Jungle Run

The ten-piece outfit Nubiyan Twist released an outstanding debut in 2015 and their second record, Jungle Run, offers up a feast of enjoyment. Originally formed at the Leeds College of Music, their style flits between reggae, jazz, hip-hop, bossa nova and highlife, emblematic of the diverse music education of the ensemble. With a few years behind them, this project is markedly more ambitious and features cameos from both Mulatu Astatke – whose deft touch and vibraphone flourishes add colour to ‘Addis to London’ – and Tony Allen who provides the propulsion behind ‘Ghosts’, a full-on Afrobeat assault that dives into elements of broken beat, redolent of Dego and Kaidi's work in the 90s.

For an ensemble of this size, it's easy for conflicting interests to mar cohesion. Yet, there's a real range of timbres and feels, with its simpler moments offering tangible enjoyment. ‘Basa Basa’ opens with delicate mbira lines combining with subtle keys and a highlife guitar line, before Ghana's K.O.G. enters, soaring across the gloriously groovy instrumentation. Elsewhere, Pilo Adami's soft-yet-earthy vocals augment the laid-back bossa groove of ‘Borders’, with album closer ‘Sugar Cane’ offering a reminder of their undeniable talent for writing hip-hop laced soul bangers.