Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

Latest Episodes:

We Know Where We're Going: Bob Marley & the Wailers pt.2 Apr 21, 2022

Show notes

LITM returns with the second half of our examination of the life and work of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Jeremy and Tim pick up the story in 1973, with the release of Burnin', the band's split, and the launch of Marley in the rock star mode. A discussion on the strange case of Eric Clapton's cover of I Shot the Sheriff follows, along with Marley's first international smash, No Woman, No Cry.

Tim and Jeremy proceed to the release of Exodus in 1977 - also the year of an assassination attempt on Marley - and dig into the politics of a turbulant late '70s Jamaica, the Socialist PM Michael Manley, and the complexities of Marley's own political appeal to love and peace in the face of extreme political violence. The episode concludes with the singer's cancer diagnosis, a late return to explicit radical anti-colonialism, and eventual death in 1981, with time given to parsing his singular posthumous legacy.
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.
Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!
Become a patron from as little as £3pcm by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Tracklist:

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Burnin' and Lootin'
Bob Marley & the Wailers - I Shot the Sheriff
Eric Clapton - I Shot the Sheriff
Bob Marley & the Wailers - No Woman, No Cry
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Waiting in Vain
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Redemption Song

Books:

Lloyd Bradley - Bass Culture: When Reggae was King
Dick Hebdidge - Subcultures

[unlocked] LITM Extra - Interview with Daphne A. Brooks pt.1 Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

In this episode Daphne talks with Tim and Jeremy about the writers, practitioners and 'organic intellectuals' who have created a new discourse around Black female sound, taking in figures such as the writer and collector of field recordings Zora Neale Hurston, the writer, journalist and singer Pauline Hopkins, and the writer and playwright Lorraine Hansberry. They dig into what it means to hold precious these forgotten figures, affectionate writing praxis, and the relationship between curatorial or archival work and contemporary music making. In part 2, coming in a fortnight, we will hear about some of the contemporary artists featured in the book, including Janelle Monáe and Beyonce.

Daphne A. Brooks is William R. Kenan, Jr. professor of African American studies, American Studies, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Music at Yale University; she is also director of graduate studies.She specializes in African American literary cultural performance studies, especially 19th century and trans-Atlantic culture. She is a rock music lover and has attributed her research interests in black performance to being a fan of rock music since a very young age.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Zora Neale Hurston - Wake Up Jacob (trad. recorded 1928 in the field)
Mamie Smith - Crazy Blues
Elvie Thomas & Geeshie Wiley - Over To My House
Elvie Thomas & Gershie Wiley - Last Kind Words Blues

Books:
Daphne A. Brooks - Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound
Daphne A. Brooks - Jeff Buckley’s Grace
Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Pauline Hopkins - Of One Blood

[unlocked] LITM Extra - Interview with Daphne A. Brooks pt.2 Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

Unlocked - for a number of personal reasons, we've been unable to record the episode on Bob Marley and the Wailers. In its stead, we've taken this opportunity to unlocked both parts of our interview with Daphne A. Brooks, previously only available to patrons. Become a patron from £3pcm to access much more of this material. We'll be back to pick up with Afro-Psychedelia very soon.
In this episode we conclude our two-part interview with Black Feminist scholar and music critic Daphne A. Brooks. Following from our previous show, Daphne disucsses some of the contemporary figures in her new book Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound, including Janelle Monáe, who along with the Wonderland Arts Collective engage in an act of intellectual worldbuilding around her music, and the deep archival searching of jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. With reference to Beyoncé Tim, Jeremy and Daphne consider to what extent we are living through an ascendent period of Black feminist consciousness and discuss the way such Black female megastars are held in cultural production.

