Ibibio Sound Machine – Electricity (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:25 minutes | 555 MB | Genre: Funk, Disco, Electronic, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Merge Records
Electricity was produced by the Grammy Award– and Mercury Prize–nominated British synthpop group Hot Chip, a collaboration born out of mutual admiration watching each other on festival stages, as well as a shared love of Francis Bebey and Giorgio Moroder. The fruits of their labor reveal a gleaming, supercharged, Afrofuturist blinder. Electricity is the first album Ibibio Sound Machine have made with external producers since the group’s formation in London in 2013 by lead singer Eno Williams and saxophonist Max Grunhard. True, 2017’s Uyai featured mixdown guests including Dan Leavers, aka Danalogue, the keyboard jedi in future-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, but Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine worked together more deeply throughout the process, collaborating fully. Along the way, the team conjured a kaleidoscope of delights that include resonances of Jonzun Crew, Grace Jones, William Onyeabor, Tom Tom Club, The J.B.’s, Jon Hassell’s Fourth World, and Bootsy Collins.
Electricity, the fourth album from London’s Ibibio Sound Machine is a dazzling mélange of eighties disco, African highlife guitar, and squishy, futuristic synths that would not be out of place on the Parliament/Funkadelic Mothership. With English synthpop band Hot Chip in the production booth, this new sound-world is evident right from the first track, “Protection From Evil,” where vocalist Eno Williams jumps into the Giorgio Moroder-esque electronic beat with lyrics deep from her subconscious, all while the sound is thickening with crunchy keyboards and 808 beats. Hot Chip’s influence continues on tracks like “Casio (Yak Nda Nda)” filled with fuzz-laden keyboards and whiplash hi-hat accents. Williams’ mashed-up English/Ibibio lyrics (she was born in London, but raised in the southern part of Nigeria where the language is spoken) communicate everything you need to know; no translations needed but batteries very much included. The title track feels like a condensed history of dance and pop music’s last four decades, from the opening march rhythms that are reminiscent of Eddy Grant’s huge hit, to the talking-drum inspired break in the middle that takes us from Ibiza to Nigeria. In this time of forced isolation, Electricity is the record for when shiny happy people are emerging from their cocoons to dance to the music that moves them, with each beat from Nairobi, Brixton, Milan or Rio breaking down barriers between borders, generations, genres and human hearts. – Rick Banales
Tracklist:
1-01. Ibibio Sound Machine – Protection From Evil (04:36)
1-02. Ibibio Sound Machine – Electricity (04:47)
1-03. Ibibio Sound Machine – Casio (Yak Nda Nda) (03:55)
1-04. Ibibio Sound Machine – Afo Ken Doko Mien (04:50)
1-05. Ibibio Sound Machine – All That You Want (04:37)
1-06. Ibibio Sound Machine – Wanna See Your Face Again (04:26)
1-07. Ibibio Sound Machine – 17 18 19 (03:07)
1-08. Ibibio Sound Machine – Truth No Lie (03:51)
1-09. Ibibio Sound Machine – Oyoyo (03:01)
1-10. Ibibio Sound Machine – Something We’ll Remember (04:09)
1-11. Ibibio Sound Machine – Almost Flying (04:07)
1-12. Ibibio Sound Machine – Freedom (02:54)
