Jinja Safari is the brainchild of Marcus Azon & Cameron ‘Pepa’ Knight, two Australian musicians by way of Sydney. I’ve been a big fan of them since I first heard them on the Australian blog AndPluckYourStrings, so it should be openly noted that this review comes from the standpoint of big fan. They’re one of my favorite discoveries of 2011 and I’ve listened to their only previous release, a self-titled 2010 EP, innumerable times.
Every song from that EP shows up on their full-length release, “Locked by Land”, as well as several singles they’ve released earlier this year in anticipation of the album’s release. Though these tracks are retreads, they continue to hold up after multiple listens and fit well in the context of a full release. It helps that these stand-out tracks are spread out evenly over the whole of the album, so it doesn’t feel like the album’s just the EP with some filler tacked on. Instead, the new tracks diversify Jinja Safari’s sound significantly and flesh out the album into something worthy of the name “long play.” As for the music itself? Well, simply put, it’s an inspired combination of strange sounds, from sitars to bells to electronics, that swell together to make catchy, exuberant pop.
“Peter Pan”, the group’s first single is a perfect example of the their strengths, with its memorable sitar, thumping drums, and up-and-down dynamics. Its title and lyrics are signifiers in themselves to the group’s sense of playfulness, a key tenant that plays throughout the rest of their music. Indeed that’s the best thing one could say about “Locked By Land”: it’s fun. From the whirling woodwinds of its opener “Sunken House” to simple, childlike magic of its closer “Mermaid”, the whole album is a pure romp.
And like the best pop albums, its sounds are consistently surprising but never out of place. “Hiccups” opens with a synth line that sounds like it came from The Sims, the warbling voice and tamburas on “Scarecrow” make a trippy bed for the group’s pop stylings, and “Moonchild” brings in mellow synth pads and maracas that cool everything down for a beachier sound. The album’s consistency can also be attributed to the songwriting and the vocals, which keep the album grounded in its wealth of sounds. Azon and Knight never deviate heavily from a basic pop structure and their crooning ooo‘s show up on nearly every song.
The album does have a few low-points, however, mostly attributable to the sheer diversity of sounds attempted on the album. “Families” sounds like it might be a remix of something straight out of Vampire Weekend’s debut and “Head in a Blender” makes an admirable stab at a more folksy sound but is let down by a forgettable melody. Additionally, when listening to the album straight through, it was easy for the songs’ sounds to begin blending together. These are relatively light complaints though: even when deliberately listening to songs looking for flaws, I found something I liked in every single one, except for the album’s two superfluous bonus remixes.
Most of Jinja Safari’s music videos are centered around adventure. The kind of adventure that a kid dreams up, whether it be running around a forest with torches, wandering around as stranded pirates, or just being on a stage with a hundred other people having the time of your life, each is full of a youthful imagination that seems to define Jinja Safari. Their music is a return to the pure energy and wonder of children; they have fun with any instrument they can find, they bang on drums, they croon and ooo, and there isn’t an ounce of cynicism in all of “Locked by Land”.
It’s pure, unpretentious, undemanding, unadulterated fun.
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