We also took advantage of speaking with Daphne to ask her about the Harlem Cultural Festival, the so-called 'Black Woodstock' which the excellent new film and firm LITM favourite Summer of Soul documents, as well as to commemorate the recent passing of two titans of Black cultural writing, Greg Tate and bell hooks. We are so grateful to Daphne for being so generous with her time, insight and humour.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Janelle Monáe - Make Me Feel
Cécile McLorin Salvant - Ghost Song
Beyoncé - ***Flawless
Burnt Sugar - Conduction #5
Burnt Sugar - Rock'n'Roll Suicide

LITM Extra - Live Conversations March '22 [excerpt] Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

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.
This is the audio from our recent patrons-only 'Live Conversations' between ourselves and our patrons, which took place over Zoom in March of this year. Tim, Jeremy and our guests discussed the role of the internet in music fandom, the relative importance of mediating figures like critics and DJs, the impact of the net on the record market and its infrastructure, and ask whether DJs can still truly break a record from behind the booth.

We also talked about how strongly subcultural affiliation and music are linked in the 2020s, the perils of (sub)genrification, pluralistic listening, and whether dance music culture is - or has ever been - politicised.

We intend to hold these events semi-regularly, so do come along to the next one if you can.
Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.
Tune in, Turn on, Get down!

Soul Rebel: Bob Marley & The Wailers pt.1 Mar 31, 2022

Show notes

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy focus on the early life and work of Bob Marley & The Wailers. They explore the role Marley and the group played in bringing Reggae to the world, with the singer becoming a singular and ubiquitous figure in culture in the process. Beginning with their first Ska singles from the mid-'60s, we hear how the original 1965 recording of One Love articulated a nascent form of philosophical universalism, with love as a political virtue to overcome difference. We also follow Marley on his journey towards Rastafarianism, and reintroduce Island Records' Chris Blackwell to the show.

Tim and Jeremy discuss the powerful, dub-inflected production of the Wailers' second album Soul Rebels, consider the anti-imperialism of rootsyness, and explore the recording and marketing of their follow up, Catch A Fire.

We'll be back in a fortnight with part two of our deep dive on Marley. One Love.
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.
Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!
Become a patron from just £3 per month by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Tracklist:
The Wailers - Simmer Down
The Wailers - One Love (1965)
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Soul Rebel
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rebel's Hop
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Concrete Jungle

Books:
Timothy White - Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley

LITM Extra - Heavy Dub Theory pt.1 [excerpt] Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

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 patrons-only episode, Jeremy and Tim begin a multi-part exploration of what we're calling Heavy Dub Theory: a deep dive on the aesthetic, musicological and theoretical understandings of dub. We start with a discussion of the materiality of bass as expressed in the concept of Bass Materialism - how bass frequencies behave in space, are felt in our bodies, and how bass music rejected and upset prevailing musical expressions of white heteropatriarchal culture.
We also consider how dub composition is organised around subtraction rather than addition - a fact it shares with the contemporaneous school of Minimalism - and make the case that dub is anti-climactic, anti-telos, and ultimately breaks with traditional musical conceptions of time all together.
We'll be back in a fortnight with the next iteration of Heavy Dub Theory.
Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.
Tracklist:

A Tribe Called Quest - Vibes and Stuff
Steve Reich - Come Out
King Tubby & Observer All Stars - Rema Dub
King Tubby & Jacob Miller - City Of The Weakheart Dub
Peter Tosh - Mystic Man
Books:
Paul C. Jasen - The Low End Theory; Bass, Bodies and the Materiality of Sonic Experience
Julian Henriquez - Sonic Bodies
Steve Goodman - Sonic Warfare
Jeremy Gilbert & Ewan Pearson - Discographies
Tricia Rose - Black Noise
Henri Bergson - Matter and Memory

Worlds of Echo: Dub Pt.2 Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

In this week's episode Jeremy and Tim move through the late 20th century to trace dub's echoing influence on Disco, Post-Punk, early House and the music of the British Rave scene. Dub's aesthetics of space, minimalism, and bass-centric production are revealed on the New York dancefloor through the early remix experiments of Walter Gibbons and the studio work of Francois K, as well as in the punk clubs of London and the after-party living rooms of late '80s ravers.
Tim and Jeremy consider how the Clash came to lean heavily on their fascination with Dub and Rastafarianism; how Reggae as a musical vocabulary was repeatedly drawn on for distinctly Feminist musical projects with explicitly experimental aims; and spend some time discussing one of UK music's most singular figures, Andrew Weatherall.

