extent the dancers were seeking escapism. We also hear about Rave, Jackie Chan and Paul Mason, so get out on the floor and keep the faith!

Tracklist:
Don Gardner - My Baby Likes To Boogaloo
Small Faces - All Or Nothing
Christine Cooper - Heartaches Away My Boy
Dobie Grey - Out on the Floor
The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache
Kariya - Let Me Love You For Tonight 
Gloria Jones - Tainted Love
Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band - Bring It To Me Baby
Tobi Legend - Time Will Pass You By

Books:

Stephen Catterall and Keith Gildart - Keeping The Faith: A History of Northern Soul
Stan Cohen - Folk Devils and Moral Panics
Watch Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore by Mark Leckey here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dS2McPYzEE

Watch Paul Mason’s Keeping The Faith doc here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJsgkXdlkgs

In this week’s episode, Tim and Jeremy are joined by writer, critic and academic Emily J. Lordi to discuss her 2020 book The Meaning of Soul (and much more besides). Emily talks about how she got into writing about Black music and the particular status Soul held in academia at the start of her career. The three consider changing historiographies of Black culture, talk over some key canonical texts, and contrast Soul with scholarship on Blues and Jazz.
Emily explains how her analysis looks beyond lyrics in its appraisal of the political content of Soul, and how through an evaluation of a shift between sacred and secularised notions of the genre, we can see an articulation of a collective subjectivity representative of the congregational traditions from which the music draws on.
Elsewhere, Tim, Jeremy and Emily consider ‘the crew’ in Soul and Hip Hop, Disco’s relationship to Soul, Gladys Knight and the Pips and Minnie Ripperton. For patrons, the three dig into Emily’s concept of ‘Afro-Presentism’, Beyonce, Janelle Monáe, contemporary R’n’B, and the affect of resilience.

Emily J. Lordi is a writer, professor, and cultural critic whose focus is African American literature and Black popular music. She is professor of English at Vanderbilt University and the author of three books: Black Resonance (2013), Donny Hathaway Live (2016), and The Meaning of Soul (2020).

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Check out the back catalog, reading lists, playlists and more at our website: https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole thing and hours more exclusive conversation, become a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons-only episode Jeremy dons his leather jacket to conclude our history of the early days of heavy metal. We hear about how the convergence of space rock, biker gangs, and the fantasy aesthetics of writer Michael Moorcock created an deeply abiding metal culture that would contribute massively to the second half of the Twentieth Century and beyond. Jeremy discusses the success of Warhammer, makes the case for rock opera, argues for the cultural significance of the Lord of the Rings and even has time to unpack metal masculinity, with reference to bands including Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Judas Priest and Deep Purple. Rock on!

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven 

Hawkwind - Silver Machine 

Blue Oyster Cult - Stairway to the Stars 

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water 

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird 

Thin Lizzy - Whiskey in the Jar 

Kiss - Black Diamond 

Judas Priest - Winter Retreat 

Hawkwind - The Wizard Blew His Horn 

Hawkwind - Kings of Speed 

Judas Priest - The Ripper 

Motorhead - Motorhead 

In this week’s episode, Tim and Jeremy are joined by writer and scholar Mark Anthony Neal. Mark’s 1999 book ‘What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture’ is a crucial text for us here at Love is the Message, so it was fantastic to have him join the show to discuss his life and work in music. We discuss how the Black popular music of the past 60 years provides an insight into black socio-political life, via Gospel, Soul, Hip Hop and more. Mark explores how his upbringing in the South Bronx, from spending Sunday mornings with his parents to heading to the Apollo to see the Jackson 5 and Aretha, shaped his view of the Black public sphere. The interview provides Jem and Tim with the opportunity to trace their interest in the progressive potential of the 1970s back to the slave experience, the development of spirituals that became a channel for acts of resistance, the African American church’s reversioning of Christianity as a space of Black communion and expression, the importance of the jook and the rent party for expressions of Black pleasure. These spaces contributed to the shaping of an increasingly radical Black politics, from the burgeoning civil rights movement to Black Power, with rhythm and blues, soul and funk. We discuss the late-80s turn toward commodity culture within Hip Hop and consider what happened politically to black musicians into the 90s.

