spiritual bling

Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival. OH YEAHHH.

the progression(or love affair. music is my bf. ) with myself and BBC radio was like this. first it was Adil Ray on the asian network(desi music), through whom i hooked up with Punjabi Hit Squad(even more desi music, but more of an urban influence), who in turn big-upped Bobby Friction & Nihal (sounds from the british asian urban nation) and via the Radio 1 player (which plays shows from the last 7 days from any of the djs), i discovered Gilles (and the incomparable Zane Lowe too).

i guess what drew me to him was how eclectic his sound was. His selection was like world music on speed. "Joining the musical dots with hip hop, latin, funk, soul and jazz"- that's what the blurb on his player page says. If you're expecting anything commercial, you're better off with Jo Whiley :P He spins everything from bambata african beats to mexico city bossanova to The Roots (as jay. hova says, new yawk, new yawk!) and Black Star (mos def & talib kweli)


so i took part on this mtvasia competiton on a whim, and wtf i won tix to all 3 days of worldwide fest (wwf). i don't win lucky draws, i dont win bingo, i don't win shi*. but i won a 2-day pass and exclusive invites to the set at velvet underground (which is v plush btw. like hip hop vid, exclusive c-c-club kinda plush..low ceilings, warhol paintings and all). V.I.P, tyvm (yeah, that's what the girl who put the band round my wrist said. I was like whut-whut! *super fly* i totally saw sujin thomas there ok (if you google your name and happen to land here, hi sujin!). ok but yeah, the crowd itself was quite a mötley crue..from a domo arigato dancer to pervy ang mohs to geragok 20-somethings to pre and myself. HAHA.

when i saw Gilles at the turntables though, all i could manage was a fangirl *SQUEEE* and "He's Real!!". shutup anjax, control yourself! When he finally started dropping beats though, :D . from disco to mandarin jazz to funk/soul vibez and insane beats. stuff to sway to, stuff to "break it down" to, stuff to "bust a move to"..good stuff. i loved it. but CURFEWZ aarrgh. missed simbad and garfld. but isokay, got to see Gilles and that's all the matters.

i'm looking forward to some drum and bass, drum and breaks, electronica, baile funk, hip hop..something GRIMY, something RAVE. odeon towers, multi-level experience with 3 seperate arenas (readysetglo with steve aoki on the same night wtf) and Fort Canning on sunday. really looking forward to fort canning- festivals and fort canning are synonymous, plus it'll be the consummate experience of "worldwide" with the int'l food, the int'l music - it'll be like a trippy WOMAD, but NOT womad.

P.S.: there's a frickin blitzkrieg remix of Estelle's American Boy called "indian boy" WTF LOL! with the chorus in hindi everything! fk yeah. "propa uk style" as Bobby Friction said.