Nubiyan Twist Announce New Album 'Freedom Fables'. Share new single 'Tittle Tattle'

Nubiyan Twist announce their brand new album'Freedom Fables’ coming viaStrut Records on 5th February 2021, the follow-up to the acclaimed ‘Jungle Run’ from Spring 2019. The band today also share new single 'Tittle Tattle' featuring Cherise (Jazz FM vocalist of the year). The single calls out lying, selfishness and gossip over an acerbic nursery rhyme: “You take and take, like a mouse that’s got the cat by the tail.” With its earworm chorus and uncompromising blasts from the band's imperious horn section, the track became a firm live favourite at the band's pre-lockdown concerts.

On 'Tittle Tattle', bandleader Tom Excell offers the folllowing "We’ve been eagerly waiting to unleash this track....Afro-jazz horn shouts, fearless vocals from Cherise and rolling soukous rhythms are framed in UK 2 two-step, garage and bass music - a real melting pot of influences showing the heavier side of what the band can do.”

Woven around soul searching, cautionary tales and parables for modern life, the new album is the most accomplished yet by the Leeds / London collective, effortlessly fusing different soul, jazz and global styles with great musicianship and lyrics. 

"Freedom Fables' reflects on the power of narratives. Each vocalist on this record explores their own memoirs, a freedom of expression underpinning our belief that music is the ultimate narrative for unity," explains Tom Excell. “The record references a lot of music that we all loved during our formative years; you can hear touches of broken beat, blunted hip hop, highlife, Latin, jazz and UK soul running through the tracks."  

The fluid, wistful first single  ’24-7’ featuring Ego Ella May has been championed by Mary Anne Hobbs and added to the BBC 6Music playlist. Other illustrious guest appearances on the album include regular collaborator Cherise, featuring on the brilliant future single ‘Tittle Tattle’, calling out gossip through acerbic nursery rhyming, the loping ‘Flow’ dealing with the ebb and flow of anxiety and the epic Brazilian jazz workout, ‘Keeper’; UK jazz saxman Soweto Kinch brings a burning alto solo and rhymes to the determined ‘Buckle Up’ alongside the band's own vocalist Nick Richards as the track aims to “find the door to peace” among life’s challenges. "Soweto is a trailblazer of the UK scene both as an alto player and as a rapper with a unique flow and important lyricism," reflects Tom Excell. “It was really important for us to invite him to contribute to the album.” 

Richards continues the “dust yourself off and find hope” theme on the rousing ‘Wipe Away Tears’; Ghanaian great PatThomas voices a gorgeous Accra meets London highlife jam; massive new vocal talent Ria Moran (a contemporary from the band's time at Leeds College Of Music) steps up on the sensual ‘Morning Light’ tackling delicate complexities of the heart and long time friend of the band, K.O.G., brings his trademark full strength Afro dancefloor energy to ‘If I Know’. 

Shaping up to be a modern classic, ‘Freedom Fables’ is set to catapult Nubiyan Twist even further into the limelight and cement their position as one of the UK’s leading soulful collectives of the current generation. 

The album was produced by Tom Excell at Henwood Studios in Oxfordshire and mixed by Oli Barton Wood and Tom Excell at The Premises. Artwork comes courtesy of Emma Rodriguez aka Mooncrab. The band will be touring across the UK in 2021.