June 24, 2022
DOMi & JD BECK have announced a July 29 release date for NOT TiGHT, their highly anticipated debut album on Anderson .Paak’s new label APESHIT in partnership with Blue Note Records. The duo have also revealed the list of special guests featured on the album which includes .Paak, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Herbie Hancock, Thundercat, Mac DeMarco, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. NOT TiGHT is available for pre-order now on digital download and CD, as well as black vinyl and online store exclusive pink vinyl out November 11.
Along with the album announcement DOMi & JD BECK have also released the new single “WHATUP,” an arresting instrumental track that exemplifies their unique sound and virtuosity with DOMi Louna’s shimmering keyboards and JD Beck’s skittering drums. Watch a live VEVO studio performance HERE.
The track listing for NOT TiGHT is as follows:
- LOUNA’S iNTRO
- WHATUP
- SMiLE
- BOWLiNG (feat. Thundercat)
- NOT TiGHT
- TWO SHRiMPS (feat. Mac DeMarco)
- U DON’T HAVE TO ROB ME
- MOON (feat. Herbie Hancock)
- DUKE
- TAKE A CHANCE (feat. Anderson .Paak)
- SPACE MOUNTAiN
- PiLOT (feat. Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Anderson .Paak)
- WHOA (feat. Kurt Rosenwinkel)
- SNiFF
- THANK U
Following their 4 sold-out shows at the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York City earlier this month, DOMi & JD BECK will also be performing at the Napa Valley festival on July 29-30. The band has also confirmed appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada (July 6), North Sea Jazz Festival in The Netherlands (July 10), and the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland (July 14).
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To date, if you wanted to learn about DOMi & JD BECK—the internet’s most hyped jazz duo—you had to visit their website, click a rat playing saxophone, and read a story about a 12-year-old physicist (DOMi Louna) and a 6-year-old sheep investigator (JD Beck). Let’s fix that. “My philosophy of life is don’t take shit too seriously,” says DOMi Louna, born Domitille Degalle. And that’s fair. But the vibrant world she and her collaborator have given us demands exploration.
They reveal a bit more on their Instagram profiles, via clips of their jams, with JD on a simple drum kit and DOMi Louna on MIDI keys. She favors sounds that evoke ‘70s jazz fusion and the colorful blips of 2000s Pokémon soundtracks, while he tunes and plays his snare in ways that can sound electronic, channeling IDM and boom bap. Sometimes they’re stuffed into a bathroom and sometimes the drums are muffled by pretzels stacked on the hi-hat, or toilet paper tossed on the snare. Their music finds both humor and greatness in harmonic complexity and rhythmic shiftiness, abruptly adopting and ditching tempos, toying with time signatures, and sneaking extra beats into bridges.
The collaboration began under silly circumstances. DOMi Louna was a teen protegé at Berklee by way of the Paris Conservatory; JD, four years her junior, had gigged since grade school around his hometown, Dallas—first in producer Jah-Born’s band where he duetted with MPC beatmakers and DJs spinning Dilla. In 2018, they were both invited to join an ensemble performing at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show and played in a room full of blaring instrumental demos, surrounded by a chaotic din. “It was so bad, we couldn’t hear anything,” JD laughs. They bonded over gauche keyboard effects and mom jokes, and a more audible jam that night sparked interest in working more.
Along the ride, DOMi & JD BECK have sat in with Herbie Hancock and backed Thundercat, Ariana Grande, Mac DeMarco, Eric André, and more. They also co-wrote “Skate” on .Paak’s GRAMMY-winning album with Bruno Mars as Silk Sonic. Neither can believe what’s happening, but leave it to them to skewer the moment. When JD suggests people might hate the new album, DOMi Louna says, “That would be sick! Booo. They suck!”
