- The final mix in our birthday series comes from a living legend.
- As part of our ongoing celebration of 21 years of club culture, we're featuring some of our favourite DJs from around the world, highlighting the parties and clubs most important to their lives in dance music.
The Loft is one of the most storied and sacred spaces in dance music history. Founded in Manhattan in 1970 by the late David Mancuso, The Loft was a party unlike any other: relaxed and gently psychedelic, with pristine audiophile sound played at a medium volume level kinder to the ears. You didn't need to blast the music to appreciate the sonic perfection of the music and the system it was played on. Over the decades, Mancuso invented his own influential style of DJing, letting the records breathe rather than mashing them together. Mancuso, who died in 2016, had many acolytes over the years, perhaps none more prominent than Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, who provides our final 2122 birthday RA Podcast: a tribute to The Loft.
Murphy has an impressive resume without The Loft: she's a long-time radio DJ, founded the Classic Album Sundays series and started her own Lucky Cloud Loft Party in London, in collaboration with Mancuso. Her DJing style, slow, steady and respectful of the music, channels those years spent at The Loft, and her RA Podcast embodies the disco-influenced sounds that define the party, played with care, love and reverence. It's a counterpart to her entry in our Sacred Spaces book, part of which is excerpted below.
What was your first experience or memory of The Loft?
I recently wrote about my first experience going to The Loft back in 1992 for Sacred Spaces, so rather than give it all away, here is an excerpt that will hopefully lead the reader to the full story…
"There was no way of knowing what was behind the double doors of the former theatre at 238 East 3rd Street—none of the usual indicators of a nightclub, such as signage or security. In fact, it wasn't a nightclub at all, but a private party hosted by somebody who would later become one of the most significant people in my life, David Mancuso. His home, known as The Loft, seemed of another place and time and in a way, it was with '60s hippie social idealism married with the '70s ecstatic dance of abandon. But it was also very 'now' with its electric current of psychedelic energy coursing through the music transporting the dancers to a physical and mental space where one could truly be in the moment. I felt I had truly arrived..."
What role has The Loft played in your history/career as a DJ?
By the time I set foot into David's Loft, I had been DJing on radio for a decade, both on high school and college radio and professionally in Japan. I had DJed at spots like Club Mars and CBGB's Record Canteen. Having already worked in a couple of record shops by this point, I had a relatively expansive knowledge of music but in other areas. I loved going out to clubs and always had a good boogie, but it wasn't until I heard the music that David played that I felt a huge connection with dance music. I started collecting old disco and buying new house records and started a new radio show called Soul School on WNYU and very bravely started to learn to mix on a radio board. Kind of crazy, really.
I invited David up as a guest on my show and he selected the records but was too shy to speak. By this time, he and I were developing a friendship outside of the party, but I was still shocked when he invited me to play some records with him at The Loft. That was the start of a long mentorship and friendship that grew deeper and deeper over time. When I moved to London in 1999, David and I co-produced The Loft compilations for Nuphonic and we began working together on a global level. He had asked me to be chairwoman of a foundation to protect the principles, reputation and legacy of The Loft and I am keeping my promise to him since his passing.
Working with him and The Loft has run parallel to my own professional vocation in music. It was important to both myself and to David that I continue my own personal musical trajectory whilst fulfilling The Loft roles he asked me to do.
The Loft was a musical turning point, but it was more than that. David's philosophies on sound and his view of music as a healing and uniting force is something I try to bring throughout my work whether it's radio shows or Classic Album Sundays or mixing down a studio production. And even though my DJ sets in clubs and festivals is a completely different atmosphere to The Loft or a party in one's home, I endeavour to bring forth his principles in getting the best sound possible out of the situation and to channel the life energy of music.
What, to you, set The Loft apart from other clubs, or made it unique?
The Loft is a party and not a club so that is the biggest point of difference. David's parties started in his own home with a group of friends, his sound system and his collection of records and his primary purpose was to bring people from all walks of life together through the power of music. He also kept the dance floor free from commercial transactions, so the party is BYOB with a free cloak room and buffet included. Its primary purpose is social rather than monetary.
David's sound system and setup is also another major difference as he bought audiophile components like Klipschorn loudspeakers, Mark Levinson amplification and Koetsu moving coil cartridges and set it up in real stereo and without compression, which is something you just cannot realistically do in a club situation. The way he designed the sound system allows for more dynamic and subtlety whereas clubs usually prioritise power and punch. And the listening level is much lower than that of commercial clubs, as David was a champion of safe sound.
How and where was the mix recorded, and how does it pay tribute to The Loft?
I recorded this mix at home, on vinyl and without mixing, in The Loft style. Over the years I have put together a few Loft-style mixes, some that focus on different time periods including the early pre-disco '70s, a time and an era of music that fascinates me. For this mix, I decided to make it very personal and less trainspotter-ish, linking it into the piece I wrote for Sacred Spaces. This mix features the records I fell in love with when I first started going to The Loft in the early '90s and that I still cherish today. It's not overly clever but it brings me back to David's h(ohm) on East 3rd Street, and is filled with love.
What are you up to next?
While Worldwide FM is on pause, I'm hosting my Balearic Breakfast radio shows on Tuesday mornings on my Mixcloud Live and keeping the family together. This show has been such an inspiration as I'm turned onto tunes both old and new through the community's requests. It also gives me the chance to rediscover records in my own collection. My next compilation, Balearic Breakfast Vol. 2, will come out on Heavenly Recordings in the spring, and I'm aiming to host some events around the release. On the production front, my 'Norma' Whitfield-styled remix of FSQ and Fonda Rae will come out on Soul Clap next year, and I have just been commissioned to do a remix of Danish guitarist Jacob Guresvitsch for Music For Dreams and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in the studio.
The Pioneer Producer event series I put together for my Classic Album Sundays platform will be released as a series of streams on RA in January. I'm very proud of this series as it highlights inspirational women producers. It's estimated that only 6 percent of the UK's producers identify as women, so this series celebrates, educates and inspires future producers and our featured guests Honey Dijon, Emma-Jean Thackray, Lucinda Chua and Flava D did just that. And the DJ bookings are coming in for 2023, so after a busy past few months I'm looking to take a bit of time off for the holidays to take care of myself, spend time with family and friends and get ready for 2023.
Photo: Eilon Paz
As part of RA2122, we're also publishing a book of essays and letters, as well as hosting events in New York and Manchester.
TracklistDexter Wansel - Life On Mars
Larry Spinosa - Guitar
Tamiko Jones - Can't Live Without Your Love
Don Ray - Standing In The Rain
Atmosfear - Dancing In Outer Space
Nu Yorican Soul - The Nervous Track
Pacha - One Kiss (F.O.S. One Remix)
Nicodemus - Boneman Connection
Level 42 - Starchild
Mission Control - Outta Limits (Shelter Mix)
Soft House Company - A Little Piano
Code 718 - Equinox
Psychotropic - Only For The Headstrong
Rufus & Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody (Hallucinogenic Version)
The Blackbyrds - Walking In Rhythm
Jimi Hendrix - 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) / Moon, Turn the Tides…gently gently away