Njhyi

Hold onto the sides, and open your mind. NOK Cultural Ensemble come at you like a rhythmic juggernaut, fuelled by the NOK civilization of Iron Age Nigeria, Afro-diasporic knowledge systems and cultures and the sprawling dance orchestras championed by 1960s Pan Africanism. Oh, and by percussion as a standalone force: mighty enough to blow your hair back, knock you over and raise you right back up again.

A London-based collective founded by drummer Edward Wakili-Hick (Sons of Kemet, KOKOROKO) and featuring tuba player Theon Cross and percussionist Onome Edgeworth, NCE cherry-picks from time-worn percussion traditions – West African agbaja, Caribbean bélé, Mauritian sega – then swerves hard-left into dub, broken beat and electronica. All of it contained within a carapace of jazz, that oh-so-malleable living music with its predilection for invention. And indeed, the 11 tracks on this Motherland-minded debut LP feel organically evolved, from the eponymous opener with its guttural rumbles, elemental shakers and sci-fi squeaks, through ‘Awakening’ – in which Cross's tuba flutters through repetitive loops – and ‘Ancestral Visions’, where Afrobeat rhythms chug alongside dub echoes, hocketing woodwind and what might be giant robot handclaps. Chicago soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid is here, wielding clarinet on the galloping ‘Enlightenment’; ‘Maroon Step Ftg Watusi 87’ cleverly subverts what might be the weakest track with ‘I don't know who told us we can't sing / Raise a hand and singalong/So we rise.’ This album is a vital listen.