Album Review: Yakul - 'Gravity Pulls You Home'
Yakul’s pop-jazz combination is a breath of fresh air and is exactly what the industry needs.
The Brighton based four-piece are making little waves within the music industry. Their second album ‘Gravity Pulls You Home’ see’s the band carve out a bit of magic in such a unique style of neo jazz/pop/soul; there’s a lot of ways to describe their unique sound which is what makes this band so exciting and unique.
There’s a lot of elements of jazz that have become almost tradition. The time signature in the track ‘Closer’ see’s the band approach pop with a unique swing, with frontman and keys player James Berkeley swirl through vocal melodies with a distinct softness to his voice. Lead single and opening track ‘Start Here’ has the band really laying down their distinct groove with a drifting bass that really drives the song and the melody. The drumming throughout the album is particularly impressive. Drummer Sam Hughes has this ability to really lock everything together that’s going on instrumentally. Even just to describe the style of music that the band wants to play is difficult if you were approaching these tracks as a drummer. But Hughes effortlessly weaves every track and melody together with a unique freshness. What makes this even more impressive is that the whole album was written around a drum kit, which shows the level of musical talent that Hughes, and the band have.
It’s not surprising with the recognition that this band is getting, with slots at Glastonbury Festival and a headline slot at the infamous Ronnie Scott’s jazz club. The band put their recent success down to routine and not being afraid to make mistakes. It makes sense as you can imagine that with this such difficult genre of music that the band have decided to make, that there would be mistakes along the way, and a lot of learning curves. But this shows the tenacity of this band. And to combine Jazz with pop to create their self-described ‘Future-soul’ sound has such a freshness that it feels like, with the way that they're progressing that this could really reach the masses.
There’s so much unique production around each track with a lot of elements that must really take time to come together. However, the band say that the production elements come at the end, and that the most important part of this process is making sure that the foundations of the groove and overall feel are there first. Yakul are also getting a lot of ‘mainstream’ airtime too, with plays on BBC Radio 1, Radio 6, Jazz FM, and KCRW. The trajectory for this band is really exciting, and should be on people’s radar if you’re a fan of D’angelo, Gotts Street Park and MRCY.
Words by Doug Dewdney
