Ezra Collective: Dance, No One’s Watching

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Kaidi Akinnibi (s)
Laura Senior (vn)
Joe Armon-Jones (ky)
Lucy Nolan (vla)
Richie Seivwright (tb)
Jay Phelps (t)
Manifest (v)
Femi Koleoso (d)
Nubya Garcia (s)
Peggy Nolan (clo)
Olivia Dean (v)
Junior Alli-Balogun (perc)
Tobi Adenaike (g)
Ife Ogunjobi (t)
TJ Koleoso (b)
Moonchild Sanelly (v)
Richie Sweet (d, perc)
James Mollison (s)
Jermaine Amissah (s)
Simmy Singh (vn)

Label:

Partisan Records

November/2024

Media Format:

CD, 2 LP, DL

Catalogue Number:

PTKF3049

RecordDate:

Rec. 2024

The omens were good. ‘God Gave Me Feet For Dancing’, the lead single from Ezra Collective’s wildly anticipated third album Dance, No One’s Watching, has a classy, funky, you’ve-got-to-move-to-this vibe, augmented by vocal from soul jazz diva Yasmin Lacey (‘Give me high life/give me good times,’ she sighs) and the sort of louche, liquid horn playing that helped the London quintet nab last year’s Mercury Prize. The bar for more dance-floor focused fun was duly set high – and for the most part, Dance… delivers.

Folding in influences including Chicago house and Sierre Leone’s palm wine music into the trademark mix of Afrobeat, highlife, calypso, reggae and jazz, its 19 tracks – including four brief interlocking ‘acts’ – roll into each other as smoothly as a DJ crossfading sources on a clubfloor. But while guests including Olivia Dean, Moonchild Sanelly and Lacey sing our hands into the air, and Joe Armon-Jones’ keys wig-outs pulse with psychedelic verve, particularly on a cover of Fela’s ‘Expensive Shit’, there’s also a stylised, self-conscious feel to several tracks. No matter. Dance anyway.

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