Contemporary, ancient, tropical and cosmopolitan: Ibeyi’s debut album pulls off an audacious series of culture clashes. The rhythms of this record unite Afro-Cuban instruments and forms with 21st-century digital production, courtesy of XL boss Richard Russell. All the while, Yoruba chants brought over to the new world in the African diaspora rub up against jazzy soul informed by Paris and hip-hop, sometimes all on one song (Behind the Curtain; Mama Says). It works because Cuban-French twins Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Diaz – daughters of the late conga player Anga Diaz - marshal these influences with confidence, referencing the deaths of their father and sister, and the need for love, which defies time and place.
