Introducing London-based band, Hejira who released their double a-sided single Echoes/Dancing Around Control at the back end of last month via Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records. Lifted from the selected recordings of their critically acclaimed debut are two tracks that exemplify their audacious aural confection as well as remixes by Crewsdon and Kwes. 

The band consisting of Sam Beste, Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne, Alexis Nunez and Alex Reeve, who between them come from English, Ethiopian, Hungarian, Chilean and German heritages and boast an incredibly diverse musical pedigree having worked individually with the likes of Nitin Sawhney, Eric Lau, Amy Winehouse and Connan Mockasin. Nothing gets us more excited than a band whose sound  is hard to pin down and Hejria make the kind of music that refuses to sit neatly in any particular pigeon hole.

Prayer Before Birth, the quartets debut album is simply stunning, taking the listener on a seamless trip between the worlds of jazz, folk, electronic and much more besides. If like us your new to the band than this double A-side acts as the perfect introduction into their genre-defying sound.

Echoes, the album’s explosive sonic centrepiece, is here transformed by Crewdson into a soft-focus, cuts ‘n’ clicks bliss out that straddles the right side of neo-jazz-experimental with class.

Dancing Around Control is a new track culled from the same musical ideology that gave rise to the bands debut. Kwes sculpts an infectious slice of digitally refracted, avant-P-funk on his rework that chimes perfectly with Hejira’s philosophy: joyous yet reflective.

Take a listen to the original versions and the remixes below. Prayer Before Birth is available to purchase via bandcamp.