Letter #164

Adventure, basslines, and recommendations

Jan 31, 2025

hi how r u 🐸,

How are you? I hope all is well. The mornings are lighter, the days are longer, and the crisp sunshine is cracking through the cold air. How has your year begun? What’s going on? Gimme a shout!

I’m going to attempt to write once a month for the whole of this Gregorian calendar year. I decided this on the 4th of January, and yet here I am, writing January’s at 9pm on the 30th. BUT, I’m here, and so are you, and that should be celebrated!

Everything is still kind of busy - work especially - but I had so many wonderful replies from folk after sending the last letter that it was a bit of a wake up call to me. So here I am, and I have two mixtapes / shows for you, a few interesting links, lots of book recommendations, and a very passionately written set of notes.

I am back, and I am back for good.

See you on the airwaves,
Jed x

PS. If you're new here, then here’s what you’ve missed so far.

PPS. Oh, and come join our lovely community, you’ll love it ❤️

🥁 Shows, tracklists, and mixtapes

The section that you most likely came here for, so it’s up top. My latest shows and tracklists from lovewillsavetheday.fm.

PLAY NOW

PLAY NOW

These are my latest and greatest two shows, but you can find a whole load of them here - usually with full tracklists and genre tags too :-)

📻 My lovewillsavetheday.fm recent highlights

These are my highlights from the station and the community this month…

Mike O’Mara is the DJ I wish I was. His latest show demonstrates why.
Daphne44’s Meanderings plumbs the depths of house and techno, and it’s always on point.
Teresa and Angie’s ByUs is always incredible - their interview with Charlie Dark was special
World of Rhythm. Show me a better selector than Becca OGT. I’ll wait. And keep waiting.
It’s an oldie, but I can’t stop listening to it; Surface Noise’s Weatherall tribute is sublime.

Come join our community here, listen live here (Friday-Sunday every week), and listen back to past shows here. If you’re here, you belong.

🌪 TL;DR Section

You, stuff to listen to, stuff to do, and a lot of stuff to read

Listen
- Mr. G interview. This is a mandatory listen.
- Philip Sherburne’s Earth / Fire playlist has gold.
Do
- Go watch Eno.
Read
- Articles
  - Djrum’s Art of DJing
- Books
  - How To Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan (beautiful, mind expanding book)
  - Apex Twin: A Disco Pogo tribute (a collection of incredible essays, articles and features)
  - Art Is Magic, Jeremy Deller (one of the most creatively inspiring books I’ve read in a long time)
  - All The Houses I’ve Ever Lived In, Kieran Yates (must read. Searing, yet intimate, in a way that only Yates can write)
  - Bowie: A Life, Dylan Jones (so. much. gossip.)
  - Altruism, Matthieu Ricard (a book for life)
  - If you’d like to read reviews on the above, or you want more book recommendations, I publish short reviews of everything I’ve read and enjoyed here

📝 The notes

Surrender to adventure

A few weekend’s back I made a bit of a pilgrimage to the hills of the Peak District.

I arrived in the dark, and while I was a little disappointed to miss the sunset along the hills, I woke up the next morning to the light pouring in from the window, and the imposing outlines of Rushup Edge, Back Tor, Lose Hill, and Mam Tor. The sight of thick clag counteracted by the feeling of the sharp morning air.

I grew up a few miles from the Peak, but now that part of my life felt more than just a few miles away. I was born in a part of Derbyshire that carried deep scars, and my childhood left its marks too, yet now, a few miles down the road, Edale, the Peak, and the Pennine Way represent a different life - a sort of rebirth.

The first time I went to Edale as an adult it was with partner, daughter, and sister-in-law and her family. On the second day, as we sat around chatting in fold up chairs, I saw two people running up towards Jacob’s Ladder. It looked like they were disappearing into the wilderness, and as I watched them vanish from sight, something inside me changed. I later found out that they were likely running the beginning of the Pennine Way, and after a little digging, I read that twice a year there were a series of races on the route, the biggest of which covered all 268 miles of it. The Spine. I became obsessed…

I know I’m prone to drama, but I say this in all sincerity; sat in that chair watching those two people traverse the broad shoulders of Grindslow Knoll, my life changed. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I started living a different life from that moment.

Looking back now, that trigger was the moment that I decided that I wanted to breathe life in. That I wanted to feel the sense of adventure that they did. That I wanted more.

