British Nights, Canada Day.

This past Canada Day found me in London, England, coolin', with a pocket full of Pound Sterlings and 24 hrs to kill before a flight to Lithuania.  I hit up facebook. Low and behold my homeboy DeeJay Nana just happened to be in the same city alongside D.O and Slakah aka the "the Art of Fresh".  Indeed, representing all things good Canadian music these three brothers from Ontario were called upon to represent Canada, on Canada Day in London! At Trafalgar Square no less!  Nor were they alone; Headliners included Jully Black, Sarah Harmer and Hawksley Workman.
So I rode the double decker bus then hopped on the tube and in two two's I'm backstage drinking Sleemans with DJ Nana, while Hawksley Workman is on stage turning down requests for a "Lover Boy" cover.  Cheeky Brits. It was Canada Day after all (or at least the night before it) and in all fairness to Hawksley he sounded really amazing. The acoustics at 229 "The Venue" were perfect. Click Here for Video.  Backstage, I was introduced to Montreal based Electronica trio La RadioRadio,

who had just stepped off the stage and who were en route to perform two gigs in France later that week.
Truly it was an enlightening evening; from Slakah educating me on the merits of Monster Headphones to Nana playing me track after track of  ridiculously dope unreleased Rich Kidd beats. Yet perhaps the greatest education came from the man himself, Guiness World Record Book holder D.O.  As the evening tapered off and we relocated to a ritzy hotel lobby bar across the street, D.O. was on his A game, aptly demonstrating the art of the schoomze while engaging a table industry who's who over several rounds of Hennessy. No seriously. This dude can network, as is evidenced by his "over 100k" in grant money in 2010 alone! To hear  him put it, there is no one in Canada doing what the Art of Fresh does and with that in mind, success is his only option.

Photo L to R: DJ Nana, Slakah the Beatchild,, La RadioRadio