As Seen On Youtube: Go Right.

Back in the 80′s/90′s, the biggest videogame genre wasn’t first person shooters like Call of Duty and Halo, it was 2d side-scrollers like Mario, Sonic and Metroid; games on a flat two dimensional viewing angle where you moved to the right to progress and occasionally hopped across bottomless pits, facing far more imaginative challenges than mostgames nowadays have to offer. Some enterprising youtuber has made a montage of a handful of titles and stuck A Wild And Distant Shore by Michael Nyman as the soundtrack, and it stops me breathing, it does. Though there are few  scenes from current classics like Braid, this is really a love letter to videogaming’s golden era, and more importantly, my misspent youth. Or at least that’s how I’ve seen it, all teary eyed behind rose-pixelated glasses. It’s the most poetic piece of media I’ve seen today.

Poejazzi June 10th Giveaway: Shakka – Drivin’

We’re gearing up towards our relaunch and our first event for 2012 and the sun is fully compliant with our plans! Huzzah! So what better way to propel us into summer then to a) give you a pressie (because presents are a universal smile inducer and b) for that present to be Shakka’s hazy, day dream inducing track Drivin’. America gave us Frank Ocean and The Weekend and the UK has given us Shakka: a shiny beacon for alternative R&B music. You can play this in your car if you feel the urge, the title is not didactic but I warn you this song is so catchy and melodic that you are liable to find yourself playing this en route everywhere. Catch the man himself doing what he does best (it would be a little churlish to argue with over 300,000 views on YouTube no?!) with a full band at Poejazzi June 10th! 

Shakka – Drivin’

Poejazzi Recommends: Alex Gwyther and Michael Robbins

Two very different collections with lots of reasons to go and purchase them/order them straight to the sofa spot you like to partake in higher intellectual pursuits than Come Dine With Me.

Nasty Little Press (that cool publishing universe where seriously respected poets like Luke Wright, John Osborne Salena Godden and Martin Figura all reside) have a lovely initiative with the help of The Arts Council called Nasty Little Intro where they select their bet on the next big thing and pour all of that talent and promise into a small (and pleasingly convenient to carry) collection.

Previous Nasty Little Intro poets include Foyle Young Poet of the Year winner Amy Blackmore. Alex Gwyther is one of 2012′s bet and he’s one of ours too so we’re heartily glad Nasty Little Press agree. Subject matter ranges from drinking man observations on a Saturday night to the phenomena that was the Christmas truce during WWI. The limited edition collection is available at a very affordable £2 from Nasty Little Press (email them if you are ordering from outside of the UK) Oh and Nasty Little Press makes no profit from your purchase so the artist receives the full benefit of your support and can go on to make more great art to entertain and stimulate us on journeys home and on lazy days. In fact, we hear through the grapevine/forced confession that Alex is developing the WWI poem that has already garnered quite a bit of attention on YouTube into a way-more-ambitious-than-a-one-man-show full theatrical piece. For the students/financially challenged artists out there who want to try before you buy you can also read Alex’s collection at The Southbank Centre’s Poetry Library but it’s definitely a keepsake level book.

The other book we think you should be foaming at the proverbial mouth to get your hands on is Michael Robbins’ hip-hop meets Allen Ginsberg collection Alien vs Predator.  It all sounds so exciting, especially for a collection published by one of the Big Six publishing houses. Robbins writes in poem “Plastic Robbins Band” “My heart is lovely, dark and deep,” but by my estimation and The New York Times Robbins’ heart has way more kinetic energy than he claims. His verse jumps from pop culture to high culture in a thoroughly modern way, gleaming inspiration from surface to surface as many of us do in our everyday lives. What made us stand up and take notice beyond the growingly typical claims of capturing the modern affliction and greatness of interchangeability is the chaos Robbins reigns in: 

He’s not confessional; I doubt he has much to confess. He’s not particularly soulful. He doesn’t, as yet, have overly much to say. But he has a sky-blue originality of utterance. In one of his rare long poems, “Space Mountain,” you can commence reading almost anywhere…He’ll pack allusions to Philip Larkin and reality television into the same razor-blade stanza, to wit:

 

My neighbor’s whales keep me up at night.

