Every Monday, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf shares a sonic gem she found using her nearly 20 years of new-music exploration experience. You can hear all her discoveries at 2 p.m. every Sunday on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
London’s joyfully angular dancefloor gurus Ibibio Sound Machine’s forthcoming EP, Black Notes, follows hot on the heels of 2024 full-length Pull the Rope. As their label home Merge Records so appropriately puts it, the new project reveals “even more facets of Ibibio Sound Machine’s perpetual groove.”
The four-song EP’s groovy leadoff is the title track and quite the sassy comeback jam. Led by the smooth-voiced Eno Williams, “Black Notes” incorporates electronic, disco and highlife rhythms to lighten her powerful delivery. Included on the full EP is another brand-new song, as well as two remixes.
Black Notes gets its release Sept. 4, but in the meantime you can enjoy the lead single — and all the new music in this episode — by hitting the “Listen” button at the top of the page. When you’re ready for even more of the latest releases, I’ll be back at 2 p.m. every Sunday for another installment of What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
Episode playlist
- Ibibio Sound Machine, "Black Notes"
- Flying Lotus, "Garmonbozia"
- Lola Young, "Flicker of Light"
- Ginger Root, "Only You"
- Field Music, "The Limits of Language"
- John Davis, "Take My Brains Out"
- knitting, "Heaven"
- Christopher Owens, "No Good"
- Katy J Pearson, "Maybe"
- Liam Benzvi, "PTLSD (ft. SSION)"
- Hazel English, "Jesse (ft. Day Wave)"
- Elias Rønnenfelt, "No One Else"