PREMIERE: Wet Burrito — Jayomi

In their 6-track debut record, Wet Burrito, Jayomi try to tackle “what rock music could potentially sound like, if it were composed by a traditional classical composer”. Originally starting out as a personal recording project for lead singer Jon Wu, the album weaves classical melodies with gritty distorted modern garage rock sounds, constructing a punk rock symphony. Below, we dive into the record track-by-track, and a take a deeper look at the themes — both lyrically and sonically — woven throughout.

Jayomi’s sound is clear from the first moments of the first track, Tropical Wasteland. A bold orchestration of violins fills your ears, followed by the roar of of a heavily distorted bass riff, which melts into bright guitar riffs and smoothly blended vocals and violin. The track epitomizes the bridge between classical music and punk rock that Jayomi is so enamoured with, setting up the perfect rollercoaster of an introduction to one hell of a record.

A Letter From Elise follows, leading the listener through a story of loss and heartbreak, filtered through a bright, charismatic melody played out by guitars. Resembling a mixture between Beach Fossils and Craft spells, the track is a quintessential callback to dreampop. It feels like a striking contrast to the first track of the album, and yet still highlights the playful, dream-like state sound of the record, at times building into a kind of garage rock symphony.

With the first notes of Moonlight, we’re hit with a melancholic, nostalgic sound, deriving from reverb and slow-tone fills. Moonlight explores the relationship between a person and how they fit in with the world, speaking to the loneliness yet sense of freedom felt pursuing what one personally believes in. Around the time of writing this song, Jon made a promise to himself that if he truly, truly believed in the music he was recording as part of Wet Burrito, he would quit his corporate career in pursuit of a musical one. And he did - to fully commit to starting Jayomi. This one is a personal favourite, offering some truly vulnerable moments and a softer side to the bands sound. "Are you living life if you're too afraid to die?"

In Kindred Spirits, Jaymomi takes a turn to dark new wave. Seemingly resembling Ian Curtis’s base tones and heavy fuzz, the song falls into a raunchy, compressed form. The track takes the listener underground, with the booming bass riff painting vivid images of a mysterious underground dance scene. The use of violin orchestrations truly capture the essence of evil and dark entries, and overall, presents a darker side of Jayomi’s project.

Someday, the second-last track on the album, is playful and hypnotising, with a guitar lick following a joyful dance to a standard drum fill. Jayomi’s lyricism and angular guitar tones demonstrate a bent sound you might expect to hear from the Pixies, and the song ends with a lingering violin that refuses to offer any closure, instead transitioning directly into the final track. "I'm going away, I'll be back someday."

With Farewell, Jayomi closes out their album with another violin rendition. This time, static and modest, it respectfully complimenting the weeps the violin amplifies. With a clear change in pace and tempo, the track attempts to tie the themes of the album together; pondering one's purpose in the world, dealing with potential loss, hoping to find someone to share a life with. All of these ideas swirl together as the drums continue to build into the climax that features all of the characters (as instruments) introduced earlier in the album. It’s a fitting farewell to their record, handing over an end to the dream journey that the listener embarked on.

With Wet Burrito, Jayomi compiles what seems like an array of variant dreampop sequences which play out track after track. Elements of Dark Wave, Dream-pop, Shoegaze, and Powerpop are both present and noticeable as the album develops, exploring themes of vulnerability, loss and self acceptance. Each track delivers a unique approach to Jayomi’s essence as a project, with the mixture of influences complimenting each other, and each tune still holding its own. Overall, the groups debut album is highly original, and a spectacular exploration of sound and genre. We’re so excited to be premiering it, and can’t wait to see where Jayomi go next!

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