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  Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy

  London, United Kingdom · 4 bookings since Nov 2025

  “As testimonials go, this one provided by Vinyl Factory when discussing Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy takes some beating: “The biggest heroes of the underground typically wouldn’t describe themselves as such.”

  their own biography

  the whole biography

  As testimonials go, this one provided by Vinyl Factory when discussing Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy takes some beating: “The biggest heroes of the underground typically wouldn’t describe themselves as such. Frankie Knuckles, Kelli Hand, Andrew Weatherall… all possessed a humility that made them even more honourable and endearing, and they went about their business with little regard for fame and a distaste for industry bullshit. Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy falls firmly into this category.” But really, anyone who has followed Murphy’s endlessly fascinating life in music shouldn’t be surprised to see her lauded in such terms. She is – much like the electronic totems she’s compared to above – a lifer: someone that has dedicated every inch of her soul and being to the pursuit of music. As such, she’s been guided by an array of motivations. Whether she’s DJing at her Love Dancin’ sound system at We Out Here, musically hosting the Loft parties, curating a Classic Album Sundays event at the Royal Albert Hall, presenting her weekly Balearic Breakfast radio show or remixing The Cure and Róisín Murphy, there’s always an abundance of impulses bubbling away. There’s the desire to entertain – to put a smile on people’s faces; a need to curate – to give the audience more than just a song; and an extension of this is education. Not in any dictatorial fashion, it’s more about turning people on to new sounds, new ways of thinking, maybe even new ways of living. And while all these varying strands of her life (a word she uses advisedly – for Murphy this is not a career: “It’s a quest,” she says. “A vocation”) are complementary, they all feed in and out of each other. However, there’s one factor that underpins everything.: the longing to build a community and to encourage and support like-minded music lovers. “Exactly,” she beams in her effervescent East Coast drawl. “It’s about sharing music and building community. A dancefloor is a communal experience. It’s about bringing people together.” Bringing people together through the joy of music is something Colleen has been doing all her life. It was there in 1982 when she began working on her high school radio station just outside Boston in Massachusetts. “I was obsessed with the radio,” she says. “The radio has always been the constant for me. It’s always been there and is the medium I first gravitated towards. It was through hosting radio shows that I started DJing.” Aged 14, Colleen and her high school friend Mary Caruso hosted a radio show called Punk, Funk and Junk. A riotous collision of hip hop, electro, funk, new wave, punk and anything else that came to mind (the junk) it was an early foretaste of what would soon become Murphy’s instinctive eclecticism. It also provided Colleen with her Cosmo moniker – taken from Cozmo D, one of the members of early electro outfit Newcleus. The same year she began working in Strawberries Records and Tapes, Central Massachusetts’ principal record shop. She soaked up everything. “The assistant manager was a jazz freak,” she recollects. “He turned me onto Charles Mingus, Chico Hamilton… then there was another guy who was really into the Paisley Pop sound, so he would turn me onto the newer bands, then the older bands like the Electric Prunes. Then there was the guy who was a DJ and worked in the 12-inch section. You were always getting turned onto stuff. My boss was a Bruce Springsteen fanatic and turned me onto the ‘cooler’ Boss albums like Nebraska. My musical tastes have always encompassed a wide frequency.” Armed with this capacious thirst for new sounds her tastes were always expanding. In 1986, she relocated to New York to study sound and radio at the NYU Film School. Whilst there she became the first female program director at WNYU, one of the most significant college radio stations in the country at the time. This musical plate spinning, and sonic diversity, continued to blossom in the 90s. After graduation, she continued to work in radio. Her