Ibibio Sound Machine - Pull The Rope (Tri-Colour Vinyl)

Pull the Rope, the new record by Ibibio Sound Machine, casts the Eno Williams and Max Grunhard–
led outfit in a new light. The hope, joy, and sexiness of their music remain, but, further honing the edge of their acclaimed 2022 album
Electricity, the connection they aim to foster has shifted venues from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweat-soaked, all-night
dance club. Williams and Grunhard attribute this shift to a matter of collaborators, recording Pull the Rope with Sheffield-based producer
Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.) over the course of two weeks. The way the pair wrote songs changed significantly rather than Eno
penning lyrics to music generated by Max and company’s jamming, Orton started with Eno and Max writing together before adding the
band. With less time in the studio and a new way of considering how they built songs, the duo found making decisions about Pull the
Rope’s sound quicker and more instinctual than before. “Ross is from Sheffield, which has an edgier, more industrial vibe than London,”
Grunhard explains. “He hears things differently than us, is more grounded in rave and grungier sounds, and knew when to add drums or
push the instrumentation more. It was very different for us, but it lends itself to where Ibibio Sound Machine is going.” In melding their
songwriting process, Grunhard and Williams have, impossibly, pulled the trick of making Ibibio Sound Machine a tighter band than ever
before, building out from their core in a way that highlights the electrifying group of musicians they play with.