Sinkane’s ‘Life and Livin’ It’ might be the album you’ve been waiting for.
If 2014’s ‘Mean Love’ distilled its predecessor’s jazzy, occasionally nebulous compositions into tangible pop songs, then ‘Life and Livin’ It’ refines things further, resulting in a superbly lean record that’s hungry, energised and full of self-belief. It’s an album that demonstrates bandleader Ahmed Gallab’s capacity for combining lovable, immediate hooks with retro flourishes and African vocal motifs.
With that said, it is the elaborate rhythms that do the heavy lifting here. Songs are built around percussion, with krautrock synths, funk guitars and elegantly blended vocal harmonies providing handsome adornment to spacious, primal grooves. It’s a sound that is at once fun, danceable and versatile.
The best examples of this are probably the lead singles, U-Huh and Telephone. The former is a song that champions many of the best affectations of high Afrobeat and complements surreptitiously complex drumming with funk and soul instruments arranged with particularly West African bombast.
An example of this is the use of horn stabs (‘U-Huh!’) that butt in throughout the song. In other hands, this is exactly the kind of detail that would outstay its welcome, but not here. The cumulative effect is tear-inducing, wonderful music that makes you want to let go and get down.
Telephone is built out of a swaggering groove that would sound equally appropriate in a jazz club, indie disco or ‘70s movie car chase. Though the lyrical content is placed directly between Hotline Bling and This is the Last Time by Keane, it never feels derivative or predictable. It's class A songwriting - it feels immediately accessible despite its strangeness.
Elsewhere, Theme from Life and Livin’ It - which hammers home the Blaxploitation nomenclature in the album’s title - is another standout, but to be honest there isn't a weak song on this nine track record. And that might be the only criticism, that we could have had more. But that would be disingenuous.
‘Life and Livin' It' is a beautiful record, both focused and sprawling, which champions commonality and togetherness in a pop music scene that often seems to reject those themes. It’s a joyous all-rounder, a community of sound that brings people together.
And lord how we need it.
Sinkane Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu March 23 2017 - BIRMINGHAM Hare And Hounds
Fri March 24 2017 - LEEDS Headrow House
Mon March 27 2017 - MANCHESTER Soup Kitchen
Wed March 29 2017 - LONDON Dome
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