YAGULL‘s "Films" was one of recent years’ highlights, and the New York collective’s profile has risen somehow since their debut. They’re destined to be even more noticeable once that record’s follow-up, “Kai”, is out on MoonJune Records on January 2nd, 2015. Led by guitarist Sasha Markovic, it features a parade of their new label mates: six-stringers Dewa Budjana and Beledo, and drummer Marko Djordjevic which gives the album additional appeal. There’s a dozen songs on there, including two from the band’s first outing to give them a further reach in a new form, and two covers.
Regarding the borrowed material, Markovic says:
“My first serious music love was DEEP PURPLE, since I heard the ‘Deepest Purple’ compilation along with ‘Rainbow Rising’ at age of 11. I’ve been playing ‘Burn’ in the similar arrangement for fun for many years now. It started as a joke when I was a teenager, and played it along with a friend of mine in a two-guitar arrangement with Zappa-like kind of vocal approach. When I presented this idea to Kana [Kamitsubo] last year, she gave the song completely new dimension with her playful piano solos. We are having a lot of fun playing it live these days.
As for ‘Wishing Well’, I am a huge fan of FREE and BAD COMPANY and had to do the tribute to them on this album. I still consider FREE the best teenage band that ever lived – since they were all between 16-18 when they started. ‘Wishing Well’ is one of those songs I grew up on and always liked singing for fun with my acoustic guitar. I just experimented with replacing the vocal parts with classical guitar, and at the end Wen Chang added her violin playing the main riff, so the basic album arrangement was born. Also, I always loved Gary Moore’s and BLACKFOOT’s take on it, too. I had a chance meeting with Simon Kirke this summer, and got to play him the song, and he loved it.”
You can read the review; as for the full song list, here it is:
1. North
2. Dark
3. Heiwa
4. Blossom
5. Mio
6. Wishing Well
7. Burn
8. Sound Of M
9. Z-Parrow
10. Kai
11. Omniprism
12. Oyasumi