Being the manic morning person I am, I've got a certain sort of music I put on every morning... usually something like the Trojan calypso box set or Serge Gainsbourg or even the Divine Comedy. They've kept me going all winter, but now It's feeling very spring-like (here in Leeds at least) I'm thinking about more summery morning music... any recommendations? As long as I can dance to it while making my breakfast I'm happy...

On that thought, I've just bought the new Tropicália compilation on Soul Jazz and I must say it's fantastic. I'm crap at describing stuff so I've stolen this from a record shop review, fascinating stuff...

"In Brazil, army violence that killed three protesters in the opening months of 1968 failed to keep students from protesting the four-year-old repressive Brazilian military dictatorship. It was against this extraordinary backdrop that Tropicália arrived. As a coherent movement allied to worldwide political and cultural unrest, Tropicália lasted little more than a year, yet it had – and continues to have – a profound effect on Brazilian society.

Mixing psychedelic rock, avant-garde musique concrete (tape loops, sound experiments), samba, funk and soul, Tropicália was so radical – and its social implications so politically profound - that its leading protagonists, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, were arrested, imprisoned and finally exiled in 1969."