Life and Livin’ It is the new album from Sinkane, the album is full of talent and different influences, but are we Lovin’ it?
Sinkane is the alias of London born, Sudanese Ahmed Gallab, a multi-instrumentalist who draws his influence from a myriad of sources, from jazz and shoegaze to life experience itself. This album is titled as such, Life and Livin’ It is a tribute to life itself; its ups and downs, its joys and its struggles. The talented Gallab brings his experience from years of playing several instruments (including but not limited to guitar, bass, drums and keyboard) he draws together a borderless experience of music from around the globe. With influences of sub-Saharan pop, Krautrock, shoegaze and electronica amongst the somewhat more niche influences, the album could certainly be seen as multi-national. Indeed, if you listen through this album or Sinkane’s back catalogue it would be like listening to a music store’s world music section.
Leaping into the album, tracks such as U’Huh and Favorite Song are perfect examples. The former leads with a light, jazzy sax and a feedback-heavy guitar riff that Santana would have been proud of. Along the back of this is a sometimes jumbled mix of afrobeat and Hispanic percussion which can confuse the song at times. However, if we’re to listen to Gallab’s vocals he chants through the noise with ‘Everything is Fine/We’re gonna be alright’ and an Arabic phrase meaning much the same, attempting to keep the song afloat with his rampant optimism. Favorite Song allays to Gallab’s time as a DJ, with people asking for their favourite song, a lyric he croons over and over through a light and breezy guitar melody backed by African root vocals and some subtle backing from a Moog-like synth harmony.
Ahmed Gallab, aka Sinkane is a London-born, Sudanese artist whose music blends styles including sub-Saharan pop, shoegaze, and afro-rock
My personal favourite moment of the album comes through in the form of the song, Telephone. Whilst a little same-y, unfortunately a problem with most of the tracks on here, the 80’s synth-led tracks gets faster and faster throughout culminated with an impassioned set of brass riffs and some high-pitched BeeGee-esque vocals from Sinkane himself.
As previously mentioned, unfortunately, many of the songs can get fairly dull after the first minute or two, with some struggling to hold your attention. The potential title song of the album, Theme from Life and Lovin’ It is one such track, it honestly feels more like a theme song and as such is devoid of the passion of the rest of the album. Fire and Passenger suffer from similar issues, both are loaded with heavy percussion, indicative of Sinkane’s style and indeed his production style. Both songs are slow on the melody with a lazy, almost Musack-like brass overtone whilst the smoldering and sexy drums overtake them and leave the vocals and other instruments behind.
Despite a number of flaws and production that borders on too clean for such a world-focussed album, it does leave on a good note. The Way is a great song, lost at the back of the album, the guitars get heavier and the brass comes in hard in a more psychedelic toned piece loaded with political intrigue and many messages you may read into from Gallab.
Overall the album feels a bit more easy-listening than you may want from what could have been such a passionate and powerful album. It seems as though Sinkane has played too safe with his sunbeam-level positivity and sometimes candy-sweet optimism, although you wouldn’t be upset hearing the album, there’s nothing here to offend and there’s certainly a couple of relaxing tunes across the listing.
If you fancy listening to this chilled sunburst of a release. Why not pop down to your local Richer Sounds?
Author: Steve, Southgate store
