Zak Abel – Joker Presents Zak Abel

Joker produced the arse out of this to be fair. Each track has it’s own vibe and deep background hooks, oriented towards having a vocalist rather than his usual dance tracks. Purple funk, dat Joker synth, dem Joker drums, choice live instrumentation, the songs are lush. He also picked the right vocalist: nineteen year old Zak Abel is a natural, highly expressive vocalist and I for one will be shocked if he’s not massive in a couple years. Sensitively rough voice, mature lyrics… this pretty muthafucker got it all. However, let’s hope he works with as many cats of Joker’s calibre as possible or it could all end up a little Sam Smith.

According to Abel the tracks started with Joker, being all but done before his input. I would happily listen (dance) to these as instrumentals but Abel completes the songs and matches Joker’s clear enthusiasm for making music. Also when asked for comment my friend’s 2 year old niece liked it because piano. They are recording together again soon and I’ll be checkin on it.