Ibeyi – Ash

Still, They Rise

French-Cuban twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz rise from Ash on their sophomore album as Ibeyi. Twelve tracks of genre-ambiguous electronic, harmonic and traditional Yoruban influence pepper the LP’s message of strength and hope for this world.

The introduction, “I Carried This For Years,” samples a Bulgarian choir over a bass beat, but it is the shortest song on Ash, barely surpassing the 1:30 mark. “Away Away” follows with an eruption of vocal harmonies over a male “ay” chant. One voice sings, “I feel the pain, but I’m alive,” and the smooth harmonic vocals beneath can almost be mistaken for chords from a keyboard.

Dissonant chords and sax by Kamasi Washington purposely leave an ominous feel on “Deathless.” Lisa-Kaindé sings about her wrongful arrest by a racist policeman when she was 16, “He said, he said / You’re not clean / You might deal / All the same with that skin.” However, the twins are fighters and twist the narrative to show their strength in the chorus, “Whatever happens, whatever happened / We are deathless!”

A nostalgic hope for a return to childhood occurs on “I Wanna Be Like You,” then girl-power is championed on “No Man Is Big Enough For My Arms.” The latter samples snippets of speeches by Michelle Obama. Most notably, a line from her speech at the 2016 New Hampshire primaries sets the tone, “The measure of any society is how it treats its women and girls.”

“Transmission/Michaelion” is the album’s behemoth, reaching six and a half minutes. Meshell Ndegeocello is featured on the bass, a woman’s choir is layered over a keyboard and a sample of The Diary of Frida Kahlo is recited in Spanish. “Me Voy” follows, becoming the most upbeat track on Ash. It is sung entirely in Spanish, with rapping by Mala Rodríguez and batá drums by Naomi. Chilly Gonzales is featured on “When Will I Learn,” and the slapped drums make another appearance.

The album closes with “Ash.” It begins with a cosmic effect, then heavily autotuned vocals and a hypnotic beat carry the track to the finish line. “We can feel somethings wrong / And we keep going on / We are ashes.”

Ash will be celebrated by lovers of World music, acapella and indie electro-pop. The combination is mesmeric and enrapturing, signaling another battle won by Ibeyi.