JUNGLE – Jungle
01. The Heat
02. Accelerate
03. Busy Earnin’
04. Platoon
05. Drops
06. Time
07. Smoking Pixels
08. Julia
09. Crumbler
10. Son Of A Gun
11. Lucky I Got What I Want
12. Lemonade Lake
They are, without much doubt, one of the most talked about acts at the moment. Despite that fact the two childhood friends just like to entertain us. UK mystery band of the moment JUNGLE wants you to feel like you’re on holiday and on a beach. If electro-funk mixed with synth-pop and R&B falsetto is the sound of shimmering white sands and clear blue water then they’ve lived up to what they promised. Their debut album throbs and pulses with sounds that are familiar yet wonderfully new and exciting.
The Heat provides the perfect opener with its exhilarating announcement of what’s to come: ‘Right on time, back by the beach, still gonna bring the heat.’ And the heat they bring. The London duo, comprised of Josh and Tom, was up until very recently surrounded by a veil of mystery – no press shots, no names, no inclination of how many were even in the band. With their eponymous debut album came snippets of information, a round of interviews and a band we’re all very much welcoming to our summer.
There’s all manner of recorded sounds to be found on the record – from crackling fires and rattling glass bottles to fight matches. Every single track captures a certain energy that’s infectious.
Their astonishingly choreographed videos provide an audio-visual world that combines fabulous dance routines with one eight-year-old break-dancer, two synchronised roller-skaters and two middle-aged men in a dance-off. It’s all wonderfully bizarre.
What’s particularly impressive about the duo is their knack for combining the simple with the complex, as JUNGLE stated in NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION‘s recent interview with them: ‘Everything should be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.’
Final verdict: It’s certainly our album of the summer, but what will the future hold when the tans fan, the sun retreats and winter approaches?
Hyped British newcomers JUNGLE and their self-titled debut present electro-funk mixed with synth-pop and R&B falsetto aka the perfect mix for the summer.
NBHAP Rating: 3,5/5
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