Tse Tse Fly - Middle East

Shama Rahman

Tse Tse Fly: Middle East
Simon Coates
Shama Rahman
Afasia Yuri

Date - 1st November 2017
Venue - A World In London, Resonance FM, London, UK

Tse Tse Fly, limited edition prints for sale and CD.

Avant-garde world collective Tse Tse Fly Middle East on this A World in London!
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-1st-november-2017/  

Simon Coates

Tse Tse Fly Middle East was conceived by Simon Coates as an alternative clubbing concept while he was living in Dubai. Having relocated to London, the project has grown to include an array of experimental music artists and on this AWIL you’ll hear spatial electronica from Japan’s Afasia Yuri plus operatic sitar grooves by UAE born Shama Rahman. The common thread is a shared commitment to human rights, change for the better, and hope for the future! Find out more below this track-list!

Founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2015, Tse Tse Fly Middle East started life as the region's first ever sound art and experiments-in-noise platform. Now based in London, Tse Tse Fly Middle East is a registered Community Interest Company that highlights human rights, censorship and social issues in the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent via live experimental arts events, workshops and interventions.  Typically a Tse Tse Fly event features curated short art films, mini-documentaries and animations on socio-political themes, and live experimental music, noise and sound art performances.  Tse Tse Fly has a fluid collective of experimental musicians and sound artists at its core. Collective members either have roots in the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent or have a practise that features strong socio-political messages. As well as hosting regular club nights, Tse Tse Fly Middle East have performed live - and have produced and curated site-specific events - in Dubai, Sharjah and the UK, working with the Maraya Arts Centre, Alserkal Avenue, the Other Worlds Festival, the Other Worlds Music Video Festival, the Fully Booked international artist book project, London-based experimental music project Sonic Imperfections and more.

Shama Rahman

Shama Rahman - born in the United Arab Emirates and now based in the UK, Shama is a sitar-player, singer/songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, actress/spoken word artist and scientist.  Shama has spent the summer playing live - including performing at Bestival - and promoting her new album Truth Be Told.  

Afasia Yuri

Afasia Yuri - based between the UK and Japan, Yuri’s live sets mix fully absorbing field recordings with electronic beats and ethereal, siren-like vocals that shift between noise and ambience.  Yuri builds sometimes disorientating soundscapes that move back and forth through space.  

1/11/17 – AWIL at Res 142  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-1st-november-2017/  Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling & sketches by Alban Low. Also this week a Sheila Chandra at SOAS Radio. Next week Martin Alvarado at SOAS & Namvula at Resonance!  #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS ELEVENTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 

Cleveland Watkiss - Vocal Warrior

Cleveland Watkiss

Date - 25th October 2017
Venue - A World In London, Resonance FM, London, UK

Current album - Song Diasporas (2016)

Future Performance

6th November 2017 - The Vortex, London, UK

Ubiquitous musical treasure & vocal warrior, Cleveland Watkiss on this A World in London!
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-25th-october-2017/

We caught up with Cleveland between some Sound Spas and his forthcoming date at The Vortex on Nov 6th as part of this year’s London International Arts Festival. Ever-evolving, it’s impossible to confine him to one genre, one era, or one skill, but suffice to say that the man that’s won the best vocalist Parliamentary Jazz Award 2017 is our man in the studio. A MOBO might be on its way too, and not before time. On this show you’ll get some sense of the journeys Cleveland has travelled in rhyme, as a virtuoso vocalist, composer, music educator, and actor. His early days in the 80’s with Lovers Rock queen Carroll Thompson, and The Jazz Warriors, followed by the heady 90’s drum n’ bass scene with Goldie & the Metalheadz crew in Hoxton’s Blue Note. There’s been collaborations with first-gen African greats like Sona Jobarteh, Tunde Jegede, and Kasse Mady too, but the collaborator list is endless and giant-filled. Watch out for his new project Collective X, whose debut album cover has been designed by AWIL resident artist Alban Low. Our first live session with Cleveland on this AWIL left us with a lot of unfinished business, but rest assured that this conversation is to be resumed...
                        ‘           ‘
25/10/17 – AWIL at Res 141  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-25th-october-2017/  Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling & sketches by Alban Low. Also this week a Addictive TV at SOAS Radio. Next week Sheila Chandra at SOAS & Tse Tse Fly Middle East at Resonance!  #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS ELEVENTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 