That was in late 2020, and since then I’ve been trying to train my body and my mind to handle running a long way. Eventually, with a dream of running all 268 miles of the Pennine Way. At the beginning, I was only focused on the dream, but since then I’ve discovered that the real joy is the journey itself.

Last December, I found myself at 3am in the middle of some very isolated woods on the Wayfarer’s Way - a path that connects the South Downs and North Downs National Trails - and at that moment, I started (loudly) repeating to myself; “surrender to the adventure…”. The journey had become the dream.

This was an accidental mantra that kept coming back to me again and again as I ran the Winter Downs 100 miler, but one that was (accidentally) steeped in Buddhist thinking. To ‘surrender’ is to stop resisting a more powerful force - and most often we see that given force as an enemy or opponent, and the idea of ‘surrendering’ has negative connotations; it’s about giving in and accepting our fate. But what if the force we’re fighting is positive? What if our resistance is to a force that would push us forwards? What if we surrender to ourselves, to adventure, to love? What if we surrender to the moment?

As I shuffled along that hundred mile route I kept reminding myself to surrender to the moment; to surrender to nature; and to the adventure I’d chosen. I kept reminding myself that this is it. Life is happening now, and to be here now is such a gift. Surrender to it. The journey became the dream.

At the heart of that accidental mantra, I latter realised, is a longstanding belief that love will save the day. To me, this phrase is both active and passive at once - it’s a positive guiding principle, but it’s also the carrot and the stick. We can hold it to be true, but we also have to make it true ourselves. We can hold a dream, but we have to be prepared to make the journey to turn it into a reality. So, for me, to surrender is to accept this belief, to give ourselves over to positivity, but also to acknowledge it and put our back into the adventure of it all. Eat them veggies, and teach ourselves to enjoy their nourishment.

Or, as Whitney puts it so much more succinctly; “there’s an answer in your heart, so let your light shine on, my dear, and love will save the day.”

Fairly regularly, someone will ask me ‘why’. Why would I want to run a 100k, a hundred miles, or one day want to run 268 miles - especially alone, self-supported through fells, bogs, darkness, mountains, and terrible weather. Jesus, before 2020 I used to regularly say that it was mad to run a marathon, that humans just aren’t made for that shite.

So I explain that, for me, my life changed when I realised that I could direct my endless well of energy at something that gives me something back. That if I point my energy at a journey, the dreams become reality a little faster. Doing that - applying my energy to adventure and running makes me feel like I’m a better version of myself, it widens my horizons, I’m healthier, more disciplined, and resilient. I understand my body, and for the first time in my life, I like my body. I feel free.

These are all reasons for me - and fairly selfish - but I also do this for my daughter. I want to show her that our bodies can do things that we think are beyond us, if we just apply a little practice and consistency. If we treat them right with stimulus, nutrition, and rest, that they can give us adventure and freedom. I want her to know these things from the jump, and not have to find them out at 34 like I did.

So, I’ve also come to see life as an adventure, and I’m so greedy for it.

There was a moment in the early hours of the morning on that last race when I just started laughing and crying at how fun and ridiculous things can be when you tip up to the buffet of life with an oversize plate.

So friends, as I carry the energy from my pilgrimage from Hope Valley (seriously), I beg you; Be the Augustus Gloop of life. Be greedy with it. Eat up that adventure - whatever it is to you and wherever you find it. It’s a never ending all-you-can-eat, so dig in, and enjoy every last bite.

Surrender to the adventure, and be here now x

Letter #163

Well, well, well...

Jed

Oct 18, 2024

hi how r u 🐸,

Well, well, well. LOOK WHO IT IS.

I bet you’d forgotten all about me, hadn’t you? You thought I’d forgotten about you, thought I’d left you forever. Well I’m back, and god damn it I’ve bloody missed you.

How are you? It’s been nearly ten months, so feels a bit daft asking what you’ve been up to, but still, what’s going on? I’d love to hear from you!

I have been - as you’ve probably guessed - a little busy. Common People now has an emergency financial support fund, I trained for (and DNF’d - LOL) the Spine Challenger South, I started training for the Winter Downs 100, I launched a new business focused on helping companies understand culture and create stuff that’s valuable and additive (rather than destructive or extractive), I’ve been reading more than ever, and I’ve been busy with the team building lovewillsavetheday.fm. Oh, and desperately tried to remain a good parent, partner, and friend. It’s been wild, but I’ll spare you ten months worth of diary entries and instead give you a confession: I’ve bloody missed you.

