#29 Deeper Into Outer Space | Make A Dance
Playful party and production DJ duo Make A Dance share the story of their electronic music journey and how they’re celebrating five years of records and raves in 2025…
“Dancing is a human right, it should be championed by governments and the authorities,” says Josh Ludlow of electronic music duo, DJ team and producers, Make A Dance.
“Since the Second Summer of Love, this culture of dancing and culture has always been pushed down,” he continues. “But maybe that’s what makes it so magic.”
From playing at sit-down parties during Covid lockdowns to hearing their tracks championed by dance music legend Pete Tong, the last five years of Make A Dance, featuring Ben Lewis alongside Josh, have been full of this sparkling energy.
“We were booked to warm up for Pete Tong and he came to the DJ booth just as we were playing one of our early tracks, ‘Lush Acton’, " says Josh on meeting the Radio 1 star. “It was an intimate gig and everyone was shouting for him as our song played but straight away, he asked what the track was. He got it, played it on the radio for weeks and it just hit the algorithm.”
Alongside their debut, ‘I Need Somebody’, a dancefloor weapon picked up by Luke Solomon’s Classic Records, the pair’s productions got off to a flyer - and they’ve continued to push their own edits and releases via their M.A.D label while DJing in some of the most esteemed spaces around the world. A lot has happened since their first DJ gig together at the Cause in London, one of the first events coming back from the Covid lockdowns.
“That debut was weird, it took place when you could open clubs but you couldn't dance,” says Ben. “We had what we thought was this amazing new project which we couldn’t wait to get out into the world - and this was all about sitting down, not moving to the music.”
Of course, the nocturnal landscape has moved forward in the last five years. Although Covid still casts a shadow and some might say progress has come in fits and starts, the pair are now enjoying a full to bursting DJ diary which has informed how they produce.
“Playing out every week in a club means we can witness first hand what works and what doesn’t on the dancefloor,” says Josh. “It’s the best way to help us finish the arrangements of our tracks so we can get them to perform as well as we want them to in the club.”
“Now we’re booked to play certain clubs fairly regularly like Fabric, Heideglühen, or Panorama Bar, we make tunes purely intended to play in these spaces. It’s fantastic to have this as a goal - it means we have an end point to a piece of music.”
Early smoke and mirrors
Both Ben and Josh were music fanatics and DJs independently of the other before they first came together under the M.A.D banner. The pair met in London and after chatting as mates, an impromptu b2b DJ set in a small members club where Ben was playing set them on their path. When they became firmer friends, the pair discovered that their musical DNA was intertwined within different nightspots.
“We were both going to Fabric early on, I was 15 when I first started going on Fridays,” says Josh. “This was when you could smoke inside, when it was lawless, and those were my first proper clubbing experiences alongside places like Herbal and The End that no longer exist,” says Josh.
“We figured out we had similar rave origin stories,” adds Ben. “Even though the music we make and play is very different, we both loved breaks, people like the Plump DJs. I feel we take some of the energy of that, it’s a foundational part of how we approach dance music, looking for funky, fun, positive sounds.”
They’ve also bonded over a shared disdain for the trend of faster BPMs too, professing a love for dance music at the slower end of the spectrum alongside a range of other styles, sounds and genres. Although all within the sphere of electronic music, there’s a push and pull between the two in their tastes that keeps things eclectic and exciting.
“I sometimes think that this craving for faster and faster tempos can suck some of the funk out of a set,” says Ben. “There’s not enough room between the beats to dance, all you can do is pump your fist to it. So we both really enjoy slower stuff, then we like loads of different types of music - it means we can meet somewhere in the middle.”
Production
Josh is the lead on the production side of their project with a studio in his house in Hastings and a more technical head. The success of their early tracks took them both by surprise but the potency of ‘I Need Somebody’ is irresistible with its sample of the soaring vocal of Kechia Jenkins' 1987 cult hit.
“Josh is the main producer and gets everything sounding amazing,” says Ben. “I tend not to worry too much about that as I don’t have the skill set.”
“After producing non-stop for 20 years, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that ultimately it’s better to get the music out,” says Josh. “No one really cares too much about the exact frequencies of the final mix apart from maybe a few other producers.”
With the pair now based in different places (Ben is still in London), there are certain limitations on how much time they can spend working on a track. Both see this as a positive in enabling them to work to deadlines and finish music off.
