Day 23, Galactic - Ya-Ka-May

Stars: 4.25
Favorite Track: You Don’t Know
Live: $30

I remember grooving out to Galactic at jam festivals, like Bonnaroo back when it was a hippy-fest and Metallica would have been booed off the stage—or more likely ignored passive-aggressively by everyone sitting and braiding flower stems. As an aspiring jazz musician, I would make a point to stop and gawk at the incredibly talented keys player, Richard Vogel, and vibe to the gritty tone of guitarist Jeff Raines, but then leave in a hurry so to not miss Moe. or The String Cheese Incident or something.

Now that the bulk of my jam days are behind me, groups like Medeski, Martin and Wood, Soulive and Galactic are no longer my main source of motivation to become a better musician. My love for funky grooves, rippin’ 10 minute solos, and virtuosos has not completely subsided—I mean, I did just get back from a four-show run with Phish—but Galactic didn’t have that edge to make it last with me.

But that was the old Galactic; this is Ya-Ka-May. This is a completely different animal. In fact, if I hadn’t done a little research, I would have accredited Ya-Ka-May to a young producer who happened to go by the same name as the jazz-jam group. These guys went Mrs. Doubtfire on us and donned a magnificent costume that could fool anyone. But just how Natalie knew deep down that Mrs. Doubtfire was really her father all along, it is clear that Ya-Ka-May has grown up from Galactic’s roots.

Ya-Ka-May features a different local New Orleans artist on every track. It is almost like a pub-crawl through the city’s best venues. You have brass bands, hip-hop, rock, soul, blues, jazz and funk spread across 13 tracks. It is pretty forceful, too. There aren’t any slow numbers or any huge breaks in intensity, so make sure to have your dancing shoes laced.

Galactic made a choice to start off the album with a short track with a sample about a scientist and his students. The scientist talks about an invention that he made which has the ability to harness brain channels that represent talent, and then transfer the talent to someone else. On first listen, this seems like an arbitrary choice, but it is actually quite clever in that it foreshadows what Ya-Ka-May is all about. Galactic, a New Orleans style jazz-jam band whose previous albums all sound pretty much the same, harnesses the talents of other New Orleans musicians and develop an ability to perform hip-hop, soul, dance and other levels of music.

The album’s got party tracks like “Double It,” “Katey Vs. Knoby,” and “Do it Again,’ which sound like a mix of Lil’ John hootenannies, MIA bangers, and James Brown sex machinery. Some grooves get dirty and deep like “Dark Water,” “Liquor Pang,” and “Speaks His Mind.” The rest of the tracks fall somewhere in the middle, sitting on tight grooves with soulful melodies. This is where Galactic is most successful. My favorite track, “You Don’t Know,” is a beast that will shake your ass and the ground. Glen David Andrews and The Rebirth Brass band get on this one and blow the house down with popping horn lines and growling, blues vocals that sound like they came up from the grave for revenge.

And this album is tried and tested. I had a party last night up on my roof and we almost caved it in once this album dropped.