Benin Buzz

Another month, another Buzz review.

I got a stream to Benin City's latest album for June's magazine. It's called Last Night, it's out on Moshi Moshi and it's alright like. My review is slightly more in-depth (only slightly) and I gave it three stars. Will post it when it gets published.

In the meantime here's one of the singles off the album, which sums up the album pretty well in tone and topic.

Related post: Cultural Tourism 2.0 - Benin

Original image by  Rei-artur  pt  en  Rei-artur blog [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Update: My review of Last Night by Benin City is up on Buzz now.

Hi, How Are You Blinky?

Bought this while half-cut on Saturday from Possum Print. Only a fiver, so all good.

15-year-old Sam would have been tamping though. While I know of Daniel Johnston, I'd not listened to Hi, How Are You. I had bought a music t-shirt without being a big fan of the musician. For some reason this used to bother me. I remember getting worked up seeing a Motorhead t-shirt for sale in Topshop. Sorry, that should be Motörhead, can't forgot the metal umlaut. I don't give a shit about Motörhead now and gave even less of one then. God knows my I was mad at it. And I'm sure I bought a Gene t-shirt for £1 in the Virgin Megastore in the Capitol Centre around the same time.

I've always been a hypocrite.

Anyway I decided to give Hi, How Are You a spin... and it's good. I can hear why it has a cult following. But I can't hear myself spinning it in the car, y'know? Still, I bought the t-shirt more for The Simpsons side of things. Plus I got the Frank Ocean one previously.

As a quick aside, looking up Daniel Johnston got me on to one of my favourite activities of an evening. And that’s falling into a Wikihole. Turns out Daniel Johnston was lumped in with the New Sincerity scene and from there I went everywhere.

GWTF 21: This Is America

Go With The Flow returns with something that's everywhere.

Childish Gambino's This Is America feels like a moment. Watercooler. Ubiquitous.

#1 on trending on YouTube. The commentariat kicking up and continuing with the think-pieces. The Genius breakdown of the lyrics becoming the quickest to hit a million pageviews. The WatchMojo Top 5 Things You Didn’t Notice in Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” Video video. The inevitable point-missing memes (yes there's dank Simpsons ones). The satire...

“He smokes a joint in it, which was really brave. I’m, like, all for legalization.”

A post shared by The Hard Times (@thehardtimesnews) on May 7, 2018 at 3:02pm PDT

They were even discussing it on BBC Radio 4 when I drove to work on Tuesday.

It's everywhere and it should be.

And there's gonna be a lot of documentaries made in the future trying to explain what we're going through now. And This Is America will feature heavily. Race, violence, distraction, chaos, confusion. Donald Glover might have the hop on the future doc-makers.

And for all the discussions around it, not enough has been said about what a banger it is.

My one thing though - and stop reading as I could ruin it for you - is towards the end of the second verse. The "Hunnid bands, hunnid bands, hunnid bands." This Is America joins John Foxx's Underpass in songs where I only hear Underpants. Underpants, underpants, underpants.

Did I write a quick blog on Childish Gambino's Important-with-a-capital-I track to share my underpants problem? Maybe. Should I check my privilege? Yeah, probably.

Still a banger though.

Original image by Theshibboleth [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Rave Against The Dying Of The Light

Pangaea is playing Clwb Ifor Bach next month. 1st June to be exact. A Friday. Boom!

Boom?

The thing is the time of it. Doors are 11pm. It ends at 4am. I get up at 6am for work and I'll be hanging by doors never mind when Pangaea steps up.

And I know it makes perfect sense for club music to be played late and loud. But it increasingly feels like a young man's game y'know? And it feels like the drop off for attending shows such as Pangaea is more severe than say with rock gigs. And I wonder if it's to do with the earlier stage times you get with touring bands?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for those 'family rave' events. I'm sure they're great fun for all involved but if my mum or dad ever took me to one as a child, I don't think I'd be able to go to the toilet now. I'd still be clenching.

Nor do I fancy those morning pre-work raves. Vice reported from one a while back, and tore it out because they would wouldn't they? Still I can't ever see myself at one. So what do I want?

I'm not sure. Club culture is a late culture. Always has been, always will be. Maybe I'm worrying (yet again) about how old I feel. I mean for fuck's sake I bought this yesterday...

The Big Beat revival is finally go. 🔈🔉🔊 #BigBeat #IBuyAllMyCDsInASDAnow #TheASDA #Prodigy #Apollo440 #BentleyRhythmAce #Orbital #UtahSaints

A post shared by Sammyfax (@ceefaxoflife) on May 2, 2018 at 11:27am PDT

Maybe I should just suck it up and go. Disco naps be damned.

However there's no chance of me making it to DJ Boring on a Tuesday night (doors at 11pm), much as I'd like to. It's sold out anyway. Damn kids.

Related posts:

• They'll Be Dancing In The Streets Of Pangaea Tonight Jeff 
• House Dabble

Original image by Bill Branson (Photographer) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

O, Ok, Okr, Okra

This is just a quick one to remind Future Sam that I was hammering Tyler, The Creator's Okra really hard around now...

Hat tip to Benji B for spinning this a few times in April.

Man, that bass.

Original image: Crisco 1492 [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Update: Someone has done an edit where Tyler, The Creator only raps about chicken nuggets.