2023 found Richard Sen busy hosting regular shows on both Balamii and Do!!You!!! Radio, and basically DJing all over. While quiet production-wise, he did deliver a dynamite, dark, kosmische remix of GLOK’s Dirty Hugs. The big news, though, was Richard’s compilation, Dream The Dream. Curated for Ran$om Note offshoot, Dance Music From Planet Earth, this was a sort of “unofficial” follow up to his cracking This Ain’t Chicago collection, released around a decade earlier. The new record documents a point in time when UK house, and subsequently the scene, was about to fragment into shed loads of sub-genres: ambient, breakbeat, progressive, tribal… It also demonstrates how, for a short while, all these slightly different takes on “disco’s revenge” managed to party together as a diverse but united groove. Focusing on something cultural that hadn’t really previously been covered, in December the album quite rightly bagged the “Best Compilation” prize at the DJ Mag Best Of British Awards. The big bonus for me was the two hours spent Zooming Richard while he shared the ideas behind the comp, its history, plus some of his personal memories. 

Super selections and wonderful words by Richard Sen. 

It was tough to chose, but here are a few of my faves from last year.

Kieran Hebden & William Tyler / Darkness, Darkness

Loket  / All Ages

Talaboman / Melbourne Bolero

Of Norway / Come Back To Me

Oniris / Bubble

Peter Blaker / Neverending

Kito Jempere / Kabwato ft. Buduchi & Ni! (Ewan Pearson Remix)