Tune in, Turn on and Get Down! Love is the Message is a podcast about music, the dance floor and counterculture co-hosted by my good friend, Lucky Cloud/London Loft co-partner, DJ and university colleague Jem Gilbert. Jem and I have been conversing and collaborating since 1999, so when we lost half our jobs to mid-pandemic strategising at the University of East London we did the logical thing and started LITM. Musician/activist Matt Huxley agreed to produce.
Starting with David Mancuso's NYC Loft, the podcast explores the sonic, social and political legacies of radical music movements from the 1960s to today, going backwards, sideways and forwards as we explore the interconnectedness as well as shifting strategies of progressive music scenes in North American, African, the Caribbean, Latin American and Europe.
The introductory series sets up some key themes, including counterculture, the DJ-led dance floor, the Loft, meeting David, love and the 1970s. Series two travels through 1960s NYC, the rise of acid culture, the formation of DJ culture, the transition from a Fordist to post-Fordist economy, the Broadway Loft, proto-disco, funk, feminist soul and the formation of the disco genre. The third “Afro-psychedelia” series devotes episodes to Afro-futurism, gospel and psychedelic jazz before spending time in Africa (three shows), Jamaican (six shows) and Cuba (two shows), with episodes on Trinidad/Haiti/Guadalupe, Brazil and Puerto Rico/Salsa setting up series 4 and our return to NYC 1975-76—not a bad place to hang out, we’ve heard.
The podcast is free to stream on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other platforms. Listeners who want to support the show are encouraged to make a small monthly contribution on Patreon. These contributions keep the show going so we’re super-grateful. In return we offer regular, exclusive shows for patrons :) Some dive deep into themes raised in the main show. Others provide relaxed setting for Jem and I to discuss what we’ve been listening to (and playing when we DJ). Sometimes we read from our books and articles. We also host regular on-line seminars where we discuss questions and comments from patrons.
“There’s one big party going on all the time. Sometimes we get to tune into it.” The rest of the time there’s Love Is the Message.