A few weeks ago, whilst looking for a venue with a mate, we met a certain Joshua in the streets. Luckily for us he was looking for the same place, however unluckily for us, by the time we found the location, the party was over. During this journey however, it didn’t take long to realize that Joshua was seriously into his music. From name-dropping jazz artists to quoting Common lyrics and to even sharing soulful online mixes that I later rushed home to download, it was pretty clear that this guy knew his stuff.
It eventually transpired that the reason we bumped into him was that he wanted to flyer at the event we couldn’t find. He also revealed to us that he’s in a band known as Benin City and runs his own poetry/music showcase nights, so I took home his promo EP and checked out his s**t.
I must confess that what I heard was not what I was expecting. Benin City seem to represent a time long gone where music could also be fun. All the online blurbs seem to talk about Benin City being “James Brown meets Outkast” and although I feel that this is a poor, inaccurate and lazy label for such a group, if it represents anything, it’s the lightheartedness they seem to encapsulate.
What you have in a nutshell is two wordsmiths (Josh and Musa) delivering social commentary via playfully witty lyricism. They are backed by some funky horns (Faye), a bass, electric cellist (Jon) and the beat (Theo).
On a personal level, listening to the EP took me back to an era where ska reigned supreme. Despite its lack of similarity with the genre’s sound, just like ska, the overwhelmingly happy vibes are so much in abundance that the permanent grin on my face continued to be present way after the final track had stopped.
This is not one for the musically highly-strung; Benin City’s nonchalant personality is epitomized by the name of their debut EP: “Invisible Cake.”
It would be easy to cast this approach as implying a general lack of depth, however all in all, the only thing I believe it is a testament to, is their unpretentiousness. Under scrutiny, the layers of poetic truths would have been overbearing if not delivered with an upbeat groove. Even then, the EP’s fourth track, ‘The Flight’ show’s the band’s ability to switch things up, displaying Benin City’s more fragile tones in a tale of affliction, personal growth and hope.
The event to catch Benin City live, is at Poejazzi on July 1st at E4 Udderbelly in the Southbank Centre. Poejazzi focuses on teaming poetry with live sets. For this edition, singer-songwriter Lail Arad will be hosting the night, whilst wordsmith Yungun (who has previously supported Slum Village and De La Soul) will be promoting his upcoming album “Middle Man” with his live band.
Inua Ellams, whose reputation as a maverick in the poetry circuit has been concreted by his 10 shows at the National Theatre, co-organises the event and will also be performing. Sounds like we’re in for a treat.
Following the general theme of not taking ourselves too seriously, Heads High will be giving away two free Benin City Invisible Cake EP albums with exclusive artwork to the two most creative explanations as to why Joshua was in a plastic cow outfit at his last performance at Poejazzi.
Please post your answers in the comments section below this blog posting by June 30th 2010. The selected winners will be contacted on the day of the show (1st July 2010).
Click here for event details and tickets.
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