Lord Please Records (label)
16 June 2023 (released)
16 June 2023
Brooklyn quartet Dakota Jones return with the space-gospel preach-reach of ‘Heartbreakers Space Club’ (Lord Please Records), a cosmic derive to follow-up 2021’s critically acclaimed ‘Black Light’. However, this ain’t no hellfire, scorched earth sermonising, slam-damnation, heck no. This is salutary, salvational, soul-saving. Can I hear you say, ‘Yeah?!’
The group, comprised of Tristan Carter-Jones on dusky to husky vocals, Scott Jet Kramp on bass and production duties, Steve Ross on drums, and Eddy Marshall on guitar have crafted a(nother) smooth soundscape that straddles afro-futurism with funky echoes, mellow moods mixed with a reclining reggaiety (particularly on the metaphorical ‘Sugar Pie’).
‘Moon Song’ kicks off the proceedings, Jones intones by identifying and addressing the lunar lacuna, rasping the rites, rapping the wrongs, all set to a jazz-glam backdrop. The scene is set. The pace is established. Coordinates fixed. Set the controls for the art of the begun.
The soul-glowing slow-funking ‘Misbehave me’ beseeches and reaches outwards and upwards to soothe and smooth the innards, asking for nothing more than a little guidance. Divine comprehension.
Overall the album channels the consciousness-raising mind-expansions of Sun Ra, funnels George Clinton’s brain-frazzling parliamentarian funkadelix and on ‘Call it off’ Prince’s languid horizontalism.
The standout is ‘Dissent’N’Gin’, sultry street-beat prose, tinkling keys sprinkling unease, cascading wha-wha guitar expressing the menace that lurks and thrives in the shadows of night.
These are the sounds and scapes of the time-space continuum, these are the surrounds and scopes of sublime-place residuum.
Hallelu-YEAH!
