The Brag

Tim Sweeney
New York Beats
By Alasdair Duncan

The dance music landscape has seen a lot of changes over the last decade, but with his internet radio show Beats In Space, New Yorker Tim Sweeney has been there to capture the very best. The show began with Sweeney spinning his favourite records, but it wasn’t long before he began to attract high-profile guests; everyone from James Murphy and Joakim to Junior Boys and Morgan Geist has appeared on the show, each contributing a top-notch playlist. That’s pretty impressive for a show that started out as little more than a labour of love for a life-long music geek, transmitting his beloved tunes over the internet.

“When I started Beats In Space 12 years ago, I would record to cassette tape and then record that back into the computer in real time,” Sweeney tells me, reflecting on the show’s decidedly lo-fi origins. “That was a pain in the arse! Then I started using mini discs and DAT tapes, then CDRs, and now I record onto a portable digital recorder. It’s definitely made things easier for me.” Recording technology has improved vastly in the last decade, but when it comes to being a DJ, Sweeney is still a purist – he insists on physical formats. “I still play vinyl and CDs on the show,” he says. “I haven’t switched over to using a computer during my sets. I just can’t do it. Sorry!”

Beats In Space has chronicled the many developments in dance and electronic music over the last decade. In the early days, it focused on techno and art music, with names like Bill Laswell and Steve Reich appearing on the playlist. When the DFA label came into the ascendancy, the mutant disco and house sound of early noughties New York began to creep in; since then, the show has highlighted the best in outsider dance music, from minimal to cosmic and beyond. “I think that’s been a nice thing about it,” Sweeney says. “You can hear how the show has changed over the years. When we’ve gotten into a new style of music, and when another one has maybe faded a bit. It’s nice to have that all documented through Beats In Space.”

Given that Sweeney is New York-based, I ask just how much of an influence the city has on the show; unsurprisingly, he says that the Big Apple is a key ingredient. “A lot of the guests on the show are people who I love, who happen to be coming to town to DJ,” he tells me. “The record stores in New York also influence what I’m playing, just through what they have in stock. I really only buy used records here in New York now, but I go out every week looking for stuff, and it’s the New Yorkers dropping off their old records that I’m picking up. And then there’s going out to parties here and hearing my friends DJ, and that influencing what I play and how I play it.”

DFA group Holy Ghost! released their debut album this year, and in the liner notes, there is a fold-out photograph of various members of the DFA label collective standing on the street outside a grocery store in Brooklyn. James Murphy and Nancy Whang are there, as are The Rapture, The Juan Maclean, Holy Ghost! themselves, and, standing in the crowd, a youthful-looking Tim Sweeney. The photo has a jovial feel to it, and I ask Sweeney if being a part of DFA feels like being part of a family. “It used to a lot more than it does now,” he says. “I guess the family grows apart as it gets older. But at the beginning, for sure! I was hanging out in the DFA studio every day for a couple years when I was still at New York University. That was my education!”

In recent times, Beats In Space has branched out into a record label of its own, and I ask Sweeney to tell me about its aims and ethos. “It’s just an extension of the radio show – for music I’d play on the show or out at the clubs. The first release was from this group out of Paris that has never released anything before, named Paradis. They just sent me a demo, I really liked it, got in touch and we went from there! The next release is from Secret Circuit, out of Los Angeles. That should be coming out very early next year.” Starting the label has, of course, come with its own unique set of challenges. “Yeah, the business side of things sucks,” he says resignedly. “I just want to focus on finding good music to put out and good artwork for the record sleeves. That’s why I’ve hooked up with Matt Werth from RVNG to run the label with me – he takes care of the dirty work so I can just do the music… Well, almost.”

One of the perks of Sweeney’s success is the opportunity to bring Beats In Space on the road; his DJ tour sees him coming down to Australia this month. What kind of vibe can we expect from his show? “Hopefully a lot of people getting drunk, doing drugs, having sex, dancing all night and generally having a good time,” he says. And who can argue with that?

With: Inkswel, Long John Saliva, D&D
Where: HAHA @ Marrickville Bowling Club
When: Friday December 16