Takka Takka – Migration

Danger! Afro-pop alert! If you refer to the dos and don’ts in the Modern Musicians Guide to Alternative Rock, then venturing into world music territory carries a canny but prudent caveat – advance with extreme caution. Opener Monkey Forest Road establishes the bands new-found love of all things global with a repetitive electronic motif, swelling guitars, and bursts of pounding rhythm. With the strongest will in the world it’s difficult not to acknowledge the debt that Migration owes to the sound of Peter Gabriel’s solo work pre MTV – fretless bass notwithstanding.

Highlight, Silence, begins with whirling synthesizers and metronomic drums played with the utmost precision, before utilising subtle guitar lines and vocal melodies to fantastic effect. Boasting intricate melodies as well as plenty of aural space – most impressively on The Takers and Everybody Say – is a trick repeated time and again on Migration, but for all its age-old influences from the world over, it makes for a distinctly modern sound. [Alan Souter]