are one of those groups who you know, even if you think you don’t. The band’s initial incarnation produced some incredible funk-edged recordings, blending socially conscious lyricism to a jazz-like sense of elasticity. Throw in nods to their Caribbean heritage, and an awareness of West African percussive styles, and you have something potent, and enduring.

Sadly, the whiter-than-white British music industry in the 70s didn’t quite see their worth. In spite of some serious heat Stateside, Cymande split; but instead of the end of their story, that’s only the beginning.

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“Life is strange,” co-founder tells CLASH. The pair both live in Anguilla these days, but are back in London to revisit their roots, and to promote Cymande’s new album ‘Renascence’. It’s the culmination of a long second arc – picked up by crate-diggers in the rare groove movement, Cymande then become one of the most-sampled groups during hip-hop’s golden age, while recent packed out live shows illustrated the sheer joy that exists in their music.

“To have this second go,” notes Steven Scipio, “is wonderful. The band didn’t get the recognition we thought we deserved. And we have to give a lot of thanks to the younger musicians, the rap artists, who saw something in the music and took elements of it that helped to keep it fresh. To a lot of people, it’s something they’re familiar with – not in its original form, necessarily, but through the incorporation of it”.

Need some examples? Well ‘Change In Speak’ utilises Cymande’s song ‘Bra’. sampled the group; borrowed from their catalogue, while paid the band an eye-watering sum for the use of ‘Dove’.

New album ‘Renascence’ is a torrent of ideas. Lush – it’s their first to use full string arrangements – it also features some special guests, including mainman and winner . “A pleasure to have worked with her,” Patrick says of the vocalist, a long-time fan who reached out to Cymande over a year ago.

“We just met one day in New York, and went through some bits and pieces, and we came up with something,” he explains. “We came back to England and finished it off. She’s a really, really good artist!”

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The record’s breadth – and innate sense of funk – speaks to Cymande’s long-standing creative mission. Part of the reason the music industry couldn’t get to grips with their genius during the band’s initial incarnation was their audio complexity – they simply couldn’t be pigeonholed. “We could easily have followed a lot of other bands at the time,” Steven notes, “but we didn’t set out to be commercial. We came up through jazz, so we wanted to do our own music. We didn’t set out to be commercial, but things have a way of materialising and end up going ways you didn’t really expect them to go.”

In conversation the pair are garrulous, endlessly entertaining company. As the film depicts, their recent recognition is a long time coming. Steven Scipio notes that he actually designed the artwork on their early albums – the original prints have long since been mislaid in some record company warehouse.

“We felt we were a significant band, even if we weren’t a commercial band,” he says. “We felt that there out to be some recognition, at least, of what we were trying to do with our music. To be ignored by the record industry at that time didn’t leave a good impression with us.”

“We wanted to go anywhere with our music,” Patrick adds. “We wanted to make original music, something that sounded good. The music was pretty much how we felt, but we were also creatures of the environment we were living in. We tried to communicate not just how we felt, but what the Black experience was at that time in the UK.”

This sense of purpose – and outright joy – lights up Cymande’s live shows. CLASH caught the band at last summer’s in East London, and were struck by how current it felt – there’s a connecting DNA between Cymande and , say, or Nubya Garcia. “It’s organic music,” Steven reflects. “There’s no artificiality about it. It’s authentic, I think. People are presented with so much music that you can just throw away. People like authenticity, and they like that depth of emotion”.

For the rest of the year Cymande will be out on the road, including a no doubt historic evening at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. Their early 70s HQ was just a mile down the road, and this represented another pinnacle reached, another Everest scaled. “There’s a saying that sometimes success comes too early,” Steven notes. “Sometimes you’re not developed enough in your mind to really appreciate it. I think we have a better appreciation of it at this time in our life.”

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‘Renascence’ is out now. Catch Cymande at O2 Academy Brixton, London on October 17th.

Words: Robin Murray
Photo Credit: Dean Chalkley 

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