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.

She’s been lurking (and working) in the shadows for some time now and she’s decided it’s her time to shine. We’re happy! She’s got ridiculously good taste in music, and she pleases herself before making any concessions for you or I….our kind of girl….check for yourselves. This is her first podcast mind so go easy on her. We were all first-timers on the mic once:

Tracklisting

Strong Arm Steady feat Talib Kweli// Get Started
Medina Green feat Mos Def// Party Done
DTMD// Fantastic
Jneiro Jarel// N.A.S.A
Olivier Daysoul// The Walls
Pollyn// Still Love (Debruit Remix)
Will Powers// Adventures in Success (dub)
Mulatu Astatake// Esketa Dance
Shafiq Husayn// Nirvana
Bei Bei and Shawn Lee// Into the wind
Robert Glasper// The Robert Glasper Experiment
Gill Scott Heron// Me and the Devil
P.O.S// Goodbye
Atmosphere// Shoulda Known
Dabrye feat Doom// Air
Janelle Monae feat Big Boi// Tightrope
Big Boi// Royal Flush (Clean)
Juggaknots// Settle Down
Cunninlynguists// Mic Like a Memory
Mos Def feat Talib Kweli// History
Doom// Ballskin
Oddisee feat Tranquil// It’s Over

After an inexcusably long hiatus, the Duke drops some fresh gems on y’all. Detroit House, Hip Hop, Raw Roots music from Africa to the Caribbean? It’s all here:

Duke Etienne Podcast #15

Tracklisting

John Roberts//White
Chez-N-Trent//All about You
Bookworms//African Rhythms
Donaeo//Riot Music (Shy FX Mix)
Marcé//Ca Ca Ye (Frankie Francis Edit)
Georgia Ann Muldrow//Jina Langu Ni Afrika (my Name Is Afrika)
Brittany Bosco//Black Keys
Will – I – Am//Money
Pal Joey//Breakin’ Necks
House Shoes//The Makings
Georgia & Dudley//Shine On
Dabrye//I’m Missing You
Reggie B//Spoken Lenny
Flying Lotus//Quakes
Jay Electronica//Exhibit A (Transformations)
Fatima//Higher
Black Joy Edits//Edit 10
Red Earth Collective ft. Manasseh//Hard Times Dub
Vincent Taylor//Living A Lie
Connie Bell//Vampires
Midnite//Enter
Nneka//Africans
Baloji//Karibou Ye Bintou

Yep, you heard right. The chorus of voices online are all singing in unison. London’s Plastic People is currently the focus of a Police campaign to close it’s famous grey doors permanently. It’s only right I add my voice to the choir of resentment because I, like so many others, have a special place for the club in my heart.

My relationship with the double P begins way before I could even pass for being old enough to step through it’s doors. Walking past it’s original Oxford Street doorway on my regular weekend pilgrimage to Soho’s record emporiums. Even then, the tacky sign and unique flyers (I was a huge flyer fan) was enough to raise mental enquiry. What was it like in there?

I never did find out, but I more than made up for it when owner Ade packed up and went east in 2000. From then til’ now, I’ve seen some of my most respected DJs and bore witness to the best basement sessions, REAL basement sessions, I have ever been to.

This move to stop Plastic’s flow comes as no surprise. I am in touch with the handful of black-owned establishments in Shoreditch and all of them share tales of hard times when it comes to dealing with the powers that be. Not to say that this is merely a question of race however. In these times, those offering an alternate path, those who aren’t in the business for the money, or trying to blind the people with PR and spin pose a threat to the creeping machine of national order. Some of us may feel it more than others, but our presence on Plastic People’s dancefloor is in truth a statement of resistance to the deconstruction and realignment of the entertainment industry in the past two decades. Sounds extreme I know, but look around you next time you’re on a night out and tell me where else you can find Ade et al’s dedication to the things that truly matter.

Police have placed a notice outside the club citing their intention to revoke their license for:

1/ PREVENTION OF PUBLIC NUISANCE
2/ PREVENTION OF CRIME AND DISORDER

Clearly, to anyone that has been to the club, these are both flimsy and to be honest, outright ridiculous claims. Of all the venues in Shoreditch, Plastic People’s clientele are some of the least likely to contribute to either of the above. Surrounded by venues spewing out drunken, drug-addled punters, Plastic is an oasis….the only club in the area where people come for one reason and one reason only: the music. The police claim they have found evidence of cocaine usage in the toilets and DJ booth. Although the latter is hard to believe, show me a club with no drugs in it, Cocaine or otherwise. The PP crowd is one of the least drug heavy, best behaved I’ve seen – and believe me, I’ve been to a lot of clubs.

Anyway, enough ranting. Their doors aren’t closed yet. join the FaceBook group and stay-tuned to find out how you can help stop this from happening. If Plastic goes, where will we have left? House/warehouse parties have already suffered the clampdown and there is not one venue I can think of that has the same quality control as Plastic People. Local authorities have already managed to herd anyone who wants to listen to anything but the commercial dirge into one East-Central postcode, lets not let them go further and extinguish the few flames we have left…

UPDATE: CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THE SAVE PLASTIC PEOPLE PETITION

If you didn’t already know, London is currently being shaken by a new-wave afro explosion. Dele Sosimi, Afrospot, The Soothsayers, Eric Soul….the list goes on.

