South London’s Lemon Lounge is built on a community ethos, rallying friends and compatriots who favour a DIY approach to the dance. Started by a group of friends with a love of hi-fidelity sonics and a penchant for building top notch soundsystems, the community has continued to grow with like-minded artists like Emma-Jean Thackray, Romaal Kultan, Lex Blondin and Leanne Wright becoming part of Lemon Lounge’s ever-growing family.
On top of running workshops and hosting intimate dances in the capital, their pop-up soundsystem has taken them to festivals across the UK; the likes of We Out Here and Brainchild have become a regular home away from home for the crew.
It’s the latter festival that this (Extended Mix) is plucked from. They share their nine hour stint from Brainchild back in 2018, which begins with an open deck session before journeying through sets from some of the aforementioned family of artists alongside Lemon Lounge residents.
(Extended Mix) is a new charitable series that celebrates all-night specialists and more simple, carbon-friendly lineups. Instead of paying on the door for this extended experience, we invite listeners to donate to the DJ directly while their gigs are cancelled, or to a chosen charity. Lemon Lounge have chosen to pair their mix with Purple Rain Collective, a collective who aim to bring together QTIPOCs in the UK across generations, political lines and different cultures to work towards a new, positive future.
Lemon Lounge will play at We Out Here Festival (19-22 August).
We now premiere all our mixes a week early on Mixcloud Select. Subscribe to our channel to listen first, download the mixes, and ensure that the artists included in each one gets paid.
First off, how has this past year been? What has been the biggest challenge and more positive outcome Lemon Lounge experienced through extended time at home?
Yeah not the greatest year, but the Lemon Lounge crew is happy and healthy so we can’t complain. Obviously we’ve been missing getting the soundsystem out and throwing parties hugely. Not having the opportunity to set up a nice space for people (and us) to let loose in and forget the outside world is a shame. On the flip side though, we’ve taken the time to build a new soundsystem, which is bigger, better and more beautiful, and also have been planning some very exciting things to come when Boris says yes.
Thanks for the mix – how was the recording process?
So this mix isn’t really a mix as such, it’s actually the full recording of the Friday in the Lemon Lounge at Brainchild festival 2018. It was the second time we had ever done an event and everyone playing was friends and extended family so it was a real nice experience. All our hard work had paid off and we could finally just play and listen to nice music, in a field, in our tent, in the sun.
What was the approach to the set? Was there an idea in mind beforehand and much pre-planning, or did everyone just trust their instincts?
I guess you should ask the DJs that played haha, who by the way include: Oli B, Emma-Jean Thackray, Lex Blondin, Romaal Kultan, Poison Zcora FKA Born Cheating, Leanne Wright, Myself (Borge) and an impromptu live jam from the Lemon Lounge Players. I’m pretty sure everyone just rolled up with their summertime trax TBH.
Could you talk us through a couple standouts from the mix?
First hour or so is an Open Deck session, which is something we always do at festivals. It makes the space feel more inclusive and blurs the boundaries between dancer and DJ which is important. There’s also a live jam in there about 130 mins in which was super unplanned but ended up being surprisingly good. Also I’ve gotta mention Leanne Wright who closes proceedings in a fine style. It was her first time playing with us and she has since become a good friend and Lemon Lounge family member.
Where’s been your favourite place to play an all-night set, and why?
George: In the Lemon Lounge tent of course 🙂 But other than that it’s always got to be some sort of unlicensed spot in some random part of town, fairly lawless inside but also very free. Clubs nowadays are way too restrictive. Also Juno Cafe RIP!
Who are some of your favourite all-night specialists, and why?
George: I guess people like Aba-Shanti and Jah Shaka instantly spring to mind. They are sort of all-night specialists by default, and they’re undeniably extremely good at what they do. Also DJ Marcelle — it’s impossible not to have a great time seeing her all night.
Ollie M: I could listen to Alex Nut play all day and all night! I guess there are a lot of DJs who are never given the freedom to play an all-night set, which is a shame; it would be cool if it was more commonplace to give DJs free rein and the time to go wherever they wanted musically. Perhaps it’s different in other countries (eg. the Netherlands) where there are great clubs all over the place and it’s no big deal.
Oli B: I think my favourite all nighters have been when crews have taken over the decks all night. Wow it’s so weird trying to think back to pre-covid life. One standout was the Sim Simma crew from Dublin who played on our system at Electric Picnic. They had 4-5 hours and while the DJs did switch around it felt very progressive and cohesive, there also wasn’t any weight put on there being a ‘named’ DJ and I like that collective ethos.
By celebrating DJs with a penchant for all-night sets, the (Extended Mix) series hopes to encourage a more stripped back, carbon-friendly approach to lineup curation. Reducing our footprint as a globalised underground community is a massive challenge as we try to rebuild the scene after Covid-19 lockdown, and we hope progression can be forged through sharing our challenges and experiences. Are there any thoughts you’d like to add to the discussion?
I like the notion of having fewer people on line ups but I also think it massively depends on what sort of DJs people are. If you’re a Dancehall 7” DJ playing an eight hour set probably isn’t your forte, same as certain Hip Hop/Grime/Rap DJs. I think there is a place for all set lengths and the carbon neutrality of events shouldn’t determine that length.
Thinking local and not following the zeitgeist is just as important. Super clubs with turbo line ups need to start looking closer to home for example. And this is true of anything. Capitalism has got us spoilt. We’re also considering getting hold of two gramophones to play on as we’ve been buying a lot of 78s recently. They use no electricity at all which is a big plus.
Tell us a bit more about your chosen charity – what work do they do and why is it so important to you?
We’ve chosen Purple Rain Collective. We released a single last year and we gave the proceeds to them and their cause is still as valid as its ever been, so it’s nice to get to continue our support for them. They’re an amazing collective who aim to bring together QTIPOCs in the UK across generations, political lines and different cultures to work towards a new, positive future.
The Lemon Lounge as a whole is a nonprofit and we always like to give any profits from parties we run to charity (we like to call it Lemon Aid), so it would be nice to give those charities a shout out too: Centre Point, JCWI and The UK BLM Fund.
Lemon Lounge will play at We Out Here Festival (19-22 August).
We now premiere all our mixes a week early on Mixcloud Select. Subscribe to our channel to listen first, download the mixes, and ensure that the artists included in each one gets paid.