There are intermittent thunderstorms over London today, casting a cool tension over what's otherwise a scorching June weekend. In the centre of the city, thousands are gathering for the annual Pride parade; from the vantage point of my flat, I'm feeling connected to the capital through the medium of Jamie xx's hour-long mix for last week's Young Turks' Boiler Room broadcast. Played out on a rooftop one sunny evening, the set weaves its way through the history of London club culture via cuts such as London Posse's 1993 jam "How's Life In London?" and Wiley's cold "Pow To Lethal B," interspersed with some of The xx producer's own new material. At the poignant midway mark, an extract from the audiobook of Mike Skinner's The Story of the Streets, read by Skinner himself, plays directly over the heady chimes of Jamie's "Sleep Sound," proclaiming, "You could forgive garage all its inexperience and its brashness, because it was real." Amen.
Head to the Boiler Room website to download the audio from this stream.
