Words by Ursa Gregson
Brighton's Ebi Soda have today released their second album 'Honk If You're Sad' via Tru Thoughts.
Born from ten-hour jam sessions in peeling seaside bedsits, the technical parameters of a bootstrap recording process and the osmotic, multi-genre influence of internet music archives, the quintet have been steady-cultivating a unique sound amidst the exploding UK jazz scene.
In typical Ebi fashion, while recalling jazz pioneers in playing style, ‘Honk If You’re Sad’ draws from a vast network of influences: the Ebi Brain has been marinating in a digital soup of trap, drill, dub, post-punk and no-wave, to name but a few. The result is a mercurial record that beams in psychedelia, dissonance, serene ambient passages, tough, neck-snapping beats and lush textures, all underscored by the intersection of jazz, hip hop and electronic music.
Focus track 'Pseudocreme' is a relentless barrage of bass and drums, a joyride through the new album's influences and an instant earworm at Hideous HQ. The Brighton outfit stay true to their modern jazz chops with the Kokoroko-esque louche horn lines and ethereal, cathedral-filling electric piano, but the track is elevated to a new pitch by the ferocity of the bassline - which is intense enough to make you clench your buttocks just in case and hold on to your skull lest you sustain whiplash from head-bobbing - and the drums, which bely the band's newfound post-punk and krautrock influences and even, at the start of the track, call to mind Bauhaus' 'Bela Lugosi's Dead', something I'm very much down to experience a jazz retelling of....
'Honk If You're Sad' is out now on all streaming platforms as well as limited edition vinyl and cassette - you can view/purchase here
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