Not afraid to step beyond the borders of Afro-Funk, Yaaba Funk are one of the more interesting shards of the aforementioned afro bomb. If you know Heads High, you should know Yaaba Funk from a heavy NYE basement session we collaborated on in East’ London’s ‘Life‘ venue (word to Kato!). if you don’t yet know Yaaba, you’re in for a treat. Peep the sample stream below, check the video and if you like what you hear, head over to SHOOK to investigate the interview I recently did with them…

….and the event? Deep South runnings courtesy of Jamie Renton and his Chilli Fried machine…

Featuring live…

UNITED VIBRATIONS
Reppin’ our extended family… UV have built up a reputation for turning pavements into parties. Their music is 12tone. Expect to be infected by their tight sounds, raw flow and dangerously contagious vibes.

AWALE
Awalé is a London based Afro Gypsy Funk musical project with members from Tunisia, France, Cuba and England. Musically, Awalé draws on these influences whilst reflecting the diversity of multicultural London.

… As if this wasn’t enough, just for good measure, there will also be jazz dance performances from Maki & Kola (Jazzcotech Dancers) to keep us tantalized and some heavy sound selections from Tony Nwachukwu (CDR) and Koichi Sakai (Afrobeat Vibration).

Jump on board the train… Freedom awaits you!

Sat 20th February 2010
at The NEW Empowering Church
1a Westgate Street, London E8 3RL
Door opens: 21:00 – 4:00
Entry: £6 before 22:00, £8 thereafter

Facebook Event Page

Blogging is a curious thing…especially when there are major labels/sponsors involved. They make crazy money, invest in something dope, give us a whiff of it & we do the rest…..for free. That’s only one reason why I feel slightly strange blogging about Baloji. The other is that seeing as I don’t speak French, I have only a feint idea of what he’s saying. What I do know though is that the way he says what he says is on point. Don’t hate me but that’s my main criteria for judging MCs & singers anyway….unless they’re really talking shit….

Baloji is a Congolese MC via Belgium. He’s been around for a minute and his flows stick to anything from high speed 70s funk to raw roots traditional drums. He’s been working on the follow up to the acclaimed ‘Hotel Impala‘ LP and sources tell us the fresh ‘Kinshasa Succursale’ project is ripe to drop. As a taster, the Konono No 1 sampling ‘Karibu Ye Bintou’ is currently doing the rounds. Not only is the track tight, but the video is excellent too….thoughts?

BALOJI feat. KONONO n1 – KARIBU YA BINTOU from BALOJI on Vimeo.

We in the West have been bombarded with films, novels and more speculating on (and in some cases shaping) the future condition of our society, but how many times has this forward gaze been allowed to rest on Africa?

Pumzi, written and directed by writer/director Wanuri Kahiu, officially claims the title of Kenya’s first science fiction film. Set in a futuristic African society characterized by a totalitarian  government,  repressive social control systems and an absence of individual freedoms, the film centres on Asha, a young woman living in one of East Africa’s contained communities 35 years after water wars have ravaged the world, causing incomprehensible ecological devestation. With her discovery that a soil sample sent to her in the mail is capable of germinating new life, the stage is set for her quest to investigate the possibility of new life outside the confines of the community structures – against the wishes of the governing Maitu Council. Kahiu’s short film taps into current Third World realities and walks them forward to terrible, yet entierly possible conclusions.

Funded by Focus Features’ Africa First short film program, the Goethe Institut and the Changamoto arts fund, Pumzi has already screened as part of Sundance’s New African Cinema program. As far as I can ascertain, there is no release date as yet but see below for a taste of East African Dystopia. Think black THX1138 and you’re getting close…..

www.pumziemovie.com

Still waters run deep and Connie Bell is no exception. While most of us know her for keeping things together as Heads High’s host and vocalist in chief, not many know that the end of ‘09 saw more than a few late night studio excursions by our favourite Jamaican songstress.

Her cover has officially been blown now as the first of many products of those sessions hits the streets in the form of the awesome ‘Vampires’ on UK Roots imprint ‘Top-A-Top”. Riding a fresh reimagining of a classic Lee Perry rhythm, Ms Bell gets raw on those who choose to take without giving. With a dangerous dub on the flip to seal the deal, it’s all about supporting music of substance in 2010…

Cop the freshness here….And if you missed her first release for the label, here’s what could have been yours…

As I opened my front door to a spine-chillingly cold blast of Arctic air this morning I found myself thinking ‘When the rass is this winter going to end?’ Thankfully, the warmth and wellness of an equatorial existence was closer than I’d imagined as my inbox opened and a warm breeze carried news of the next Sofrito Tropical Warehouse bash!

Those that know tend to know about Sofrito’s functions, their heavyweight bills, heavier dubplates and contrastingly light-footed crowds have brought them much attention on these shores and beyond. Add to that a scorching release schedule and a propensity for rooting out excitingly unknown locations for their events and you have all the information required to confirm your attendance at their next session.

March the 6th is a big one, here’s the blurb:

“For our first party of 2010 we are very proud to present an exclusive DJ appearance from QUANTIC alongside many special guests!

Taking control of an amazing new two room warehouse space in the heart of Dalston, we’ll be playing the best in hot and heavy Tropical sounds in a costeño style!

We are bringing together the peerless Family Atlantica (featuring Luzmira Zerpa and Jack Yglesias) and Quantic to present the heaviest Vallenato and cumbia sounds in an exclusive live set that you won’t be able to see anywhere else!  The raw sound of the Caribbean coast, bringing together Afro-Venezualan sounds and the folkore of Colombia.

All this alongside a live set from Afro Latin masters Drymbago, DJ action from Quantic himself and the Sofrito Soundsystem plus some special guests!

Tickets are £10 in advance (plus £1 booking fee)”

So there you have it. Cheat winter and get your heat on. In the meantime, here’s a mix lovingly sculpted by the soft hand of Sofrito, taking in rhythms from Colombia, Benin, Trinidad, Angola as well as an exclusive track from Quantic’s Sonido del Valle project…

Download Tropical Warehouse Mix