You Must Calculate

I was sitting in newsroom, listening to The Beat. I should have been preparing the next bulletin, and then it struck me. One of the songs playing in the car of the lecturer in Cameroon was You Must Calculer, a legendary makossa tune fom the late 80s. A tear almost fell from my eye, the hairs on the back of my neck stood upright, my breathing raced to a dangerous pace. This is what hyperventilation must feel like. The vessels in my brain flooded with memories, moving my body on the balcony in our house in Three Stations, music blaring out of our antediluvian but resilient 70s Marantz speakers.

I don't remember how I danced, or if I danced. I moved my limbs, yes, but dance? I was, simply put, a crap dancer, consistenly winning zilch at "Aunty gimme cake" parties. (Many would argue that I still can't dance...) For those few minutes in the newsroom, I relived part of my childhood. We were great consumers of West African music in our household. My mum would fly back from the far corners of the subregion, and return with tapes of makossa, soukous, highlife music. There was no outward manifestation of rhythm in my bones or a groove in my step. But the music was in my soul, and boy, did I move. Relive my childhood here.

Later...

Later... with Jools Holland is consistently the best music show on television. If you want a live music feast, watch Later, and you'll be sure to be fully satisfied. I was contemplating sending an email to the producers to look into a group called Mr Hudson and the Library, after seeing them perform live in September. After a quick search, it turns out that the Later... team are already onto it, and the band will be appearing in this Friday's edition. Pictured, right, Mr Hudson sans Library.

I first came across them when, my friend invited me to an event at a "literary nightclub", called Book Slam, eureka child of Patrick Neate and Ben Watt. Think slam peotry, book reading, music, absinthe, fashion, all rolled into one tight ball of a night. Mr Hudson and the Library. This is has got to be the most inventive name for a band this century. It pays its R.E.S.P.E.C.T to bands of the sixties: Her and the Supremes, She and the Vandellas, Him and the Family Stone; you can hear the influences from that era. But the use of the word "library" is rather apt when it comes to music, the collection of instruments rather than books.

Inevitably, with any new band, comparisons are made to other bands in order to understand their sound. And I won't shirk from doing that just because it's the obvious thing to do. So what do the The Library sound like? Imagine if The Police, Madness, and The Spooks, had a great big love in, and had a sprog. That sprog would be Mr Hudson and the Library. The Police sound is evident, but so is the ska influence and English quirkiness of bands like Madness. The Spooks because, they're the only hip-hop group I can think of with a similar harmonising style.

By sheer coincidence, or by design (it can be difficult to tell) Mr Hudson and the Library are touring, erm, libraries across the country. Have a gander at their myspace, and if you can catch them, do so.