For one evening, Clwb Ifor Bach felt like a festival tent, with Ibibio Sound Machine bringing the kind of communal exhilaration that made dancing seem the only sensible response. Their joyous performance proved ideally suited to a Saturday night.
First, though, Ziyad Al-Samman had an early crowd to win over. Clad in leather and performing to a backing track amid generous clouds of dry ice, he brought an eccentric, thoroughly engaging presence. Before long, he left the stage altogether, singing and dancing among the audience and turning the support slot into something rather more sociable.
The Wave and What You Gonna Do? gave us a promising taste of Al-Samman’s forthcoming debut album Elastic, while 2024’s Ya Habibi provided another highlight. His music had something of Chromeo’s electrofunk swagger, with a theatrical eccentricity that brought Sparks to mind, and his uninhibited enthusiasm proved infectious: people were dancing well before the headliners arrived.
Ibibio Sound Machine took that momentum and ran with it. Their blend of West African funk, disco and electronics had plenty of moving parts, but it came together with an ease that made the musicianship feel effortless. Opening with Concept Of Love from new album Chopping Mountain, the set mixed new material – Love and Menso standing out on the night – with familiar favourites like All That You Want, Protection From Evil and I Need You To Be Sweet Like Sugar (Nnge Nte Suka).
At the centre was Eno Williams, an engaging singer whose dancing and sometimes vocoder-treated vocals connected ISM’s human warmth with its electronic edge. Her interplay with excellent guitarist Alfred Kari Bannerman was a particular pleasure, giving the performance a lively conversational quality. Around them, the horn section added punch and colour to match Williams’ outfit, helping make the sound feel much bigger than the room. Give Me A Reason and Let’s Dance (Yak Inek Unek), from 2017 and ’14 respectively, brought the main set to a euphoric close before Pull The Rope rounded things off in the encore.
The overriding impression was of a band you could depend on to turn a club gig into a shared celebration. At just over an hour, a few more songs would have been welcome, but Ibibio Sound Machine packed plenty into that time and brought a little festival spirit indoors, with no wellies required.
Ibibio Sound Machine + Ziyad Al-Samman, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Sat 3 Oct
words KARL ELLIS & ALI ELLIS photos KARL ELLIS
