Petite Noir
La Vie Est Belle/Life Is Beautiful
(Double Six Records)
Born in Brussels to Congolese and Angolan parents and raised in Cape Town, where he cut his musical teeth alongside rapper-producer Spoek Mathambo, Yannick Ilunga announced his presence on the UK music scene earlier this year with the six-track King Of Anxiety EP, a slick mix of trip-hop, Afropop and the soulfully brooding electro of American pair Twin Shadow and Toro Y Moi. In a nod to the so-called "chillwave" scene, of which those two acts are prime examples, Ilunga calls his sound "noirwave".
Now comes his debut album proper, introduced by an atmospheric two-minute instrumental called (appropriately) Intro Noirwave and with all those previous elements still present, particularly on closing track Chess but also on Down, which moves to a metronomic Afrobeat rhythm.
But jostling alongside are some unashamedly extravagant pop productions, each with a zeitgeisty 1980s twist. Best recalls Rio-era Duran Duran, the seven-minute long Seventeen (Stay) invokes the spirit of Talk Talk and elsewhere there are flavours of everything from a-ha to Tears For Fears. An accomplished and effortless-feeling debut.
Barry Didcock
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