Kiss My Teeth
3 May 2012

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Fresh from a sold-out Roundhouse Rising Festival in February, the Roundhouse are expanding their emerging talent arm into a new monthly event, Rising Presents, which will see young up-and coming programmers and artists come together to present eclectic events on a monthly basis, culminating in the Roundhouse Rising Festival in February 2013.

The first event, Kiss My Teeth has been programmed by London based DJ/Producer Dizzietron, who has spent the last 3 years pioneering the African music scene in the UK. Joining her on the bill are afropop party machine AJ Holmes & the Hackney Empire, Azonto pioneer Fuse ODG, East London duo Hipsters Don’t Dance, Kiss My Teeth co-founder CanYouFelix and MC T-Dot.

Renowned for spinning street party favorites from across the globe and hosting the baddest booty shaking contests, Dizzietron’s original take on world music will show you what it really means to party African style. From the favelas to the shanty towns, Lagos to London, Kingston to Calabar and Bogata to Baltimore are a selection of bands, musicians and DJs bringing you the best dance rhythms influenced by the African diaspora.

Dizzietron says: “I’m really excited to be the first programmer for Rising Presents… From putting me together with producer Cores for their 30/30 project to playing alongside Mz Bratt and Krar Collective at Rising Festival in February, the Roundhouse has time and time again given me the opportunity to showcase myself as a both a musician and a performer. With Rising Presents, I’m in charge of coordinating my own show. This is an amazing opportunity for me to design a night and book acts that represent a sound and style of music that I love and want to share with others.”

The aim of Rising Presents is to offer young programmers the opportunity to create an event whilst learning the business side of the music industry, as well as providing a stage for the best new artists. Oli Kluczewski, Rising Festival Producer explains:

"Roundhouse Rising is more than just an annual festival of the best new music; its a movement: helping to advise, inspire and platform the greatest emerging artists year round. Our monthly events demonstrate our commitment to this and having each month programmed by young aspiring programmers makes it even more exciting."

Already renowned as a legendary music venue, Roundhouse offers a year-round schedule of creative projects for 11–25 year olds in 24 state-of-the-art studios, where facilities include TV, radio and music production, media suites and rehearsal rooms for music and performance. Our studios, which sit under the Main Space, are a hotbed of new and emerging talent, some of which performed at this year’s Rising Festival, including Beaty Heart and Mz. Bratt.

We’re on the lookout for programmers and artists to get involved with Rising Presents… if you think you’ve got what it takes to put on a great event or if you’re an artist wanting to play on the Rising stage, please email music.projects@roundhouse.org.uk for further details.

AJ Holmes and the Hackney Empire
From the depths of Hackney come a band that are taking over the world with their unique British-afro-pop sound… they are the ultimate afro-party machine! Born in Barking & Dagenham in the industrial far east of London, AJ Holmes discovered a love of playing African music through a chance meeting with legendary African musician Folo Graft; Learning to rock the Afro Pop guitar style, AJ became obsessed with the good time sounds of West and Central Africa and set about forming a band, The Hackney Empire.  Vocalist, Sabine, percussionist, Dasi and drummer, Ged were recruited one New Years Eve after an all night jam when AJ saw they were just what he needed. Later, guitarist and pop guru Martyn and bassist/Brazillian groove queen Abi completed the line-up and the beauty of the band. ajholmesandthehackneyempire.co.uk soundcloud.com/ajholmesthehackneyempire

Fuse ODG
Fuse ODG, which stands for Off Da Ground, is a versatile artist and producer known for pioneering the Azonto dance movement internationally with his smash hit ‘Azonto’.He has made history by accumulating one million YouTube views in a matter of weeks after the that single release, received two Ghana Music Awards nominations and had his music played in clubs across the world. He describes his music style as life-changing music fused with his African roots and has been compared to respected artists such as Akon and K’Naan who share a similar background as the Diasporas representing Africa in the Western World. www.myspace.com/fuseodg

Hipsters Don’t Dance
Through the steamed up windows at their monthly residency in the heart of East London you’ll just about be able to pick out Hipsters Don’t Dance duo ‘Kazabon’ and ‘Hootie Who’, or at least you will if you manage to ignore all the whinin’ and booty shakin’ in front of them. You could be mistaken for thinking every show they play is their residency with their unfaltering ability to move any dance floor like they’ve been playing to them for years. After winning the iDJ Raw Talent competition in 2010 the pair have gone from strength to strength taking their brand of everything tropical and bassy to clubs across the globe with features in Mixmag, Metro and countless online sites as well as their club night regularly being picked by Time Out as the place to be. Listen to their World Carnival #2 which is a mix of soca, azonto, naija pop, and tropical bass hipstersdontdance.com/2012/03/world-carnival-2/ 

CanYouFelix
Kiss My Teeth co-founder, CanYouFelix started off DJing strictly 9O's dancehall to confused-looking friends at parties. Since then his musical interest in tropical sounds from Angola to Trinidad and beyond led to the birth of Kiss My Teeth in Manchester. Expect to hear bashment, soca, kuduro and more, all with an underlying UK influence that is sure to get the dance bubbling. soundcloud.com/can-you-felix 

Dizzietron
London based DJ/Producer Dizzietron plays an original mix of urban bass music and has supported the likes of Rusko, Toddla T, DJ Zinc and Roll Deep amongst many others. As part of the Murkage Cartel, she’s been featured in MixMag as ‘One of the most interesting DJs you will ever hear’, one of their Ones to Watch and Compilation of the Month.Now producing her own tracks and running Kiss My Teeth – a killer African music night – expect lots of crazy dancing to an eclectic mix of heavy beats. soundcloud.com/dizzietron 

T-Dot
Co-founder of the legendary Manchester night BPM with a hypeman style straight from Lagos, T-Dot murks the rave doh don't you know! His knowledge of the beats spans from 1000 BC up until 2000 and eternity, making him a perfect candidate for hosting duties.