Upon this very cold, wet and windy November evening, it appeared that everyone at the ever-great Belgrave was in the mood for the rays of sunshine that make up this Leeds-based band. Speaking for myself, standing in my sodden boots, I was more than happy to be whisked away on an ethereal journey to the warmer climates that Nubiyan Twist’s irresistible beats evoke. It is near impossible to stop yourself from swaying your hips to their perfect cocktail of soul, jazz and afro-beat.
One finds oneself entranced by each member’s skill at their individual instruments, and a respect for the talent of Tom Excell, the band’s guitarist and composer, to coordinate all these gift’s into such fluid sounds. A section particularly worthy of mention was the impeccable brass players, and the lead vocalist Nubiya Brandon, who carried the band very well with her mesmerising stage presence and audience engagement. She added personal touches to the performance through this confidence, sharing the origins of a song about her 17- year-old self and her first love and the story of the bands birth at Leeds College of Music. The innovative combination of her talents for rapping and singing worked very well with this, giving the audience the feeling of being guided with the music through the stories she told. For the encore, her previous backing- singer and percussionist, Pilo Adami, took centre-stage and performed one of the most foot-tapping-inducing number’s of the night, continuing the party atmosphere for another delicious few minutes.
Overall, this performance left me continually impressed by Nubiyan Twist’s unique, yet crowd pleasing style, and very excited for what’s next to come from them. I for one will certainly be attending next time they are in town to find out!

Molly Crouch