timlawrence.info

Here's a summary of my life. I was born in Ealing, West London, in 1967, and grew up in Winnersh, five miles outside of Reading, where my Dad, who escaped Nazi Germany on one of the last kindertransport, got his first job as an English teacher. I studied in Manchester between 1986 and 1990, and then returned to London, where I worked as a journalist for four years. In between my Dad and Mum died, and during 1993, while I was working at BBC Newsnight, I realised I needed a change of scene and direction. I ended up travelling to New York to take a doctorate in English Literature and I completed my studies at Sussex University in 1999. Since then I have lived and worked in London.

Here's how I divide my time. I hang out with my oldest daughter, six-year-old Carlotta (known as "Carlotta the Rotter"), my three-year-old daughter, Ilaria (sometimes called "Silly Illy"), my wife, Enrica (who I met at Columbia Uni in New York), and my friends (who occasionally come out to dance, but who prefer to meet up for dinner). I write books, articles and liner notes, and through a strange turn of events my writing led me to help put on parties with David Mancuso in London (the first one was held in June 2003). For my day job, I lead the Music Culture: Theory and Production degree at the University of East London, which is based in Docklands.

I have lived near Old Street, in east London, for the last nine years, and although friends tell me "You must live in Crouch End", or "You must come to Richmond", it's not going to happen ⎯ even if they offer to cook every night. Even if it doesn't strike everyone as being an obvious place to bring up kids, I feel lucky to live in Old Street; the roundabout is ugly, but lies at the intersection of the contrasting areas of Hoxton, Shoreditch, Brick Lane, the Barbican and the City. Given that I write, teach and put on parties that occupy the intersections of contrasting themes, disciplines and crowds, I might as well live at one as well.

I like

Audika: www.audikarecords.com
Beaty and the Beat: www.houseparty.org.uk
Deep House Page: www.deephousepage.com
Deep Space: www.deepspacenyc.com
Duke University Press: www.dukeupress.edu
Electrofunk Roots: www.electrofunkroots.co.uk
European Social Forum: www.fse-esf.org/en
HomoBeat: www.cassero.it/homobeat
Jahsonic: www.jahsonic.com
Klipsch: www.klipsch.com
Loft: www.theloftnyc.com
Minty: peprmintyfresh.blogspot.com
Mosquito bikes: www.mosquito-bikes.co.uk
Rega: www.rega.co.uk
Soul Jazz Records: www.souljazzrecords.co.uk
Time Reclaimed: www.timereclaimed.com
Walrus: www.walrus.co.uk

On the turntable

Aya "Su-Paka-Pooh" (Flower)
Depeche Mode "Enjoy the Silence... 04" (Reprise)
Flying Rhythms "Doragon Balls" (Lastrum)
Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russomo The Days of Mars (DFA)
Easy Going "Baby I Love You" (Epic)
KB "El Musica" (Yoruba)
Ramiro Mendes/Cesaria Evora "Angola" (Lusafrica)
Monolake "Plumbicaon Sleeparchive Interpretation" (ml)
Multatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet "Afro-Latin Soul" (Worthy Records)
Quartet Em Cy/Tamba Trio "Agua De Beber" (Polygram)
Theo Parrish "Falling Up (Car Craig Remix)" (Third Ear)
Rhythm & Sound "Rhythm & Sound" (BCP)
Ian Simmonds "The Dragon feat. The Ekonda Women of Kinshasa" (musikkrause)
Sleepwalker "Into the Sun" 12" (Especial Records)
Various "Acid - Can You Jack?" (Soul Jazz)

Off the bookshelf

Fiona Buckland "Impossible Dance: Club Culture and Queer World-Making" (Wesleyan)
Daryl Easlea "Everybody Dance: Chic and the Politics of Disco" (Helter Skelter)
Joshua Gamson "The Fabulous Sylvester" (Henry Holt)
Ian McEwan "Atonement" (Vintage)
Simon Reynolds "Rip It Up and Start Again" (Faber and Faber)
Peter Shapiro "Turn the Beat Around" (Faber and Faber)
Ned Sublette "Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo" (Chicago Review Press)

Education

BA	University of Manchester, Politics & Modern History, 1986-89
MA	University of Manchester, European Politics, 1989-90
PG Dip	City University, Newspaper Journalism, 1990-91
MA	Columbia University, English and Comparative Literature, 1994-96
PHD	Sussex University, English Literature, 1996-99