Ibeyi: Ibeyi (XL)
Eighteen years ago, cool cafes performed their daily business to a soundtrack by the Buena Vista Social Club. The coolest ones today might be about to discover a musical backdrop that carries over to the next generation.
Not that you'd instantly notice the Cuban connection between that global bestseller and this debut album by Paris-based twins Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Diaz. When the vocals aren't sung in subtly accented English, they're in the Nigerian language of Yoruba; when the beats don't have a hip-hop inflection, they have a stronger African rhythm that's knocked out on the wooden box known as the cajon. And there's the direct link: the twins' late father was Buena Vista Social Club percussionist Anga Diaz.
The first influences that come to mind when listening to Ibeyi, however, are quite different: Bjork in the jazzy syncopation of Lisa's voice and the way in which the music refuses to be bound by geography or genre; James Blake in Naomi's keyboards and her often sparse, always precise production; Nina Simone in songs like Behind The Curtain and Mama Says, which sound like they've been nurtured beneath the low lights of a Parisian nightclub.
The end result is one of the most uniquely seductive and beguilingly original releases of the year.
ALAN MORRISON
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