Tim Lawrence
I’m the author of three books that trace the history of DJ, music, dance and art culture in New York City during the 1970s and early 1980s——Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979, Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992, and Life & Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-83, all published by Duke University Press. Together they amount to an unparalleled, in-depth account and analysis of the importance of NYC’s DJ, music, dance and art culture during the 1970s and early 1980s. My label, Reappearing Records, releases associated compilations.
I became a co-founder of Lucky Cloud Sound System after Loft host David Mancuso proposed to me (as well as Colleen Murphy) that we start to host Loft-style parties in London. The first of these took place at the Light in June 2003 and in 2005 Colleen, Jeremy and I purchased David a sound system that came close to matching his NYC set-up and formed the Lucky Cloud Sound System collective. Working alongside David until 2011, when a doctor advised him to stop travelling, amounted to a whole new education. Lucky Cloud continues.
In May 2017 I had the good fortune to attend Joy, a Loft-influenced house party hosted by Nari along with Douglas Sherman, Takaya Nagase and Yuji Kawasaki. The experience made me realise that I wanted to start an intimate, invite-only, musically-open party that started early on a Saturday evening in London. I ended up teaming up with Cedric Lassonde, Cyril Cornet and Jem Gilbert of Beauty and the Beat (as well as Lucky Cloud) to launch All Our Friends in January 2018. That party, where I DJ alongside Ced, Cyril and guests, means the world to me.
I’m also a professor of Cultural Studies at the University of East London, where I’ve been employed since 1999. Jem and I became fast friends and collaborated on all sorts of projects. Losing half our jobs early into the pandemic led us to start LITM, so the dark cloud of redundancy came with a radiant silver lining! More info: www.timlawrence.info.
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Meet The Hosts
Jeremy Gilbert
Jeremy is Professor of Cultural and Political Theory at the University of East London, where he has been based for many years and been friends with Tim for many years.
His most recent publications include Twenty-First-Century Socialism (Polity 2020) the translation of Maurizio Lazzarato's Experimental Politics and the book Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism. His new book, Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World , co-authored with Alex Williams, is now out.
He writes regularly for the British press (including the Guardian, the New Statesman, open Democracy and Red Pepper) and for think tanks such as IPPR and Compass, is routinely engaged in debates and discussion on Labour Party policy and strategy, and has appeared on national television as a spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party.
He has been involved with both mainstream party politics and extra-parliamentary activism throughout his adult life, having been an active participant in the social forum movement of the early 2000s, a member of the founding national committee of Momentum (the controversial organisation established to support Corbyn's leadership of Labour), and being a former elected member management committee of Compass, a pluralist left-wing think tank and lobby group.
Jeremy is an an advisor to and participant in a range of ongoing projects such as The World Transformed and the New Economy Organisers Network. He has also participated in many cultural projects, particularly connected with music and sonic culture, and is a founder member of Lucky Cloud Sound System and Beauty and the Beat, two successful and respected collectives that have been organising regular dance parties in East London since the early 2000s, at many of which he still regularly DJs.
Jeremy also maintains a lifelong commitment to public education outside the academy, currently hosting Culture, Power, Politics, a regular series of free open seminars and lectures.
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Matt Huxley (producer)
Matt Huxley is a composer, musician and podcast producer originally from Dorset and now living in London. He has created music and sound design for a range of productions and occasions, often with socially engaged themes and collaborative making processes. He has scored documentary about North Korean refugees, Palestinian teenage queer identity, Gaza, rural poverty, Windrush and the Hostile Environment and more, with commissions coming from the Barbican, the Guardian, the BBC, Channel 4, BFI Doc Society and more, and receiving prizes from the Grierson Awards and Tribeca Film Festival.
Matt created an instagram opera for the Royal Opera House, 'Among The Flowers', and collaborated with Turner Prize-winner Jeremy Deller on a film for the exhibition Wiltshire Before Christ. He also created a 'sonic theatre' adaptation of Raymond Carver's book 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' for the company Soundworlds. He recently created an original score for the podcast series 'Foreign Agent', produced by Novara Media.
Matt co-produces the podcast #ACFM for Novara Media (co-hosted by Jem) and created the magazine-style podcast TWT FM for the socialist political education organisation The World Transformed.
Matt is one half of the band Strange Boy, who are soon to release their debut album through the German label Groënland, and has released two EPs of his own music (under the moniker Muckers) through the label he operates, Circle Dance.
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