Introducing: Lynks Afrikka

If, as Robbie Williams once sang, one of the main purposes of musicians is to entertain, then colourful, exuberant, bonkers pop music that puts a smile on your face has to be the order of the day. With the current state of affairs, the world probably needs it more than ever. Quite frankly, earnest boys with acoustic guitars crooning self-absorbedly about if you still love them feel very out of date. What we need is big Muhammad Ali sized punches of joy, laughter and most of all dancing.

Artists like Confidence Man and International Teachers of Pop are already raising spirits with uncoordinated hustling and bags of energy. Today’s new artist could well be the next one to join that carnival of mavericks in the club. 

Lynks Afrikka is the alter-ego of once Bristol now London based producer Elliot Brett and you only have to watch the crowd shot You Tube video of his heavy on the lettuce sandwich-based chant-a-long B.L.L.T * (Sample lyric: “I’m a toastie. The boys they never ghost me. Not all the time, but mostly) to understand that Lynks Afrikka is a riot. A raw and unpolished one, but all the better for his underground substance. Think Daphne & Celeste meets Toni Basil for reference points.

There’s a serious and thoughtful side to what Lynks Afrikka does as well, with Brett’s message focused on topics such as sexuality and gender, but making it accessible by the use of humour. His music might be raw and primitively basic in its sound, but it certainly isn’t dumb. Take for example Str8 Acting which looks at mainstream club culture and nights out in the form of an alt-lo-fi-electropop banger; a very distant cousin of Blur’s Girls & Boys. “It's just hot str8 boys, who like hot str8 girls, who like hot str8 boys, and that's the whole straight world.” 

Elsewhere he does dumb down a bit (ok a lot) with a track called How to Make a Bechamel Sauce in 10 Steps (With Pictures) which was featured on the Breaking More Waves Spotify monthly playlist recently, but let’s face it, this amalgamation of music and food is still way more usefully hilarious than whatever James Bay is up to these days.

Then there’s the mini-bass arcade game stomp of I Don’t Know What I Want which finds our hero listing out all the things he doesn’t want. Simple really: Money, fame, pleasure, pain, sex, a green smoothie.

This week Lynks Affrika has been uploading a serious of Self Isolation Tapes, sound tracking the Coronavirus pandemic (you can find them on Soundcloud or You Tube). In the not too distant-future he was due to perform at this year’s now virus-cancelled Great Escape festival in Brighton as well as supporting cousins-of-a-kind Confidence Man in Bristol in April. Hopefully someone will find a slot for his cheerleader-of-your-nightmares-or-dreams routine on the south coast when things revert to some sort of normality. Until then watch and listen below. 

Let him entertain you.

*Can someone give the Soundcloud version of B.L.L.T (below) a proper release please? It's about time we had something like this all over the radio and in our heads.

Lynks Afrikka - B.L.L.T (Live audience shot video)



Lynks Afrikka - Pandemic



Lynks Afrikka - B.L.L.T!