It’s not often I get impressed with bands. When I read the blurb for AJ Holmes & The Hackney Empire before I saw them for the first time I was ready to be disappointed. A decidedly camp looking white guy with an electro-pop background learns how to play Highlife guitar, fuses it with his pop stylings and sets out to conquer the world with his new brand of electric Highlife…..hmmm, no thanks. When I actually witnessed AJ & the Empire perform, I had to eat my words, my hat and a fat slice of humble pie. The band smashed it, and did so with such unpretentious integrity that barely anyone in the room could avoid becoming a part of the performance. How a motley crew from Hackney can manipulate Palm-Wine Highlife so well is beyond me, but they can.
For those who don’t know, Palm-Wine Highlife is a guitar based music which has it’s origins in the Palm Wine shacks of 1950s Ghana. In the years leading up to the Second World War, Highlife was a term used to describe the upper-class entertainment of Ghana’s more exclusive nightclubs. Characterized by huge ensembles and stiff, european dance-steps, the Highlife scene was not welcoming of the lower strata of Ghanaian society. After the war, the music of the poor man’s Palm Wine bar, synonymous with drunkenness and fusing the blues with local folk tales, tunes and elements of Calypso and Jazz somehow also earned the tag Highlife. This is the Palm-Wine Highlife AJ Holmes has mastered, and ratings to him for pulling it off; the last time I checked, Hackney and Accra didn’t have that much in common….
Anyway, point is, AJ Holmes & The Hackney Empire are headlining this Saturday 20th at Passing Clouds and I honestly (not in a promoterish type way, cos i’m not even promoting it) think they’re well worth checking out. To seal the deal, I’m spinning alongside community soldier KMT and the afrobeat vibrations of Koichi Sakai. We’re all digging deep for our tropical treats….but don’t expect a night of music that was made 50 years ago….nah, it’s about making the old work with the new. AJ’s influences range from Highlife to Grime and he’s resident at West London’s biggest Tropical session Secousse alongside the Radioclit duo. You dun know my style already and i’ve heard KMT cut & paste everything from Soca and Bashment to African Lutes and large slabs of Hip Hop….trust me, it’ll be worth the trip….Flyer below.
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