Afleveringen

  • This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole thing and a huge number of other conversations, head to Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

    In this patrons episode Jem and Tim once again share what’s been on their turntables recently. We hear two tracks - one contemporary and one not - from the UK Asian Underground, along with a consideration of the cosmopolitan aesthetic of artists like Bally Sagoo and Nitin Sawhney. Tim reflects on trips to the WOMAD festival and digs into trip hop while Jem shares a powerful Qawwali cut. Elsewhere we hear Swedish afrobeat, extremely psychedelic roots reggae, free love, a compilation for Gaza, Messages from the Stars and more…

    Tracklist:
    Nitin Sawhney - Charu Keshi Rain
    Nora Dean - Angie La La
    Bally Sagoo - Noorie
    Morelo - Promise (from ‘For Gaza’ comp by Planet Turbo Records)
    The RAH Band - Messages from the Stars
    Orgōne - Strike
    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Shamas-Ud-Doha, Badar-Ud-Doja
    Olumo Soundz - Sunday Jump
    June Jazzin - Shine Your Brightest Light

    Books:

    Sanjay Sharma, John Hutnyk, Ashwani Sharma (Eds) - Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Dance Music

  • Welcome to Series 6 of Love is the Message! We hope you enjoyed the series of conversations with writers and academics that comprised Series 5, but now we are returning to our usual format to examine a watershed year: 1977.

    In this first episode we are unpacking Punk. What is it? A musical style, a subgenre of rock, a fashion sensibility, an attitude, a structure of feeling? In the first of three shows on Punk, Jeremy and Tim unfurl a general genealogy of the term as we build towards the release of Anarchy in the UK in two episodes’ time. They discuss where the term came from and how it was codified; the importance punk placed on realness and spontaneity; and contrast Punk’s nostalgic and avant garde modes.

    Tim and Jeremy make reference to three bands not immediately thought of as Punk - The Seeds, The MC5 and The Stooges - to uncover what musical work was taking place in the late 60s and early 70s that could be viewed as proto-punk, and use these bands to show the problems of rock historiography in recounting the history of Punk. And, this being LITM, we of course spend some time untangling the Punk vs Disco dichotomy.

    We hope you’ll join us as we continue our long march through the 1970s and beyond!

    Become a patron at patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

    Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

    Tracklist:
    The Seeds - Pushin’ Too Hard
    The MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
    The Stooges - Funhouse

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  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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 DieThe Velvet Underground - Venus in FursThe Stooges - TV EyeAlice Cooper - I’m EighteenDavid Bowie - The Man Who Sold The WorldAlice Cooper - School’s OutT. Rex - Hot Love

    Books:Philip Auslander - Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular MusicSimon Reynolds Book - Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First CenturyColin 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 MusikDavid Stubbs - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany

    Tracklist:Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary - TimeshipKarlheinz Stockhausen - Spiral (Realization A) Amon Duul ii - Yeti (Improvisation)Ash Ra Tempel - AmbossKraftwerk - StratovariusTangerine Dream - GenesisTangerine Dream - Flute Organ PieceCan - HalleluwahNEU! - HallogalloCan - MoonshakeKraftwerk - AutobahnHarmonia & Eno '76 - AtmosphereKraftwerk - 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/

  • 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 NowThe Human League - The Lebanon Sama' Abdulhadi - Reverie Mutado Pintado presents Sworn Virgins - Michelle (Acid Arab Mix)Bashar Murad - MaskharaJoe Smooth - Promised Land (Club Mix)Willie Hutch - Brother s Gonna Work it OutKamilya 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

  • Love is the Message is back for Series 5! After a few weeks off for the summer holidays, Tim and Jeremy return to the show for more music, dancing, sound systems and counterculture. This time round, we’re changing things up. As you’ll hear, we’re taking a break from our chronological narrative to bring in scholars and writers for a series of guest interviews, allowing us to both deepen our understanding of the late 60s and early 70s, and move around a bit more to histories we haven’t got to yet.

    For patrons, we’ll also be recording a number of episodes on the European and British musical phenomena that were taking place at the same time as the Loft and its ecosystem, so hold tight for that.

    But for this introductory episode, we’re sharing a ‘What We’re Listening To’ show, featuring ten tracks that Jem and Tim have had on the turntables this year. We’ll hear a rare Northern Soul cut from Tim, driving Brazilian funk, Carol King at her grooviest, plus spiritual jazz, ambient DnB, a conversation about Burning Man, and a pledge from Jem to keep playing Max Romeo until the rents go down.

    Become a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

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

    Produced by Matt Huxley.

    Tracklist:The Flirtations - Nothing But a HeartacheAntonio Carlos & Jocafi - SimbarereCarol King - Believe in HumanityMiriam Makeba - We Gotta Make ItMax Romeo - Rent CrisisUniversal Togetherness Band - Ain't Gonna CryPharaoh Sanders - Oh Lord, Let Me Do No WrongUnderworld - Dark & Long (Spoon Deep Mix)Omni Trio - Higher GroundBrawther - Sundials Ft Nathan Haines

  • This is it - the final episode of series 4, New York City 1975-76. For this show Jeremy and Tim are staying in the Bronx for more discussion around the links between Downtown party culture and the port hip-hop scene. We hear about the very first B Boys, what their moves looked like, and what sort of music they were breaking to. We explore how important performing or being watched was to these dancers, and the similarities and differences with losing yourself on a disco dance floor.

