Afrobeat

Right now it's 2:30 in the morning, my eyes are burning and itchy and i feel like i'm developing premature arthritis, i'm a right picture of health. But i have this urge to update my blog a lil bit, chat about what i'm listening to and di-higging at the mo'. right this second i've tuned into afrobeat radio courtesy of last.fm. After developing an interest in 'new york global noise/ dance/ grime/ any fucking genre as long as it's a got some colour to it' group Gang Gang Dance, i've dug out last October's Plan B and been reading a front page feature on the crew in question. in the southern offices they were playing a liddy bid of what i believe to be from the up coming release, i don't know when it's due out, what the name of the song was or who they collaborated on it with, alls i knows is...it sounded honey fine. After drowning my ears with alot of grey and comparatively dull 80's no wave/ goth/whatnot, it's refreshing to paint my aural receptors with someting a little more vibrant shall we say. uplifting in these bleak times, it's a nice distraction from the icy cold early mornings and usless hot water bottles (mine is a piece 'o' shite).
i started browsing through the soul jazz website, i have a lot of love for that label, despite owning only ONE record released on the label (Brazilian Tropicalia cd...why the fudge am i not going to Brazil this year?), i have a real soft spot for it. most likely because since i've been a Wire reader, the colourful and crazy advertisements for new soul jazz releases have always adorned the rear of the magazine. i've always looked at the pictures and been intriegued, so despite my lack of soul jazz releases i think it's a awesome label and a cool intro to global music much like Trojan and the like.
my i've gone off on a tangent. i've really wanted to check out the 100% dynamite club soul jazz host in Brick Lane since i got an email about it way back when, i'm still yet to attend i don't really have a good excuse to be honest.
This global music is reminding me why i wanted a gap year in the first place, predominantly to travel and experience different cultures, the colours, the music the food all of it. unfortunately due to bad decisions and my lack of financial savviness i remain in freezing blighty and thinking twice about whether the whole thing was not a terrible mistake that shall haunt me for the rest of my days....doubtful of course but the melodrama only serves to make the current climate slightly more interesting.

you know what song just came on...'yeke yeke' by mory kante...'ole ole, feelin hot hot hot.' No, i friggin' well am not.

I'm beginning to regret not catching seun Kuti and the egypt 80 at cargo last year, i swear he played their twice, unless that was his brother Femi...Nigerian Afro Beat pioneer, Fela Kuti's sons. i downloaded a bunch of random mp3s from this blog called awesome tapes from africa that i discovered after reading the aforementioned GGD feature, we shall dig through those and see what happens, in the mean time i'll let last.fm teach me a trick or two.