British Council and CAMA Vietnam brought the best of the UK’s contemporary music to Vietnam. Anushka, Bwani Junction, Slim V, Huyen Trang and the LND Underground have performed live in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on 9-10 November.
In Hanoi, the Van Ho Exhibition Centre was the venue while music lovers in Ho Chi Minh City attended Q4 stage to enjoy the live gig. This was the highlight of a series of events to celebrate of 40 years of Vietnam and UK diplomatic relations.
Anushka is made up of producer Max Wheeler and singer/songwriter Victoria Port. Max creates urgent, compulsively danceable rhythms marrying swaggering, boisterous drums and melodic hooks. On these foundations Victoria’s delicate, graceful vocals are layered.
Bwani Junction mix afrobeat rhythms with the kind of infectious, feel-good anthems and “grubby lyrics” that make British guitar music so popular all over the world. The quartet is heavily supported by Radio 1 DJs Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens – two of Britain’s top musical taste-makers.
On the Vietnam side, DJ Slim V creates a music space in which classical melodies, electronic beats and the ethnic music of north west Vietnam are woven together. Huyen Trang, a female flautist who made it to the finale of Vietnam’s Got Talent 2013 got the audiences on their feet with remixes of classical pieces.
Members of the LND Underground include three DJs: Spectrum, Vaughan and JC. They took the audience on an immense journey through everything London associated with the cutting edge music of the big city.