Ibibio Sound Machine

An optimistic set of heart-rate bumpers, limb-swingers, and thought-provokers from the electronic afrobeat group - they've brought back the soulful sounds that made 'Uyai' so essential and expertly blended them with 'Electricity's dancefloor vitality to offer up the best version of themselves we could have imagined.

On 'Pull The Rope', the hope, joy, and sexiness of their music remain but, further honing the edge of their acclaimed 2022 album, 'Electricity', the connection they aim to foster has shifted venues from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweat-soaked, all-night dance club. In melding their songwriting process, Grunhard and Williams have, impossibly, pulled the trick of making Ibibio Sound Machine a tighter band than ever before, building out from their core in a way that highlights the electrifying group of musicians they play with.

Rather than recording with the full band in the room, 'Pull the Rope' was sculpted, elements added and shaped by Grunhard, Williams, and Orton along the way. As a result, 'Pull the Rope' is a nimble, sleek machine that’s thrilling from the first note of the opening title track, Eno’s otherworldly voice and PK Ambrose’s throbbing bass driving through a kaleidoscopic array of house, post-punk, funk, Afrobeat and disco, bangers and ballads, making an argument for unity that begins on the dancefloor. “We are the places we grew up, the places we’ve been, and the people we’ve met along the way,” Williams says. “Hopping around the globe, we’ve found that people are fundamentally the same they’re people. Opposing sides push and pull, but there is an alternative to war, violence, and suffering.”