Mancuso obituary

I've published an obituary of David Mancuso, a dear friend and mentor, in Electronic Beats, http://bit.ly/2fxQ656. It was a tough one to write and I don't think I'm entirely happy with the result. But I was pleased to be given a few days rather than a few hours to turn it around, and was also happy with the suggestion that I write something that offers a personal insight into David rather than a list of achievements, so thanks to Sven at Electronic Beats for that. I hope that it adds to rather than detracts from the total sum of knowledge about David.

Love saves the day, Timx

Dancecult article on the Pulse nightclub massacre

Figure-5-Pulse-flyer.jpg

This mightn't be the best time to post about an article I've written about the massacre that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando earlier this summer. It's already been a monumentally tough week, hasn't it? But the article was published by Dancecult earlier today and I can't not mention it.

I spent half of my summer holiday preparing for book launch events and the other half writing this article, sneaking in an hour or two at the beach when I reached my limit. By the end of the holiday I was shattered. What can I say? There was no way I could step back from the book events and I felt as though "Life and Death on the Pulse Dance Floor" needed to be written.

The article questions some widely accepted assumptions about the massacre, highlights the importance of focusing on the specificity of the Latinx queer dancers who were murdered, and argues that the response to the massacre suggests a wider need to recognise the contribution of the queer Latinx community, including in writing about dance music culture.

The Loft gets several mentions, as does the Paradise Garage, because both attracted a significant number of queer Latinx dancers. In DJing terms I draw out the contribution of figures such as David Rodriguez and Richie Rivera. The music spans Babe Ruth’s “The Mexican”, Barrabas’s “Wild Safari” / “Woman”, Joe Bataan’s “Latin Strut”, Chakachas’s “Jungle Fever”, Chicago Transit Authority’s “I’m a Man”, Gil Scott Heron’s “The Bottle”, WAR’s “City, Country, City”, Patti Jo’s “Make Me Believe In You”, Vicki Sue Robinson's “Turn the Beat Around”, Karen Young's “Hot Shot” the Walter Gibbons mix of Salsoul Orchestra’s “Salsoul 3001”, the Richie Rivera mix of Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell”--and that's just to mention music released during the 1970s.

The register of the writing is a little more formal than the writing in my books but my hope is that it makes its points clearly. Many thanks in particular to Graham St John, the ever-dedicated editor at Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture for supporting the effort.

The article is available to be read here, or via Dancecult

Guardian article on the golden age of New York club culture

An article was published on The Guardian over the weekend. It mentions many New Yorks clubs, characters and the downtown community, which was discussed in Life & Death. The article can be accessed and read here

To simultaneously participate, observe and process history through all of one’s biases is a difficult task. To do so during late nights, in dark, sensorially overwhelming clubs, keeping all of one’s faculties intact makes it more so. It may be why real-time critical context for club music has always been rare. Yet what Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor makes acutely obvious, as both volume and prism, is not just the cultural value of the city’s party scene, but how it also serves as a moral compass – and how it still can.
— Piotr Orlov, The Guardian

Life and Death playlists/music links

Red Bull Music Academy have created YouTube playlists for nine of the book's playlists (permission was granted--thanks to Todd Burns and Torsten Schmidt for their support). So if you want to listen while you read, or even dance while you read, here are the links:

Larry Levan, The Paradise Garage (1980)
http://bit.ly/2f7J8Iz

Seán Cassette and Mark Kamins, Danceteria (1980)
http://bit.ly/2eFXVso

Alan Dodd, Opening Night at The Saint (20 September 1980)
http://bit.ly/2dKKm6G

David Mancuso, The Loft (1980-1981)
http://bit.ly/2eMcNmZ

François Kevorkian, AM/PM (1981-1982)
http://bit.ly/2dX0GEv

Africa Bambaataa, Afrika Islam, Grand Mixer D.St, Grand Wizard Theodore, Jazzy Jay, and Red Alert, The Roxy (1982)
http://bit.ly/2dKKkeL

Ivan Baker, Pyramid (1982-1983)
http://bit.ly/2dWZNff

John “Jellybean” Benitez / John Benitez, The Funhouse (1982-1983)
http://bit.ly/2dKJnTS

Johnny Dynell, Area (1983)
http://bit.ly/2dKMFX3