syndicated show, Music View, went out to over 200 college radio stations across the country and saw her interview everyone from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Brian Eno and Aphex Twin to Oasis, Joey Ramone and My Bloody Valentine. “That was musical curation and education,” she explains. ““When I do my radio shows I don’t just do a DJ mix, I talk about the artists and the songs. It’s the same with Classic Album Sundays and my Balearic Breakfast shows. I don’t just play records – I tell the stories behind the music.” This curious and wide-ranging aesthetic was further enhanced following a trip to David Mancuso’s Loft party. When David returned to hosting parties in the early 90s after a sabbatical, Colleen went along on the opening night with her friend, the late DJ Adam Goldstone. She immediately made a connection. “I recognised the eclecticism,” she says. “David would play The Orb next to Jimi Hendrix. I had been a something of a hippy and a Deadhead amongst my many other musical penchants although I have never identified with a singular music tribe. I feel there is only good music and bad music. Because of this, I would say Balearic Breakfast is one of the most musically satisfying radio shows I have ever hosted because it’s all over the board.” Colleen and David’s friendship was cemented when she invited him to appear on one of her radio shows, Soul School. So much so that he was soon entrusting her to play records and musically host his feted party. There was clearly a mentor and protégé aspect to their relationship, but in reality, their friendship went deeper than that. Mancuso – a towering influence on the likes of Larry Levan, Knuckles, Francois Kevorkian – was something of a disco (and therefore this thing we call dance music) Godfather. In Murphy he recognised a kindred spirit – and equal. In 2000, speaking about Murphy he said: "She is very devoted and very pure about the music. She’s one of the only people I would trust, both with the music and with the equipment, to fill in for me." And although Murphy’s name is today inextricably linked with Mancuso’s – she co-produced The Loft compilations on Nuphonic that saw his reputation rise at the end of the 90s and continued hosting parties with him until his death in 2016 – her New York network also took in such luminaries as François Kevorkian and Joaquin Claussell. She DJed at Body & Soul and worked at Dance Tracks, one of the city’s most influential dance shops. She also presented one of New York’s most important house music radio shows, Club 89. It’s always been about discovery and turning people on – the wheel never stops turning. “Club 89 was one of the few weekly house shows in New York City,” she says. “I had Lil Louis, Romanthony, Danny Krivit, David, François, Joe Claussell, Louie Vega and others up as special guests. I always tried to make it bigger than myself. It was about community.” Community is still central to everything Colleen does today, Balearic Breakfast being the prime example. The show began on Worldwide FM during the first lockdown of 2020 when she filled in for Gilles Peterson on one of his morning slots. She already had two other shows on the station – one centred around Classic Album Sundays and the other, Cosmodelica (rated one of the London’s Top 10 shows by Time Out), a monthly shindig that stretched the notion of dance music into psychedelia, rock, jazz funk and beyond. On both of those shows she invited the audience to send in requests – more community building – and she replicated this on her new Tuesday morning show. The show was such a success that Gilles asked Colleen to keep the spot. She changed the name to Balearic Breakfast and a new chapter in Murphy’s musical life began. The show was consistently in the top four most-listened-to shows on the station alongside Gilles Peterson, Louie Vega and Francois K. Now hosted on her Mixcloud profile following the temporary closure of Worldwide FM, a tribe of like-minded music lovers tune in every week. “The community aspect is hugely significant. It is not a pre-recording of a DJ mix with a bit of announcing. Rather the show is hosted live on my Mixcloud Live. The Balearic Breakfast family join me on the chat group, and they greet each other and talk to each other and form relationships on their own. I just pop in every now and then. It’s wonderful.” Establishing this connection during the pandemic was a lifesaver she freely admits. “I have had so