They may not mean to, but they do.

I turn on Shark Week, plan a killing spree.

I’m all stocked up on Theraflu.

 

At Poejazzi we love encountering poetry that non poetry readers may find themselves falling in love with given half the chance and Alien vs Predator may just one of those collections. Buy it here. 

Poejazzi June 10th Featured Artist: The Insomniax.

Sometimes, when we listen to Insomniax we imagine Platinum Pied Pipers are doing an album with Little Dragon featuring the Mitchell Brothers. Other times we’re too busy throwing shapes to think. (throwing shapes is a non-thinking exercise, FYI; if you’re thinking about throwing shapes when throwing shapes, you’re doing it very, very wrong)

Cheeky lyrics meets delicious, meaty synths; Insomniax are a very good idea. We’ve seen them live twice and if their set in June is anything like their past efforts, June 10th will be a mind-well-and-truly-blown affair. Here is a free track off their amazing, amaaaaaazing EP The Green Cross Code. 

Insomniax are performing on June 10th with Scrimshire, Shakka, Alex Gwyther and Heidi Vogel. Tickets are £8 here.

Brainchild Festival 29 June – 1July, Wokingham

Poet Bridget Minamore, who will be joining the Poejazzi blog network later in the year, is one of the brains behind the curation of the Brainchild Festival and it looks absolutely fantastic. Brainchild is not your usual overpriced summer festival fodder, it’s a festival of ideas! Envision TED.com with music, poetry, films and comedy. Reasons to book tickets right now include:

1. It’s the first year and tickets are only £45 for the weekend…so not only will you be one of the first to have ventured into Brainchild territory but you’ll also be saving a bucketload of money making this one of/your only festival outing this summer. 

2. You can see the best out of the newer spoken word artists out there and some well known favourites: Sean Mahoney, Bridget Minamore, Jodi Ann Bickley, Harry Baker, James Massiah, Chimene Suleyman, and 2011 Roundhouse Slam champion Zia Ahmed to name but a few!

3. Cool music courtesy of acts such as Martyna Baker and Pandr Eyez. There are also a refreshing amount of acts that we haven’t heard of yet but that makes it all the more exciting: you want to discover new acts at festivals as well as test out the ones you love.

4. They’re showing several films including Funny Face starring Audrey Hepburn, Howl (the biopic on Allen Ginsberg) and Pray The Devil (a film about a small group of Liberian women making a big difference): the range of genres is just really awesome and broadminded.

5. They have idea rallies like “From Suffragettes to Slutwalk”, “Video Games as Art” and “The Politics of Graffiti”: there’s something for everyone! 

6. I’m guessing because of how small and individual this festival is they’ll be some damn good food stalls going on and aren’t we all a little over paying too much moula for mediocre brand obsessed food at festivals.

Oh and there’ll be a bouncy castle too apparently so because they’ll probably only be about 500 people on site it’s going to feel like an overgrown children’s birthday party. Yay!

Buy tickets here and we’ll see you there!

Poejazzi Recommends: Kate Tempest’s play – Wasted

Kate Tempest’s play about life, love and losing the plot is touring nationwide. For those of you who haven’t come across Kate yet in your spoken word voyage of discovery she is a poet/rapper/frontwoman of festival favourite Sound of Rum.

“She has supported legendary punk poet John Cooper Clarke, firebrand Billy Bragg and afrobeat legend Femi Kuti, as well as touring the UK with label mates Dan le Sac VS Scroobius Pip…Her poetry has been commissioned by Louis Vuitton, children’s charity Barnado’s and the Royal Shakespeare Company.  One of her poems was illustrated by Turner Prize winning artist Chris Ofili. Her debut spoken word release ‘Broken Herd’ – a limited edition boxset – came out in December 2009 on PureGroove Records and sold out within 3 months. Her second spoken word release ‘Patterns’ – an independently produced and published book of poetry and CD of live performance – sold out of its first edition print run in three days.” via Bristol247.com

We’re really excited to see Wasted and think you will be too especially after seeing this  fancy trailer. Get your tickets for Wasted here and check the schedule for a date near you. The Guardian has called it ‘ingenious’ and taking into account Tempest’s illustrious history we’re inclined to believe them.

