Having stumbled upon the excellent interview of Ade Fakile by Benji B (link below), this stirred up some happy memories of the seminal club which became a weekly temple for many of us for the best part of the 00s. In early December 2000, on my very first weekend in London (having just moved from […]
2025 was always going to special year for us, what with the arrival of of a lil’ creature named Cleo, bang on August bank holiday week-end – shockingly forcing me to miss carnival for only the second time in 24 years. I shall make sure to remind her by taking the family to Channel One’s […]
In what seems like a different lifetime, just over three months ago though not long before baby Cleo turned our lives around, we celebrated 20 years of Beauty & the Beat – yep that means 20 years of (mostly) monthly parties, which went from a mouldy basement gallery at the back of Waterloo Station in […]
The Lucky Cloud Sound System was born in 2003 as a collective to facilitate and co host what became quarterly events with our friend and mentor David Mancuso. You can read all about LCSS’s history here, and also the lil’ tribute I wrote about David following his passing in 2016. Over the years (or shall […]
Following on to my round up of the singles in part I, here are my favourites albums, compilations and reissues from 2024. It has to be said that, as with the singles, I haven’t been following the flow of new releases as actively as I did in previous years. Of course I still spent a […]
What happened in 2024? I’ll try to keep it more sober this time. On the party front, the year was arguably not a revolutionary one, at least not in my bubble. We kept doing doing what we’ve been doing for most of our lives, but doing it well. Always looking to perfect the art of […]
For the sixth BATB release, we pursued the ‘Excursions in Gwoka’ series with a second volume putting focus on the legendary carnival outfit from Guadeloupe, Akiyo. The EP contains two original tracks which were originally released in 1993 on Akiyo’s seminal second LP, 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘷𝘮𝘢𝘯: ‘Déboulé’ and ‘Blo’. The aforementioned album has become increasingly hard to […]
“Something’s about to come your wayExtend your arms embrace the love(…)Breathe the winds of space and timeLet your senses take controlListen to the rhythm of the cosmic danceGlance far away into the futureLet your mind run through the fields that fill your heart with joyMeanwhile, let your soul inside touch the stars” (from Kuniyuki’s sublime […]
Marathon time again, six months exactly after a first taste in Venezia, for my second official attempt at the distance outside of an ironman. As much as I enjoyed many aspects of the race towards la Serenissima, it had left me somewhat frustrated by the result (read race report here) and so really wanting for […]
Following on to the singles in part I, here’s my round up of the best albums and reissues which I had the pleasure to listen to in 2023. As always there’s a good mix of familiar artists and labels who constantly deliver the goods alongside some new names amongst the movers and shakers in our niche […]