The Doctor’s Orders
Blitz The Ambassador
& Embassy Ensemble Live
Support DJs:
Spin Doctor & Charlie Dark
A blindingly bright clarity drives Blitz the Ambassador. With a spot-on sense of flow, he name-checks Basquiat and Lumumba, evokes lovelorn sighs on Accra buses, émigré alienation, history’s shadows. All set to swirls of brass, distorted guitars, and the crackle and pop of old amplifiers.
With a lightning-fast mind, the political boldness of Chuck D, and the sixth groove sense of Fela Kuti, Ghanaian-born, New York-based MC, composer, and producer unleashes psychedelic Afrobeat colors and triple-time rhymes with a sound clearly born in Africa but honed on New York Streets.
Blitz grew up when the fierce promise of Afrocentric, intellectually discerning rap was at its peak. In the Accra of his youth, the golden age of Hip-Hop lived on long after rap began to go (Dirty) South in the U.S. Blitz and his brothers and friends became avid fans of groups like Public Enemy, one of the few major Hip-Hop names to tour Ghana, memorizing raps verbatim to impress the cool kids at school, studying the flow of masters from Rakim to Q-Tip.
Surrounded by a profusion of other music in Accra, from the highlife swaying at a nearby soccer field to the kora and drums played for chiefs and sub-chiefs. Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson, and local reactions to rock and funk all made their mark, spinning on the sometime unreliable family record player.
Blitz hits the Cargo stage for this rare UK show displaying the outcome of this wealth of influences encapsulated into the sound so fresh and bold it is undoubtedly the sound of now.
"The snaking grooves and homesick diaspora blues on this album interweave elements of Afrobeat, Hip-Hop and jazz into an organic patchwork of slick rhymes and dub basslines, sparkling guitars and shimmering brass (....). An album whose understated charms slowly insinuate their way under your skin" - Uncut Mag UK
"Blitz - and his band, the Embassy Ensemble - pack a brilliant fusion of styles. You can hear late-80s Hip-Hop alongside contemporary African soukous and highlife, as well as echoes of Afrobeat artists such as Fela Kuti and Papa Wemba" - Guardian, UK
8pm-Midnight
Wednesday 3rd August 2011
£5 in advance (£8 on the door)
For more information, biogs, interviews, photos etc do not hesitate to get in touch!
Rod Gilmore: info@thedoctorsorders.com / 0207-833-9544 / 07866-610-212
