Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this week's patrons-only episode, Tim and Jeremy continue their mini-series on the aesthetic and political content of Afrofuturism. Beginning with Kodwo Eshun's 1998 book More Brilliant Than The Sun, Tim and Jeremy interrogate the thinking of a number of academics and journalists around the Cybernetic Cultural Research Unit, their body of work around cyber theory, and the music of the 'Hardcore Continuum' in the context of '90s intellectual culture.

Tim and Jeremy spend time talking about the Detroit Techno of Drexciya, consider the complex position of soulfulness within Afrofuturism, and dig further into the contested ideas around the promise of technology. Finally, we hear about the origins of dubstep, with Jeremy making a strident case against the aestheticization of alienated urban life under capitalism - with some swinging UK Garage thrown in for good measure.

Tim and Jeremy will conclude with part 3 on Afrofuturism in a fortnight.

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Books:

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy describe the genres of psychedelic jazz and fusion. Drawing on rock, modal and free jazz and funk, as well as a wider pool of international musics, we hear how artists like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Weather Report created - through processes of fusion and fission - a new sound. Tim and Jeremy consider the impact hearing the Grateful Dead had on Miles, the virtuosity and immanence of his trio of fusion albums, and the struggles he had in marketing this new music (with little understanding or help from the label suits).  

Books:

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Tim and Jeremy cover Detroit Techno and the Belleville 3, the 'Golden Age' of Hip Hop, the particular position of Dub in the Afrofuturist imaginary, and the singular insights of Goldie, along with the antagonisms of Gangsta Rap, white libertarian cyberpunk culture and the politics and economics of the early '90s.

Tim and Jeremy will be back in a fortnight with part two. In the mean time, do leave us a review on Apple podcasts if you can, it really helps us reach more people.  Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:  

Books:

In the second episode of our third series, Tim and Jeremy describe a psychedelic aesthetic appearing in the transformative and rapturous musics of the American Black church, Rastafarian Jamaica and Nigeria, with reference to Gospel, Juju, Reggae and Funk. They counterpoint this with a strain of musical antipathy with roots in Plato and iterating in radical Protestant tendencies throughout history, while also pointing up the specific and slightly scary millenarianism to the utopias imagined through the tunes discussed.

Tim and Jeremy also spend a good amount of time on the West Coast Acid Rock scene, contemplating the edginess of the sound and it's representation of paranoid psychoactive experiences; the musical expressions of Caribbean Brits in the early '70s; and touch some more on Afro-Futurism, with specific reference to the playful childlike energy of space-facing Parliament-Funkadelic.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.  Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Mahalia Jackson - A City Called Heaven

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Miriam Makeba - I'mm You'mm We'mm

Love is the Message returns with series 3! In our last cluster of episodes, Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert took a deep look at the musical, social and political currents flowing through New York City from the late '60s to around 1975. This time, they're turning their attention outwards, expanding their analysis of this crucial period of time to include South America, the Caribbean, West Africa and parts of Asia.

We are committed to making Love is the Message free to everyone who wants it, but if you have the means, please become a supporter by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod for as little as £3 a month so we can stay free.

Sun Ra - Space is the Place

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only LITM Extra episode. To hear the whole thing, as well as conversations between Tim and Jeremy about what they've been listening to, intermittent lectures, listeners' questions and more, visit www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 a month.

Expect to hear much more from the book in the coming months, as well as more patrons-only content and a new series of the main show.

Tune in, turn on, get down!

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole thing, along with accessing lots more LITM Extra content, go to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 per month.

We've unlocked this patrons-only bonus episode from August, in which Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music they're listening to at the moment. To hear more of these conversations, along with book readings, lectures, Q&As and (soon) interviews, become a patron from £3 per month by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

This is the an excerpt from the audio of our first patrons-only 'Live Conversations' between ourselves and our patrons, which took place over Zoom on the 10th September. To hear the whole thing, and to participate in the next one, along with accessing lots more LITM Extra content, go to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron from £3 per month.