Toya Delazy + James Massiah

Information

PM x Stereo x IVW x Beavertown present:
Toya Delazy

• James Massiah
  Wednesday 29th January
  Stereo
  18+

INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK IS A 7-DAY ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC AND ARTS VENUES, AND THE PEOPLE THAT OWN, RUN AND WORK IN THEM.
BEAVERTOWN HAS PARTNERED WITH INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK TO HIGHLIGHT THE UK’S INDEPENDENT MUSIC VENUES AND THEIR VITAL ROLE IN GIVING UP-AND-COMING ARTISTS A PLATFORM TO PERFORM TO MUSIC-LOVING LOCAL COMMUNITIES.
BEAVERTOWN ARE COLLABORATING WITH 7 ICONIC VENUES FEATURING 21 ACTS, BRINGING AMAZING ARTISTS AND OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD BEER TO GIG GOERS ACROSS THE UK.

TOYA DELAZY -
Zulu musician Toya Delazy has been smashing down musical and cultural boundaries with aplomb, playing sold out shows across London, to Glastonbury, Mixmag or Keep Hush. From laid-back grooves to almost 200bpm, from hefty pounding to extraordinarily complex polyrhythms, her beats and rhymes are multilingual, multicultural, multidimensional.
Now based in London, the Zulu rapper, is no slouch as a producer; but she also knows how to pick the perfect collaborators to fit her “Afrorave” aesthetic.
That’s very much the case here: More Time Records founders Ahadadream and Sam Interface, Joy Anonymous, Tash LC, Raf Riley, collaborate on thick and treacly techno bass throb, jungle and DnB, surrounded by subliminal slurps and crackles.
It’s clearly inspired—at least in part—by South African gqom; but it also creates something altogether new for Delazy’s syllables to rampage through. It encourages the listener to reimagine the experience of people of colour. However, its ideas transcend racial lines with messages of self-awareness, free expression and empowerment. Much like the early pioneers of Afrofuturism, like Sun Ra, Afrorave Vol. 1 is fixated on universal suffering, social commentary and enhancing the lives of all people, taking Afro-rave away from being a purely black concept and interweaving it into ideas of the ‘other’

JAMES MASSIAH-
James Massiah is a poet & musician from South London, UK whose work explores ideas about sexuality, mortality & hedonism through performance, writing & visual media. His ongoing series of New Poems is released in volumes and details his day-to-day experiences of life, love and labour in London.
He has been commissioned to produce work for the BBC and the Guardian as well as featuring in campaigns for Dior, Nike, Lotus and more . He has performed readings of his work at the Tate Modern, the Courtauld, the Institute of Contemporary Arts & the Houses of Parliament & been profiled in Vogue, Dazed, i-D & GQ. He has also curated events for Boiler
Room & hosts a monthly show on NTS Radio.
James also runs the poetry night Adult Entertainment, which features poets and guests from various creative disciplines reciting their work, as well as the writing salon and workshop series Adult Education.