Much like a double live album or the dreaded solo albums, African influences in pop music have long been considered the dying throws of the fledging MOR star (Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon etc.) and although Damon Albarn’s set with the musicians of Mali was both credible and bloody good, it was hardly a fusion of Western pop with the sounds of Africa being more in the vein of Ry Cooder’s faithful representation of Cuban music, the Buena Vista Social Club.

It’s refreshing then that a bunch of young white kids from Brooklyn have managed to fuse this difficult genre with something decidedly pop and that’s just what you will hear on this, their debut single proper, Mansard Roof. Oweing as much to the sounds of noughties NYC and the godfathers themselves, the Strokes, as they do Fela Kuti, Vampire Weekend really are an exciting new band, so much so that they have already been picked up by the ever-hip XL Recordings who have just made a major coup in enticing Radiohead to sign up.

With an off-beat snare, lush strings and Highlife guitar Mansard Roof sails through it 2 minutes playing time like that dream you always want to last longer, check out their MySpace page for more afro-pop goodness and start getting excited for their full length debut due in Feb 08, they might just be your new favourite band very soon. Watch this space!