If you open Apple Music or your favourite streaming app and you search for “Afroshop”, you’ll find just the one track – Long Time Ago. If you listen, you’d have invested 3 minutes of your time enjoying what I think is the very future of the Afrobeats sound. It’s far from the under-produced yet over-hyped rancorous singles peddled everywhere as “Afrobeats”. You will find that these guys know where they’re headed and sound like it. It is pretty impressive work and Afroshop makes lightwork of their debut single.

The production duo of singer, Chinar and producer, Tesla out of Lagos, Nigeria, called AfroShop, bring a diverse combination of elements-from rich African sounds to convoluted urban music-to birth a rare Afro-fusion perspective. A perspective armed with an understanding of the creative process and its practice, deep from their indigenous roots, draw up inspiration for the sounds in “Long Time Ago’’.

“Long Time Ago” is an Afrobeat-fusion gem that expresses intimacy, and is inspired by real-life age-long convictions of love for a woman who is already taken. A body of work rich in unconventional blends of African and urban storytelling, creates a soundscape of nostalgic expressions of love and passion that mere words would not do justice to. Being the band’s debut single, they aim to bring a magic touch to the way we perceive music, while on their journey to music evolution.

Their sound and setup is quite similar to one of my favourite bands, dvsn. It is literally the perfect singer-producer duo. The sound on LTA brought me memories from the first time I listened to AyoJay on “Your Number”. These guys are going places! For now, I’ll be content with documenting their journey. Genius?

Listen to Afroshop here