For the last 20 years London-based author and party organiser Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London’s dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world. Having conducted the first set of major interviews with David Mancuso, Lawrence started to put on Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In early 2004 he published Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-79, which tracked the influence of the Loft on the wider New York DJ, dance and disco scene. In 2009 his biography of the iconic musician Arthur Russell became the first book to map the wider downtown music scene. These beautifully written and politically insightful histories have educated, inspired and celebrated the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary dance music.

Lawrence’s most recent publication, Life & Death On The New York Dancefloor, 1980 – 1983, published in late 2016, shines a light on 'one of the most dynamic and creative periods in the history of New York City'. Falling between the more regularly celebrated sounds of disco, house and techno, the period produced a uniquely hybrid series of sounds that never acquired a settled name. This led them to be largely ignored by historians and even DJs, yet the power of the period’s music and the scenes it birthed, Lawrence argues, remains undeniable. Met with a rapturous response, Life and Death On The New York Dance Floor saw Lawrence on the road for most of the next year as he spread the word about the characters, the records, the clubs and the bands that shaped the post-Disco, post-Punk, and burgeoning Hip Hop landscapes of New York City during the early 1980s—a period when freedom still ruled.

CD1
1 - Dinosaur L - Go Bang (LP Version)
2 - Tuxedomoon - Desire
3 - Gray - Drum Mode
4 - Alan Vega - Saturn Drive
5 - David Byrne - Big Business (Dance Mix)
6 - Johnny Dynell & New York 88 - Jam Hot (Rhumba Rock)
7 - Rammellzee Vs K-Rob - Beat Bop (Original 12" Single)
8 - 3 Teens Kill 4 - Hold Up

CD2
1 - John Robie - Vena Cava
2 - James White & The Blacks - Contort Yourself (August Darnell mix)
3 - Quando Quango - Love Tempo (Mark Kamins Mix)
4 - George Kranz - Din Daa Daa (Trommeltanz)
5 - Loose Joints - Pop Your Funk (Instrumental)
6 - Material - Bustin' Out (Long Version)
7 - Peech Boys - Dont' Make Me Wait (Extended Version)
8 - Edwin Birdsong - Rapper Dapper Snapper