That there’s more to the UK jazz landscape than the well-documented sparks flying in London is made abundantly clear by an astonishing duo from rural Derbyshire: The Natural Yogurt Band. The project is spearheaded by Wayne Fullwood – drummer, bassist and enthusiast of untamed percussive outbursts – alongside his partner-in-sonics Miles Newbold, who handles all the other sounds that animate their exuberant sonic textures. A playful nod to classic library music is easy to detect. Their brand of psychedelic fusion jazz doesn’t meander – it stays grounded in funk-inclined grooves.
What makes it all so listenable is the balance they strike: it’s tight, yet purposefully ramshackle. Many of the textures feel raw, crackly and rough-edged – yet they somehow resonate with a smooth, swinging afterglow. Several of the eleven tracks evoke soundtrack music – though which genre is being channelled seems to shift with each scene in the mind’s cinema. The near-cartoonish piece »Garden Party«, for instance, seems chiefly concerned with the joy of surreal twists and turns. But even here, a subtle melancholy lingers. The Natural Yogurt Band mix seemingly disparate ingredients into a single bubbling pot – and just as quickly move on when the next idea takes shape. The result is a ride that’s as gleeful as it is wild.