For patrons, Mark, Tim and Jeremy also discuss early disco, Black dance music and Saturday Night Fever; consider the aspirational, entrepreneurial mindset of many of the 70s pioneers; and the role of sampling as an act of Black archival work undertaken by caretakers of Black musical lineage, bringing us right up to the listening practices of today.

Mark Anthony Neal is the Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African-American Studies at Duke University host of the weekly webcast ‘Left of Black’ in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University. He is the author of ‘What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture’, ‘Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic’, ‘Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation’, ‘New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity’ and ‘Looking for Leroy: (Il)Legible Black Masculinities’.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Become a patron to hear an extended version of this conversation by visiting patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Check out the back catalog, reading lists, playlists and more at our website: https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

And listen along our Spotify playlist featuring music from the series at: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ZylmJYk5SxyyTI2OQp0iy

Tracklist:

The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight 

The Jackson 5 - Dancing Machine

Eugene McDaniels - Headless Heroes

Eric B. And Rakim - Paid in Full

Ray Charles - (Night time Is) The Right Time

The Isley Brothers - Fight the Power

Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On

Sly & The Family Stone - Stand! 

Bessie Smith- Back Water Blues

LL Cool J - The Boomin' System

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, plus many more hours of conversation, become a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons episode Tim and Jeremy offer music on the theme of war and peace. They reflect on the ongoing conflict in Palestine, discussing the current unfolding crisis and taking a longer view on Israeli history. We hear about the ecstatic peace of John Coltrane, a lesser-known companion to Edwin Starr’s ‘War’, why Tim loves the Human League but New Order not so much, and consider the Promised Land. Tim and Jeremy also share music by Palestinian musicians Sama’ Abdulhadi and Kamilya Jubran, talk about Jem’s experiences DJing the country, Boiler Room as an unexpected anti-imperialist organisation, and the pitfalls of cultural appropriation.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist: John Coltrane - Peace on Earth (Live At Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan / July 22, 1966) Edwin Starr - Stop The War Now The Human League - The Lebanon  Sama' Abdulhadi - Reverie  Mutado Pintado presents Sworn Virgins - Michelle (Acid Arab Mix) Bashar Murad - Maskhara Joe Smooth - Promised Land (Club Mix) Willie Hutch - Brother s Gonna Work it Out Kamilya Jubran & Werner Halser - Wa (pt.1) Maurice Ravel - Kaddish

In this week’s episode, Tim and Jeremy welcome writer and academic Gayle Wald to the show to tell us about the life and times of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Christened on social media ‘the queer black woman who invented rock’n’roll’, yet derided in 1970 as ‘a blacked up Elvis in drag’, Sister Rosetta’s story disrupts the received narrative of rock history. We hear about her religious upbringing, hitting the road with her evangelist mother; playing in the Cotton Club, the Decca Records studios, and from the centre field of a football stadium (in her wedding dress!); and being feted by Johnny Cash at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.

Sister Rosetta’s story concerns misogyny, Pentecostalism, the evolution of the electric guitar, gossip, Little Richard and more, and Gayle is the perfect person to share it with us.

This is an edited version of the full interview. To hear more about Sister Rosetta as well as about Gayle’s book on the television programme ‘Soul!’ - a groundbreaking piece of public broadcasting that brought black thinkers, activists and musicians to the TV screen - and her forthcoming work on the eminent children’s musician Ella Jenkins, become a patron.

Gayle Wald  is a professor of English and American Studies at George Washington University and a Guggenheim Fellow. She is the author of 'Crossing the Line: Racial Passing in U.S. Literature and Culture’, ‘Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe’ and ‘It's Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television’.
Produced by Matt Huxley.
Become a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Check out the back catalog, reading lists, playlists and more at our website: https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

Produced by Matt Huxley.
Tracklist:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Rock Me
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head

Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight - Didn’t It Rain
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Strange Things Happening Every Day
Mahalia Jackson - Move On Up a Little Higher
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Move On Up a Little Higher