Yoshi

Yusuf ‘Yoshi’ Misdaq is a multimedia artist in his mid 20's, born and raised in Brighton, UK.Since 2004 he’s released 2 albums of experimental hip-hop musicFrom a western box (2004) Flowers & Trees (2005)Both albums received significant praise from respected national & international music magazines like The Wire, Stylus, Hip-Hop Connection and others. Since his last album he has been learning guitar and piano, (as well as a lot of other obscure instruments from around the world) and is scheduled to release his 3rd solo album, which is entirely acoustic, later in 2007.He’s also a documentary filmmaker, currently (as of June-September 2007) shooting and editing a film about Brighton’s eccentric ‘Street-walkers’. Prior to this, the last film he made was shown at the Duke of York’s Cinema as part of the 2005 Brighton Film Festival (Soup For Thought (2005) a film about the nightly soup-run on Brighton beach for the homeless and hungry)Since 2003, however, he has been working on his first novel, Pieces of a paki (July, 2007). Partially drawn from his experiences as ‘the lone Afghan in Brighton’ as well as taking full advantage of his vivid imagination, this is a coming-of-age story, set in a great Britain of the future (the year 2020!) charts the emotional journey of young Jonathan Hutton as he struggles to find his place in the strange world around him, where the prime minister is at odds with King Charles over a military invasion of Brazil, where milk floats actually float, where Richard & Judy are still presenting, where Ronan Keating is an imprisoned human rights activist and where two very strange men sit in an office on the moon, thinking about food and farting!Pieces of a paki has already drawn comparisons to writers as disparate as Irvine Welsh, Roald Dahl, J.D. Salinger and George Orwell; Yusuf’s stunning visual style, imagery and surreal sense of humour have even been liked to that of Salvador Dali! A must-read, and a timely, inspirational book for all open-hearted citizens of ‘beautiful Britain’.HYPERLINK "http://www.ymisdaq.net" www.ymisdaq.net