Jakob (band)
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Jakob is a
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...
band, based in the Hawkes Bay city of Napier. The band consists of guitarist Jeff Boyle, bassist Maurice Beckett, and drummer Jason Johnston. They have been compared to such bands as
Mogwai Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogwa ...
,
Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...
, and High Dependency Unit, though they largely eschew any vocals or samples in their songs.


History

The band formed in July 1998, and began by opening for
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
bands
Salmonella Dub Salmonella Dub is a Dub music, dub/drum n bass/reggae/roots reggae, roots band from New Zealand. The band was formed in 1992 by Andrew Penman, Dave Deakins, and Mark Tyler. The band has toured extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, the Un ...
and Pitch Black at the local pub O'Flaherty's. They toured extensively throughout 1999, releasing that same year a self-titled EP recorded with David Holmes at Napier's Venn Production Studios. The year 2000 brought a gig at The Event New Years party in Napier, and the 7" single '' Erfo'', a limited release on the Crawlspace Records label. Jakob returned to Venn Studios in March 2001 to record their debut album with engineer David Holmes (also known from the band '' Kerretta''). '' Subsets of Sets'' was released April 2002 through New Zealand's Midium Records to good reviews and a nomination at the bNet independent music awards. Jakob continued touring with artists such as HDU and fellow Midium artists Avotor and Meterman, as well as playing at the 2002
Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typi ...
. A period of inactivity followed, lasting between six and eight months. The band didn't play together during that time, and for two months didn't even see each other. They regrouped in January 2003 with ideas for new songs, and spent a week at The Church studio with David Holmes. This session was ultimately scrapped, but after more rehearsal final versions of the songs were recorded over two days in March. '' Cale:Drew'', their second full-length album, was released in August 2003 and garnered Jakob another bNet nomination. International touring followed in 2004, to
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(where they played at studio radio station WXRT),
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, and the
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. They were well received at every venue, and released a 7" single, ''
Semaphore Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...
'', in Europe. Also that year, they released the one-track mini-album ''
Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...
'', and played a 25-minute set at Radio New Zealand's Helen Young Studios (consisting of the songs Laburnum, Semaphore, Nice Day for an Earthquake, and Jimmy Hoffa). 2005 saw more international touring by Jakob, with the band playing at
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in March, and
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in September (in support of the release of '' Cale:Drew'' there) and again in late October (with Australian band Cog). It also saw the release of their ''
Diffusion Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...
'' 7" and ''Coalescence'', a 12" compilation from Midium Records, featuring a track by Jakob. Jakob played concerts all through New Zealand in August 2006 as part of the
A Low Hum A Low Hum is the ongoing project founded by photographer and music impresario Blink (born Ian Jorgensen), and is based in Wellington, New Zealand. Under the umbrella A LOW HUM, Blink organises tours, releases records, makes music videos, organi ...
tour, and released their third album '' Solace'' in September 2006. In April 2008 Jakob toured Europe with
Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...
and The Austerity Program, and Australia with Cog. They also completed a US tour in the second half of 2008, once again with ISIS. During 2008 and 2009 members Jeff Boyle and Maurice Beckett worked on other projects. Maurice with his solo project Desbot, and Jeff with a project entitled Mean with H. Walker from Avotor and Kerretta. The debut Mean LP entitled "Knowing" was released in December 2012. In March 2010, Jakob announced a four-date April tour of NZ, heading in May and June to the US West Coast to support Isis' tour once again. In January 2011, they supported
Tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...
on their Australian tour. On 29 April 2013, it was announced via the band's
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page that they were to join Tool again as support act for their Vector Arena shows. In October 2013, Jakob featured on the soundtrack for the surf documentary Waverider by Gareth Davies and RedYeti Films, directed by Karl Lear, winner of Best Picture (2013) in New Zealand and Best Picture (2014) in Hawaii. In January 2015, they played at St Jerome's Laneway Festival in Auckland. They also went on to support
Royal Blood A royal descent is a genealogical line of descent from a past or present monarch. Both geneticists and genealogists have attempted to estimate the percentage of living people with royal descent. From a genetic perspective, the number of unp ...
at the Wellington Laneway sideshow. On 15 October 2022, bassist Maurice Beckett announced via Jakob's
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page that they would be heading into the studio to record a yet unnamed sixth album, beginning in January 2023.


Discography


Albums

*''Jakob'' (1999) *'' Subsets of Sets'' (2001) *''Cale:Drew'' (2003) *'' Solace'' (2006) *'' Sines'' (2014)


EPs

*''Dominion''² (2004)


Featured

*"Method", track on ''Coalescence'' compilation (2005) *"Semaphore (demo)" and "Pneumonic (Avotor remix)", tracks on ''A Flip and Two Twisters'' compilation (2007) *"Oran Mor (remix)" Remix and reworked by Klute and features on the limited to 300 copies 12" vinyl ''Effectuation'' compilation (2008)


Singles

*"Erfo²" (2000) *"Drive Here and Then" (2001) *"I'm on Your Side" (2001) *"Nice Day For an Earthquake" (2001) *"A Moment From Different Angles" (2001) *"I was Hidden" (2003) *"Semaphore" (2004) *"The Diffusion of Our Inherent Situation" (2005) *"Malachite" (2006) *"Pneumonic" (2006) *"Blind Them with Science" (2014) ¹limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies
²limited edition of 200 copies


Awards

Jakob have been nominated for a number of New Zealand awards: bNet Awards (Independent) * 2001 – Best New Artist, Best Rock Album, Best Live Act * 2002 – Best Album, for Subsets of Sets; Best Rock/Pop Release; Best Independent Release; Best New Act * 2004 – Best Rock Release, for Cale:Drew * 2005 – Best Live Act Jakob played live at the 2001 bNet Awards.


References


External links


jakob.co.nz
Official Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Jakob New Zealand post-rock groups Musical groups established in 1998 Taite Music Prize winners