Founded in Brussels by the brothers Yvan and Alban Murenzi, YellowStraps has been nurturing a unique neo-soul blend that caresses the senses for nearly 10 years now, proudly championned by the bubbling Belgian rap scene (Romeo Elvis, Le Motel, L’Or du Commun, etc.). With Tentacle, the duo turns into a solo act (Alban leaves, Yvan stays) and pushes the boundaries without denying the DNA at its core. YellowStraps grows tenfold.
Tentacle was built by Yvan in this absence, between the will to crystalize a continuation (say MERCI to the past) and explore new horizons. He digs further into his vocal abilities (in English but also in French), both in terms of vocal technique, giving his toplines depth and finesse, and in the manipulation of electronic effects (like autotune that had been up until now rejected “for the wrong reasons”). Most importantly, he got back into production (it had become Alban’s playing field), alone or with a couple of close friends, like Jad El Alam, his manager, or Victor Defoort, his bass player. “I enjoy working as a close team, because we can all bring something to the table without compromising the creative direction. What I’m looking for is extremely precise in my mind”.
Among those creative guidelines is a desire for something ever increasingly hybrid (it’s been there since discovering King Krule at the very start of the band), blending-in Rock influences of his youth with tropisms of R&B, Neo-Soul and Electronica. It’s a quest for “indescribable emotions” that wanders through melodic writing and experimentation. “I’ve spent days working on certain sounds and structures that weren’t conventional, like a mad scientist in his lab. It was a way of marking my territory, redefining the boundaries of what YellowStraps was to me”.