Ibibio Sound Machine - Give me a reason

When you start listening to Ibibio Sound Machine's newest single, there are a lot of cross-cultural references that come to your mind, there's the African tribal roots mixed with new wave, the Nigerian high life mixed with techno, the Cameroonian makossa mixed with LCD Soundsystem's indie electronic, and the instrumentation Miami Sound Machine and Gloria Estefan's afro-cuban rhythms mixed with disco music. It is a truly festive combination that, in one way or another, will have everyone dancing, but if you're not versed in Ibibio language (one of the dialects from Nigeria), you'll never possibly imagine that this is a song that laments and reclaims social and gender justice.

Give me a Reason is a song that deals with the abduction of 276 Chibok girls in the north of Nigeria in 2014, an act that is still an open wound in that country, and that should outrage anybody with a minimum conscience of human rights. Eno Williams, the front singer, who was raised in Nigeria, asks "Why should girls be denied the right to education, and why should people in general not be free to be who they want to be in their life?". Africa has a different notion of dancing, it is not only an act that is carried during happy moments, it happens even in funerals, and it's a way for them to express a wide range of feelings that almost never are danced to in Western culture.

So what Ibibio Sound Machine did with this track, and with all their new album, that in general deals with themes of liberation and female empowerment, is great because while it crafts a perfect dance sound that takes African Music as the origin of a much more universal level that can be enjoyed by anyone while they take important messages and discourses to shift our eyes and attention to places that are almost never shown in the news, but that are suffering the biggest abuses and the biggest acts of hate. So in this track, dance is a political statement, and a way for us to embrace new musical horizons and mixings that can only broaden the possibilities for contemporary music.