Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson have known each other since they were nine years old, living next door to one another in London’s Shepherd’s Bush. That’s the familial bond that lies at the heart of the soul collective Jungle, not that you’d know it from seeing them onstage.
The Jungle experience is one of low-slung pre-disco funky music created on laptops but played (and sung) on real instruments for maximum warmth and immediacy, by a group who are concentrating incredibly hard on what they are doing. So rather than seeing Josh and Tom—better known as J & T—prodding at screens, there’s seven-piece live band giving it their all with staggering intensity. Not that their recorded career is any less impressive. They were nominated for ±«Óătv Sound of 2014, their debut album Jungle was considered a front-runner for the 2014 Mercury Prize, and if you think you managed to get through last year without getting hooked on Busy Earnin’ blasting from video games, YouTube ads or your radio, you really can’t have been paying attention.
Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson have known each other since they were nine years old, living next door to one another in London’s Shepherd’s Bush. That’s the familial bond that lies at the heart of the soul collective Jungle, not that you’d know it from seeing them onstage.
The Jungle experience is one of low-slung pre-disco funky music created on laptops but played (and sung) on real instruments for maximum warmth and immediacy, by a group who are concentrating incredibly hard on what they are doing. So rather than seeing Josh and Tom—better known as J & T—prodding at screens, there’s seven-piece live band giving it their all with staggering intensity. Not that their recorded career is any less impressive. They were nominated for ±«Óătv Sound of 2014, their debut album Jungle was considered a front-runner for the 2014 Mercury Prize, and if you think you managed to get through last year without getting hooked on Busy Earnin’ blasting from video games, YouTube ads or your radio, you really can’t have been paying attention.