many people… hundreds and hundreds of emails, people coming up to me at gigs crying saying the show got them through the pandemic. I tell them the show got me through the pandemic, too. It was the community. I’m proud and humbled by it. But it’s not all about me. It’s very similar to David. David knew that The Loft wasn’t just him. He owned it. He was the nexus. But it wouldn’t be there without everyone else’s contributions. It wouldn’t be Balearic Breakfast without ‘the Family’ (the “Balearicans”, as she has fondly named them). It’s beyond me. It’s something bigger.” Balearic Breakfast was then signed by the iconic Jeff Barrett to Heavenly Recordings for a compilation series that has taken on a life of its own. A second Balearic Breakfast compilation – following 2022’s sold-out first volume – was released to great acclaim in the summer of 2023. Vol. III sold out in days in 2024 and August 2025 sees the release of Vol. IV on vinyl and volumes III and IV on CD. 2025 also sees a Balearic Breakfast residency at London’s NT’s Loft as well as a takeover at Pikes in September to celebrate Vol. IV’s release as part of her All Night Long residency there this year. Bringing people together is also the thread that underpins Classic Album Sundays, the event begun by Colleen in 2010 as a timely celebration of albums that demanded to be listened properly – on a high-end sound system, uninterrupted and in their entirety. The idea helped crystallise and legitimise the audiophile culture that has grown over the last decade and CAS is now the world’s biggest album listening event. Today it can be found popping up at one-off events at the V&A, the Royal Albert Hall and The British Library with guests as varied as Nile Rodgers, Bowie producer Ken Scott, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Jarvis Cocker, Roisin Murphy, Eddy Grant and Laurie Anderson, to name but a few. Its legacy continues in a more regular iteration with Colleen’s monthly online Album Club for the Classic Album Sundays Patreon subscribers. “Classic Album Sundays has brought together most of my passions,” she reflects. “Vinyl collecting, playing records, musical storytelling, deep listening, communal listening…” Her unstinting work in this sphere has seen Murphy recognised by outlets such as The Guardian and the New York Times as both a pioneer of the vinyl revival and the resurgence of all things audiophile. Which in turn has propelled the ongoing proliferation of listening bars around the world. In many ways, this is Colleen carrying on the work of her great mentor. Many of her first lessons in sound – and its absolute importance – were provided by Mancuso (who himself was an avid fan of Paul Klipsch's audio newsletters, Dope From Hope). David’s faith in her was evident in an email he sent to her in 2011, when he told her: “You and I are the only two people I know in all the years that can cover as many bases [as] there are for the parties and who try faithfully and spiritually to get it right. You are a rare gem my friend.” The audiophile qualities of Classic Album Sundays are also apparent in another of Colleen’s ongoing activities – the Love Dancin’ sound system. A collaboration with Trojan Sound System’s Daddy Ad, Love Dancin’ is a travelling, DJ-friendly take on the set-ups she employs at the London Loft parties. A permanent fixture at We Out Here, this gives Colleen the chance to really stretch her powers of curation, not only booking the likes of kindred spirits Mr Scruff, Charlie Dark, Gilles, Greg Wilson, Black Science Orchestra and Francois K et al, but newer talent like Cosmo Sofi, musclecars, Tina Edwards, DJ Lovie and Aletha. “It’s our own DIY thing,” she says. “Again, more community building.” Greg Wilson describes Love Dancin’ as “one of the best dance arenas on the UK festival circuit” and 2025 sees Love Dancin’ heading to Asia, Australia and New Zealand later in 2025. Unsurprisingly, DJing is another core strand to Murphy’s storied life. She can be found playing back-to-back with her great friend François, playing for David Holmes (“I played at God Kitchen in Belfast recently and he told me my DJing was very emotional. I think that’s what it is – reinforcing emotions, creating emotions. Everything is threaded with that”), spinning disco at a listening bar in Canada or going on a vinyl-only seven-hour journey. No two nights are ever the same. “I like that,” she states. “It keeps me intrigued and on my toes. I don’t present a