Yumi Zouma - Yoncalla

If there’s one thing the internet and social media’s succeeded in doing, it’s helped create a mix-and-match music culture - people’s tastes straddle genres more than ever and there are fewer tribes. Yes, there are the trolls and the sub-tweeting, but there’s also more open celebration. And less snobbery has helped bring unadorned pop out into the sunlight. Because when you have all of the world’s music at your fingertips, why would you just choose one genre?

Yumi Zouma make a glorious and gentle kind of dream-pop. Debut EP ‘The Brae’ was a timeless, effortless sunkissed classic, echoing all the best bits of pop. It sounded like a disco Fleetwood Mac. It seemed made for this new open, anything-goes online space.

Yet ‘fully formed’ is a slightly misleading phrase: that first EP was made before the band had played live and those EPs were made with the four members scattered across the globe. The music was the sound of people collaborating between Auckland, New York and Paris. The swift rate of their initial success meant the group’s first practices took place on arena stages supporting the likes of Lorde. And, even though you couldn’t hear it then, in retrospect maybe there was something missing. For ‘Yoncalla’ the band finally recorded together. You can hear it. It’s the sound of a band in room.