Condition: Brand New Ships from: Melbourne

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• Tracklist

• Black Focus, released in 2016, is the sole studio album by Yussef Kamaal (the duo of drummer Yussef Dayes and keyboardist Kamaal Williams). It fuses jazz-funk, broken beat, and London club sensibilities into a richly textured, groove-forward record. Songs like Black Focus, Strings of Light, and Joint 17 navigate between live improvisation and dense studio layering, capturing a fluid energy that feels spontaneous yet deliberate. The production leans into echo, warm analog synth tones, and percussive space, making the album feel both expansive and rooted in its rhythmic core. What gives Black Focus its impact is the chemistry between Dayes and Williamsthe way keys and drums interlock, push, and pull with urgency. The groups willingness to lean into loose transitions and shifts makes it feel alive, unbound by strict form. In the years since its release, its been cited as a key moment in the rise of UK jazz, a record that balanced accessibility with experimentation and set a high bar for what contemporary instrumental music could sound like.

  Reviews

  Jazz is best experienced live and with Black Focus Yussef Kamaal have captured the unpredictable and at times fragmented intensity of the live experience on wax. Clash Music

  Kamaal Williams and Yussef Dayes cast a strong reflection of the depth and richness of Peckham on their sensational new album, Black Focus the chemistry between Williams and Dayes is at the heart of it. Crack Magazine

  Review

  AllMusic rating: AllMusic users: (161 votes) Read the AllMusic.com review

• Artist: Yussef Kamaal Label: Brownswood Recordings Format: LP Units: 1 Country: UK Genre: Jazz Style: Broken Beat, Contemporary Jazz, Deep House, Soul-Jazz

• A1 Black Focus
  A2 Strings Of Light
  A3 Remembrance
  B1 Yo Chavez
  B2 Ayla
  B3 O.G.
  B4 Lowrider
  B5 Mansur’S Message
  B6 Wingtai Drums
  B7 Joint 17