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.
Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Become a patron from just £3 per month by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
Tracklist:
First Choice - Let No Man Put Asunder (Walter Gibbons Mix)
Disco Dub Band - For the Love of Money
The Slits - Shoplifting
The Clash - White Man in Hammersmith Palais
The Clash - The Magnificent Dance
Vivien Goldman - Launderette
Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
Chip E - Like This
Sandee - Notice Me (Notice the House Mix)
The Orb - Earth (Gaia)

Books:
Vivien Goldman - Revenge of the She-Punks

LITM Extra - What We're Listening To, March '22 [excerpt] Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

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 patrons-only bonus episode, Jeremy and Tim have a conversation about what music has been on their turntables recently.
In a genre-busting and wide-ranging discussion we consider potential connections between the current wave of excellent ambient psychedelic jazz releases from labels like Chicago's International Anthem with '90s Post Rock and the '70s Minimalism; explore the fresh and surprising offerings of '70s Belgium and the unusually Cuban sounds of '60s Senegal; and consider how Reggae covers of American and British pop songs are expressions of Gilroy's Black Atlantic.

Also in this episode we hear a Brazilian Tropicalia tune about the apparent founder of a universal mystic gnostic philosophy, contemplate the religion and theology of Late Antiquity, enjoy an exciting spurt of post-Jungle energy from contemporary London, and end with a playful and trippy dub remix fresh from a party.

This is part of a rough series of more conversational, unplanned episodes reflecting on what's been on our record players recently and what we've been up to that we'll be releasing to patrons to say thank you for your support.
Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.
The tracks discussed are:
Jamie Branch - Birds of Paradise
Placebo - Dag Madam Merci
Prince Buster - A Change is Gonna Come
Idrissa Diop - Caridad
Jorge Ben - Hermes Trismegisto Escrreveu
The Tornadoes & Tyra Hammond - You Got Me Thinking
Parris and Call Super - Poison Pudding
Desmond Chambers - Haly Gully (Toby Tobias Version)

The Version: Dub pt.1 Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy dive headlong into Dub. They discuss the changing meaning of the term, the difficulties in charting the history of the music, and explore the work of two of the pioneers of the sound, Lee 'Scratch' Perry and King Tubby. Jeremy and Tim discuss the sonic properties of dub, including the innovative use of reverb and delay, as well as the distinctive vocal practice of toasting and the starring role performed by the bass in this new musical form.

Tim and Jeremy also talk about why the innovations of Dub took place in Jamaica, the importance of addition and subtraction to the dub producers, and the persistent dialectic between seriousness and playfulness out of which so much Dub emerges. In this spirit, we also hope you enjoy the special LITM theme music version. Back in a fortnight with more - stay dubwise.
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.
Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!
Become a patron from just £3 per month by visiting www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Tracklist:

Les Paul & Mary Ford - How High The Moon
Richie Havens - Indian Rope Man
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity - Indian Rope Man
Bob Marley & the Wailers - African Herbsman
Lee 'Scratch' Perry - African Herbsman (Dub Version)
King Tubby & Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown
Junior Byles - Curly Locks
Augustus Pablo - Curly Dub
Sir Gibbs - People Grudgeful
The Abyssinians - Satta Massagana
Joe Gibbs - Satta Amasa Gana Version
King Tubby - Weeping Dub

Books:
Michael Veal - Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae

LITM Extra - 'Love Saves the Day' Reading Series: Chapter 1 part 3 [excerpt] Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

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.

Continuing our ongoing patrons-only reading series, Tim picks up where he left off in his 2004 book 'Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture 1970-1979'. I'm sure you'll all have heard him reference the book the show, and many of you will have read it, so here we present a reading series of the book to compliment the Love is the Message project.

In Chapter 1 part 3, we hear about the original parties thrown by David Mancuso in his home at 647 Broadway. Tim describes the make up of the crowd, the lengths David went in preparing for the party, his innovations in décor, and the freedom people found dancing there.

Thank you for your continued support of the show - we couldn't do it without you.

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!

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