Brian Burton and Composer Daniele Luppi Reinvent the Spaghetti Western Soundtrack. For his latest album, super-producer Danger Mouse (AKA Brian Burton) joined forces with LA-based composer and frequent collaborator Daniele Luppi for Rome, a spaghetti western-inspired tour de force. Referencing Ennio Morricone, legendary composer of soundtracks for A Fistful of Dollars and The Good,...
It’s been 20 years since Vincent Ahehehinnou and his bandmates in the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou could afford to spend their days playing music. Back then, the band from Benin — formed in the late ’60s following the country’s independence from France — was busy spreading the joys of Afrobeat, a blend of soul,...
At the beginning of the 2000s, Rachel Millward and Pinny Gryllis were making low-budget short films in London, but had no peer network. In an effort to change this, they decided to buy out London’s Curzon Soho Cinema on a November night in 2002 to debut one of their films. That same night, they...
In London, you can take classes on how to make graffiti. On weekends, street artist Andy Seize gives graffiti lessons to children and adults who pay between £35 and £150 per session. Since he works in pre-approved spaces, Seize doesn’t have to worry about London’s active graffiti clean-up crews. “ will always have people...
On the belief that poetry is indeed a growing, expanding art form, this year, Southbank Center will host its annual T.S. Eliot Prize Readings festival in larger digs: the Royal Festival Hall. The shortlisted poets for this year’s prize, a prestigious award for the best poetry collection of 2010, are Simon Armitage, Annie Freud,...
At a time when e-readers may be displacing the good, old-fashioned print book, an effort to revive interest in the art of the book cover is taking place in London. The gallery StolenSpace gave a simple task to a group of more than 30 artists, designers, ceramic artists and photographers: design a cover for...
Recently caught live performances by Soul Rebels Brass Band, Get the Blessing, and Led Bib during the 2010 London Jazz Festival. Several hundred people who gathered at the Southbank Centre to see Soul Rebels Brass Band were so into it the show that they boo-ed loudly when the band did not play an encore....
In London on November 3rd, the day after the midterm elections in America, political conversations among expats concentrates mainly on two things: the Tea Party and America’s economy. “With the Tea Party, if we can’t agree on lowering the deficit and taxes, if we can’t do that, then we haven’t done our job,” said...
In 2004 Florent de La Tullaye and Renaud Barret encountered Leon “Ricky” Likabu playing music on the streets of Kinshasa. A victim of poliomyelitis, he was joined by fellow wheelchair-bound musicians and street youth. Together, with old beat-up or hand-made instruments, the group played what could only be described as folk music: honest, heart-felt...
Onstage, 68-year-old Mulatu Astatke is as subtle and understated as the Ethiopian jazz he created. The music, a hybrid of traditional Ethiopian music and jazz, is subdued, somewhat melancholy, and at times psychedelic. Mr Astatke, the originator and composer of songs in this canon, plays his principal instrument, the vibraphone, with a light touch....