Ibibio Sound Machine: Doko Mien – a perfect synthesis of eclectic genres



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The third studio album of Ibibio Sound Machine sounds as if someone had exploited all the badets of a truly fantastic festival and had them together at the same place: a daring evening with compelling listeners who captured music from all over and synthesized the different elements perfectly. . On paper, the combination of music does not seem to work – there is post-punk (although the sweetest end, where the situation became funky, rather than the frisky end and conflictual), West African Highlife , Afrobeat and Disco, a little 1980s boogie disco sub-genre – but in practice it's a delight.

You could, if you were hard, suggest that there is sometimes a formula – start with a burbling synth, imported from 1981, then layer percussion, throw a few horns, then crown with a groaning guitar solo – then crumble to Apples is made to a formula, and that does not stop it from being awesome. But by reducing Doko Mien implied because it is very clever to make it work so well. The jackhammer synth line from "Tell Me (Doko Mien)" sounds like it's going to set up something quite metronomic, but then it's punctuated by merry horns and the voice of singer Eno Williams, who swirls deliciously around the tempo. The closest, "Basquiat", is even more daring: open with talking percussion and jazzy piano, Williams singing in the Nigerian ibibio language (she switches between that and the English all along), before d & rsquo; To crush a punk-funk rhythm a synth model with two chords and funk guitars. It's as if Ibibio Sound System played all the kinds of music they like at the same time, and it's fabulous. You want that to last forever, rather than disappearing after three months. One can only imagine how much they must be alive.

★★★★ ☆

'Doko Mien' is published by Merge

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