The beat starts, a sparkling mbira riff drifts over the laid-back loops. The first MC steps up to the microphone, framed by five other men and a woman, alongside him. He opens his mouth, rhythmic words pour out, meaning growing from layers of images. Poetry in motion, framed by choruses of smokey vocals and lush harmonies. Others join in, the song passed between them whilst the beat ebbs and flows, new sounds weaving over the chilled-out groove.

Inner Peace Records hip-hop collective are launching their Digging Crates EP at the end of their year-long groundbreaking project working with traditional African musicians and silenced musical instruments cared for at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Creatively led by Rawz, a hip hop and spoken word artist from Oxford, Inner Peace Records artists digitally sampled the sounds of instruments linked to the museum's collection and wove them into freshly written tracks. This EP explores their shared African heritage of culture, connection and colonial history.

African jazz band Wanda-NA-KL are playing a support set: jazz infused with traditional African rhythms and groove on guitar, drums, bass and vocals. Wanda-NA-KL play regularly in London and Boni Wanda, their band leader, is well known in the Kenyan music scene. Wanda-NA-KL explained the instruments and helped to create some of the samples for Digging Crates last summer and feature on the EP.

Read our Digging Crates project page for more information:
https://www.ocmevents.org/digging-crates

The Digging Crates project would not have been possible without the support of many different partners. Here at OCM we want to thank them for their continued support and cooperation over the past year.
Digging Crates is part of the Humanities Cultural Programme and supported by TORCH, Helen Roll Foundation, CLORE Duffield Foundation, Art Fund Access Fund, St John's College, In-spire Sounds and co-promoted by OCM.

Inner Peace Records are Rawz, Tiece, Reejai, Tang the Pilgrim, Tiger and King Boyden.
Wanda-NA-KL are Shyam Shah, Kofi Adu, Miles Ncube and Boni Wanda.

Doors open: 7pm
Music starts: 8pm
This event has two sets of 45 mins approx each, there is an interval.
This is a standing event with limited seats available.

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March 2022 Update: as official COVID restrictions end we wanted to update you on what measures we are taking to keep you safe. These are our current safety measures for concerts in May, and we ask for your help and cooperation to make our events as safe as possible:

- Wear a mask if you want to
We strongly encourage mask wearing for everyone over the age of 12 at our events at all times (including when seated during the concert).

- Stay home if you’re unwell
Do not attend if you show any symptoms of COVID-19. Get in touch with us and we will refund your ticket.

This event will be run at full capacity (no socially distanced seating).
If you are uncertain about coming along or you have any concerns you’d like to discuss, let us know by emailing info@ocmevents.org

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If you are disabled and need a personal assistant in order to attend then please get in touch to arrange your PA's ticket free of charge: hani@ocmevents.org /01865484777