There’s a flicker and twitching of intricate rhythms, there’s soul to the guts of the song. In a head-spin of hazy, half-lazy quick sounds that weave punk, Afro-garage and grime, we get wrapped up in quick hits of colour. Every sound and plucked string, every tight wire snapped outward, they get tied into backbones of noise. It’s frantic with ease, with a cool urgent burn that seems to exist someplace other.

That someplace moves sonic to sonic, from Ghana to Columbia and back to UK, with still more creeping in undetected. And as sounds that might prick on fresh ears settle in, it’s amazing how soon we get soothed. All those neat jagged hits simmer down to make sense, they’re the canvas for Gabrielle’s vocals. While the song bristles busy and bubbles beneath, she sings cool through some soft-panicked heat.

It’s a song of three pieces, three moods. All those rough-ready rhythms that brought the song in take a backseat to hard textured voices. Those vocals that came with a smooth easy groove start to shift and become something fearful. And just as we start to get used to the new feel and focus on vocal-bound beats, we slide into something like soul.

That these things fit together, that these rhythms now feel natural, that the tough words of stepped on and well worked on warnings feel so easily pinned down to these structures… this all makes for a single of intrigue and passion that’s been cut with an earned love and pride.

Catch this track and others that caught our attention on last month’s ROTR Broken Radio.