Like, really missed you.

It’s taken me a long time to realise that in many ways, the Letters that I send to you are a sort of diary for me. This is where I work things out, share the beginnings of ideas, test things that I think might be interesting, and document my exploration of music, culture, and my attempts to lead a creative life. It’s a very public showing of my working and processing - and from what you’ve often said over the last (nearly) seven years, that’s often what’s been most interesting about the Letter. That and the music, of course.

So, I’m back.

As ever, just underneath here you’ll find the standard links to a bunch of mixtapes / shows filled with incredible music. I’ve also put together a short Notes, as over the last few weeks I’ve had a bit of a revelation, and it’s been very influential. AND I’ve also put together a TL:DR Section.

It’s good to be back, and I’m so pleased to be writing to you again.

See you on the airwaves,
Jed x

PS. If you're new here, then here’s what you’ve missed so far.

PPS. Oh, and come join our lovely community, you’ll love it ❤️

🥁 Shows, tracklists, and mixtapes

The section that you most likely came here for, so it’s up top. My latest shows and tracklists from lovewillsavetheday.fm.

PLAY NOW

📻 My lovewillsavetheday.fm recent highlights

These are my highlights from the station and the community this month…

Get2Kno - a brilliant interview focused show highlighting crucial female DJs from the 90s.
Come Collect with Collectivism - in my opinion, one of the best shows we’ve ever broadcast.
Club Glorious - glorious by name, glorious by nature.
Suspended in Air - beautiful music, played by a beautiful human. This episode was deeply moving.
ByUs - Angie and Teresa interview Mr Scruff on their latest show.

Come join our community here, listen live here (Friday-Sunday every week), and listen back to past shows here. If you’re here, you belong.

🌪 TL;DR Section

You, stuff to listen to, stuff to do, and a lot of stuff to read

What you lot are up to
- Gabe is the new editor of RA - congratulations!
- Scrimshire’s got new music out - buy-on-sight, as per
- Failed Rockstar (AKA Neil) has launched his debut single - Drive-esque 80s deliciousness
- Machine Soul in Sheffield have got Ash Lauryn playing soon
- Bopperson’s debut EP is getting the remix (and pressing!) duty
- There’s also two new great compilations out on 3024 from their excellent mentoring program - big shout, Martyn!
- And there’s also brilliant new / relaunched newsletters from Becca OGT, Tom Belte, and Cosmic Bob
Listen
- I cannot get enough of the NoTags podcast. Listen-on-sight(!)
- Scuba’s podcast is also on a hot streak at the minute too - this episode with Quinn from Paranoid London was a great listen
Do
- If you’re local to London, the Reverb exhibition at 180 Studios is phenomenal - big thanks for Stef for taking me down
Read
- Articles
  - Shawn Reynaldo is on great form at the minute - this Shackleton piece is great
  - CCL’s Art Of DJing feature in RA was both impeccable and inspiring
- Books
  - Uncut Funk, bell hooks and Stuart Hall (as you’d expect - incredible)
  - Hold Your Own, Kae Tempest (beautiful)
  - Chav Solidarity, D. Hunter (astonishing)
  - Comrade, Jodi Dean (clarity on new ways of living)
  - Bring No Clothes, Charlie Porter (never no what to expect, never finish disappointed)
  - Black Women Always, Kevin Morosky (my book of the year)
  - Where We Come From, Aniefiok Ekpoudom (sublime, delicate writing on UK rap)
  - All Crews, Brian Belle-Fortune (the bible)
  - If you’d like more book recommendations / reviews, I publish short reviews of everything I’ve read and enjoyed here

📝 The notes

Bass is the place.

For the last three years I’ve been going to We Out Here, and for the last three years I’ve had a musical epiphany there. The first year it was Tim Reaper. Last year it was Daudi. This year it was Mia Koden. Given the line up each year, I think it’s probably hard not to have an epiphany, but equally so, with such a ridiculously deep line up, it means the stand out moments really are all-over-goosebumps-holy-fuck-what-did-I-just-witness moments. Moments that seem to crystallise disparate parts of a journey I’ve not quite figured out yet - like finding a map for an adventure you’re already half way through.

