DAKAR AUDIO CLUB – ALBUM REVIEW


Dakar Audio Club – Dakar Audio Club 
Dakar Audio Club

Release Date: Out Now

Apologies all round folks, this one has been stuck in my car stereo making the commute more bearable, so I have neglected my duties in bringing this to your ears. Anyway, better late than never, right? Exeter collective Dakar Audio Club have bottled the sound of summer on their new album so if you’re after something a little different for your party soundtrack then listen up and listen good. Things get going with ‘Yallai Boor’ and we’re immediately transported to warmer climes with afro beats and scratchy guitars matching the pulsing bass line allowing the hypnotic vocals to weave the melody. ‘Diougou Yaa’, meanwhile, gets going with a more indie-rock guitar line that is soon overlaid with picked guitar notes and the genre of Afro-Grunge-Pop is born. In Exeter. Yeah, I know, it’s weird.

On ‘We Need More Time’ there is a blissful warm summer breeze blowing through the whole tune with reggae tones and a raw, one-take sound which captures the energy perfectly. The party keeps going without any let up in pace on ‘Senegal’ as the rapid, delay-laden guitar notes swirl around you with an intensity that makes you want to dance barefoot on a beach as the sun disappears behind the silhouettes of shoreline trees. I’m pretty sure ‘Cherie’ is not an ode to Tony Blair’s wife but it does signal a dip in the pace as Dakar Audio Club take things to Slow-Dance Town (population: two) with some lush layers of guitars and a shuffling rhythm.

Dakar Audio Club
‘C’est Ca’ gets us back in to the party mood with lighter than air melodies and a spirit that is really hard to resist, so why bother? There’s a sultry, seductive sashay to ‘Dieure Dieuf’ that finds its heart in the darkest part of the night when everything seems possible and your inhibitions have been burnt away in the camp fire. The short but perfectly formed album closes out with ‘Owbeyeykeneyey’ and the band have saved the best until last with frantic drumming duelling with intense guitar work and the kind of vocals you’d expect to hear from Damon Albarn on one of his more introspective trips. Dakar Audio Club could and should be the kind of band that are regulars on the Glastonbury line-up, Jools Holland and BBC6 Music and this album might just be their ticket to that world – are you up for the trip?


Live Dates:

15th June – The Terrace Café & Bar, Plymouth

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