Welcome to the Jungle

Hot off the release of their fifth record, Sunshine, the U.K.’s finest and funkiest, Jungle, swung by the Santa Barbara Bowl last week to ensure the 805 got its daily step count via dance. 

It was with little pomp and circumstance, besides the roar of the crowd, that the finely tuned groove machine that is Jungle took the stage on Friday evening, the English nu-disco outfit opting for a more nuanced warm up with back to back album openers: 2018’s “Smile” and 2014’s “The Heat.” Butts left seats, never to return. 

I’m not going to bury the lede here: You wish you were as cool as Jungle. 

I certainly wish I was.

Originally a collaboration between London-based producers Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson, Jungle recruited Lydia Kitto of Loaded Honey after her significant contributions to 2023’s Volcano, a record many would ID as the group’s breakout hit. Since then, Kitto has become the de-facto voice of the band, with the project’s sound evolving from moodier, downtempo tracks to lush, warm tunes filled with vocal flourish aplenty. Kitto’s voice, itself seemingly loaded with honey, brings a retro quality to Jungle’s groove-heavy compositions; a throwback to eras when pop music depended more on barbershop quartet–esque harmonies than standalone powerhouse performances. 

Adding to the evening’s visual allure was a stage design that felt as sleek as the band itself. Tiered platforms backed by large panels, upon which were displayed ever-shifting but always minimalist patterns, whether geometric or pseudo-geological, gave the whole production the look of a variety show sound stage crafted by the psychedelically curious. And above it all, the band’s logo: lest we forget who would be guiding the melodious journey to come. 

An alchemy of sight and sound. 

The band’s sonic enchantment was truly cast with its third track of the night, “Heavy, California,” which saw the crowd’s syncopated swaying erupt into full-on, hands-in-the-air, cut-loos-ed-ness. At the crux of Jungle’s musical spell is something near-primordial: the marriage of rhythm and voice. 

I mean, if it worked for early man, why wouldn’t it work for the late-stage-capitalist person? 

Drawing heavily from disco and funk, Jungle plays like a Studio 54 house band with a Khruangbin complex, deftly and almost imperceptibly flowing from one track to the next, all the while Kitto and backing vocalists adding their signature soulfulness to the mix. 

Eventually, and to great effect, the band found their way into newer material, with Sunshine tracks such as “Someday, Somewhere,” “The Wave” and title track “Sunshine” proving to be singalong hits in a live environment. Peppered in were now-classics: “Dominoes,” “Candle Flame,” and “Back on 74,” to name a few. 

From its groove-forward dance tracks (à la “Coming Back’) to the soulful croons of tracks such as “Move Like You Do,” Jungle kept the Bowl on its feet ’til the end, encoring the night with their most anthemic, “Keep Moving” and “Busy Earnin,’” to prove that they didn’t just bring the Sunshine, they also brought the heat.