London-based Sabatta are a funk-rock outfit and ‘Get Over Yourself’ is the second single from their forthcoming album How To Get Even. The single is not out until tomorrow but you can get a first look at the track here on Joyzine.
The band is fronted by Yinka Oyewole, raised in Essex and of Nigerian lineage, and Sabatta’s sound is raw and built around the reverb-less fuzz of Oyewole’s guitar playing. You can hear the London concrete embedded in their sound and it is brutalist and compelling. It’s only in the guitar solo that reverb kicks in and we soar way up into an icy sky.
Yinka Oyewole cites influences including Curtis Mayfield, Prince, Tupac and Hendrix to Bad Brains, Thin Lizzy, Parliament/Funkadelic and Black Sabbath and you can hear elements of all these artists distilled into this track, and I was completely into the lover’s rock-style harmonies in the chorus. It’s also a brave act that changes tempo multiple times in a song, but Sabatta manage this with panache, moving between a halftime stomp and rocked out double time. I don’t normally mention the look of an artist but seeing Oyewole in a leather jacket over a Punisher t-shirt where the skull’s teeth are reinforced by the afro comb shaped guitar (which is also the band’s logo) and an afro comb in the hair is really striking. This track also proved a happy reminder of one of my favourite raw funk bands of the 1980s: Defunkt.
The album How To Get Even is out on November 17th and Oyewole says “This is the most cohesive and free Sabatta album I’ve produced. It’s also the most raw and unfiltered. I love storytelling, I love guitar playing, I love grooves. And I love being my own person, even if that’s seen as rebellious or contrary, on the new album I’m just being me.” You can pre-order the digital download from their Bandcamp page.
The grit and the glory of ‘Get Over Yourself’ is a powerful calling card for the album and sets Sabatta out as a band to watch in the coming year.
Sabatta socials: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Soundcloud | YouTube | Spotify
Here is the previous single from the album: ‘Get Your Shit Together’.
Review by Paul F Cook
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