He seemingly revels in the licensing process, too, through which — with the help of the team at Mr Bongo — he was able to secure the rights to so many musical pearls, from shining light on the little-known Yargo B-side ‘Marimba’ to managing to represent the “pre-house, late 70s electronic sound of Japan” in the form of Bach Revolution’s ‘DE 108’. “We started the [licensing] process as soon as the last album was done. You don’t always get all the cherries, but that’s not a bad thing because you need to save some for the next moment.” Beginning his career as an original Sheffield house young blood in the mid 1980s, Luke’s move to Manchester and partnership with Justin Crawford saw the birth of Electric Chair, a cornerstone cult night in the UK underground club scene, and later Electric Elephant, a Croatian festival paying homage to their wild eclecticism from Balearic to Brazilian to E soul, house, disco and techno. Luke’s much loved, long running Homoelectric night and more recently Homobloc sell out festival for 10,000 souls has been at the forefront of Manchester’s LGBTQ cultural landscape. Prior to his social media fame, Una spent years DJing and running club nights such as Electric Chair and Homoelectric in Manchester, and in 2020 he was approached by Gilles Peterson to do a radio show on Worldwide FM. These became six-hour odysseys with Una raiding his collection and telling stories. “I was getting transcendental by myself,” he recalls. “I got very evangelical because I just fell in love again.”

Taking a sip of his mushroom soup, Luke Una is pondering how the parlous state of his health pre-Covid has led to clean living, an improved state of mind and an unforeseen career trajectory. “I had a few heart issues come up,” he says. “It was a case of being overweight and eating late and boozing and everything else, not looking after myself and stress and hard work.” Luke’s Friday evening show on Worldwide FM has captured imaginations and has already become a cult four hour must-listen monthly journey with fans all over the world. Today Luke remains, as ever, at the forefront of a changing scene, pairing the momentous legacy of Manchester’s 80s and 90s scene with the delivery of what today’s club communities need to get down.Beginning his career as an original Sheffield house young blood in the mid 1980s, Luke’s move to Manchester and partnership with Justin Crawford saw the birth of Electric Chair,a cornerstone cult night in the UK underground club scene. Then later Electric Elephant, a Croatian festival paying homage to their wild eclecticism from Balearic to Brazilian to ÉSoul, house, disco and techno. Luke’s much loved, long-running Homoelectric night and more recently Homobloc sell out festival for 10,000 souls has been at the forefront ofManchester’s LGBTQ+ cultural landscape.

Now aged 56 — and looking remarkably bushy-tailed for it considering the man hours he’s spent in amongst it — Luke is sober, eating sensibly, and taking care of mind, body and soul. And yet, even without the added enhancement of party favours, his passion for “unifying the diverse” through music burns as brightly as ever. “It’s exactly the same,” he says. “First of all, I have no moralism about people who get cosmic in whatever way they decide. I mean, admittedly, at 4am if someone coked-up is having the seventh looped-up conversation in your ear about how much they love you, it might begin to slightly grate on you, but you know, I’m used to it and I’ve been in that world all my life.” Luke’s Friday evening show on Worldwide FM captured imaginations and became a cult four-hour must-listen monthly journey for fans all over the world. Today, Luke remains, asever, at the forefront of a changing milieu, pairing the momentous legacy of Manchester’s 80s and 90s scene with the delivery of what today’s club communities need to get down.

Credits (1)

True to his newly invigorated intention, the first instalment of É Soul Cultura arrived in the early summer of 2022, instantly gaining affection and repeat listens thanks to the vivid and winding narrative woven into the carefully compiled collection. It should come as little surprise that the second instalment is every bit as engaging as the first, with all manner of tried and tested curios selected and programmed across a gorgeously immersive and non-linear journey. Known and loved for the Electric Chair events he co-ran with long-time collaborator, Justin Crawford, and later the Electric Elephant Festivals that transplanted the duo’s love of unfettered eclecticism to Croatian shores, these days Luke keeps the fire burning via his Worldwide FM residency, his ongoing Homoelectric nights, and recently founded Homobloc Festival. On top of this, he manages to maintain a tireless touring schedule — though the days of boundless late-night hedonism that accompanied his younger years appear to be a thing of the past. Merging new with old, abstract with burnished, Luke’s seasoned aptitude for audio alchemy permeates every corner of Vol 2. “It’s a bit like making a classic pasta sauce, you know. You don’t want too much garlic, too little onion, and so on.” Luke goes on to explain that he had no intention for the album to occupy the saccharine realms of the coffee table comp. “God forbid,” he says. “No disrespect to those albums, I just didn’t want that. I wanted a real collection of music, I wanted to reflect all the different corners of the pyramid, if you like.”