Madlib

This morning I was up at 7am and I immediately began to write. 700 words by 8.30am when my eldest daughter poked her head around the door. When I do this I always say I must do this every day – an early start is the key to a day of productivity. It was a stunning morning – already 22 degrees and the sky was that Mediterranean blue that is to deep you can almost slice it. It seems we now have two weeks of this. Two weeks of writing and swimming to look forward to. I am sorry to gloat about this – particularly because UK readers are ‘swimming’ for other reasons. France for 8 months of the year is not a place I care for at all. But for 4 glorious months in the summer it becomes another country.

I am 22,000 words into my next book. 13,000 to go and the usual worries about non-completion, writing garbage etc. And the worries were justified when my first batch of copy was pulled apart by publisher and editor – justifiably so. A critical sharpening up of my mental faculties took place over the weekend and I hope I am now writing my best book yet. A thin dividing line between dross and excellence.

Anyway – to continue my musical theme of the last blog. Musically one thing always leads to another with me when I make a new discovery. Looking up more about J Dilla I discovered the name Madlib (and what a great name to). So I downloaded his album ‘Expressions’ with hip-hop vocalist Dudley Perkins. Pure class – particularly the middle 3 or 4 tracks. I didn’t know music like this existed. I have always known that hip-hop extends into the world of highly intelligent music (such as Spearhead/Michael Franti) but I didn’t really know where it lived. So, I imagine (and hope) there will be more recommendations to come.