Swiss label Bongo Joe has been an unstoppable force of cosmopolitan post-punk gems this year, and perhaps no single-artist release encapsulates their 2025 sound more cleanly than 2, the trilingual sophomore release from Yalla Miku. The lineup has shifted since their first album. However, the sonic scope remains very similar, as the group trace their roots to the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa, as well as the Genevan scenes that the group’s members curate and populate regularly.
What they do within that scope, though, has more complexity and texture than the debut. As with so many of Bongo Joe’s recent releases, 2 gives the distinct impression of being the audio equivalent of a zine: it’s multivocal, unpredictable, and packs a genuine aesthetic punch.
For the group’s many influences, their palette on 2 is remarkably streamlined. At the forefront much of the time are Emma Souharce on synths and Louise Knobil on bass, with Cyril Bondi’s urgent percussion a critical foundation. Samuel Ades Tesfagergsh brings in bright licks of krar. Bongo Joe founder Cyril Yeterian moves seamlessly between an electric guitar and a modified banjo. Each member cycles through vocal duties, emphasizing the group’s collective nature and adding another layer of dynamism to the mix as, for example, Tesfagergsh’s tight vibrato gives way to recitations in cool, slightly jaded French.
Yalla Miku shine brightest in moments of pure experimental energy. “Le Palais de Bachar” is a particularly brilliant moment, with relentless beats and synths blazing as the group sings in both Tigrinya and French about the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A quick and arresting stretch of a cappella vocables only heightens the electricity coursing through the track. The record’s slower tracks are, if not quite as gripping, nicely hypnotic, as on swaying, spacey “Scarlett Chien”, a story in French and Arabic told from the poignant naïveté of the titular dog.
Though they mesh together well, each track has a distinct stylistic leaning. There’s a Stereolab-esque angularity to the organs of opening track “Al Sayf”, bright Tigray folk-pop ostinati mark “Alemuye”, and so on, all the way to the off-kilter dub of closer “La Tour Eiffel”. 2 is in this sense a classic Bongo Joe collage, following as it does so many paths at once and yet ultimately producing a very cohesive work.
It’s challenging to pinpoint a Bongo Joe sound, given the label’s diverse nature, but it’s easy to recognize Yalla Miku on their newest album as representative of it. While the aural profile of2is particular to this album, it fits seamlessly into the label’s catalog, especially alongside its art rock cohort, which includes, among others, groups like Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp and Cyril Cyril (which, like Yalla Miku, features Cyrils Bondi and Yeterian).
In this sophomore release, Yalla Miku’s identity truly crystallizes as one deeply embedded in this assortment, while also remaining free and fresh. The music fascinates. The atmosphere scintillates. 2 is an exciting new step for Yalla Miku as the group harness their collective chemistry and finds ways to elevate it.