You may know Todd Hart from his DJ appearances at Durrr, but he originally caught our attention as proprietor of the unique MP3 blog “Dalston Oxfam Shop Blog”, which takes music that has by some been consigned to the bargain bin of life and puts it in front of the hipster digerati, uploaded and ready for the iPod generation to enjoy.

One fascinating seam of discoveries within the blog has a decidedly African flavour, which may have as much to do with the fact that Todd grew up in Kenya and Tanzania as it does with with the fact that the occasional African mixtape found its way into the Dalston second-hand shop. But there’s no doubt that Todd Hart has pioneered the current crossover between world or African-influenced sounds blended with bands or dance music, with his Manifesto party pushing forward the boundaries every Tuesday night at the Burlington Club. Todd has agreed to play an all-African set at White Mischief and will be playing from the peak of the night in the main room.

Todd Hart spent 15 years of his childhood in Tanzania and Kenya listening to the sounds of shirati jazz and congo pop mixed with his parent’ Mantovani Lounge.  Then he went through the obligatory process of learning the American pop landscape, from disco to new wave, hip hop to electroclash by way of New York and legendary Body & Soul and Twilo parties.

He moved to London in 2003 to make his home here and started djing at Catch bar in East London and launched the Dalston Oxfam Shop blog (http://dalstonoxfamshop.blogspot.com) to resurrect old rave and
other odd cassette tapes from the bin and give them digital life.  As his blog caught on in the popular press (Dazed & Confused, the Guardian, The Times, Timeout, German ZDF rundfunk, etc.) and he started djing more
and more at Trash, DURRR and other parties, he saw a mix of sounds from all over coming together in pop music, from Banghra in hip hop and dance, Baile Funk from Brazil, the growth of artists like MIA, Vampire Weekend,Buraka Som Sistema, Radioclit and trends in fashion like Cassetteplaya and others.

Then Alberto Tavares invited him to help launch the Manifesto party in 2007 based on sounds from africa to try to bring this music more and more into the mainstream nightlife and because so much new dance music from Africa such as Kuduro, Funana, Coupe Decale is super hot!