Description

Vinyl Records London are on cloud nine, we are now spinning in a brand new copy in Red Vinyl from Ibibio Sound Machine Indies only LP is on black blue red vinyl pressed. Both LPs come with stock inner sleeves.Pull the Rope, the new record by Ibibio Sound Machine, casts the Eno Williams and Max Grunhardndashled outfit in a new light. The hope, joy, and sexiness of their music remain, but, further honing the edge of their acclaimed 2022 album Electricity, the connection they aim to foster has shifted venues from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweatsoaked, allnight dance club.Williams and Grunhard attribute this shift to a matter of collaborators, recording Pull the Rope with Sheffieldbased producer Ross Orton Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A. over the course of two weeks. The way the pair wrote songs changed significantly rather than Eno penning lyrics to music generated by Max and companyrsquos jamming, Orton started with Eno and Max writing together before adding the band. With less time in the studioand a new way of considering how they built songs, the duo found making decisions about Pull the Ropersquos sound quicker and more instinctual than before.ldquoRoss is from Sheffield, which has an edgier, more industrial vibe than London,rdquo Grunhard explains. ldquoHe hears things differently than us, is more grounded in rave and grungier sounds, and knew when to add drums or push the instrumentation more. It was very different for us, but it lends itself to where Ibibio Sound Machine is going.rdquoIn melding their songwriting process, Grunhard and Williams have, impossibly, pulled the trick of making Ibibio Sound Machine a tighter band than ever before, building out from their core in a way that highlights the electrifying group of musicians they play with. Rather than recording with the full band in the room, Pull theRope was sculpted, elements added and shaped by Grunhard, Williams, and Orton along the way. As a result, Pull the Rope is a nimble, sleek machine thatrsquos thrilling from the first note of the opening title track, Enorsquos otherworldly voice and PK Ambrosersquos throbbing bass driving through a kaleidoscopic array of house, postpunk, funk, Afrobeat and disco, bangers and ballads, making an argument for unity that begins on the dancefloor. ldquoWe are the places we grew up, the places wersquove been, and the people wersquove met alongthe way,rdquo Williams says. ldquoHopping around the globe, wersquove found that people are fundamentally the same theyrsquore people. Opposing sides push and pull, but there is an alternative to war, violence, and suffering.rdquoLead single ldquoGot to Be Who U Arerdquo literally globetrots, name checking locales across the world that would feel disparate were it not for how welltraveled they are. Eno growing up in the musical melting pot of the Ibibio region of Nigeria and Max being a conservatorytrained musician from Australia, one could call their meeting in London and formation of Ibibio Sound Machine predestined.ldquoMama Sayrdquo and ldquoLet My Yes Be Yesrdquo touch themes of female empowerment. Theyrsquore indicative of the bandrsquos depth as they push further into the electronic ldquoMama Sayrdquo hits notes of electropop while ldquoLet My Yes Be Yesrdquo fuses electro to Afrobeat. Ibibio Sound Machine have always imbued their music with political consciousness, and the light that shines through in Williamsrsquo vocals and voice has never felt more necessary. The sound of Pull the Rope, then, is hope in darkness, bliss in spite of bleakness. Once again, Ibibio Sound Machine are here to provide the soundtrack to the best night of your life, and the better world to come.