Freedom Fables

by Nubiyan Twist

Overview

Freedom Fables is the third long-player by London-based world groove fusion outfit Nubiyan Twist. On their self-titled 2017 debut, the band used singers and rappers like tonal elements in their harmonic palette, combining modal jazz with hip-hop, soul, funk, electronics, and Pan-African rhythms. Their dancefloor-quaking groove jumble registered across the U.K. and Europe. On 2019's Jungle Run, singers and rappers acted as guideposts for listeners in an oft-shifting, sophisticated musical landscape. On Freedom Fables, the role of the vocalist is primary. The band's eight instrumentalists serve both songs and singers with a propulsive polyrhythmic approach and kaleidoscopic harmonic palette that encompasses a rainbow of tones, colors, and textures. U.K. neo-soul chanteuse Ria Moran fronts Nubiyan Twist for the scene-setting "Morning Light." Atop a bumping, jazz-hop bass line, cooing horns, and drifting electronics, Moran's singing is silky smooth and deeply expressive. She invites the horns to embrace her sunny, optimistic lyric with resolve -- and they do. "Tittle Tattle" features current frontwoman Cherise Adams-Burnett. She glides, sasses, exhorts, and warns as horns charge headlong at multi-layered organic and synthetic percussion and keyboards, while guitarist Tom Excell's spiky funk vamps propel the groove. Ghanaian legend Pat Thomas guests on the cautionary "Ma Wonka," a cooking meld of Afrobeat and soukous rhythms woven through dub effects. His sweet vocal offers a moral warning of the danger posed by gossip, and his singing contrasts with the band's darkly tinged, urgent groove underscored in Jonny Enser's biting trumpet break. MC and alto saxophonist Soweto Kinch not only raps but sings his best Marvin Gaye impression on the breezy "Buckle Up." The steady handclaps riffle up under a steamy, sexy groove, as he asserts the lyric's truth, then caps it with a knotty alto solo. Ghanaian superstar K.O.G. guests on the incendiary "If I Know," wedding modal and Latin jazz and South American cumbia to scorching Afro-funk rhythms and highlife guitars. Cherise returns on "Keeper," an angular meld of syncopated post-bop, neo-electro, and pulsing horns as Excell bridges band and singer with melodic interplay. She also delivers the vocal in finger-popping neo-soul highlight "Flow," soaring and scatting in a crystalline mezzo-soprano atop cascading neo-electro keyboards, swinging horns, and a dubby funk bass line. South London's Ego Ella May walks a tightrope between the mercurial worlds of neo-soul and jazz in "24-7." The band's tempos and harmonic palettes change, but she holds the reins, controlling the tune's dynamic while expressively urging on canny instrumental interplay. Closer "Wipe Away Tears" commences with double-timed snare and hi-hat as electric piano, flute, and horns engage in sweeping call-and-response. Amid this expansive progressive jazz chart, saxman Nick Richards delivers a sublime, sweet, resonant vocal, calling the instruments to him to create an anthem of affirmation and transcendence. As a whole, Freedom Fables is a beautifully integrated, physical approach to song and narrative; it's a musical adventure as substantive structurally as it is enjoyable viscerally. ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	05/14/2021
Label:	Strut
UPC:	4062548015676

Tracks

1. Morning Light
2. Tittle Tattle
3. Ma Wonka
4. Buckle Up
5. Keeper
6. If I Know
7. Flow
8. 24-7
9. Wipe Away Tears

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Nubiyan Twist   Primary Artist
Rachael Hayter   Flute
Ria Moran   Vocals,Featured Artist
Jonny Enser   Trumpet
Luke Wynter   Guitar (Bass)
Pilo Adami   Bongos,Congas
Denis Scully   Sax (Tenor)
Finn Booth   Agogo,Drums,Bongos
Soweto Kinch   Vocals,Sax (Alto),Featured Artist
Pat Thomas   Featured Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
Cherise   Vocals,Featured Artist,Featured Artist
Nick Richards   Vocals,Sax (Alto),Featured Artist,Vocals (Background)
K.O.G.   Vocals,Featured Artist
Joe Henwood   Sax (Baritone)
Tom Excell   Blocks,Congas,Djembe,Guitar,Shaker,Shekere,Keyboards,Tambourine,Wood Block,Synthesizer,Drum Machine,Talking Drum,Guitar (Bass),Guitar (Electric)
Ego Ella May   Vocals,Featured Artist
Ollie Cadman   Organ,Piano,Keyboards,Synthesizer

Technical Credits

Cherise Adams-Burnett   Composer
Kweku Sackey   Composer
Luiz Adami   Composer
Oliver Barton-Wood   Mixing
Ria Moran   Composer
Jonny Enser   Composer
Luke Wynter   Composer
Denis Scully   Composer
Quinton Scott   Coordination
Soweto Kinch   Composer
Kwame Yeboah   Engineer
Nick Richards   Composer
Matt Thame   Graphic Design
Hugo Mendez   Coordination
Peter Beckmann   Mastering
Joe Henwood   Composer
Tom Excell   Mixing,Composer,Engineer,Producer
Pat Thomas   Composer
Ego Ella May   Composer
Finn Booth   Composer
Ollie Cadman   Composer