Debut album from L.A. Salami AKA Papa Stokely AKA The New Wave Slave… ‘Dancing With Bad Grammar’ is set for release on August 26th.

Having only picked up the guitar a few years ago after being given one for his 21st birthday L.A. Salami recorded the album in one week at Urchin Studios in Hackney, London (“I wanted to get it live; I’m not interested in the tracking thing”).

Working with engineer Dan Cox and producer Matt Ingram, who he was introduced to by old friend and touring partner Lianne Le Havas, L.A. has produced an album of 11 eclectic and exquisite tracks.

The first taste taken from the album is the single ‘The City Nowadays’; an energetic tumble of ideas and influences, mixing beat poetry, chain-gang blues, hip-hop and pithy one-liners. As L.A. explains, “I call my music postmodern blues. I’ve always loved the blues, and I think of this album as my version of blues songs. ‘The City Nowadays’ is like that.” See the video here.

Alongside the single are the more folk tinged tracks ‘Day To Day’, on which he plays harmonica like he was born to it, ‘Why Don’t You Help Me’ and ‘I Can’t Slow Her Down’ – both beautiful folk songs in the Nick Drake tradition which this brand new guitarist plays with astonishing skill.

 “I want to portray modern life using the past as a vehicle,” concludes L.A. “I love Sixties and Seventies music, that’s where my heart is. But I don’t want it to sound of the past, I want it to speak of now.’