The Guinea-born, Margate-based singer and multi-instrumentalist brings a beautiful blend of West African sounds fused with electronica, stories and emotions, variously singing in French, English, Susu, Fulani, Malinke and Coniagui, with collaborators including Ghost Culture, Johan Hugo, Hiro Ama, Mike Lindsay (of Tunng and LUMP), and TaliaBle. His instruments include the gongoma, bolon and cassi, creating a unique, original multicultural album of different dance styles and African folk tradition. Deft touches of production and sound appear throughout, including the gorgeously crisp, agile Falle Le Le Le (produced by Lindsay). There’s a lightness to the sound but a darkness to the song’s background. As Nioke explains: “In the city I lived in an army camp and we were surrounded by guns. My parents moved me from Conakry to Boké in the countryside to keep me out of trouble and at that point my life changed. My focus turned from teenage rebellion to music and the path of my life slowly began to reveal itself.”
Light and darkness are constantly coming together across the album. From the catchy, more traditional Mousolou (with Hugo) and saxophone, while Heaviness (with Ghost Culture), sung in Coniagui, is a fantastic combination of electronica and a more melancholy African mood, the opening, wistful phrase, “Ma chiré” meaning “call me” and is about “the feeling that consumes you when you miss somebody so badly, how you would do almost anything just to be in contact with them again.” Limanya, is a beautiful, warm, syncopated, catchy simpler number co-written with Ama and others. LDN Girl (with north London rapper TaliaBle) is one of a handful that combines West African into urban influences, a afrobeats-influenced ode to women in the club scene who “give energy to the dance.” But perhaps the highlight is the title track, a gorgeously rhythmic, light-touch sound with a vocal performance full of emotion, a song inspired by the ocean waves, but also filled with yearning, tragedy and sorrow, associated with dangerous boat journeys of desperate immigrants fleeing warzones and risking their lives. The slower, synth, and sorrowful choral layers We Living In Pain also adds to that emotional depth. West Coast goes into a fusion of synth rave and African roots, Say Say Say (also with Lindsay) has a clever syncopated funk feel and is about being unapologetically yourself, while closing track Home brings together typical fusion of many styles – a freeform vocal, beats, electronica and traditional instruments in a jingle-jangle of joy and bittersweet emotions. Overall, a wonderfully enjoyable, highly original and eclectic album of joy and sorrow, tragedy and hope. Out on Eat Your Own Ears Recordings.
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