In these trying times of closing of borders and narrowing of minds, along comes a band to make you question all your preconceptions of pop. Containing band members from Portugal, Spain, France, Egypt and the USA, Cristobal and the Sea‘s return couldn’t be better-timed, with new album Exitoca set to produce a funky, summery retort to the frosty climate of xenophobia and normative cultural orthodoxy.

By combining aspects of Western psych-rock and dreamy-pop, African highlife, Brazilian Tropicalia and what the band’s press release calls “a healthy Syrian pop breakdown”, latest single ‘Goat Flokk’ is the perfect introduction to Exitoca – both in its sound and in the look of its accompanying video. In the latter, blank-faced humanoids skulk, dance and stalk through urban estates and the countryside, combining rhythmic symmetry and freaky hunting whilst one, perhaps most tellingly, uses a newspaper featuring a picture of Theresa May as a disguise. The newspaper’s headline reads: ‘Vote for me and I’ll deliver’.

The video’s two scarlet morph-suit clad figures also feature as Exitoca‘s somewhat suggestive cover-stars – reflecting the album’s call for greater human affection and the breaking down of social, political and cultural mores. With the sounds that Cristobal and the Sea are currently producing, it’s a very persuasive argument.

Exitoca, the upcoming album from Cristobal And The Sea, is out 22 September via City Slang.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego