Following their acclaimed 2021 debut album 'Black Light', Brooklyn, NYC’s Dakota Jones release their follow up 'Heartbreakers Space Club', expanding on their established soulful sound.
While their previous full-length found itself in old school grooves and sensibilities, the new album from Dakota Jones has one foot firmly in the future. Interestingly, 'Heartbreakers Space Club' acts as a return to the band’s roots, experimenting and genre-bending as was the journey across a string of EPs and singles released prior to 'Black Light'. Nevertheless, the retro stylings remain present on the new record with slick rhythms and organ keys while allowing room for the band to add futuristic elements to their sound, complete as ever with the powerhouse vocals of Tristan Carter-Jones. On heavy rotation during recording were the iconic Ziggy Stardust album by David Bowie, as well as D’Angelo’s discography and early Prince, an intriguing mix of music providing inspiration that can be heard throughout the album, yet still delivering the unwavering and uncensored confidence as well as a whole lot of joy that comes solely from Dakota Jones.
Tristan Carter-Jones of the band added, "‘Heartbreakers Space Club' - doubling as both something celestial and a place that you hold for yourself, is where you lose yourself to find yourself, break yourself down to build back up into the most authentic version of you. One moment you’re sitting in a dark corner of the bar smoking a cigarette, gazing out of the window into a candy pink sky, the next moment all of the walls disappear and you’re floating in the middle of nothing, weightless and without a care. Let it take you there."
When asked if their home city of New York impacts their sound, Carter-Jones says, "Definitely. We wrote this album over the course of a full year, and throughout the year in New York you feel those distinct changes and differences in the seasons. It's not just the weather that's changing, it's the entire attitude of the city.’ The pulse of the city flows through ‘Dissent’N’Gin’, a nod to 90s hip-hop featuring Carter-Jones spitting bars and singing with equal effortlessness, with some record scratches thrown in for good measure as the crescendo unsteadily builds in a track described as ‘a jewellery heist in all black leather."
Production duties on Heartbreakers Space Club were kept in-house, being overseen by the band’s very own bassist and multi-instrumentalist Scott Jet Kramp, which Carter-Jones says fed into the sense of freedom this record has, "His fingerprints and brain waves are all over this album, instrumentally, for sure. I would say that the biggest impact that this choice had on the record was that it allowed us space and freedom to do... really anything that we wanted to do. It was an extremely collaborative process and, because we've been making music together for so long, there was a real trust and openness there. We worked in a creative space that had no bounds, no preconceived notions, no worries, just freedom."
Dakota Jones have been stomping around and making noise for nearly 8 years now. Featuring Tristan Carter-Jones on vocals, Scott Jet Krampon bass, Steve Ross on the drums, and Eddy Marshall on the guitar, Dakota Jones have moulded their sound into something at once commanding and vulnerable, spontaneous and deliberate, familiar and refreshing. Harnessing a timeless groove and magisterial queer black power, they first burst onto the UK scene in 2021, easily translating their formidable energy as a live act into their debut record. Channelling furious energy inspired by the likes of Chaka Khan, Janis Joplin and Marvin Gaye, the group showcased their uncensored songwriting and were unafraid to take a deep dive into life’s most visceral emotions.
The result, ‘Black Light’ went on to win critical praise from the likes of The Times, Classic Rock, DIVA Magazine and Echoes Magazine – establishing them as one of the best new funk/soul bands to emerge for a very long time. Since then, the band have gained further support with their 2023 single releases from titles such as billboard, them, EUPHORIA
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