    Tim and Jeremy unpack the class dimension of the early breaking scene, set against a backdrop of poverty and rising gang membership. They profile Africa Bambaataa, both as a DJ and an agent for social cohesion, and also introduce a young Grandmaster Flash - more on him to follow. Plus - Jeremy shares his own breaking experiences…

    We will take a short break (no pun intended) for summer, and will be back in the autumn for Series 5. Thanks to everyone for your continued support as we reach our 60th main episode of the podcast, closing in on 100 hours of music, dance floors, sound systems and counterculture. Love is the message…

    Become a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

    And check out our new website: https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

    Books:Jeff Chang - Can’t Stop Won’t StopJonathan Mahler - Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a CityPhilippe Bourgois - In Search of Respect

    Tracklist:The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just BegunAbaco Dream - Life & death in G & AShirley Ellis - The Clapping SongHerman, Kelly & Life - Dance to the Drummer’s BeatThe Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk WomenSly & The Family Stone - Family Affair Grandmaster Flash - The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel

  • In the penultimate episode of our current series, Tim and Jeremy explore the earlier incarnations of what would become Hip-Hop. They begin by asking where the term comes from and interrogating the problematic historiography of the genre. The show then moves on to a detailed profile of the legendary DJ Cool Herc and his nascent rec room parties, alongside the contemporaneous mobile DJ culture, the Jazz poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets, the ‘merry-go-round’ mixing technique, and the historical and affective significance of the breakbeat for hip-hop and disco. Plus: the only evidence you’ll find of David Mancuso cutting breaks.

    Become a patron by visiting Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

    And check out our new website: https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

    Books and Films:

    Wild Style (1982)

    Stan Cohen - Folk Devils and Moral Panics

    Tim Lawrence - Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

    Jeff Chang - Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

    David Toop - The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip HopTracklist:

    Rare Earth - Get Ready

    Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

    The Last Poets - When the Revolution Comes

    Incredible Bongo Band - Apache

    Benny Goodman Orchestra - Sing Sing Sing

    Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band - Scorpio

  • For this episode, Tim and Jeremy pull on their dancing shoes to explore why the Downtown dance floors of the early 1970s were such historically unique places. Situating the forms of dancing found at the Loft and the Sanctuary as part of a turn away from the forms of partner dancing covered in our previous episode, we hear how these new forms of dance deconstructed how people experienced their bodies socio-sexually and conceived of themselves as part of a newly self-conscious audience.

    Tim and Jeremy discuss how developments in both sound, DJ practice, lighting and the now famous mirror ball contributed to a ‘polymorphously perverse’ experience for dancers. We also try to understand how people were actually dancing, ‘freakout gestures’, ‘lofting’, and how the ‘hustle’ reterritorialised disco for a suburban market.

    Become a patron by visiting Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

    And check out our new website: https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

    Tracklist:Earth, Wind & Fire - PowerLloyd Price - Bad ConditionsJames Brown - Cold Sweat (Live at the Apollo vol.2)Dinosaur L – Go Bang! #5The Meters - Hand Clapping SongTribe - KokeVan McCoy - The Hustle

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

    In this patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy explores what it means to analyse music from a feminist perspective. Beginning with a literature review of both the various forms of feminism theorised in the 1970s, and the body of feminist music writing from the late 80s to the early 2000s, we hear about the work of important thinkers like Susan McClary, Simon Reynolds, Angela McRobbie and Judith Butler to tease out what the various feminist perspectives were and what the task of feminist music criticism might be.

    We consider formal expressions of gender within music through Bach, Beethoven and Black Sabbath; spend time with the feminist post-punks Siouxie Sioux, Patti Smith and the Raincoats; think about how disco fits into all this; and consider the work of Laurie Anderson and Donna Haraway in the early 80s as they point towards a new form of cyborg feminism.

    Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

    Books and Articles:
    Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie - Rock and Sexuality
    Simon Reynolds and Joy Press - The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock and Roll
    Richard Dyer - In Defence of Disco
    Andy Beckett - I Promised You A Miracle: Why 1980-1982 Made Modern Britain
    Donna Haraway - A Cyborg Manifesto

    Tracklist:
    JS Bach - The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (Contrapunctus 1)
    Black Sabbath - Paranoid
    The Byrds - Wild Mountain Thyme
    The Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band - Mountain Moving Day
    The Pleasure Seekers - What a Way To Die
    Joni Mitchell - Woman of Heart and Mind
    Siouxsie And The Banshees - Mirage (John Peel Sessions)
    Patti Labelle - The Spirit’s in It
    Donna Summer - I Feel Love
    The Raincoats - Lola
    The Raincoats - Dancing in my Head
    Soft Cell - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
    Laurie Anderson - O Superman