I want to keep the mailer quite brief this time around, just to remind you all to get behind the fantastic (and as independent as can be!) Wide Awake Festival. For those that don’t know, it’s run by my former Lock Tavern boss / Field Day boss Daniel Crouch, alongside Keith who programmes his network of venues, amongst many other things. The festival terrain has become overwhelmingly political of late - in the case of Wide Awake, the event was in some jeopardy not once, but twice with the furore over statements that headliners Kneecap had made many moons ago, and the concerted campaign to rid Brockwell Park of festivals by nearby residents. It feels like the very concept of entertainment is under threat from all sides at the moment, so the best form of resistance is to buy a ticket and give events like Wide Awake the best chance of living to fight another day.

I’ll be playing a brief DJ set on the Dazed x Daniel Avery stage, playing before the man himself from 8:45 (if I remember rightly!). I’ve been overthinking it as usual, but think I’ve just about landed on a plan.

I’ve also put a new Volte-Face mix named ‘Unfinished Syzygy’ out via my Soundcloud. It’s a continuation of my deepening interests in the early 2000s, in particular, with a minimal/dubby feel for the most part although I try to leave the genre purism to other DJs. I think it’s a nice listen, and an indication of where I’m aiming to take the Volte-Face sound in the near future - still deep and transportative, but less of the big-room techno traits that my productions had (To be fair, my last release was finished in 2017, so there’s plenty of distance!). I also had some fun designing some AI slop artwork via ChatGBT in a matter of minutes - needs must and all that!

That’s all from me for now, apart from to say watch The Rehearsal! I’ve also been enjoying The Studio, Seth Cohen’s satirical Hollywood series on Apple. And The Righteous Gemstones keeps getting better too! I guess I’m in the mood for comedy of late.

See you down the back,

Casper