"London’s Benin City is one of those rare acts impossible to compare with others. Coming from a mosaic of backgrounds as wide-reaching as the gap between spoken word and electronic music, the songs that they’ve released so far have little in common. One thing about them all: they’re all very, very good."
(PIGEONS & PLANES)
"London’s Benin City is one of those rare acts impossible to compare with others. Coming from a mosaic of backgrounds as wide-reaching as the gap between spoken word and electronic music, the songs that they’ve released so far have little in common. One thing about them all: they’re all very, very good."
(PIGEONS & PLANES)
London hasn’t disappointed in its delivery of innovative musicians in 2013, and with the year drawing to a close the playing field just got a little bit more interesting with the introduction of wild card, Benin City. Named after the Nigerian state capital, the electro-brass trio is almost matchless in comparison, and as the Huffington Post suggested earlier this year, they may just be of the UK’s most exciting new bands.
Their latest single, Wha Gwan (“What’s Up?”), taken from their debut album, Fires In The Park, is a fusion of afro-dub and subtle electronica which is both contemporary and intrepid. The story of former friendship, or the recollections of once-youth, creates mood and incentive without weighing itself down with melancholia. However, the silent hero in the mix is the tenor sax. Hail to the Benin City trio for contemporizing the arm of the brass family.