Blurt - Pagan Strings Restrung

Ted Milton

BLURT
Ted Milton - voice, saxophone, performance
Chris Vine - guitar (+ voice)
Paul Wigens - drums (+ voice)

Date - 18th October 2017
Venue - Iklectik Art Lab, London, UK
Current album - Live at Oto (Salamander Records, 2016)

BLURT recorded the Pagan Strings album in Ulm, Southern Germany, in ’92, at the end of a thirty consecutive dates tour. Ted Milton played sax and vocalised. On guitar was Chris Vine, who was with the band from ’90 to ’95, and Paul Wigens, Blurt drummer from ’85 to ’98. Some twenty years later the original line-up reformed to play this one-off Pagan Strings Concert.  Milton also performed “Molecule” – a short performance piece, and recited poems from the recently published Milton Text Book.

Ted Milton

Ted Milton once described himself as "a tone-deaf musician" and at the end of a sax-part during a Blurt gig in Antwerp he proclaimed with a broad smile: "Oh, why don't I just take some lessons?" All this to say Ted doesn't see himself as a ground-breaking nor virtuoso sax player. However, when in good form his instrument becomes an extension of his body and wonderful sonic landscapes enfold. 

Paul Wigens

Paul Wigens joined Blurt in 1986 after Jake Milton left. He can be heard first time on the "Poppycock" album. Paul is a human metronome, taking his musicianship very serious. He studied with American jazz drummer CLIFFORD JARVIS (Sun Ra/Archie Shepp/Pharoah Saunders) in the mid nineties. He has played with the groups Grand Drive (Sony/BMG), The Blue Aeroplanes and Cousteau and mosy recently with Eyebrow. As musician and composer with Cardiff-based physical theatre company Earthfall, he worked on the shows Forever and Ever, Fabulous Wounds, Rococco Blood and Bakkus and the BAFTA-winning short film Too Old to Dream.

Chris Vine

Chris Vine replaced Steve Eagles in 1990 to record the "Pagan Strings" album. Before he had lived in the U.S.A. and played in The Scientific Americans and with a.o. Eliott Sharp. Chris changed the sound of Blurt trough his fingerpicking guitar style, using a thumb pick to accentuate the low notes or to strum the strings very hard. He also made frequent use of an electro-harmonix analog delay and octaver-effects. Chris now spends his time between the UK and Brazil and writes music for theatre and dance companies.

DJ Vix - Turntablist Mixmaster

DJ Vix

Date - 18th October 2017
Venue - A World In London, Resonance FM, London, UK

Current album - Chapter V (2015)

Mixmaster DJ Vix on this A World in London!
Click to lisyen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-18th-october-2017/

All turntablists working with Bhangra music will have productions by DJ Vix in their library. He’s the most sought-after remixer on the British-Asian scene – the Desi equivalent of David Guetta - and has added essential beats & breaks to songs by vocal giants like Jay Sean, Sukshinder Shinda, and Jassi Sidhu. Vix is often out with his Dhol n Bass Roadshow, but I found him recently when we were both brought in to spin an ‘old skool’ set for the BBC Asian Network. On this AWIL catch Vix in the mix, live on the CDJs, and hear about his rise to fame from East London roots to international stardom! 