“If you have unlimited time, then shit never gets done,” Ben says. “Having these time restrictions is really helpful, we have to complete things in the time we now have together.”
While the duo can come up with three or four tracks in a day, it is still the final arrangement that is hard to nail down. Their latest release, ‘Young Man’, took three years from inception as a demo to the final version that has just emerged on their label.
“We had to rest it for about a year as we were both so sick of it,” says Ben. We’d listened to it too much and we’d lost complete vision of original intention and feeling of the track.”
“Even though we had to park it for a year, I was always really confident in it, we’d played it and people had asked us what it was - and as a DJ, you know if people are coming up to ask about it, you’re onto something good.”
Favourite clubs
Unsurprisingly, both have many favourite clubs to play at, from Heideglühen in Berlin to The Social Service in Manchester alongside Corsica Studios in London (where they held their fifth birthday party), Number 90 Hideout in Hackney Wick (where they are playing tonight), M.O.T and Ormside Projects among many others. As DJs, they see the underground electronic scene as one that is thriving, with the appetite for late nights of music, energy and vibes still writhing through dancers.
“The reaction to how horrible the world is is to have an intense, amazing party,” says Josh.
“Of course, the economic clusterfuck we’re living through impacts all of us - but now we’re entering a post Covid era - a lot of people are saying, ‘fuck this, it’s important to dance and we want to keep it going.”
“We recognise people are skint so at least half the tickets for the majority of our parties are under a tenner,” says Ben. “I also think when things are bad economically or in the wider world, people still want to go out and not think about their shit - clubbing still offers this.”
One of their favourite places to play in the UK this year has been the White Hotel in Salford and a rave they did with Manchester’s Red Laser Records label.
“It’s a perfect spot,” says Ben. “When you arrive, you’re just wondering why the fuck you are in this old garage. Then just the vibe in that room, it’s amazing, I haven’t seen a nightclub at 7 in the morning in England with that much energy for such a long time. I fell in love with the place completely.”
“There are also spaces like Space Talk,” adds Josh. “If Stanley Kubrick did a club, then this is what it would be like. The Cause is epic, they put in so much work to enhance it, every time you go back there’s a new room.”
Unsurprisingly, for DJs that cover a broad array of sounds and styles, there’s plenty of preparation that goes into their sets. Although there are differences between how they approach gigs like the White Hotel and DC-10, they also want dancers to remember what ensures Make A Dance stands out.
“We do want some elements to stay the same as we need to get across what we want to do as Make A Dance, so a common thread has to exist between our sets,” says Ben.
“The joy of Panorama bar is how we had four hours, we could do a 40 minute section where we play heavy percussive tracks, build that, then pivot into something else to create a big moment. We struggle more when we have a really short set, as we sometimes get stuck trying to get too many sounds and styles across in a short space of time.”
Electronic music futures
While there are obviously huge differences between underground and mainstream spaces, Ben sees electronic music as more popular than it’s ever been - which can be a positive for everyone involved in the scene.
“Clearly EDM is huge, there is all this TikTok techno stuff, it’s easy to slag off but it does get people in the room,” he states. “If you really like it, then you will start exploring and delve, check out room two or three at the rave.”
“But they are two different worlds only united by a 4/4 kick drum,” adds Josh.
“I’ve seen some DJs who pay for videographers to come and film them when they play some of the bigger clubs, then they complain when people are on their phones at their gigs. They somehow don’t realise they are perpetuating this whole moment of phone culture.”
With ‘Young Man’ now out in the wider world, there are more plans afoot for global connections with producers and artists, more parties and evolving the platform they’ve spent the past five years carefully creating. It’s clear that Ben and Josh’s devotion to this project runs deep.
“In terms of the label, this year and next is full of music from other artists and ourselves,” says Ben. “We have EPs, a five-year compilation to release and loads of experimental music to get stuck into. Then we’re going to build up the events, and keep expanding. It’s many things, us as DJs, a label, these parties we’re doing, we want to grow it organically and keep the momentum up - we’re both in love with it, we don’t want to do anything else.”
‘Young Man’ is out now - connect with Make A Dance below to find out more.
They are also playing all night long tonight (18th July) at Number 90 Hideout in Hackney Wick.
For more on club and rave culture, you can order a copy of my book, ‘Out of Space: How UK Cities Shaped Rave Culture’ via the Velocity Press website now.