Living up to their hype, pioneering funk band Cymande are back with a new album nearly 50 years after calling it quits.
In 1971, Steve Scipio and Patrick Patterson, both Guyana-born and now living on the same street in London, formed a band that would have an immeasurable impact on the music world. Just not at the time they were most active or in the way they might have thought.
Along with other Windrush generation musicians from throughout the Caribbean region, Scipio (bass) and Patterson (guitar) formed Cymande, fusing calypso with rock, funk, jazz, soul, reggae and more, creating a unique sound they called nyah rock. Over their first few albums, they would go on to add socially conscious and uplifting lyrics to the groove.
Take a listen to "Dove" from their 1972 debut album Cymande. It's effortlessly groovy and deeply funky, with rock music energy and the vibrant influence of music from Africa and the Caribbean.
It's a record collector's holy grail. But Cymande never really caught on in their home country, calling it quits in 1974 after three albums.
Thankfully, the story does not end there. With their heavy emphasis on bass and drums plus the jazzy flourishes and accents, Cymande's music became a go-to source for the hip-hop world to sample from. The very useful website, WhoSampled, lists 146 known samples of their catalog with the full list undoubtedly longer.
With subsequent interest in their music, Cymande would reunite occasionally for one-off shows. They released a new album in 2016, A Simple Act of Faith, which sounds caught between two worlds, trying to recreate the golden days with modern production techniques.
In 2024, their profile was raised further with the release of the documentary Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande. The latest album builds on that momentum.
Renascence begins like so many of their classic tracks, instruments added in one by one to build a hypnotic groove on "Chasing An Empty Dream." It's a plea to seek out love and community in your life versus fame and fortune.
Cymande has had more success in modernizing their sound this time around with the slow-burning and jazzy "Only One Way." Featuring a great vocal performance from Celeste alongside a sweeping string arrangement, it captures a distinctly 21st-century style of British pop-soul.
On "Coltrane," the band's knack for a heavy groove lends itself perfectly to trip-hop, another style of British music that flourished in the years they were on hiatus. The sampled recreating the samplers hits home with the chorus of "And that's the way it's always been, music is the message creation sent," plus the acknowledgment of Coltrane's influence on all parties.
"Sweeden" is effective in its simplicity. You can accomplish a lot with a catchy melody and a funky drummer.
At this point in their career, with a "return to music" album, Cymande could have easily phoned it in and done just enough to keep the old fans happy. Instead, they have built on their immense legacy through modern sounds with their trademark heavy soul grooves. A great addition for longtime fans and an easy starting point for new ones, Renascence is our Album of the Week at KAXE.
Must listens
- "Chasing An Empty Dream"
- "Only One Way (ft. Celeste)"
- "Coltrane"
- "Sweeden"
- "How We Roll (ft. Jazzy B)"
- "Carry the Word"
