Kokoroko aren’t defined by music so much as they define themselves through it. Across a decade together, the London septet have built a musical language that moves through Afrobeat, highlife, jazz, soul and beyond, while remaining untethered to any one genre. With the patience and the ear for it, their music begins to resemble an analogue for life’s heartbeat, undulating through periods of stillness, intimacy, heartbreak and celebration.

First formed in 2014 after bandleader, trumpeter and vocalist Sheila Maurice-Grey met percussionist Onome Edgeworth on an arts trip in Kenya, Kokoroko grew from a shared desire to reconnect young people in the African diaspora with sounds like Afrobeat and highlife. Their breakthrough arrived in 2018 when the understated seven-minute ballad “Abusey Junction” appeared on Gilles Peterson’s seminal We Out Here compilation, going on to amass more than 75 million streams.

Momentum quickly followed. Their self-released debut EP sold more than 20,000 vinyl copies, before 2022’s debut album Could We Be More crystallised years spent refining their sound. Produced with Miles James, the album earned praise from The Guardian, The Telegraph, Financial Times and CRACK Magazine, while reaching No. 30 on the UK Albums Chart.

But as Kokoroko evolved, the increasingly broad umbrella of “London jazz” became less capable of capturing the diasporic lineages and emotional narratives running beneath their music. Could We Be More Remixes offered the first clear expansion of that frame, pulling their compositions through Afro-house, amapiano, Detroit house, future bounce and techno - revealing connections that had always existed within the band’s musical world.

Their latest album, Tuff Times Never Last, brings that evolution into its fullest form. Created across two to three years of make-ups, break-ups, parenthood and change, the record sits somewhere between memoir and coming-of-age story. Released through Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings, its 11 tracks move freely through ’80s Brit-funk, neo-soul, West African disco, bossa nova, lovers rock and funk. The album draws a line through generations of Black diasporic music from West Africa and Jamaica to the UK and beyond.

Now, Kokoroko returns to Australia for a full tour, headlining at Move My Way festival as well as exclusive shows in Brisbane and Byron Bay.

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