As we gear up towards the big UK carnivals in London and Leeds, Sound System Culture, a project set up to promote the Caribbean-British music scene, is releasing a kids book that will spread the gospel to the young’uns. The Sonar System is a picture book “set on the faraway planet of Tesfa, part of a sonar system where, instead of a sun, the planets revolve around a gigantic speaker and the inhabitants spend their time building sound systems and listening to music.”
It was Written and illustrated by Ras Mykha, a singer and MC for reggae sound systems like Lion roots, and was developed with the help of Let’s Go Yorkshire, which started the project in Huddersfield, “where for many years a thriving sound system scene existed, out of all proportion to the size of the town.” The book is just one part of Sound System Culture’s national tour, which is spreading the history of reggae sound systems in cities across the UK and supports the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign.
The Sonar System is £10 and will be released on One Love Books 21st July.