YOJO

I have this one and the followup "Abduction" from 2016. Both are light Jazz for the most part but the lineups are quite different so the music sounds different. I mean 6 horn players on "Abduction" while the trumpet is the only horn here on this 2013 debut except for the guest sax on two tracks. But man the trumpet player dominates here and yet he's not even on the "Abduction" album. We get guest violin on track two and he will be a full time member by the next album. The guest sax player here will still be a guest on the next one. The trumpet though reminds me so much of Ibrahim Maalouf, the style and the tone and they walk a fine line with being too smooth much of the time. Thankfully we do get some dissonance and adventure from the horns, it's just rare. Mostly the trumpet plays smoothly over the drums and bass while the synths and guitar help out the rhythm section.

There's a few tracks on here that I have difficulty with, the enjoyment is low lets put it that way like "Captain Kirk Had A Bad Day", "Waltz" and "Aftermath". The latter has samples of a couple arguing over unfaithfulness or whatever and I really don't need to hear this. Just a turn off. I do really like "Alien" where we get some adventerous music with dissonant horns and upfront bass. This does turn light but returns to a more interesting style after 5 minutes. Contrasts continue. The closer "Rough Sleeper" is a top two with "Alien". It's sparse and dark early as Russian spoken words are heard then it picks up with trumpet and more. More spoken words then it gets good instrumentally as they amp it up some around 5 minutes in. Dissonant horns too. I can appreciate the two albums I have by YOJO they just aren't my style though. The album cover is awesome.