UJJAY

Field notes


Written from the floor, not the press office.

Sets, gigs, sober raves and the people in the room. First person. Also as an RSS feed.

  1. The long way round 2 min

    Rave-culture parents, a Circus deal, and why I changed my name

    How I got here, part one. Decks at school, a signing to Yousef's Circus Recordings as BROADHURST, and the record that made me stop pretending I made anything else.

  2. Plain English 3 min

    How to book me, and what I will ask you back

    Everything a promoter usually has to email for, in one place: what I play, how long, what I bring, what you need to supply, and why there is no price on this site.

  3. Plain English 3 min

    The hot chocolate that gets called a ceremony

    What a cacao event actually is once you take the incense out, why the drink is better than you think, and what I play at one. Affectionate. Mostly.

  4. Plain English 4 min

    Organic house, afro house, tribal, downtempo: what I mean when I say each

    Four words that get used for the same record and mean different things. The differences, from someone who mixes across all of them in one set, with tracks to hear.

  5. The circuit 3 min

    Soul Revolution, three years in: what a closing set has to do

    The official closing set in 2024, New Year's Day in 2025, Amelia Yawanawá on stage in 2026. What the last set of a festival is for, and how it differs from the last set of a night.

  6. The circuit 3 min

    UK festivals where nobody is drinking: the ones I have played, and what the floors are like

    The alcohol-free festival circuit in the UK, described from the decks rather than a listings site. Only the ones I have actually played. Updated every year.

  7. From the booth 4 min

    Three hours, nobody facing me, and how I build a floor anyway

    How a long set on a sober floor is actually put together, from someone who has spent twenty years learning to do it with a bar and four learning to do it without.

  8. Set notes 1 min

    Set notes: Synforia, Between Horizons, 30 May 2026

    Fifty-eight minutes, shared lineup with Lost Desert, published by the festival on its own channel. The first of these notes, and the format for the rest.

  9. Plain English 3 min

    Is ecstatic dance a cult, and other things people ask before they come

    The questions people type into Google before their first one, answered by someone who plays them. Short answers first, then the longer ones.

  10. The circuit 4 min

    A rave at three in the afternoon with nobody drinking

    What a sober rave actually is, from the person playing the music. The first forty minutes are the hard part, and they are the point.