IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE | LIVE REVIEW
Festival Of Voice, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Wed 13 June
The Ibibio Sound Machine is a contraption with a lot of moving parts. The eight-piece troupe blends stomping 80s Afrobeat percussion with a heart of electrofunk, bouncy synths, and chiptune blips, all driven by the joyful engine that is frontwoman Eno Williams. British-born with her family roots firmly in Nigerian culture, Williams’ lyrics flit between English and Ibibio, the same African language that inspired the band’s name. It’s a curious mix, but she pulls it off.
Percussionist Anselmo Netto grins manically as he whips through bongos, cowbells, whistles, and more instruments his neighbours probably hate. Alfred Bannerman flexes his credentials as one of Ghana’s most renowned guitarists with solos that are smooth yet striking, with the bridge of Give Me a Reason being a highlight. Despite the song’s less-than-happy inspiration subject of the abduction of hundreds of Chibok girls in 2014, it’s a relentlessly upbeat tune that has even the most rhythmically-challenged audience members grooving by the climax.
With few pauses between songs and with most tracks sharing similar DNA, they risk blurring together at times – but that is perhaps the intended effect. The atmosphere of the night slips into a rave as much as a concert, with Williams centre stage as its spirited orchestrator. The Chant stands out as a vibrant earworm, thanks largely to the song’s chorus refrains lifted from Zangalewa, the African superhit by Cameroonian makossa group Golden Sounds (UK audiences will probably recognise it better from Shakira’s 2010 World Cup single). As Festival Of Voice draws to a close, there is no voice louder than that of Ibibio Sound Machine.
words and photos JASPER WILKINS