Tallinn Music Week - Day Two

Conferencing hours can be super long and after my extended stretch yesterday I was grateful for staying at the 4* Nordic Hotel Forum (thanks TMW) and having a solid buffet breakfast, a sauna and a swim to start the day. This made all the difference to my mood and energy levels, although it couldn't quite save me from what happened in the end.

I made sure to check out a few panels at the hotel before heading out. Most of the ones I was interested in centred around exporting music. I won't try and summarise everything here, I’ll try and tackle the subject again in futurem, but essentially networks are key. To be fair, that's selling music full stop. 

Before heading over to the showcases, I got a little over enthusiastic at a tasting session for a Latvian drink called Riga Black, a fairly strong herbal liqueur that also comes in blackcurrant and cherry flavour. I tried them all a few times. I thought I'd swerved the worst of its effects after an incredible meal at Vegan Restauran V - but then met one of the members of Latvian prog rock band Aston Kais on the way to the same music venue, and he had a whole bottle of the original stuff, which he was sharing freely. To be totally honest it sent me to bed earlier than planned but I did manage to catch some awesome music at least. 

Most of the artists I saw were at the Africa NOW showcase which my friend Mark was organising up at the Club of Different Rooms. Highlights included: 

Cabo Verde artist Miroca Paris who used to be a percussionist with the island's most successful musical export Cesária Évora, and he mixes up the morna sound she was famous for with various Latin styles that had everyone in the place breaking out their rudimentary salsa moves by the end. I was hoping for a little funana also but unless he dropped some right at the end, he didn't touch on it this time. 

Thanks to the Latvian Black it all gets a little hazy by the time Karyna Gomes comes on stage but I remember enjoying her music. When the Lithuanian based Afrodelic arrive, I'm practically spinning but I remember they had 3 percussionists, had something of a Malian vibe and managed to get the whole room dancing, surely that's all you need to know to go check them out. 

My other highlights were: Mica Miller, a soul singer from the UK who I'm surprised I haven't heard of previously. She had an 80s classic UK soul vibe mixed with a little Lisa Stansfield perhaps, and not just cos she was a white Mancunian soul singer. Great songs and an incredible voice, which sounds different to how I remember it on the above video, but I was very drunk; and Putan Club, an almost industrial sounding post-punk duo from Italy, via France, who I'd met the first day.  They were obviously seasoned performers and they held space in one of the bigger venues really well, dividing their time between the stage and the middle of the room.

After an impromptu power nap thanks to the boozing, I headed out to the late night techno venue Hall. It seemed like most of the delegates had already headed for bed and I was left with the city's youngsters, but I stuck around for a really good B2B set from ANGÉ and Sugar Rody, playing what I can only describe as late 80s sounding euro-techno from the middle of the second room, or at least that's what it sounded like to me at 3am. Either way it went down a treat.

Hall was a great venue with a decent Funktion 1 system in there. I had to have my phone camera covered up and agree to not being homophobic or a lecherous creep before I went in, which is always reassuring. I'm hoping to head back there tonight for local favourite Maarja Nuut, although it will mean taking my bags and getting a cab straight to the airport before the end. I’ll let you know how I get on tomorrow.