We’ve been waiting for Ibibio Sound Machine to return to Brighton since we saw them at The Great Escape earlier this year. They finally obliged, showcasing the worldwide musical fusions at The Haunt of both their albums with an irresistible flair.

They’re often described as bringing modern electronic sounds to African music. It’s a little too condensed a description and, what’s more, is truer of their albums than their live show. As was clear from the moment the seven-piece band plunged into the classic Nigerian afrobeat of ‘The Tortoise’, its wall of brass heralding the more organic and instrumentally meaty sound of their live performance.

Straight from the off, as the band settled into traversing genres, frontwoman Eno Williams had the crowd in her pocket. From the Ghanaian highlife of ‘I’m Running’, to the disco-funk of ‘Woman of Substance’, or the far more electronic-infused ‘The Chant’ – which saw the percussionist switch to a sample pad – she had the audience singing along in English and Nigerian Ibibio, making Pocahontas-screams, and showing her their “power dances” as she flung her own body unrestrainedly across the stage. The obvious abandon and enjoyment of this exceptional performer make it utterly impossible to take your eyes off her.

Playing to the strength of her band, solos were doled out liberally throughout the set. Brazilian percussionist Anselmo Netto seemed to have more than two hands when he was unleashed for ‘Trance Dance’, a whirl of raging beats and electronic sounds. Guitarist Alfred Kari Bannerman – a highlife legend in his own right – was given plenty of space to dazzle, bringing rock, psychedelia and funk to afrobeat stylings for songs like ‘Give Me A Reason’. Eno Williams herself, mostly singing in Ibibio, sang with force and passion – rare English lyrics, like in this latter song, written for the stolen Chibok schoolgirls, reveal that she chooses subjects of substance for her songs and doesn’t shy away from politics.

While energy and dance played a huge part, the band slowed it right down for ‘Lullaby’ and for the downtempo grind of ‘Sunray’ – a personal highlight which verged on the shamanistic, and proved the group aren’t a one-trick pony. For final song ‘The Pot Is On Fire’, the crowd were split into singing parts while Williams introduced her band. Excellent solos followed from all, but it was the closing stabs that hammered home not just how good each individual player was, but how immaculately rehearsed and unified they were as a group.

Across their recorded material, Ibibio Sound Machine bring the sounds of the contemporary electronic scene to afrobeat, highlife, and African disco-funk – but it’s in their totally different live show where they really bring the vivacity and power which are so crucial and arresting to the genres. In Eno Williams they have a remarkable mistress of ceremonies who could take them all the way, leaving us wondering if, in years to come, we’ll talk about Ibibio Sound Machine as the band who brought afrobeat into the contemporary mainstream.

Ben Noble

Website: ibibiosoundmachine.com
Facebook: facebook.com/IbibioSoundMachine
Twitter: twitter.com/ibibioSMmusic