On their fourth long-player, London's Afrofuturist collective
Ibibio Sound Machine alter their sonic approach without shifting their musical focus.
Electricity finds the band looking outside the organization for the first time to enlist
Hot Chip (
Al Doyle and
Joe Goddard) as producers. Together, they shift the electronics forever at the core of their hybrid of Afrobeat, future funk, and post-punk, and move them way up front, weaving in crashing electro,
Kraftwerk-ian new wave, and disco.
Opener "Protection from Evil" perfectly illustrates that formula.
Al Doyle's filthy, rubbery synth bassline ushers in a four-on-the-floor pulse and a bank of forceful synths before frontwoman
Eno Williams delivers a onomatopoeic bilingual screed in her native Ibibio and English (she moves between the languages throughout the album). A propulsive drum kit, jagged ambient sounds, pitch-shifted keyboards, and a wonky bass create the hypnotic frame as she sings through a vocoder in the bridge. The title track follows.
Williams emulates
Kraftwerk's robotized vocals in the intro as driving Casios and drum machines open the gate for a melody drenched in pop-soul. "Afo Ken Doko Mien" is a gorgeous love song; though articulated through a textured ambient electro, it's tender, mystical, and spacious, saturated in nocturnal atmospherics.
Williams' crystalline singing hovers above droning, minimal keyboards, voicing the ache of her desire with clear intent. "All That You Want" weds progressive pop to
LCD Soundsystem-esque synth vibes from Scotty Bayliss before deliberately evoking
Giorgio Moroder's sheeny electro-Euro-disco. "Wanna See Your Face Again," by contrast, is an orgiastic exercise in anthemic, souled-out house. "17 18 19" finds
Williams offering a spoken word lyric à la
Grace Jones atop a massive rhythm collision of break-laden disco and fractured post-punk. Speaking of disco, the neo-electro in "Truth No Lie" at once recalls the twin influences of
Afrika Bambaataa and
Francis Bebey -- Alfred "Kari" Bannerman's lean, mean guitar solo is a treat as it foreshadows wrangling layers of angular synths and cascading beats. Strangely, "Oyoyo," a track deeply saturated in African polyrhythms, could have appeared on any of the band's earlier albums, but it sounds like a welcome outlier here. Its crisscrossing weave of hand drums, horns, double-timed snares, and kick drums framed by popcorn Casio buoys
Williams' trancelike singing. Where "Something We'll Remember" is a disco anthem created for the heat of the dancefloor, "Almost Flying" channels poppy new wave amid blips and beeps with an infectiously hummable chorus. Set closer "Freedom" is an intense three-minute exercise in Afrofuturist broken beat, roiling neo-disco, and soul-drenched cinematic pop with guest vocalist Adenike Ajayi claiming the front as
Williams soars in the cascading chorus.
Ibibio Sound Machine have always sought to get listeners onto the dancefloor.
Electricity reveals that they won't have to coax. Here, they have taken their songcraft, production, and rhythm science to an entirely different level without sacrificing their Afrocentric roots. ~ Thom Jurek