Doko Mien: Ibibio for “tell me,” and the title of the dazzling new album from London’s genre-bending, culture-fusing Ibibio Sound Machine. The follow-up to their Merge debut Uyai is out everywhere on March 22, and the album’s title track—a song that features disco beats colliding with polyrhythm and pizzicato guitar—is available now. Check it out, and pre-order Doko Mien on CD, LP, and white Peak Vinyl in the Merge store or wherever you buy music.

“Music is a universal language, but spoken language can help you think about what makes you emotional, what makes you feel certain feelings, what you want to see in the world,” says Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine. When Williams uses both English and Ibibio—the Nigerian language from which her band’s name is derived—on Doko Mien, the group somehow produces a world of both entrancing specificity and comforting universality, a language entirely of their own. In a glowing piece in the New York Times, the songs on Uyai were praised for following “in the tradition of much African music, [making] themselves the conscience of a community.” By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams’ lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre on Doko Mien, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future.

Long lauded for their jubilant, explosive live shows (Entertainment Weekly best described them, saying, “If the United Nations’ General Assembly convened at Studio 54, Ibibio Sound Machine would easily be that night’s headlining act”), the group fully captures that energy and communication on the new album. Don’t miss your chance to hear the new songs live on their recently announced tours of North America and Europe! Also, make sure to follow Ibibio Sound Machine on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as there’s more to come from this exciting group in 2019!

Ibibio Sound Machine on tour:
Mar 05 Brighton, UK – Concorde 2
Mar 09 Bristol, UK – Colston Hall
Mar 13 London, UK – 100 Club [SOLD OUT]
Mar 14 London, UK – 100 Club
Mar 15 Manchester, UK – YES
Mar 16 Manchester, UK – YES
Mar 18 Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
Mar 20 New York, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
Mar 22 Montreal, QC – L'Astral
Mar 23 Toronto, ON – Mod Club
Mar 25 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Mar 27 Oakland, CA – New Parish
Mar 28 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom
May 04 Leeds, UK – Live at Leeds
May 05 Leicester, UK – Handmade
May 24 London, UK – All Points East