Yumi Zouma

Yumi Zouma – EP IV (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 00:49:23 minutes | 560 MB | Genre: Pop, Rock, Alternatif et Indé
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover

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Yumi Zouma – Truth or Consequences (Alternate Versions) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 30:48 minutes | 336 MB | Genre: Alternative, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Polyvinyl Records

The day before the release of our third album, ‘Truth or Consequences’, the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 an official pandemic. We’d arrived in the United States that morning to play the first show of our North American album release tour in Washington D.C. At this point, all of the tour dates were still set to go ahead, and we were excited to promote an album we had worked on for the last two years. This run was set to be our first ever fully sold-out US tour. The atmosphere was excitable, a little tense, optimistic. However, the chain of events that followed meant that by the time we finished our set that evening, restrictions on venues had been enacted by local governments across the country, and one-after-another, all of our remaining tour dates were cancelled. The performance at DC9 was the first and last show of the ‘Truth or Consequences’ album tour. It was all over, we went our separate ways and flew home the next day – on our album’s release day.

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Yumi Zouma – Truth or Consequences (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 33:30 minutes | 372 MB | Genre: Alternative, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Polyvinyl Records

Truth or Consequences, Yumi Zouma’s third album and first for Polyvinyl was produced by the band and mixed by engineer Jake Aron (Solange, Grizzly Bear, Snail Mail) Christie Simpson’s voice gives weight to whispers of impressionistic poetry, shielding hard truths with soft tones, while Burgess’ vocals reveal a rarified dimension of raw and lucid romanticism, with lead single “Right Track / Wrong Man,” in particular, exhibiting a Balearic tempo and bass-heavy energy that belies its underlying tension. The first Yumi Zouma album to feature live drums, Truth or Consequences radiates a brazen spirit of perseverance. “I love the duality in a lot of disco songs, where they’re incredibly upbeat, but there’s real frustration in the lyrics – sort of like, ‘Nothing’s going the way I want, but I’ve got to deal with it any way I can,’” Simpson says.

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Yumi Zouma – Present Tense (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 34:35 minutes | 396 MB | Genre: Indie Pop, Drampop, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Yumi Zouma

On their fourth album, Present Tense, Yumi Zouma make small alterations to their approach, but the result is just as peaceful and soothing as their previous three albums. Once again adding live drums to their warm electro-pop, they expand on that with woodwinds, strings and grand piano. It gives the record a more organic, less distant feel that fits the songs perfectly. It might be enough of a change that the fans who were here for the sleek, electronic feel of earlier records could be put off a little; those who appreciate the late-afternoon, fading-sunlight, too-relaxed-to-move feeling the band conjure up so effortlessly shouldn’t really care. Yumi Zouma manage to keep that intact, and most of the album slides along gracefully. Christie Simpson sounds just as at home singing over gentle swells of strings and twinkling piano as she does synths, and the production skills the band display while seamlessly splicing the electronics and live instruments together are impressive. Among the quietly melancholy midtempo tunes that make up the bulk of the album, there are a few moments that break out of the sun-dappled haze to make a deeper impression. “Where the Light Used to Lay” is possibly the hookiest tune they’ve done yet, “In the Eyes of Our Love” is a high-energy song that throws together male/female vocals, extroverted drums, rippling guitar, and horns into an almost gleeful ’80s pop sound, and “Razorblade” dials the mood down, cranks the distortion up on the guitars, and strips back the arrangements for a gloomier feel. These diversions keep the listener from completely falling into a pleasant trance as the album unrolls; it also might make one wonder why Yumi Zouma don’t make a whole album’s worth of songs that break their well-established mode. That being said, their formula hasn’t coagulated yet, and the subtle changes to their sound mark a well-timed soft progression for the group. – Tim Sendra
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