WMI's second club night in their new Let's Dance series features legendary Ethiopian jazz keyboardist and arranger Hailu Mergia, who led the Addis Ababa's popular Walias Band in sweaty all-night sets during the "golden age" of Ethiopian music in the 1970s. A reissued record on the Awesome Tapes From Africa label over 40 years later brought Mergia renewed attention. His new album Yene Mircha (“My Choice” in Amharic) expertly captures intimate and explosive live experimentation.

Whilst on a Fulbright scholarship in Ghana, ethnomusicologist Brian Shimkovitz (Awesome Tapes) got hooked on collecting highlife, African disco, and curious local pop cassette tapes from street vendors, and eventually shared his discoveries on the blog and label Awesome Tapes From Africa. Tonight he plays a full set using only these cassette tapes.

Nickodemus is a traveler at heart—a connector of worlds, scenes, and people since the mid-90s. Over his extensive career as a touring DJ and producer he’s helped pave the way for an inimitable mix of global fusion and the heavy beats we yearn for in the club.

Madame Vacile is an Afro-Colombian fusion artist, DJ, and cultural activist, from Barranquilla, a bastion of Afro-Colombian roots and culture. She has spent many years researching, collecting, and mixing a broad assortment of rhythms from all over Africa – creating a signature sound, where the original influences tie directly into what is playing today along many parts of Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

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