With Reaper it was the use of energy in art, a new way of hearing music, and the act of using the past to mark out a path through the present, to the future. With Daudi it was finding a deeper way of understanding a lot of stuff about myself; my childhood, my identity, and friendships (Daudi’s music - and the man himself - has had a profound impact on me). With Koden it was dub.

I got home from Dorset and feverishly started digging through books on dub, articles, essays, albums, songs, documentaries - desperate to understand if this - dub - could be the thread of all that I love about music. Was dub the next part of the map of music that I use to understand the world? It felt like connective tissue between so much of what I loved - connecting art, politics, culture, and music. So I submerged myself.

Now, I’m very lucky in that I get to spend a lot of time with Collectivism’s Trufa Negra. That human is a bodhisattva, a brilliant, balanced, beautiful human, and in one meandering conversation I mentioned being at an impasse with the direction of my show and missing a little fire in how I was exploring, and he said - as clear as day, and with incredible nonchalance - that what typifies my show is an exploration of the edges through bass. It was, friend, a proper lightning strike that shot straight through me.

So my new direction - my new map - is “exploring the margins of music, culture, and life through bass frequencies”. What Kode9 / Steve Goodman would call Bass Materialism. The construction of a cultural ecology that focuses on the audio and tactile feeling of bass frequencies - in music, culture, and life.

Bass has always been important to me - from the donk basslines of illegal raves in village rugby clubs as an early teen, to the low-slung groove of Sun Ra’s Lanquidity - bass has always propelled me forwards.

Bass frequencies tap into our early-stage evolutionary lizard brains - literally - our heads used to be close to the floor, and the rumble of low-end frequencies would tell us about the world around us. Bass would trigger a fight or flight response - it would keep us alive. Millennia later, those same bass frequencies would teach us about the world when we in-utero - it would teach us what was to be alive. We have a biological predisposition to learn about the world from the sounds around us - and bass frequencies are a fundamental part of that.

They carry important cultural messages too. In dub - the act of removing the highs and mids - these bass frequencies carry messages of removal and absence. The absence of vocals and melody is a direct reflection of the cross-generational memories that become coded into dub, reflecting what Isis Semaj-Hall calls “references to an African home, a tortuous Middle Passage, and a weary entry into the New World”. Bass travels the waves across the Black Atlantic, and create the foundation of everything I love about music.

So this new concept of exploring the margins of music, culture, and life through bass frequencies and my moment at Mia Koden took me to dub, but then from dub took me back to Drexciya, to Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic, and to Kode9’s Hyperdub label. And Kode9 has become another sort of skeleton key for me…

You may not know, but was - until recently - a Lecturer in Music Culture at the School of Sciences, Media, and Cultural Studies at the University of East London and member of the CCRU - the cybernetic culture research unit - a hugely influential group of thinkers that included Kodwo Eshun and Mark Fisher.

Kode9 - through his own work, label, and academic work - is the connection between the foundations of dub, critical theory, and bass-driven dance music today. He talks about using songs and albums as sort of audio-essays, telling stories through sentences of sound. On the foundation of heavy bass frequencies, he nods to footwork, and jungle, bass, to UK funky - connecting the rave continuum, and simultaneously connecting to ideas of acid communism, decrying right wing accelerationism, and playing with ideas of post-capitalist desire .

So, the next part of my journey will be about “exploring the margins of music, culture, and life through bass frequencies”.

Fancy joining me?

Letter #162

What a year it's been...

Dec 19, 2023

Hello. hi how r u 🐸

How’s it going? How are you? Fire me a reply and let me know, I’d love to hear fro you.

From my side, well, apologies for the delay in writing to you, it’s been a wild few months with lovewillsavetheday.fm, Common People, family, work, running, life, you know, all the stuff. Yes, at the buffet of life, I bring my own supersize plate, and my metaphorical eyes are much bigger than my metaphorical belly, but, it’s been a great year, and I hope you’re feeling festive and looking back with a beaming smile and a full heart. I certainly am.

I wanted to say a huge thank you for supporting lovewillsavetheday.fm. We’ve always been crystal clear that we're a community, that happens to have a radio station (rather than the other way around!), and that everything we do is in service of our community. Us, you, me, and everyone else, is all that really matters. So to see how our community has supported, rallied, presented, invested time, sweat, and tears into the launch of the station has been a truly beautiful, life-affirming thing.

