Becoming a household (jazz) name before you’ve even released a debut album is no mean feat - but by virtue of cultivating a fearsome live reputation and being celebrated as a poster band for the internationally hyped ‘young British jazz scene’, Kokoroko have done precisely that. Expectations were therefore high for this band of Afrobeat-and-highlife-loving adventurers and their horn-playing, vocal harmonising female frontline; Could We Be More exceeds them, and more.

This is a mature, deftly sequenced collection of tracks, peppered here and there with brief passages intended to give pause, examine themes and take the listener in and out of a common space. Opener ‘Tojo’, with its wash of golden horns, feels like the sun rising on a battleground, while the chugging, bittersweet ‘Ewa Inu’ finds Adenaike-Johnson’s ringing guitar recalling that of Ghanaian bandleader Ebo Taylor; like Fela Kuti, a major band influence. ‘Age of Ascent’ is a languid, unhurried slice of musical journeying; the mystical, seed-pod-shaking ‘Dide O’ is redolent of the spirit-calling work of Lionel Loueke. Highlights abound: Richie Seivwright’s lead vocal has never sounded so sweet than on the funky, horn-happy ‘We Give Thanks’. ‘War Dance’ and ‘Something Going On’ are euphoric, cathartic, good-time riots. Could We Be More, then: let the award nominations begin.