Cymande

When Cymande's debut LP was released in 1972 it was largely ignored in their UK homeland. The UK's hip music cognoscenti were perhaps still blind to the possibilities of a black British-based West Indian group mixing progressive rock with funk, soul and reggae. Bear in mind that The Wailers’ ground-breaking Catch A Fire was not released until the following year. Fortunately the nine-piece Cymande fared better in the US, where their reputation was cemented when they toured with Al Green and became the first British band to perform at the Apollo in Harlem. Eventually their music was sampled by the likes of Wu-Tang Clan, Fugees, De La Soul and Gang Starr.

They call their Afro-rock fusion ‘Nyah-rock’ and this reissue of their debut starts and ends with Rastafarian traditional Nyahbinghi drumming. A couple of tracks, ‘One More’ and ‘Dove’, are superbly mellifluous psychedelic instrumentals – very reminiscent of what Khruangbin currently excel at. The rest is decidedly progressive soul rock, instrumentally adept and vocally precise – in a 1972-period ‘Superfly’ way. Fifty years later and Cymande are still on the road, subject of a splendid documentary film and now planning further recordings.