With the two EPs Our Day Will Come and My People… Hold On have Zulu cultivated their glorious collage of samples in the binder of metalcore and powerviolence, now they stretch the concept A New Tomorrow in album length.
Since Anaiah Lei Zulu Founded in 2018 as a solo project, which was later joined not only by guitarist Braxton Marcellous, but also by Dez Yusuf, bassist Satchel Brown and drummer Christine Cadette, the formula of the current band is as simple as it is obviously polarizing – and it remains so A New Tomorrow also: A (often only short, tension-building) harassment to let the pit escalate, a stylistically distant sample borrowed from soul, funk, jazz or R&B or a corresponding interpolarization in the abrupt fall is attached (For Sista Humphrey bludgeons regarding to a fuzzy prancing vintage pop finale; Our Day Is Now rumbles aggressive blastbeats as a downbeat roller to reggae; Music to Driveby counters the Deathcore wrecking ball with smooth R&B; Lyfe Az a Shorty Shun B So Ruff makes the slam dance hit the brakes so radically to switch to the exhilarating singalong coming out of the airwaves), although the hardcore aspect and its songwriting is strictly speaking not particularly imaginative or original, nor compositionally thought through to the end (or because of the goals). must be), because usually simply stepping on the brake pedal of the heaviness is supposed to provide the necessary dynamics.
Which of course in itself can seem like a clusterfuck that prefers to go the cheap way of mindfucking instead of the way of formulated completeness. In fact, however, any substantial weaknesses are offset by the MO and its meta strength. In which Zulu from a mixture Turnstile, Bad Brains or Soul Glo on Code Orange-Steroiden u.a. Curtis Mayfield, The ImpressionsMartin Luther King Jr, Main Source or Bob Marley (directly or indirectly) into their songs, they provoke a kind of friction between the socio-political content and a historical sense of tradition and charge the cultural background, fight for the synergy between the past and the present from their own perspective and a sense of community, leave the kaleidoscope in a suddenly erratic but astonishingly homogeneous flow.
After the chamber music-like, dreamily awakening opener jingling with strings Africa show attacks like Where I’m From (as Call and Response guest list with Pierce Jordan & Obioma Ugonna throwing balls of nagging-roaring, scraping concrete under enormous muscle tension), Fakin‘ tha Funk (You Get Did) or the riff brutality 52 Fatal Strikes (with Paris Roberts) a thoroughly closed tour. Divine Intervention expires as a more contemplative tirade and From tha Gods to Earth weaves in forgiving tones that go directly into the piano monologue Créme De Cassis by Aleisia Miller & Precious Tucker and on to the slightly funky relaxed rap snoozing We’re More Than This. Shine Eternally starts like a smooth yacht lounge relaxation in summer and the interlude Must I Only Share My Pain hallucinogenic repeats his title.
And Who Jah Bless No One Curse even resolves his post-hardcore tendencies with melodic banter including a forgiving tribal tabla chant, as if to underline that everything makes sense here, even if the details can still be tweaked, because A New Tomorrow without the sum of its parts no new era can start.
similar posts
Print article
