Nubiyan Twist

Excellent 2015 debut album from Nubiyan Twist, a ten-piece London/Leeds collective who specialise in a sound that draws on jazz, afrobeat, hip hop, highlife, dub, Latin, soul, reggae and electronic music. It’s not some kind of musical jumble sale though, they have a clear and cohesive sound across the album, even as they deftly take on hip hop and dub and work in their highlife and jazz chops. There’s plenty of virtuoso playing on display and Nubiyan Twist excelling at super-intricate musical parts locked together in a churning, interlocking rhythm machine over which they lay big horn riffs, soul vocals and super-tight solos. Highlights include Figure Numatic, an expertly realised seven-minute soul/hip hop jazz excursion that warps into a global-funk workout featuring a snare sound to die for, and Hypnotised, a reggae jazz hybrid (Jazzgae? Regazz?) with soaring horn blasts that also comes with a spacious dubbed out Chief Rockers remix.