Ahead of his first gig in London at Handsome on August 8th, Vienna based DJ and promoter Rumi de Baires took some time to talk about music, his home country of Argentina, and his journey from psychology academic to dance floor doyen. Rumi de Baires grew up in Buenos Aires, the country’s colossal capital that sits on the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, so called for the supposed rich deposits of silver surrounding it (as was Argentina itself, which translates as something clo

Ahead of his set at Handsome this Saturday, I had the pleasure of speaking with the NYC house legend and songwriter producer. For old househeads like me, Lem Springsteen and John Ciafione are up there with Kenny Gonzalez and Louie Vega and Farley and Heller when it comes to production duos. As Mood II Swing, they put out some of the slickest New York sounds for the dance floor as well as being behind era-defining tracks such as Barbara Tucker’s ‘Beautiful People’ and Ultra Na

Shaun J. Wright and Alinka are the DJs, producers, and promoters behind the respected house label Twirl Recordings and the hugely successful Chicago parties of the same name. Here they speak to Martyn Fitzgerald about life growing up house in the Windy City. Shaun J Wright and Alinka, start and finish each other’s sentences, testament to a deep friendship and years of late-night talks. As well as being label owners and promoters, they are sought-after DJs and producers and,

In 1992 Smokin Jo was the first woman to win DJ Magazine’s DJ of the Year Award. Shockingly, she remains the sole female recipient in 2026. I’m not one for awards and the top down competitive environment it fosters, not to mention the cultivation for external validation that it would be beneficial for us to counter in ourselves and others, but if we are going to have awards let’s try and say something important with them. In a sense Jo’s autobiography, You Don’t Need A Dick

Sometimes I get asked to interview wonderful people for Faith, the London zine that has chronicled house culture since 1999. I'm reposting some of those pieces here and as Robert Owens is performing at Handsome this week here's the first focused on peak Chicago. For this one I spoke with Terry Martin, to talk about the seminal zine Thing and the subsequent House magazine he edited Crossfade. Honey Dijon, a reader of Thing, kindly added an introduction: "Zines are a form of c

We spoke to the lovely and legendary Robert Owens ahead of his set at Handsome.