Photo: Beto Espinosa

West African art-folk band The Narcotix announce debut EP with the hypnotic “John/Joseph”

The Narcotix is a project based in Brooklyn, spearheaded by second generation Africans Esther Quansah, whose parents are from Côte D’Ivoire, and Becky Foinchas, whose ancestors are from Cameroon. They have today announced their debut EP, Mommy Issues, which will come out on June 11, and shared lead single “John/Joseph”.

Quansah and Foinchas are joined in The Narcotix by other band members that bring them up to a quartet or even quintet as necessary, who flesh out the duo’s compositions into swaying, hypnotic wholes, as evidenced beautifully on “John/Joseph”. “I lost my mother in the desert and now I’m all alone” they declare early in “John/Joseph”, and from there they pull us across this evocative landscape in search of her with a heady combination of guitars, piano, and changeable rhythms that keep you guessing. A song full of longing and fear, “John/Joseph” is made more evocative by the women’s dextrous voices, which can flit from chant, to teasing melody to rasping scream as is necessary to relay all the deep emotion inherent in the song.

The Narcotix’s Mommy Issues EP arrives on June 11 (pre-order on Bandcamp). You can find them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.