Melbourne TPOAO 45 launch!

Holy crap.

We just toured Cairns, Sydney and Katoomba and we are feeling pretty damn good. 45 has been out for a week and the people are digging it! We are so excited about this one.
Also launching are the amazing Bombay Royale with their insane Bollydisco 45 'Sote Sote Adhi Raat'. Backed by the incredible Cactus Channel and with myself manning the decks this is shaping as my Gig Of The Year TM. If you live in Melbourne and you don't come... well I'm sorry buddy, I just can't help you.

Check out The Bombay Royale 45 here

Check out the recent 45 from Cactus Channel here

To buy yourself some tickets call 03 9427 9198 or click here

The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra - Mr Clean 45

My band 'The Public Opinon Afro Orchestra' has a new 45 out - Mr Clean... this is it!

The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra - Mr Clean (Full Version) by HopeStreet Recordings

If you dig it, buy it on vinyl kid! It's really the only way to experience quality music. And this wonderous experience can be all yours for unbelievebly low, low, low $12! That's right, 12 freaking dollars (that's only 11.50US or 9.5EU, wow!)
http://www.hopestreetrecordings.com/releases/mr-clean/


This was my first attempt at writing a press release thingamy too, tells the tale a bit I guess.

Following up on their ARIA-nominated album “Do Anything Go Anywhere” and their sold-out 12” “Two Sides of the Truth” The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra bring some more hard-hitting afro-funk to the dance-floors of Australia and beyond with the new release “Mr Clean”. Comprising 17 Melbourne-based musicians, many with origins in Africa, they draw from these diverse backgrounds in creating a heavy afro sound that is uniquely their own.

“Follow your leader!” comes the chorus as guitarist Dave Marama, channeling the power of freedom fighters past, steps up to the mic and delivers his funky sermon. Mr Clean is his vision of leading his native Africa with wisdom and empathy, as something virtually unheard of these days; a clean, honest politician. You might say “he’s dreaming” but give this man a chance and by the end he’ll have your vote I promise! And don’t worry he’s not out fighting on his own – he’s there with the hardest rhythm section as his foot soldiers, the meanest horn section as his cavalry and a frontline of singers and dancers that would make a grown man weep.

This up-tempo afro-funk stormer has ‘club hit’ stamped all over it. It might be over 8 mins long, spread over both sides of the 45 (DJ’s, you neeeeed doubles!) but if you’re on a dancefloor when the needle hits the groove, you’ll find yourself a heaving, sweaty mess by the end.

Available on 7″ 45rpm vinyl and digital, “Mr Clean” was recorded live to analogue tape in the abandoned textile factory that serves as the HopeStreet recording studio. This rarefied atmosphere coupled with the warmth of the beautiful vintage gear can be really felt in the raw, dirty power of this groove.

Seun Kuti moves that booty

Seun Kuti has embraced his family musical legacy, taking the lead from his father Fela & older brother Femi, producing a second album full of fire and fury. He is backed by The Eypyt '80, his father's last group and enlists Brian Eno and John Reynolds on production duties.

Interestingly when I was in Nigeria people didn't seem to rate him that highly and thought of him more as a 'Fela cover band'. The general consensus was that his brother the true keeper of the music as he had evolved and taken the music somewhere new, whereas Seun took a more traditional approach. I don't give a shit about any of that because I really dig a lot of Seun's stuff and can't wait to hear more as he becomes more comfortable in his own musical skin over the next few years.
Rise is from his second album 'From Africa With Fury' and he has posted it up for free!


Rise by Knitting Factory


Also check out this very cool interview with Seun by Wax Poetics TV

Leon's Creation & Tunde Williams

This Is The Beginning (mediafire)

Oh yes.  Big things are coming our way my friends, big things indeed.  

Feels like a change blowing through... could it be the end?  

Or just the beginning (mediafire)

Some records I found in Nigeria

(mp3 downloads to found at the bottom!)

OK, so the first couple of tracks I'm going to post up are from a recent digging/music/arse-ing about expedition to Nigeria I took with a couple of friends from my afro-beat/afro funk band (The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra). But I thought I might also share a little story about the circumstances that lead me to these records. Nigeria is a pretty crazy place - we're talking 24 hour epic traffic jams, a police force that basically just stands around waiting to find a way to extort money from civilians and an economy run almost entirely underground. But of course it also has some of the happiest and most beautiful people you'll ever meet. Not to mention the joys of a 

meat dish called suya.  There were many adventures and highlights for us - jamming with Femi Kuti onstage at The Shrine (and going to a BBQ at his house), recording with MC Modenine, being harassed by the army and appearing several times on Nigerian TV and radio.

Through Modenine we met Ladani, a radio presenter (or 'radio personality' as he referred to himself) who invited us in on his show that afternoon. We go down to the studio - a couple of run-down buildings in an overgrown compound and have a pretty informal interview, Ladani assuming something of a hip-hop-Casey-Kasem on-air persona. Having done community radio back home I didn't get the impression that we were being heard altogether too many people but that's not really the point now is it? So we finish and he introduces us to the station manager, a kind of young, Nigerian Ricardo Montalban character who immediately asks us if we are ready for the television. Television? This thing has a television station? He takes us through and showed us the one studio they had - a blue screen room that 

they would film everything in, superimposing in a different background for each show (my favourite of which was of a busy office for the news).  This allayed our fears - we were happy to go on some community TV station with no-one watching. So dressed like the chumps we are, we appear on the equivalent of a midday Video Smash Hits (or MTV if you will) and standing around talking bollocks with the presenter in front of the blue screen. He asks us all the standard questions; Who are you? Why the hell did you travel halfway around the world to show us a half-rate version of the music we liked 30 years ago? Do you speak german in Austria? That type of thing. Then they play our track but as we had no video to 

