CQAF Young Fathers

Friday 16 January, 9.00pm
Tickets: £10

Edinburgh hip hop three-piece Young Fathers – Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham ‘G’ Hastings – pump out a mutant blend of hip hop, dub, afrobeat and kitchen sink rap. Building a massive reputation thanks to a couple of mixtapes Tape One and Tape Two, the band then released the 2014 Mercury prize nominated Dead which signals a darker and bassier direction for the group.

As jagged and dark as Dead might appear, there's a real celebratory feel to the album and that's down to some fantastic influences.

All three are excellent MCs, but Massaquoi, Bankole and Hastings are blindingly good singers and harmonisers, and once you throw in reggae, bare-bones electronic beats which recall early synth music, the hip-hop scene of Nigeria and the scattergun sound of new wave South African shangaan then what you have is a group that knows these might be bad times but they're going to party right through it.

‘Like Massive Attack 25 years ago, Young Fathers have quietly constructed a strange and intoxicating musical universe that feels entirely their own’ – The Guardian