Exotic Other

Animanz are three musical childhood friends, based in London, who front a collective committed to playing party tunes in which ‘the groove and energy are the most important things.’ A little like Belgium's La Chiva Gantiva or New York's MAKU Soundsystem, they play fast and loose with genres like cumbia, funk and Afrobeat, and wrap up the sum of the polymorphic parts in an edgy punk aesthetic. As their debut album confirms, singer Juanita Euka (niece of the mighty Franco, no less) provides the missing ingredient they previously felt they lacked.

The compelling rhythmic pulse of the title-track and initial single characterises an album that bristles with attitude. Vicious, choppy guitar, stabbing keyboards and braying horns create a swirling, funky stew that's stirred by Euka's measured vocals – most infectiously on the skewed bossa nova of ‘Gypsy Woman’. If it's party music, then it's sometimes the kind of unsettling party that's happening in an engineering factory, but at its best – on tracks like ‘The Drip’, ‘Tiempo’, the furious ‘Disconnect’ and ‘Ain't No Way’ (which sounds like it's hot off the Daptone label's production line) – Animanz suggest they have found a recipe for impending success.