Poejazzi Recommends: LV & Joshua Idehen supporting Spoek Mathambo

Poejazzi favourites LV (Hyperdub/Keysound) alongside collaborator Benin City frontman Joshua Idehen (Audio Doughnuts) will be supporting South Africa’s finest MC (and one of the world’s coolest in general) Spoek Mathambo.

Spoek’s new album is an extension of the urban meets gothic ‘township tech’ he calls his spiritual home. Father Creeper is out now and is described as a work -

“with haunting lyrics about conflict diamonds, penned by Mathambo’s wife Ana Rab (aka Gnucci Bananaa), fleshing out the verses into an epic, synth-driven post-dubstep heater.”

LV & Joshua Idehen released Routes last year and was cited as one of both Mixmag and Fact magazines’ “Albums of the Year”. This whole line up, including the duo 14th, is too sick for words: if you haven’t been out in a while then this is where you need to reignite, if you’re a gig junkie then this is the one you don’t want to not be able to talk about come Monday morning. Spoek is known for his startling soundscapes (as well as the visuals that accompany them) and the support are a rare perfect fit (not an afterthought but a match.com worthy match I tell you!) Be there or be truly broken inside. (Are you going to watch Eastenders or watch the most forward thinking and yet danceable to music you may ever see in the UK…and anyway there’s always the omnibus!!) Buy tickets here

For more info on Spoek Mathambo

and Joshua Idehen’s latest: Benin City’s new single Baby

Poejazzi Presents: SCRIMSHIRE + Support. Sunday June 10th at C.A.M.P

After five years as ‘London’s premier spoken word night’ Poejazzi relaunches with a new website, a series of apps and exciting visual collaborations.

To celebrate, we are returning to C.A.M.P with one of its finest lineups ever: WahWah45′s own Adam Scrimshire will be performing a full live band rendition of his critically acclaimed 2011 album ‘The Hollow.’ He is joined by Shakka- possibly the most exciting UK artist in recent years, and Cinematic Orchestra’s Heidi Vogel. On the Spoken Word front, we’re bringing you the quick witted, sharp eyed and humorous Alex Gwyther, and the Poetic Soundsystem brilliance that is The Insomniax.

This is going to be memorable. We’ll be expecting you

Buy Tickets Here

Heidi Vogel: The penultimate act to be announced for Poejazzi June!

It might be fair to say we have a thing for Cinematic Orshestra collaborator Heidi Vogel. She’s been a regular feature at Poejazzi nights, for bloody good reason; she’s got a gob-droppingly incredible voice; the tears-inducing, bypass the brain to the heart I-Think-I’m-Going-To-Buy-Her-CD-After-This kind of voice that’s rarer than suit wearing break dancing bears!

What what? You want proof you say? Okay, we dare you to listen to this:

That feeling in your chest? That’s your heart, sighing. you’re welcome.

Heidi Vogel will be opening our first event of 2012. Look out for a full announcement come 4pm!

Poejazzi presents Benin City – Baby (Official Video)

We highly, strongly and deeply recommend you watch the new Benin City video. My reasons why are as follows:

A) This twisted love song is officially amazing. Equally amazing people such as Huey Morgan (BBC6) to John Kennedy (Xfm) to Musa Okwonga (The Independent, The King’s Will) to Scroobius Pip have said the same shiz as I in the space of 24 hours.

B) The video, set throughout the twilight hours in London, is genuinely beautiful: without giving too much away it involves a Zebra, a fairy and woodlands.

C) You won’t physically or psychologically be able to escape it (I don’t mean to sound threatening or anything but…it’s true) it’s going to be everywhere and it’s really very catchy in all the right ways so you may as well jump on this train from the beginning so you don’t have to have one of those awkward conversations with your friends over who knew how great the band was right from the start.