I want to take a second to shout out to all of the incredible residents that are part of the station. Every show is a 10/10 classic. (My most recent favourites are linked below!) It’s a truly dreamy line up, and it’s exciting to see people grow in confidence, and for us to add new people to our station schedule too (keep your eyes peeled on New Years Eve weekend - HEAT!). If you’re reading this on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, click here.

And while I’m at it, I’d love to make another huge shout out. I often - and very unfairly - get undue credit for this wonderful little corner of the world that we’re creating, when in reality I was just the spark that lit a bonfire that so many other brilliant people built, so please, give a little clap, a big smile, and an enormous thank you to the crew that puts this station together: Becca, Conor, Dean, Demi, Jess, Kevin, Holly, Laura, Nick H, Nick R, Sarah, Sean, Stef, Steve, Steven, Tara, Tim, and Will.

These are some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met, and it’s a genuine privilege to be able to build something so magical together.

Anyway, before I start having a little cry at how wonderful this all is, thank you for coming through, supporting, chatting, sharing ideas, pitching in, sharing the station, and being part of our community, you make all of this what it is, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

(Given I’ve not stopped banging on about the station, I’m sure it won’t have passed anyone by, but if it has, then catch up and read about it here.)

Since I last wrote to you, I’ve put out a whopping six shows, so this letter has a whole host of incredible music for you to dive into! All the shows are below, with a mini description for each, and a playlist for them all too.

PLUS there’s a bunch of book recommendations, and five of my favourite shows from the station too!

See you on the airwaves,
Jed x

PS. If you're new here, then here’s what you’ve missed so far.

PPS. Oh, and come join our lovely community, you’ll love it ❤️

🥁 Shows, tracklists, and mixtapes

The section that you most likely came here for, so it’s up top. My latest shows and tracklists from lovewillsavetheday.fm, plus a Spotify mixtape version too.

My lackadaisical approach to this newsletter means I have SIX shows to share with you today!

(Please note that the Spotify playlists are almost all incomplete as not everything I play on the shows is on Spotify, so for the full goodness, hit the Full Show link)

📻 My lovewillsavetheday.fm recent highlights

These are my highlights from the station and the community this month…

Precious Love, with Rustam Ospanoff (happy birthday Rustam!)
Better Days, with Dean (incredible show!)
Valley of the Dolls, with Jo (a must listen)
World of Rhythm, with Becca OGT (because Becca never misses)
And finally, Rocksteady Disco, with Peter Croce (HEAT)

🌪 TL;DR Section

There’ll be more links soon, promise, but I cannot stop reading books at the minute.

Books
- Just read…
  - Claudia Jones: A Life In Exile, Marik Sherwood (great insight into an incredible human and one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival - “a peoples art is the genesis of their freedom”)
  - A Darker Electricity, Mark Angelo Harrison (wow - a searing account of Spiral Tribe, and a handbook for building something different)
  - Why We Run, Danielle Ledbury (perfect Christmas gift for all you runners!)
  - Fortitude, Bruce Daisley (an excellent book on how our bodies respond to trauma and stress, hit me right between the eyes and explained a lot)
  - Path of Compassion, Thich Nhat Hanh (one of the only books I’ve read more than once - this was my third read. Go read it)
  - Freedom Is A Constant Struggle, Angela Y. Davis (Davis is my guiding light, and this collection of lectures and essays was timely)
  - The Workshop (crucial, excellent documentation of Sheffield’s underground music scene)
  - Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain (read it on a single sitting, excellent, gossipy, funny, insightful, but you knew that already)
  - The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels (festive, eh?!)
- Next up…
  - An Autobiography, Angela Y. Davis
  - Notebooks of a Wandering Monk, Matthieu Ricard
  - Black Skins, White Masks, Frantz Fanon
  - The Xenofeminist Manifesto, Laboria Cubonicks

📝 The notes

These will be back one day, and yes that is a threat.

Letter #161

It's been a minute...

Oct 06, 2023

Hello. hi how r u 🐸

Well, how are you?! What have you been up to? I know I always say this, but I’ve missed writing to you. I’ve been keeping myself busy though, don’t worry about that. Work is hectic, home is hectic, Common People is cruising along, and running, well, running is keeping my mind, body, and soul together. Just about.

