ASOF 004: Auntie Flo - Praise Him

New release! A Kenyan inspired afro-dance double track by Auntie Flo. Musical memories and parental influence. It's FREE on Bandcamp - pay what you want. Coming soon to streaming platforms...

Praise Be!

How much does the music from your childhood influence your musical taste later in life?

This was one of the questions that I got asked most frequently during my career as a DJ under the alias Auntie Flo. My sound was based on influences from outside the Western canon of music - heavily inspired by music from across the African and Latin American continents. So, when interviewers found out that my mother was born in Kisumu and lived for 20 years in Nairobi, Kenya (following her families emigration from Goa in India), they deduced she must have had a huge influence on the music I would go on to make.

I can’t answer if this was true or not. The link certainly wasn’t obvious as my childhood musical memories were probably not massively different from any other kid growing up in the UK in the 80’s - my parents listened to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Miles Davies, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, classical, jazz, rock etc like most others. And whilst Hugh Masekela and Fela Kuti probably slipped in, my mother’s musical taste was certainly not defined by her up bringing.

However, one record that I discovered from my mother’s vinyl collection was Miss Luba by the Muungano National Choir Kenya and it definitely struck a chord - it is beautiful music. I’m not entirely sure when it entered my earspace, but a few years ago I decided to sample it and turn it into ‘Praise Him’.

I made it with in preparation for my set at Worldwide Festival in Sete, France back in 2017 and it went down amazingly well, with the vocals providing the outdoor dancefloor with a transcendental moment of unity. I subsequently developed two versions, which are the ones you can hear now.

Pay What You Want on Bandcamp

The release is free to download on Bandcamp with the option to pay what you want. I’m interested in exploring this model to see if people actually end up paying for something that can be purchased for free, and perhaps that they even pay more for soemthing with no defined price (of the standard £1 per track, for example).

This was inspired by a conversation I heard on Scuba’s Not A Diving podcast where he explained that Hot Flush records have applied this model with some degree of success. Even though Praise Him is just a digital release, the mastering for it cost £150 and PR-ing it cost double that. So, although the costs are far lower than vinyl, it will still be tricky to break even from streaming and downloads alone.

So please pay what you can but don’t feel pressure - I’d prefer you download, listen and share the music above all!

Plus if you do decide to pay: A State of Flo supports Earth Percent. 10% of the revenue generated from this release will be paid to environmental charities.