In the 12 years since Ibibio Sound Machine’s self-titled debut album, a few constants have emerged about the group’s work. On the most immediate aural level, every Ibibio Sound Machine record draws on styles shaped by longstanding connections between London and Lagos, with the band always working from an anticolonial perspective that recalls the philosophical underpinnings of movements like Afrobeat and original disco and funk.
Closely related is a more longitudinal feature of Ibibio’s oeuvre: each iteration of this aesthetic ends up sounding completely different. A third consistency, and one that makes the group’s catalogue evenly compelling through its changes, is that every album has a vivid palette, the band committing fully to each new direction.
On the new release Chopping Mountain, the hues are warm, but gently so. It’s the group’s most contemplative album since 2019’s soulful Doko Mien, and the first since Doko Mien to credit the band’s sax and synth player, Max Grunhard, as lead producer. Grunhard’s touch makes for a wide spectrum of moods, brilliantly executed as always by the entire band. Eno Williams remains a powerfully expressive frontperson, capable of moving a crowd to dance or to feel, whatever best suits the situation.
This serves the group well in the complex situations underpinning Chopping Mountain. The opening song, “Burning in Lagos”, builds from a dreamy waft into rhythmic melancholy. “It’s burning in Lagos / It’s night time in London / My head fills with circles / Of sleep, and I’m wondering” sings Williams, and her wonderings (and wanderings) never fully resolve. Instead, she moves through the sweltering unknown as a witness, with layers of percussion, brass, and electronics following her path. As the song’s lyrics call to mind climate-change-exacerbated heatwaves that disproportionately impact the Global South, the ensemble’s relatively subdued, though clear, delivery feels fitting.
However, this album is not an elegy. The second track, “Chopping Mountain”, opens with sparkling keys and tighter beats; flutes, horns, and plugged-in strings offer emphatic flourishes. Williams sings of rising from discord like a phoenix. Joy and strength thus persist, leading the way into a glorious run of dance tracks. “When You Want to Dance” pairs staccato beats with dubby effects for a stylish take on drum ‘n’ bass.
“Concept of Love” and “Return to Sender” use heavier synthpop techniques warmed by familiar horns. The tension dissipates cleanly for “Give Me Peace”, a stunning rallying cry for freedom and love featuring Afrobeat star Dele Sosimi, who spent his early years performing with Fela Kuti‘s Egypt 80 and Femi Kuti‘s Positive Force. Sosimi’s and Williams’s energies together yield truly soothing gravitas.
The final four tracks let the grooves keep relaxing. “Menso” and “Love” both have retro touches: the former is filled with bass-heavy funk, and the latter sounds like remastered 1960s soul. The buoyant instrumentation of “Kukuru” lets Williams show her effervescent side.
The record comes to a close in the neon electrofolk and open spaces of the final track “River Don’t Rush”, in which Williams imparts final wisdom that complements her racing thoughts from the album’s start, even if it cannot solve the problems in the world: “I guess I could learn a thing or two about the water flow / River don’t rush, it just goes where it’s got to go / Why worry, what you can’t control / Why carry all this weight on your soul?”
Ibibio Sound Machine have always made exceptional music. Chopping Mountain continues to refine the band’s sound, with even more nuance in its affective dimensions. The group have, of course, always engaged with issues—they were demanding the end of child kidnapping back on 2017’s Uyai—but Chopping Mountain captures the uncertainties of the current moment in a particular way that is cathartic to hear from a group that still knows how to start the party and keep it going. I’m thrilled to report that I’ve never heard an Ibibio Sound Machine album I didn’t love, and that holds whether the group wants us to reflect or go full disco.