Oh, and lovewillsavetheday.fm? Well, we’re two months in and I think we’ve launched a proper-fully-functioning-packed-with-incredible-shows-supported-by-an-incredible-community radio station! Woohoo!

OMG. What. A. Ride.

(If this news has passed you by completely, read about it here.)

It has been incredible to watch this beautiful little seed grow into something far bigger, better, and brighter than I ever thought possible. It’s been hard work, and the team that’s got it to where we are today (HUGE shouts to Becca, Conor, Demi, Holly, Kevin, Nick, Steve, Stef, and Tara!) are such an incredible crew - without them, this would never have even made it to dead air. Then the presenters. HOLY MOLY. As a fellow presenter, it is humbling to listen to the other shows. The schedule is bursting with brilliant talent - and covers such a vast array of genres, energies, and subjects. It makes me cry on a daily basis it’s so great. We’re broadcasting every Friday, Saturday and Sunday (so if you’re reading this on one of those days, go tune in now, here!).

But the most awe-inspiring part? The crew that it could-not-and-would-not exist without? The reason for the blood, sweat, and tears? You. The people that have made Love Will Save The Day what it is, was, and will be, since day one. You are everything. And most excitingly, this whole thing is ours.

Alongside this letter that you’re reading now, we’ve also built ourselves a nice little spot in Discord, that has loads of great chat, a channel for talking to people that are tuning in live, recommendations and requests, and a whole host of brilliant people making friends and sharing the good stuff. Most importantly, it’s a place for us all to belong. Which has always been the root of why this whole thing started, and it’s been the fuel that’s carried it forwards. So come join us.

As promised, the letter will be a bit more sporadic, but it is certainly here to stay.

I’m broadcasting my show every other Saturday 7-9pm, and so I’ll be bringing those shows here too, sharing the playlist, the full show link, and a Spotify mixtape version too. Which means much more music than before, so I hope that makes up for the sporadic nature of the letters.

I’ve also added in a section on my highlights from the station and the community, the TL;DR section is staying, and I will eventually get back to sharing essays too. But for now, here’s loads of bloody great music for you.

It’s great to be back, I’ve missed you ❤️.

See you on the airwaves,
Jed x

PS. If you're new here, then here’s what you’ve missed so far.

PPS. Oh, and come join our lovely community, you’ll love it ❤️

🥁 Shows, tracklists, and mixtapes

The section that you most likely came here for, so it’s up top. My latest shows and tracklists from lovewillsavetheday.fm, plus a Spotify mixtape version too.

This letter has a whopping FOUR shows and mixtapes! Here we go…

Full Show

It’s all from South America. 02-09-23. Spotify.

Full Show

It’s never over 122bpm. 16.09.23. Spotify.

Full Show

Breaks, sub-bass, and fun. 30.09.23. Spotify.

Full Show

(Please note that the Spotify playlists are almost all incomplete as not everything I play on the shows is on Spotify, so for the full goodness, hit the Full Show link)

📻 My lovewillsavetheday.fm highlights

These are my highlights from the station and the community this month…

Casa De Szechuan - window rattling goodness
Kosmische Kollektiv - cosmic sounds for sore heads
Temple Of Dae - an incredible hour of ‘lunch house’
From The Floor - a celebration of Field Manoeuvres
Electronic Workshop - weapons-grade techno

🌪 TL;DR Section

There’ll be more links soon, promise.

Books
- Just read…
  - Party Lines, Ed Gillett (Excellent. Must read.)
  - Dreaming in Yellow, Harry Harrison (Wonderful book. Must read!)
  - Path Of Compassion, Thich What Hanh (I’ve read this three times now)
  - Renegade Snares, Ben Murphy and Carl Loben
- Next up…
  - Claudia Jones: A Life In Exile, Marik Sherwood
  - A Darker Electricity, Mark Angelo Harrison
  - Black Skins, White Masks, Frantz Fanon
  - Industry of Magic & Light, David Keenan
  - The Body Keeps The Score, Bessel van der Kolk

📝 The notes

These will be back one day, and yes that is a threat.

Some news...

The next chapter begins tomorrow

Jul 21, 2023

Hello, hi how r u 🐸

How are you? I hope you’re good, but I’d love to know what you’re up to. It’s always nice when people reply. What’s good??

On good, I am feeling good. In fact, I’m feeling great. I’ve got big news.

