Ibibio Sound Machine

Ibibio Sound Machine, a group assembled in London by producers Max Grunhard, Leon Brichard and Benji Bouton, played electronic funk-jazzy Afro-beat dance music on Ibibio Sound Machine (2014), which includes the mid-tempo polyrhythmic single Let's Dance and the similar The Tortoise, while The Talking Fish sounds like a hybrid of the Talking Heads and Earth, Wind & Fire. At that point the ensemble featured Max Grunhard on alto saxophone and keyboards, Ben Hadwen on baritone saxophone, Benji Bouton on drums and keyboards, Leon Brichard on bass, Nigerian-British female vocalist Eno Williams-Uffort (fluent in the Ibibio language), Ghanaian guitarist Alfred "Kari" Bannerman (of KonKoma and Osibisa), Tony Hayden on keyboards and trombone, Brazilian percussionist Anselmo Netto, and Scott Baylis on trumpet. The music on Uyai (2017) is more aggressive and bombastic starting with opener Give Me a Reason. The electronic rhythm of The Pot Is On Fire sounds like dance-pop of the 1980s, the Phil Collins era. That feeling is 1980s revival is pervasive on Doko Mien (2019), for example in Tell Me (Doko Mien), which is almost a funky version of Dead or Alive, while She Work Very Hard even flirts with disco-music of the late 1970s. Williams also tries a slow and mellow ballad, Guess We Found a Way. Electricity (2022), produced by Hot Chip , contains other disco-tinged jams like 17 18 19 and Wanna See Your Face Again , Protection From Evil is a hybrid of synth-pop and punk-rock. There is even a tribute to house of the 1990s in Wanna See Your Face Again. At the same time, Williams can intone soulful elegies, notably the plaintive chant Afo Ken Doko Mien. Here the band was the core quintet of Grunhard, Williams, Bannerman, Hayden and Baylis augmented with bassist Philip Ambrose, percussionist Afla Sackey and drummer Joseph Amoako.