Paul Raffaele may not be a name you immediately think of when asked about New York dance music, but since 2004 Raffaele has been faithfully chugging away keeping the dream alive through Bloomberg’s NYC and beyond. The Dog&PonyShow parties to the revered Dog&PonyRadioShow podcast founded in 2009, to touring domestically and around Europe. Now - through his record label Most Excellent Unlimited, Paul turns his focus to publishing.

Kinfolk resident DJ, Bruce Easley aka DJ Bruce, spoke to Paul about his newest project, ‘Love Injection’. A return to a classic format (not vinyl) of bringing information by the people, to the people: the ‘zine.

KINFOLK: Paul, to the indoctrinated, ‘Love Injection’ is not only glorious innuendo, but is also the name of the 1979 Garage classic by Trussel. What is, and what has Love Injection become to you?

PAUL RAFFAELE: It’s something I started thinking about last year after seeing the RBMA Daily Notes floating around New York. I collected them all, and got bummed when they stopped coming out once the festival ended. It’s a passion project of mine that I really enjoy working on. It’s an excuse to talk to people I wouldn’t necessarily have been in contact with otherwise, and I guess just another way for me to express myself creatively. The best thing about it is seeing how stoked people are on it, and the friends I’m making as a result. And you’re right. The name was inspired by a frenzied experience dancing to Trussel’s “Love Injection” at The Loft last year!

K: Dance music and New York City are about as synonymous as pizza and mayors exploiting national tragedies. Thanks to outlets like Red Bull Music Academy, 5 Magazine and your boiler rooms, etc, New York and international dance music culture and history is really out there in pop culture-sphere once again.

What was the impetus to take the DIY route to sink you teeth into documenting these stories?

PR: I couldn’t think of the last time I picked something physical up to read that was relevant to the music I liked. Michael Gomes’ “Mixmaster” that I’d read about in Love Saves The Day, and Vince Aletti’s “Disco Files” sitting on my shelf that I often reference, are snapshots of moments in time. I hope people collect, save these, and enjoy them 20 years from now like they’re enjoying them now. Chances are their bookmarks folder will be long cleared by then

K: Your list of contributors include DJs, journalists, party people - a wide range of your contemporaries and New York nightlife luminaries. Do you think that the current NYC tint (or haze depending on what time of day you’re looking) on dance music culture is a cut above? Different, or it just is what it is?

PR: New York has been, still is, and I think always will be a place people will always want to go, and DJs want to play. Whether it’s as good, better, or worse than it used to be depends on how old you are, and how much you’ve seen. For me, it’s fucking awesome. This past weekend I heard Kerri Chandler, Stevie Wonder, Danny Krivit, Norm Talley, Jay Simon, and Douglas Sherman… and I didn’t even go out on Friday night. Every time I walk out of a 718 Sessions or Loft I feel really grateful that “we get to have this” week in, week out in our back yard. It may be just as good elsewhere, easier to make a name for yourself, cheaper, yadda yadda, but this where I’m from and it’s what I know. And I know it to be dope.

K: Issue Number 3 is out this week. Your cover features Francois K and his seemingly impossible twelve years he has held down the very outside of the box Monday party - Deep Space - at the famed, Funktion One’d, Meatpacking holdout Cielo.

K: You and Barbie Bertisch will be hosting (and playing records) at the release party in the beautiful Kinfolk 90 space on Wednesday April 15th. Kinfolk, which happens to be nestled comfortably in between another Nicolas Matar project, Output, Carl Craig backed Verboten, a not so far off Greenpoint diamond in the rough Good Room…. and a very nice hotel. Over the last 3 years, Wythe Ave has become a defacto Mecca for New York nightlife and dance music.

Having it all concentrated in one area is reminiscent of pre-9/11 Midtown and post 9/11 Meatpacking, where all of your favorite DJs were playing blocks or even feet away from each other. New York nightlife seems to be alive and well. Given ‘Love Injection’ is centered around loving tributes to the recent past, do you feel that way?

PR: It’s impossible to compare then to now. Things are just too different. As I mentioned, I think it’s great. It’s not perfect, but what is? If it could be better, it’s up to us to make it better. Paul & Francis (Slow to Speak) speak to this topic a bit in this issue. They have a lot of experience, and thus, a great perspective. Most def worth a read.

K: Finally, the Dog&PonyShow hasn’t seen a new episode since 2013. But you have continued fighting the good fight with your Most Excellent Mixtape series posted exclusively to your Soundcloud page. What is it about Paul makes him keep giving?

PR: I’m no philanthropist - I just enjoy playing records and contributing in the ways that I can to a scene that’s given me a lot of joy, and in many ways, identity in my life.

You can purchase physical and digital copies of Love Injection via Paul’s Most Excellent Unlimited imprint for $7, shipped globally. Or at any fine vinyl retailers in the NYC area. And soon at the Kinfolk Shop!

You can also catch Paul Raffaeleand Barbie Bertisch at Kinfolk 90 this Wednesday April 15th starting at 9pm.