Late last year, a wonderful friend (who became a friend through this very community) Cosmic Bob (probably not the name on his passport) messaged me to suggest that we should create a group Mixcloud account for the Love Will Save The Day chat. It was a great idea. There are lots of incredible DJs, presenters, and interesting people in our community, and the idea of bringing them together was exciting.

I can’t remember exactly how it played out, but let’s just say it escalated.

And today, I’m excited to announce that tomorrow, the 22nd of July, we’re launching our own radio station, lovewillsavetheday.fm.

I’ll get to the details, but first… Let me get emotional.

When I started writing this email way back in June 2017, it was for a few friends, and the idea was to share music that I thought they should hear. It was kind of a replacement for DJing and throwing parties.

Over time it started to grow, and it became a way for me to find my people. To find somewhere I could belong (after I realised that I’d felt pretty lost for quite a while). A community started to grow around it, and friendships started growing not just for me, but for other people too. Then things got out of hand and it grew really fast, both in terms of scale, but also in terms of the bonds between us all.

There are nearly 3,000 of us now, and that feels utterly insane to write. We have a community of people who are all hugely different from one another, but yet connected by a shared love of art, culture, and music from the margins, and a belief that “hate knows love’s the cure”.

So when Cosmic Bob (again, not his real name) and I started getting carried away, I had to admit that our own radio station felt like a natural progression. But I still thought it was too big of a lift, and I had a lot of doubts. Then a great friend of mine (as well as being a co-founder of LWSTD-FM, and incredible DJ), Becca Sawyer, said that “when most stations launch they’re a radio station looking for a community, but we’re the other way round; we’re a community looking for a radio station”, and everything fell into place in my head.

Then we started talking about if this was actually needed - after all, there’s loads of incredible independent radio stations around. But there were a few things that we - and by we, I mean the incredible group of co-founders that have got this to this stage (Becca, Conor, Demi, Holly, Nick/Cosmic, Tara, Stef, and Steve) - noticed were a little broken, asymmetrical even.

So here’s why we’re doing this, beyond it being just the natural evolution of our community.

Ongoing strikes, rising inequality, falling living standards, and widespread corruption. It's 2023, but the late 1970s are getting a rewind.

Fifty years ago, those that found themselves marginalised could protest with art and music. Today, the cultural movements born on the fringes are quickly commercialised, sanitised and appropriated by investors and big business.

Bleached, reshaped, and sold back to us.

The dull ache of capitalism is insidious and it’s stopped any notion of a space that’s about good, not greed, and now we’re left with a shallow version of appropriated and diluted culture that’s more focused on raising revenue than raising vibrations.

But necessity is the mother of invention - and to create is in our nature. From the seeds of discontent grows dissent. We believe that the commercialisation of culture needs an opposition. We have hope.

Dancefloors, community centres, disused car parks, chat rooms, bedrooms, the afters, the big tents, the small audiences, the bonds of the unheard, the red lights, the basements and the feelings. The feeling that we are more than just ourselves and our possessions - this is life.

And this is what we want to protect.

So we’re on a mission together to create a space that’s just for us, devoid of interference and ‘audience monetisation’ plans. This is our sacred space, our little corner of the world where we can share our love for music, art, and one another, this… this is our home.

This is lovewillsavetheday.fm.

And tomorrow, at 12pm, it will come to life.

lovewillsavetheday.fm will be a co-operative, DIY audio platform that fosters, celebrates and amplifies the music, art, and ideas founded on the margins.

It’ll be owned, run, and presented by its members, and we’d love for you to come join us 💙

You can listen here, join the community here, and follow us on Instagram here.

As for this newsletter, well, worry not. It can’t really become any more sporadic, so there’s that. Plus, I’ll be putting out two shows on month (7-10pm, the first and third Saturday of every month), and here I’ll share links to my shows, tracklists, a Spotify mixtape of most of the music played, links to interesting things, and sometimes some ideas and thoughts. So for those of you that are entirely unenthused about radio; don’t worry, I’ve got you.

For those of you that love radio, then be sure to tune in tomorrow at 12pm, and get at us in the chat!

And with that, I bid you good day. Oh, actually, one thing more; after six years, the sign-off is changing too…

See you on the airwaves,
Jed x

PS. If you're new here, then here’s what you’ve missed so far.

PPS. Oh, and come join our lovely little community, you’ll love it ❤️

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