Concert in your area for Hip-Hop and Electronic.
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Growing up in South London during the 1980’s, Karl Francis fell head over heels in love with hip-hop both local and from across the Atlantic Ocean. That, along with the reggae, soul and rare groove music that he soaked up from events held in local parks to him made him want to create music. However, at first Francis was making musical equipment, apprenticing under anyone involved with it he could find to the point where he was creating amps and bass bins on his own by the time he was 15. From here he branched out into production, working with artists in his local scene and on his own material to the point where he was sometimes self-releasing two records a week. By the age of 23 he had 50 releases to his name, and that number was only going to get bigger from there.
With so much experience in self-releasing his records, rather than sign to a record label, Francis decided to create a number of his own own. While he remained as prolific as he ever was, none of them stuck until 1997, when he and his long-time collaborator Kevin King (otherwise known as Lemon D) formed Valve Recordings. Ever since then, Valve has remained Francis’ home base for his highest charting singles and his studio albums, the first of which, “Cybotron” came out in 2000 and the second a compilation called “My Sounds (1993 - 2004)” came out in 2004. However, Dillinja is a singles artist through and through, which has allowed him to release countless experiments with all forms of electronica and techno.
These have gone on to inspire multiple generations of artists from producers and DJ’s to legends like David Bowie and Bjork (both of whom have worked with Francis in the past). For anyone to have that kind of influence should be celebrated, and for being one of South London’s most celebrated musical exports of all time, Dillinja comes highly recommended.
It was great. Great show. Great atmosphere. Great energy. However we had to wait for long periods of time. After biskwiqs set, we waited 45 mins before aries turned up.
The ’80s popster turned proto-jungle revolutionary was born Michael West in 1965 in London. He formed 'Double Trouble' in the early ’80s with Michael Menson and Leigh Guest, releasing the ska-pop hits like 'Street Tuff'. Still touring around the UK to a devoted group of fans and fans of jungle and ragga, the intriguing and experimental songwriter is performing a selection of material from across his long career.
His 1991 release 'Black Meaning Good' is still hailed as one of the most successful mergers of breakbeat style and dub baselines surrounded by reggae production. The way Congo performs live also sees him crossing boundaries of genre continuously onstage, mixing different sounds and beats to keep the crowd dancing as they see his familiar hat bobbing to the beat of the music. 2013 LP 'Jungle Revolution' sounds huge when dropped into sets, another mixture of music with those familiar reggae tones getting everyone moving in the crowds.
The DJ will be touring the UK this Autumn after killer performances at Glastonbury & Bestival over the summer, playing in London, Brighton and Oxford. For fans of experimental dance music, Congo Natty is an act not to be missed.