Pitchfork

From breakbeat hardcore's frenetic assault to the future rhythms of jungle, 2step garage's slinky sass to grime's caustic beats and rhymes, Black music has been at the heart of London's identity. In fact, much of the good music to come out of the UK capital owes a massive debt to Britain's colonial past. At its best, London is not about "live and let live," but "live and live with," influences from every continent soundtracking the lives of all its residents.

However, just as Notting Hill's annual Carnival began as a reaction to racism suffered by the first generation of Caribbean immigrants, things haven't always been so pluralistic. Honest Jon's beautifully realized London Is the Place for Me series provides a fascinating archive of material from the 1950s and 60s, chronicling a time when diasporic rhythms were more or less the sole preserve of the small communities responsible for bringing them to these shores.

Typically, this fourth installment presents a diverse selection of styles, including Caribbean calypso, kwela from Southern Africa, and West African highlife, bookended with two cha-chas by Nigerian percussionist Ginger Folorunso Johnson. Put them all together, though, and these 19 tracks do much more than form a wide-ranging post-Imperial genre sampler. Instead they offer an evocative snapshot, conjuring images of smoky shebeens and Soho jazz dens, interlaced with stories of political refugees, traveling performers, and regular folks who found their way to England in pursuit of a better life.

The kwela of Rhodesian exile Dorothy Masuka's "Zoo Lake" is the album's most poignant moment. Like an Astrud Gilberto bossa nova, the gentle grooves and silky vocals make for easy listening, but listen closer and there's pain and longing in every note, possibly even a yearning for a home the singer could not see.

More lightheartedly, calypso star Lord Kitchener, who lived in London for many years-- and whose track inspired the title of this series-- makes three appearances. His very name both underlines and playfully lampoons the crown rule of his native Trinidad, but "Rock 'n' Roll Calypso" points to a certain enchantment with England. Nowhere is this more apparent than on "Piccadilly Folk", a grainy vignette of central London's seamy side vivid enough to rival Patrick Hamilton's prose portraits of metropolitan pimps, pros, players, and pickpockets.

However, as so frequently happens, Kitchener finds himself upstaged by youth. Young Tiger's "African Dream" draws attention to the hardships faced by those who made the journey to the city. Starting as an idyllic reverie of returning to Africa, where he is "greeted quite happily with songs of peace and festivity," the singer is rudely awakened by a slum landlord hammering on the door "with bad intent," coming to collect the rent. Meanwhile "Chicken and Rice"'s humorous sketch of an eat-and-run incident in a Westbourne Grove Chinese restaurant serves as a reminder that the streets are usually not paved with gold.

Still, it's not all about being poor and downtrodden. There's also an intense sense of pride-- nowhere is this more apparent than on Young Growler's "V For Victory", a gloating recounting of the England cricket team's thrashing by Garfield Sobers' side at Manchester's fabled Old Trafford-- pluck, a refusal to be beaten, and a determination to make this strange little island home.