Nubiyan Twist - Jungle Run (2019 Strut Records 2LP)

Nubiyan Twist - Jungle Run | 2 x Vinyl LP - 2019 Strut Records (STRUT198LP)

Nubiyan Twist formed at Leeds College of Music under the direction of guitarist and producer Tom Excell. By 2019, they were a ten-piece London-based collective whose second album for Strut Records drew in a cast of collaborators across four sides. The music moves between registers without announcing the changes — Afrobeat grooves, Ethio-jazz melodies, bossa nova phrasing, dub bass, hip-hop rhythms, and British soul vocals all appearing and receding without forced segue. Excell engineered and produced at Henwood Studio, the band's own self-built space in rural Oxfordshire.

The guests define the album's outer ambitions. The late Tony Allen — drummer with Fela Kuti for seventeen years and one of the architects of Afrobeat — plays on "Ghosts" (D1), his drumming recorded separately by David Mestre. Mulatu Astatke, the Ethiopian vibraphonist who invented Ethio-jazz in the 1960s and 70s, plays vibraphone on "Addis to London" (C3), recorded by Oli Barton-Wood. Astatke can be heard at the start of the track saying "It's gonna be a different sound, right?" Vocalist Nubiya Brandon — whose departure after this album's release to pursue solo work was, in the band's own words, with their full support — sings on the title track, "Brother," "Permission" and "Sugar Cane." Nick Richards, K.O.G. and Pilo Adami fill out the remaining tracks. Frank Merritt mastered.