planned and rehearsed performance via my USB stick. I still practice and I know when I practice, I’m better. I do my homework, as David used to say. I like to live on the edge of the moment in which anything can happen.” Kervorkian is another to recognise a simpatico aesthetic in Murphy. When discussing his legendary 2000 Essential Mix compilation – a celebration of 25 years-worth of New York dance music – he admits that the roots of this joyous mix were planted when he guested on one of Murphy’s radio shows a few years previously. “I squarely lay the blame for it all on Colleen Murphy for unleashing this passion for eclecticism which was first put on display during my spontaneous and improvised live mix for one of her WNYU radio shows back in 1995.” As they say, game recognises game. And then there’s her return to producing, most notably her astounding remix work. In the 00s, Colleen was a prolific producer. Backed by her Bitches Brew imprint, she released tracks under several guises: Wild Rumpus alongside former Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas; the Latin-flavoured Bambú and the psychedelic disco of DarkStarr with Ashley Beedle. As Cosmodelica she remixed everyone from Horace Andy, Candi Staton and The Rapture to The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Cantoma and Planningtorock. Following her stellar work on Fat Freddy’s Drop’s ‘Mother Mother’ in 2014, this took a backseat to Classic Album Sundays and producing a series of radio documentaries for 6 Music. At the turn of this decade, however, the need to produce – primarily in the form of remixing – returned. When Colleen heard her namesake Róisín Murphy’s ‘Murphy’s Law’ she knew she could transform an already captivating track into something new. Since then, there’s been incredible reworks of Balearic Aussies Mildlife, A Certain Ratio, Manchester’s Secret Night Gang and 2022’s stylish overhaul of Lady Blackbird’s cover of Sam Cooke’s ‘Lost and Looking’ in which Murphy tapped deep into her musical psyche and brought disco’s vibrancy, house music’s relentless hypnotism and the transcendental joy and strength of soul into one infectious whole. No wonder renowned music lover Sir Elton John named it his favourite new track on his Apple Music radio show declaring it to possess a “groove that blows my mind”. Recent makeovers include David Holmes and St. Etienne for Heavenly Recordings, The Shapeshifters for Defected, FSQ for Soul Clap, Jacob Gurevitsch and Santino Surfers for Music For Dreams, Hard Feelings (Joe Goddard and Amy Douglas), Joe Goddard for Domino, Bryony Jarman-Pinto for Tru Thoughts and her funky rework of the Acid classic Stop Space Return for Crazy P. This summer sees the release of her remix of The Cure, at the personal request of Robert Smith, under the moniker Cosmodelica Electrick Eden, as she brought in Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) and Al Doyle (Hot Chip/LCD Soundsystem) to work on the remix with her. Electrick Eden is a supergroup Colleen is working on yet to be announced with Joe, Al, Alexis Taylor, Lou Hayter and special guests. A true music obsessive, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy’s standing in the global dance music community has arguably never been higher. Whether she’s presenting, remixing, hosting or DJing, her belief in music’s redemptive properties shines through. And rather than downplay her eclecticism she wears her versatility as a badge of honour, ensuring she is constantly fulfilled creatively. “I’m a music lover, a music curator and a music educator,” she concludes. “It’s about trying to transcend everyday life through music. When people say Balearic Breakfast got them through the pandemic, I think that’s because music has a healing quality. When people are on the dancefloor, I want them to forget about their everyday life. And similarly with Classic Album Sundays, when people are fully immersed listening to an album, it brings them out somewhere else. Those experiences have been very important to me. “The quest is never-ending and that is what motivates me. I never set out to intentionally do any of this – it just happened because of my passion. One thing led to another which fed into another which fed into another. I will never stop discovering music. You always have to be looking ahead, expanding your horizons.” Jim Butler (Disco Pogo Magazine)
  SoundCloud ↗
  Their RA profile lists Skint, Mute Records, BMG, Warp Records and 6 more.

