Chopping Mountain commits to ten tracks of gorgeous, groovy, emotionally rich music that doesn’t shy away from the difficult realities of the world and remains irresistibly celebratory throughout. The Talking Heads influence is audible and important, with that same commitment to taking African sounds and presenting them to a Western audience in a way that makes sense by combining them with the rock and funk structures we already understand, and adding electronics for a further layer of warmth.

Burning in Lagos opens the album with gorgeous groovy Afrobeat that’s rooted enough in the Western rock and funk tradition to feel immediately accessible. Chopping Mountain places warm synthesisers much more front and centre with the kind of bright, sparkly sounds you would expect from Hot Chip, immediately welcoming and friendlier than most club music. When You Want to Dance is clear in its intention, with a deep and insistent tempo built for you to keep moving. Concept of Love has an electro-house feel that’s elating and direct, and Return to Sender is a bold, ambitious and colourful disco-influenced belter that sits somewhere between Donna Summer’s I Feel Love and a Fela Kuti party. The album then breathes on Give Me Peace, which is slow, soulful and beautiful. Love could easily be a Desmond Dekker song with a sunshine reggae melody The Skints would be proud to have written. Kukuru slows things right down and feels like a stunning closer before River Don’t Rush ends things on a more mysterious and moody note with a kick drum thumping throughout, and a texture that’s more intriguing than optimistic. Eno Williams is a serious performer operating in a format so driven by joy and dance that even her pain comes out elating, and Chopping Mountain feels like a victory lap from Ibibio Sound Machine.