18/10/17 – AWIL at Res 140  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-18th-october-2017/  Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling & sketches by Alban Low. Also this week a Pete Lockett at SOAS Radio. Next week Addictive TV at SOAS & Cleveland Watkiss at Resonance!  #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS ELEVENTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 

Mark Sullivan - Slip Into Your Head

Mark Sullivan

Date - 13th October 2017
Venue - Slaughtered Lamb, London, UK
Current Single - Slip Into Your Head (October 2017)

Future performance
21/10/2017 -  MILTON KEYNES, THE STABLES
22/10/2017 -  SHEFFIELD, THE GREYSTONES
25/10/2017 - LEEDS, PACKHORSE
06/11/2017 - ST PANCRAS CHURCH, LONDON

Mark Sullivan has crafted his art on the road with hundreds of shows that include all the expected stages for such a troubadour plus incredible experiences such as opening at Wembley Arena, performing at The Houses Of Parliament, the US ambassadors private London residence and receiving an award from Rick Wakeman.

Sullivan is now set to embark upon a UK tour ‘In The Round’ this October with Radio 2 and Country To Country festival favourites Emma Stevens & Megan O Neill plus USA’s James Fredholm making his UK debut. “Slip Into Your Head” is the highly anticipated new single by Mark Sullivan.  This earthy slice of sincerity holds the potential to skyrocket Sullivan to the pinnacle of the acoustic indie folk listener’s radar and begs the question of how far this astonishing artist can go. 

Megan O'Neill - Why I Need You

Megan O'Neill

Date - 13th October 2017
Venue - Slaughtered Lamb, London, UK
Current Single - Why I Need You (2017)

Future performance
21/10/2017 -  Bilston (UK), British Country Music Awards 2017
25/10/2017 - LEEDS, PACKHORSE
21/01/2018 - Green Note, London

Irish-born singer/songwriter Megan O’Neill is one of the most exciting Americana artists on the UK - Irish scene. A long-time musician and song-writer, Megan has previously lived in Nashville but now resides full time in London. 

She released her debut EP ‘Coming Home’ in May 2015, reaching #1 in Irish country charts & was awarded ‘UK EP of the Year’ (W21Music). In February 2017, Megan released a second record with her band ‘The Common Threads’ titled ‘Stories to Tell’ which was recorded at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios with the legendary Guy Fletcher (Dire Straits, Roxy Music, Mark Knopfler) producing. 

2017 has seen Megan selected as one of the top 8 Americana songwriter’s in the UK, a performance at the Americana Music Awards in London and touring Ireland, America and the UK, sharing stages with such artists as Miranda Lambert, Kip Moore, Nathan Carter, Donna Taggart and Victoria Shaw. She’s also spent this year writing and recording her debut solo album. The first single (‘Why I Need You’) is due for release in October 2017 and the full album set for release early 2018.

James Fredholm - The poet uncaged

James Fredholm

Date - 13th October 2017
Venue - Slaughtered Lamb, London, UK
New poetry publication - Uncaged (2017)
Current Single - Oars (2017)

Future performance
21/10/2017 -  MILTON KEYNES, THE STABLES
22/10/2017 -  SHEFFIELD, THE GREYSTONES
25/10/2017 - LEEDS, PACKHORSE

Born and raised in Austin Texas, James Fredholm first discovered his passion for music through the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Johnson.  His inspiration has been drawn from his complicated life, coloured by the cultures of Texas, London and Zurich – not forgetting his time in the army and above all experiences of love.

“Growing up in vibrant music scene of Austin, Texas in the 1970’s was a defining moment for me. I got my first guitar at 14 and couldn’t put it down, it just felt right, it was in my blood. Through those years I was a regular at the music clubs, so many known and unknown talents to absorb, including Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Johnson, Christopher Cross and the whole alternative rock and country scenes. I was playing in an acoustic trio and we made a little bit of a name for ourselves writing and recording jingles for local businesses. It was always a passion, despite my fears and insecurities’’.
His music is best described as emotional and arrestingly honest, from the heart. He brings a unique perspective, which together with his 1968 J50 Gibson acoustic guitar and harmonica delivers an intimate, edgy sweetness that gets easily under the skin.

Fredholm describes himself as a poet first, then musician, many songs of the forthcoming album ‘Love Is The Answer’ taking their first steps in his book of poetry ‘Uncaged’.