African artist Petite Noir is building up to the release of his debut La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful (Named after a Congolese film of the same name) with a series of excellent tracks. ‘Best’ and ‘Down’ are track which had clear African percussive house-style heart (his father is Congolese / his mother from Angola) but were imbued with new wave and indie guitar sensibilities too. ‘Chess’ from recent EP The King Of Anxiety was close to TV On The Radio in town.
The album was recorded in London with Oli Bayston (Boxed In) and Leon Brichard (Ibibio Sound Machine).
New track ‘MDR’ continues the trend for percussive alt-pop soulful jams or the style of music Yannick Ilunga has dubbed ‘Noirwave’.
In among the track’s shaking rhythm is a nod to the Grease soundtrack. The album is out on September 11th.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
