You might recall a quite prominent blip on the ol’ CULTURED VULTURES musical radar recently, a blip that sounded a lot like a SINGLE OF THE WEEK worthy kind of blip. An observation that was entirely astute as said blip, NOTHIN’ BUT FIX BY ZUU MUSIC, was in fact a Single of the Week RECENTLY. Funny that. Well, for all those who felt safe that the blip had dropped off the radar, be afraid. The blip is back, and this time more significantly so. In fact, this time it’s packing heat.
Subculture is the debut EP from ZUU Music, and it certainly keeps the promise that ‘Nothin’ But Fix’ made – also included among the five tracks on offer here. However, there’s even more on display here, sonically, than the already impressive ‘Nothin’ But Fix’ with its laidback rise and fall euphoria; like watching the tide from the beach on a summer’s day – if the tide was playing skittering instrumental synthpop atop hip hop beats deep house vibes and underneath smoothly sexy jazz, instead of making that gentle csshhhhh sound it normally makes.
As I mentioned in that Single of the Week feature, the Music that is ZUU works on the principles of glitch hop, loop music, and sample-based electronica, except that all samples were pre-recorded with live musicians (drums, sax, bass, flute, guitar, piano, the works) creating original hip hop breaks, before being chop-shopped Frankenstein style into the tracks we have here. Nowhere is this more evident, perhaps, than on the EP’s titular opening track with its piano stab progressions and jittering, block-rocking-beat bass, coming across like cut’n’paste, paranoid funk as it interlocks with glitchy synths.
Aside from the production skills on display, and the obviously musical talent that went into creating the source material for much of Subculture, what’s really impressive is the range of style and tone that comes through in just five tracks, when you compare a song like ‘Boom-Trip’ with its tension building loops, head spinning noise, Action Bronson bar sampling, and expansive spaced out and dubbed out coda, to the schiz-funk of ‘Subculture’ or the sunset come-up of ‘Nothin’ But Fix’, they’re all very different mechanical animals, but there’s a unity that remains between it all.
Something which is perhaps best exemplified by ‘/ɛɡzɪˈstÉ›nʃəl/’ (try and fucking pronounce that mind), as it holds a little bit of all the tracks that went before it; there’s a driving glitch hop beat, ambient pianos, rising tension, falling release, a sprinkle of twinkling euphoria, that sexy as fuck twilight sax again, pitched vocals, and liberal amounts of that dub element. Then the EP signs off with ‘The Boss (ZUU Remix)’, and who doesn’t want a bit of James Brown jam in their life? It’s yet another track that manages contrasting vibes, uses them simultaneously, and does it expertly so; strutting funk, horizon gazing chill out, soulful jazz hop, glitchy electro, ambient euphoria, and more.
Looking at the sun coming in through my window, I can’t help but think that this EP couldn’t have dropped at a better time; it’s hard not to picture seaside sunsets. Seeing as I currently reside by the seaside, that might be influencing me, or it might just be the soundtrack I need. Have a listen, download it for free, or donate to keep ZUU Music making the music that’s ZUU. I advise the latter.
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