Doko Mien

Album review

Ibibio Sound Machine's sophomore Merge album finds them building on the more production-savvy post-punk and electro soundclash tenets of 2017's Uyai and combining them with the militant Afrobeat grooves of their 2015 self-titled Soundway debut. Doko Mien reveals Ibibio Sound Machine as a restless outfit. Here, articulating their version of Nigerian-saturated roots Afrobeat, they assimilate and recombine crisp, synthetic, and organic beats, zigzagging Kraftwerk-ian synths, fuzzed-out psych guitars, whomping rubbery basslines, and a driving, punched-up brass and horn section that recalls the Tower of Power Horns as much as it does Fela Kuti's.
Doko Mien ("Tell Me") is easily the most musically and sonically diverse outing in the band's catalog. Check opener "I Need You to Be Sweet Like Sugar (Nnge Nte Suka)," a wily funk tune that equates a Bootsy Collins-esque bassline, nasty, fuzzed-up skronky guitar, and Afrobeat horns. The breakbeat snares and winding synth lines underscore the groove as Eno Williams channels vintage Brit-funk and soul supported by a backing chorus. The title track is the set's first single: a 1980s-styled electro soundclash balancing crisp, synthetic beats with darker, looser organic ones, looped handclaps, and tight, muscular horns. "Wanna Come Down" is sung by Williams in her mother's and grandmother's native Ibibio language. The strutting disco bassline against the wah-wah guitar and snare hi-hat beat is framed inside a synth attack that could have appeared on an early Prince record, with horns accenting and illuminating rhythm and harmony. As heartily as the aggressive funk attack satisfies, it's tracks like "I Will Run" and the blissfully psychedelic soul of "Guess We Found a Way" that provide the biggest surprises. Though all-too-brief at just a shade over two minutes, the former's telegraph-key synth pulse is framed by a round, warm, backmasked electric guitar and a droning, atmospheric keyboard bass as Williams delivers a tender, circular chorus with her backing vocalists evoking gospel music in the response. "Nyak Mien" kicks off with a bumping dubwise bassline and lithe and spacy synth pulses; when the horns and drums enter, they transform the tune into highlife soul with interlocking guitar vamps and colorful keyboard lines. "Kuka," another slower jam, is moody. Williams sings rhythmically as the guitar hook circles her while modal jazz, Malian blues, and post-punk are framed by rumbling hand drums and a single-note bass pulse. "Basquiat" offers an angular, electric jazz piano filling phrases asserted by roiling hand percussion before the bass asserts a funk groove, appended by rangey, staccato horns. Finally, Williams' aggressive yet nuanced vocal attack weaves through atmospheric piano, propulsive snare, and her backing chorus to strut and weave through R&B, Nigerian folk music, and Afrobeat with grit and grace. Taken as a whole, Doko Mien is two things simultaneously: An assertive collection of forceful dance tunes, and the most sonically ambitious offering in Ibibio Sound Machine's catalog.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo