METAL: Yakuza keeps spreading
out on the new Beyul
Chicago avant-garde metalband Yakuza release Beyul, their sixth full-length and second for Profound Lore, on Tue 10/16 (with a listening party Wed 10/10 at Liar’s Club). Plenty of metal bands incorporate jazz and world-music influences, but few integrate them so seamlessly and purposefully. Yakuza function very well as a tight four-piece, but they like to invite friends and sprawl out: guests on Beyul include cellist Helen Money, vocalists Tim Remis (Sweet Cobra) and Angela Mullenhour (Sybris), and improvising saxophonists Mars Williams and Dave Rempis.
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I caught up with Yakuza front man Bruce Lamont—also a vocalist and/or saxophonist in several other groups, including Bloodiest and Circle of Animals, as well as an organizer and booster of farmers’ markets—between a grocery run and his gig tending bar at the Empty Bottle. Beyul was recorded, mixed, and mastered in a speedy eight days, he told me, because the band and producer Sanford Parker “have it down to a science by now.” I also asked him what we both knew was kind of a stupid question—whether organic food from local farmers has made his lungs stronger. “I think you know the answer to that,” he said. “Yes, it makes my lungs stronger, and other things too.” Lamont further denied ever having impersonated Robert Plant in front of a mirror before taking on his tribute band, Led Zeppelin 2.
—Monica Kendrick
On Fri 10/12 the group will play as part of a daylong concert during the free Logan Launch Festival, which inaugurates the U. of C.’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts; its program includes pieces by Haydn and Wolf as well as George Crumb’s thrilling Black Angels.
About a year ago Funke became more involved in ACRE’s sound program. ACRE residents who are visual artists get a show at a Chicago gallery (the organization has its own), and Funke wants Captcha to function as a similar resource for ACRE musicians. “I will give them the platform to release their music and promote them and do what I can in that regard,” he says. Each resident can work with the label on a physical release.
