(August 5, 2026) The sweet spot for the band Yumeji lives where the jazz, hip hop and funk lanes intersect. Sometimes Yumeji straddles the lines by engaging in hip hop spoken word raps above a prominent on the one bass line and funky electric organs while saxophone improvisation hovers above it all.
Then, the band has every bit of the neo-soul of 1970s era funk, jazz, and rap as the sounds they admired. Yumeji slides coolly and confidently into a seductively mellow mid-tempo steppers funk lane on “See You in Space Cowboy.” The bass plays a leading role on this track, setting up a laid-back bottom that the group builds upon. There’s an allusion to the 1985 hip hop classic “La-Di Da Di,”1970s era horns and space age lyrics.
Check out “See You in Space Cowboy,” here.
By Howard Dukes
