On Saturday I went to see our good friends Shaku, the Leeds based Jazz fusion/prog band to celebrate the release of their debut album ‘Maku’, released just a day prior. Shaku have their own style of Prog-Jazz that they like to consider “Frog Rock”, this element of comedy is very prominent in Shaku’s work, one of the things that make them so fun to watch. I had only seen Shaku once previously, at our music society’s Christmas party in which he had the pleasure of booking them as the headlining act, I knew of Shaku before through knowing the lead singer of the band but the first time I saw them they absolutely blew me away, I can say confidently however that this time surpassed that experience and all other expectations.
First thing I can say is that for all who know of Shaku’s music through Spotify or other streaming services, you do not know them until you see them live, they are the definition of a live band. They have their own style of jamming which seems so improvised until you realise it has all been meticulously rehearsed and planned out its almost unbelievable.
They started off playing the intro track to their album, Explosive. This track is an explosive opener, for lack of a better word; much unlike the jazz influences on the rest of this album, this song opens much like a very early motorhead or other 70’s heavy metal track through the sound of the guitar tones and driving drum beat. After the heavy intro, the soft vocals of Noiak Bedirian come through making the song sound much more reminiscent of a 70’s prog rock group. This 6 minute opening track is phenomenal and the perfect opener for the concert and also for the album. Following this first track, is potentially my favourite track of the album and so far one of my favourite tracks of the year, ‘Scraps’. To me this track seems very reminiscent of Frank Zappa’s 70’s jazz rock work, especially ‘Apostrophe’, beginning with a fantastic riff which grows and grows in volume with each layer of instrumentation being added through the first couple minutes of track. The track then calms down as soon as the vocals come through accompanied solely by a soft guitar in the background, then followed by a smooth saxophone passage. The mix of rocky jazz and Avant-Garde on this track with the multiple switch-ups throughout its length was even more impressive in its live version.
After the third track on the album, the band decided to have an interlude with a few new tracks which weren’t on the album. They invited a female Italian singer on stage to do a jazz rock song which had a Spanish / Italian sound achieved through their use of European styled Spanish guitar tones, as well a Spanish flute, which the saxophonist of the band swapped out for his sax. This song was incredible and I hope to hear it on their next album! The next song saw Noiak try his luck at jazzy hip hop as he burst into a rap about a girl he’d met for the first time who had asked to use his tooth brush, which he had rudely denied. The best thing about this part of the gig was the comedy and stage presence of Noiak which was so engaging as he tried to be as inclusive as possible getting the audience to sing along with him and trying to make them laugh. The song started off almost like a novelty track just for the purpose of some comedy relief and audience engagement but transformed into a jazz freak-out worthy of Zappa, definitely a highlight of the gig.
Often I found myself staring at the six piece band and all of them playing their individual instruments during their hugely impressive jazz jamming and wondering how they were actually creating the sound that I was hearing, I was amazed at their talent for a relatively new band which sounded extremely professional and mature.
They continued playing the remainder of the album in its entirety, equally as impressive as the rest. After their encore, the final song played was the final song on the album ‘Runnin’ With My Baby’, this song is famed as a Shaku gig highlight for those who have seen them in previous live shows. This track features an acoustic style guitar in a very bluesy fashion with a flute creating a very danceable tune for the audience. The chorus which is just ‘Runnin’ with my baby’ repeated, is perfect for audience inclusion as during live shows Noiak tries to get the whole audience involved singing it. This being the final song ends the concert in a really happy communal atmosphere.
Overall, the unbelievable talent of this band amazed me to a level I did not expect at all. The whole band is incredibly tight musically, despite their being 6 members all playing their own instruments, it almost sounded like the songs were coming out of a speaker because I was so amazed by the sound created by them all playing together and how they could even achieve that sound; not to even mention the remarkably skilled song writing that went into the tracks performed. The sound is incredibly original, despite employing a range of influences, most notably Frank Zappa, they transform this avante-garde jazz rock sound into something creatively unique through the use of different vocal styles, mixtures of alternate genres such as hip hop, blues and funk making it a unique sound of their own. It seems a shame to me that such a talented band are so small and I can only hope that through this release of their first album they can become recognised in these underground circles and begin to make a name for themselves. The concert was thoroughly entertaining through audience engagement as well as the contagious fun energy that Noiak supplied to the audience, this also proved very successful through the constant whooping and cheering from the audience throughout the set.
Overall a 10/10 gig.
SHAKU/Frog Rock/Jazz Fusion/Blues/Prog/Funk
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