Name: Doko Mien
Brand: Ibibio Sound Machine

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

MRG665.1

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Black Vinyl with Matte and Gloss Gatefold Sleeve and Download.

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2019-03-22

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

673855066516

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Ibibio Sound Machine

Genre US

African

Label US

Merge Records

<a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/weyes-blood-titanic-rising">Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising</a><a href="https://roughtrade.com/gb/music/weyes-blood-titanic-rising"> </a>

Rough Trade Exclusive gold vinyl and bonus disc.

Natalie Merring's graceful and glorious 4th album sees the artist comfortably slip into her sonic potential with all ease and elegance of slipping on a kaftan.

Titanic Rising is Merring's grand journey into the unknown and her fear of going the same way as the unsinkable ship. The Titanic in this sense is not rising so much as Weyes Blood finds herself sinking. But much like the band on the Titanic, Merring defiantly plays on, accepting her fate.

She sings of falling, vast empty galaxies, quicksand. Her fear of being swallowed up by the great abyss of loneliness is almost paralysing, if it weren't for her therapeutic conclusion that she must embrace it to overcome it.

She implores her lover to stop calling on Andromeda, on Everyday she explains that she's "Sailing off on the ships to nowhere/Got a lot of things to clear away" and while warning the listener not hang on to things on A Lots Gonna Change, she carves out arguably her saddest (but equally her most hopeful) line of the album "Falling trees, get off your knees/No one can keep you down/If your friends and your family/Sadly don't stick around/It's by time you'll learn to get by" (Damn).

With the help of Foxygen's Jonathon Rado, Merring's sound on Titanic Rising reflects her sense of separation. Echoey synths and far off strings. It draws heavily on the 60's Laurel Canyon sound of folk, soul and psychedelia. Merring channels Mama Cass on Everyday, and the weeping, chiming guitar on Andromeda would not feel out of place on All Things Must Pass. Lyrically she has the touch and emotion of Joni Mitchell and Carole King. A beautiful and bewitching achievement.

2. The Cinematic Orchestra - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/the-cinematic-orchestra-to-believe">To Believe</a>

3. Lady Lamb - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/lady-lamb-even-in-the-tremor">Even in the Tremor</a>

4. Ohtis - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/ohtis-curve-of-earth">Curve of Earth</a>

5. Lambchop - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/lambchop-this-is-what-i-wanted-to-tell-you">This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You)</a>

6. Nick Waterhouse - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/nick-waterhouse-nick-waterhouse">Nick Waterhouse</a>

7. Ibibio Sound Machine - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/ibibio-sound-machine-doko-mien">Doko Mien</a>

8. Lee Fields &amp; The Expressions - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/lee-fields-and-the-expressions-it-rains-love">It Rains Love</a>

9. Ratso - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/ratso-subborn-heart">Stubborn Heart</a>

10. Priests - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/priests-the-seduction-of-kansas">The Seduction of Kansas</a>

Albums of the Month - April 2019

Ibibio Sound Machine's new album Doko Mien available here on Limited White Vinyl, Black Vinyl and CD.

Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine, uses both English and the Nigerian language from which her band’s name is derived for the dazzling new album Doko Mien. Long lauded for jubilant, explosive live shows, Ibibio Sound Machine fully capture that energy on Doko Mien, the followup to their Merge debut Uyai. By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams’ lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future. That propensity for duality and paradox seems common in people whose lives span continents. Perhaps the best example of the group’s ability to convey meaning across language and tradition, to blend past and future into a singular present comes on She Work Very Hard. The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette’s drums and Derrick McIntyre’s bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honour the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.

LP - Black Vinyl with Matte and Gloss Gatefold Sleeve and Download.

LP+ - Limited White Vinyl with Matte and Gloss Gatefold Sleeve and Download.