Nubiyan Twist: Find Your Flame – Album Review

(Strut)

LP|CD|DL

Out on 3rd May 2024

Nubiyan Twist’s vibrant fourth album, Find Your Flame, is the one that they have always promised to make. It perfectly showcases the nine-piece band’s versatility as they skip effortlessly from jazz and soul through R&B to Afrobeat. Gordon Rutherford reviews for Louder Than War.

Great art is inspired by life experiences. The traumatic and the tragic; the joyful and the jubilant. Find Your Flame, the electrifying fourth album from the nine-piece Nubiyan Twist, is founded on the commingling of a melange of such emotions and experiences. In turn, these have influenced the creation of great art. Tom Excell, Nubiyan Twist’s bandleader, producer and guitarist, has described Find Your Flame as “a snapshot of our collective influences and journeys throughout the time it was made”.

And what journeys. Apart from the thing that affected us all (covid), there have been births and deaths, car accidents and newly formed friendships. Tragically, there was also a leg amputation. Such events can often make or break a group, yet on the evidence of Find Your Flame, it’s the former that has occurred, for what we have in our hands here is a record that deserves to feature prominently in most end-of-year lists. As I listen to it right now, I can’t recall a stronger 2024 release to date. Furthermore, it’s difficult to see how it could be bettered over the next seven months.

This is a tale of potential fulfilled. Since their vibrant, eponymous, 2015 debut album, it has been palpable that Nubiyan Twist were very good. 2021’s Freedom Fables, which featured the outstanding Tittle Tattle, a tune which became a staple on my playlist when I was hosting a regular show on LTW Radio, further reinforced that impression. However, Find Your Flame inhabits another plateau altogether. This is the breakthrough; the one where it all comes together across one album. The one that sees Nubiyan Twist gravitate from good to great. Horns roar, voices cry euphorically, guitars chop and chime, bass lines permeate your very being. There are stunning Tom Excell arrangements. And those beats and rhythms. Oh, my days, those beats and rhythms.

Once upon a time, comets were seen as portents of things to come. Generally doom, to be fair. Find Your Flame’s comet initially materialised in the form of seven-inch vinyl, coming into our view late last year. It was named So Mi Stay. But rather than foreshadow doom, this heralded glory. From those first few bars, featuring the patois rapping of new permanent addition, Aziza Jaye, it was clear that Nubiyan Twist were on top form. The impact of Jaye’s introduction to the band cannot be understated. As we shall discover, the Sheffield-based vocalist surely rivals Declan Rice as new signing of the season; her voice dazzling throughout this collection.

One of the most impressive things about Jaye is her outstanding ability to apply her voice to whatever the composition demands. She demonstrates this by effortlessly skipping from patois on So Mi Stay, through euphoric R&B to smooth-as-silk soul on other tunes. Such versatility is a powerful asset for a band like Nubiyan Twist. As they move through the gears, from jazz to hip-hop, reggae to soul, Afrobeat to dance, Jaye, for the most part, moves with them. That doesn’t mean that the band have abandoned the need for collaboration with other artists. Far from it. In fact, some of the finest moments on Find Your Flame involve associations.

Surely, the highest profile collaborator on the collection is Nile Rodgers. In reality, there is no need for the funkiest exponent of a Fender Stratocaster of all time to be namechecked. Within twenty seconds of hearing the euphoric Lights Out, you know precisely who is chopping out those chords. Rodgers also brings his innate pop sensibility to help shape Lights Out into the album’s most danceable and most commercially appealing track.

Equally spectacular is Carry Me, the collaboration with Seun Kuti. The Nigerian musician and singer, who is the son of the great Fela Kuti, shapes this song into an Afrobeat goliath. Drummer, Finn Booth lays down a rich foundation, skipping across his kit, whilst the band’s horn section of Jonny Enser (trumpet), Nick Richards (alto sax), Denis Scully (tenor sax) and Hannah Mae (baritone sax) really come into their own, with, at various points, each player stepping into the spotlight to lay down their licks.

Photo credit: Dom Bowman

Magical things happen when Nubiyan Twist sashay into that Afrobeat groove. Take the album closer, Slow Breath. This sumptuous homage to traditional Malian music features ex-Salif Keïta backing vocalist, Mamani Keïta. The rippling keys of Lewis Moody provide an atmospheric backdrop to this sublime composition; one which sublimely glides as it takes the listener by the hand and tenderly eases them to the close of the collection.

There’s another Afrobeat treat in store in the shape of the second part of the two-parter, Pray For Me. Taking the mic this time is the band’s long-time Ghanaian collaborator, K.O.G. He is ushered in by a sublime sun-dappled guitar line by Excell and it’s not long until we are engulfed in a carnival vibe. Prior to the passing of the baton to K.O.G. by up-and-coming UK MC, NEONE The Wonderer, we are partying on another continent altogether. Before Africa, in the first part of Pray For Me, we have one foot in South America, as jazz fuses with Latin to fashion a heady brew. NEONE’s rap brings a strong flavour of hip-hop, making this infusion even more potent. The highlight, however, is the segue from the first part of Pray For Me into the Afrobeat jamboree of part two. That split second when the two parts of Pray For Me seamlessly dovetail, transporting us on this epic odyssey from one continent to another, is a moment to behold.

Earlier, I referred to Nubiyan Twist’s versatility and Find Your Flame showcases that perfectly. It’s not a wild ride throughout; when they need to pull back on the throttle, they do so convincingly. The contrast is starkly laid out at the very beginning of the album as the aforementioned disco-fuelled Lights Out is preceded by Find Your Flame’s opening track, Battle Isn’t Over. This lush jazzy number with its full, symphonic sound is as smooth as Cary Grant, making it the perfect welcome to the collection.

Perfectly bookending the album is the trio of tunes that close down proceedings. Like Battle Isn’t Over, they have a warmth and tenderness and after the wild rumpus of much of what populates the album’s middle tracks, they expediate something of a comedown. I’ve already referred to the closer, Slow Breath. Just prior to that comes the reggae/soul blend of Reach My Soul and the album’s title track. The former features a beautiful guitar filigree by Excell. Weaving around it, like a cobra assessing matters, is Luke Wynter’s bass line. As for Jaye, the majesty of the composition really allows her to spread her wings. In an album full of several excellent vocal contributions from the band’s new addition, Reach My Soul is her zenith. It may be pushing things to place Find Your Flame (the song) in the same box. Yes, it does up the pace a tad, however it does so whilst retaining a sheen of polished soul. Driven by broken beats and another killer earworm bass line by Wynter, it seamlessly shifts gear.

Returning to Aziza Jaye, the other stand-out performance from her comes on the swaggering Woman. In so many ways, particularly lyrically and in Jaye’s vocal delivery, this tour de force is reminiscent of the Little Simz track of the same name, as it carries the same self-assurance and desire. Once again, it’s worth calling out the pin-sharp lines of Excell. Woman is flanked by two collaborations. The soulful All The Same precedes, treating us to the voice of Ria Moran which billows from the speakers like sheets of silk. At the other side is the massive sound of You Don’t Know, featuring Glasgow polymath, Corto Alto.

In so many ways, Find Your Flame is reminiscent of last year’s Where I’m Meant To Be by Ezra Collective. It has the same no-holds-barred ambition, almost as though the band innately know that this is their moment. Featuring smart collaborations, outstanding musicianship and first-rate compositions, it absolutely thrills and excites. Indeed, it is wholly accurate to state that there is not a single mediocre tune on this album. Zero filler; every single second counts. Through adversity, Nubiyan Twist have categorically found their flame. Album of the year? Who can say, but, yes. It probably will be.