accompany it they we at a bit of a loss as to what to do visually.  First they tried it with a station ID before they decided that was too boring (the track goes for 8 minutes) so from there they cut back to us just standing around in front of the blue screen.  They quickly realised that this was a bit shit too so next they tried out us standing there with the station ID sort of ghosted over us.  Again a bit shit so they just went back to us and told the host to get us to do something.  'Come on, dance!' he told us.  Dance? I don't know what the shade is that is one whiter than white is but that's pretty much how white we are.  And if we were to start dancing on live TV next to a jiggy MTV host, no matter how small the audience, we would have certainly being plumbing previously undiscovered depths of whiteness.  So we just stood there.  'Come on, come on, I'll teach you a traditional dance' and he started this little thing that was more of a co-ordinated movement than dance so we sort of copied him, laughing and taking the piss.  Eventually it all wraps up and we bounce back to the hotel.  As we go in all the hotel reception girls start laughing and doing the dance back at us so we ask them how the hell they saw us.  Turns out it's no cable station - it was one of the biggest stations in the country and in a country of around 155 million that means a lot of people were watching us act like dicks. 

They'd roped us in for a bunch of different shows (they seriously couldn't get over the fact that a bunch of guys from Australia playing afro-beat had come to Lagos and were actually pretty proud of it.  Which was cool) so the next morning we were back to be guests on a Mornings With Bert Newton style show where we sat indulged in awkward, earnest conversation about the awesomeness of both ourselves and Nigeria.  We were also interviewed for a travel program in which Zvi was somewhat coerced into proposing marriage to his lady-friend, which I have heard very little (read: nothing) about since.

But anyway I digress... it was after this that we decided to go find some records so we headed to a shopping area we had heard mentioned as a place we could find a little something.  But an hour or so of fruitless wandering saw our spirits dipping so we stopped across from a underpass/bus stop to discuss our next move.  A man came out of a car yard saying he had seen us on TV and asked us what we were doing wandering around in this dodgy area.  When we told him we were chasing old records he immediately lead us across the road, under the bridge and deep into a wooden, shanty town area.  

Now I don't know if you have heard about the reputation of Nigerian's as being the kings of the scammers (something they seem to be quite proud of) but it's a reputation 

that exists for good reason.  The always are trying to scam you but if you call them on it they will always just give you a can't-blame-a-kid-for-trying-smile, it's ingrained in them I swear but it's actually a bit funny when you're there.  In fact once I was at an Internet cafe and looked over the shoulders of the men either side of me and they were BOTH actually sending out mass Nigerian bank scam emails.  It was so hard not to laugh out loud.

So as we negotiated this series of tiny alleyways, in the back of my mind I began considering this and the fact that we were not only following a Nigerian but a secondhand car salesman at that, into god knows where and possibly to our doom.  But no we arrive at our destination and much to my joy it is a little shack filled floor to wall with Nigerian recordings, mostly highlife but plenty of the good stuff too.  

 OG Fela's for all

Unfortunately it was a business that would record any LP they had and give it to you on a cassette tape but the owner said we could purchase any record we found doubles of.  We started on the Fela section (about 100 records and pretty much any Fela record I had ever seen) where we got about 8 original pressings, including a Zombie for me.  I also dug up 

a Funkees LP, the Bunzu Soundz, a Mebusas and few others making it a pretty successful mission.  The guys who ran the store were great too, I asked them a few questions about different records and artists and they were happy to answer, in fact one of them was related (I can't remember how) to 'Prince' Joni Haastrap from Monomono.  As a result he wouldn't sell me any of their records though, dammit.  Of course the hardest part was trying to negotiate an appropriate price whilst trying not to look too excited.  These are a couple of the records I found in there

Download (320kbps): Ofege - 'Nobody Fails' (EMI LP 'Try And Love' 1973)

Ofege were a group of teenagers playing in and around Lagos from the early to mid 70's.  Taken from the 'Try And Love' LP, this track like much of their work showcases some sublime funky/psych guitar work from Felix Inneh and some incredible nearly-off- kilter timing.   According to the guy who sold it to me the name 'Ofege' is Lagos slang meaning 'telling people hey fuck you and doing what you want'.  Apparently this record was recorded when they were still in school as well, which is pretty amazing considering the maturity of the sound.  You can cop some of their other work on Soundway, check out the killer 'Nigeria Special' comps in particular.

Download (320kbps): William Onyeabor - 'Better Change Your Mind' (Wilfilms LP 'Atomic Bomb' 1978)

How can you not want a record with this cover?  So many reasons to dig it.  For a start it's called Atomic Bomb.  And check the awesome suit, headphones and the little dance he's busting. Not to mention the seven microphones pointed at the man (really, who needs seven mic's?).  The first few bars of the song are a touch concerning, sounding a like something left off the soundtrack to Napoleon Dynamite but then it kicks into one of those killer afro grooves, asking the guitarist to sit on that one little line for 8 or 10 minutes turning it into trancey, spacey slice of magic.  The organ is bordering on cheesy but William pulls it off beautifully and I really dig how lo-fi the whole album is.  He studied cinema in Russia before coming back to start his record label (hence the name Wilfilms, geddit?) and according to what info I could find he now runs his own flour mill.  Sounds like a hell of a life!

In the next couple of weeks I'll post up a couple of mixes of stuff I found over there as well as other bits and pieces so stay tuned kids... and don't forget to check out my radio show.  Peace!