  Last at Tresor / Globus in Nov 2025 · often with GLOBUS, TRESOR, Surgeon, none of them here that night

• Lakuti

  London, United Kingdom · 14 bookings since Aug 2025

  Their RA profile lists Yore Records.

  Recently at Berghain, Haus der Visionäre, Kaos Berlin · often with Fadi Mohem, Steffi, Richard Akingbehin, none of them here that night

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  Suze Ijó

  Rotterdam, Netherlands · 5 bookings since Aug 2025

  “A communal hub that used to exist in her home city, the space was designed for music lovers to come together to play, listen and talk, as well as collaborate on private events that are influenced by David Mancuso's infamous Loft parties.”

  their own biography

  the whole biography

  A communal hub that used to exist in her home city, the space was designed for music lovers to come together to play, listen and talk, as well as collaborate on private events that are influenced by David Mancuso's infamous Loft parties. That Loft manifesto feeds into the sounds in her own DJ sets too, whether in the booth or on the waves. From infectious Chicago house to uplifting 80s cuts and warm, soulful grooves; the mood transports you back to the heydays where dance floors were becoming spaces for freedom, self-expression and connection. It's music to bring people together, music to get you moving, and music to lose yourself in. Now a globe-trotting DJ, Ijó has brought her unique sound to venues such as Nowadays, Smartbar, and Spot Lite Detroit in North America. In Asia, she has graced the stages of the Wonderfruit Festival in Thailand and Potato Head in Bali. Her music resonates in prestigious European venues like Panorama Bar, De School, Lux Fragíl, Kaiku, and at Dekmantel Festival, where she frequently performs. Despite a hectic schedule, Ijó's club sets are marked by intentionality and focus, creating a unique atmosphere for each space and night. To her, "House" is a feeling, an ambience, not just a BPM range. Her approach transforms club nights into collective, bodily, and spiritual experiences crafted by everyone involved. Ijó is also frequently sought after for her curatorial skills, recently curating stages at Dekmantel Festival (Connects Stage), Wilde Weide Festival, and producing podcasts for United Identities. While her live performances are highly anticipated, Ijó also shares her musical journey through numerous radio shows on NTS, The Lot Radio, and the Dekmantel Podcast series, allowing listeners to experience her distinctive style anytime. words by Jamila Woodley & Rosie Cain
  SoundCloud ↗

  Recently at RSO.BERLIN · often with Palms Trax, Soul Summit Music, Honey Bun, none of them here that night

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  Tama Sumo

  Berlin · 10 bookings since Aug 2025

  “I started out in a bar called Drama in Kreuzberg, which has been an important hang out for the scene and one of the first bars ever to feature its own djs at the weekend.”

  their own biography

  the whole biography

  I started out in a bar called Drama in Kreuzberg, which has been an important hang out for the scene and one of the first bars ever to feature its own djs at the weekend. The Drama has been one of the few locations featuring house music, instead of techno dominating all the other clubs and bars at that time. I used to play a lot of soulful vocal house and quickly became a resident at Globus/Tresor, as well as at the gay Saturdays at Café Moskau. „My motivation is and has been a mixture of fun and communication. Verbally as well as non-verbally. I love to create and play with different moods and atmospheres. I’m still fascinated by the fact that music can release a huge amount of energy and how music creates fun, jollying anyone along without any reason or principle. Music and bass in particular can make people happy!“ Since 1997, when I have been a resident at Globus/Tresor, I gradually opened up stylistically and didn’t feel the need anymore to go along the lines of the techno and house division. Since 2001 I regularly played at the gay/lesbian „Dance with the Aliens“ parties at the old OstGut and consequently at the end of 2004 I became a resident at the new Panorama Bar / Berghain. In the meantime I developed a varied style ranging from new and classic House to Techno including a lot of Disco, Afrobeats..... It is fundamental to my work as a DJ that I manage to let the music, the crowd and myself run freely. I have to turn off my head and go with the flow. This always is the challenge and if it works it is big fun. The crowd and i have to get kind of cosy with each other. And if I manage to build my set up and down, to go to lots of different places, it is perfect!
  Discography ↗
  Their RA profile lists Rabid Records, Diamonds & Pearls, Ostgut Ton, Hotflush Recordings and 1 more.

  Recently at Berghain, Kaos Berlin · often with Virginia, Fadi Mohem, MARRØN, none of them here that night