4th album
Pineal Grind (2022)

 

Pineal Grind is Case Yonkhear's fourth album. Not recorded in NYC this time, but mostly in Kampala, Uganda. Where he has collaborated with a large number of artists, rappers, backing singers, wind players, percussionists. And, with the local talented producer Wana Benjamin from the Tilapia Studios, affiliated with East African Records EAR.

 

For this album, Case once again drew from his extensive repertoire of songs. In the opener ‘Unknown Pleasures’ followed by ‘I Want a Love That's Strong, Candy’ you can hear influences from Iggy Pop and Paul Weller. The third song ‘Soul Cream Head Shake’ marks the completion of the circle of the four albums Yonkhear made, the first album of the same name was released in 2011. The lyrics are based on the ancient texts from the Hermetica.

 

‘Someone Like Else’ is reminiscent of The Jam's punk rock or mod. In the storytelling song House, the Ugandan wind section comes into action for the first time. ‘Affection’ is reminiscent of the theatrical gothic of Bauhaus, just like The Jam from the late 1970s - early 1980s.

 

‘All Those People’ goes back to Iggy Pop and the Stooges. While ‘Live My Life Alive’ and ‘I Want Us To Be Friends’ are in the style of the "flat hat and shades" rock-soul songs of Doobie Brothers. The coda of ‘I Want Us To Be Friends’ has an infectious horn part.

 

‘To Our Lovers’ and ‘Romance’ are the slower, dreamier songs, with a beautiful stately chromatic piano solo in ‘To Our Lovers’. ‘Ten Night, Ten Days’ concludes the regular album, “this is the story of my life”. The Re-mix of ‘Amsterdam’ (originally a track released on the second album Off The Grid), underlines the Ugandan influences on this record, including a contribution from Keya Nicholas, listed in the Top Ten African Rappers by MTV Base, in 2016 and 2017.