NO ZU - Afterlife

If you've ever seen old clips of Dick Clark's American Bandstand from the '60s, you'll recall that Clark would briefly interview some of the teenagers in attendance after spinning a new song, and asking them what they thought of it.  The most typical response was something equivalent to "I like it - it has a good beat and I can dance to it".  One wonders what those interviewees, probably in their 70s at this point, would make of Melbourne's NO ZU, because NO ZU is all about the beat.  And NO ZU's beat music is earthy, exotic, sexy, inventive -- they call it 'heat beat' -- and not very much like the music Dick Clark played.

How different? I'm glad you asked, because it is time to find out for yourself.  This Friday, February 5, Chapter Music will release Afterlife, containing eight tracks of NO ZU's polyrhythmic global music, emphasizing percussion and completely club-ready.  And riding the percussion are distinctive male/female vocals, jazzy frills and funk horns.  It most probably is like nothing you've heard before, but chances are it will end up on your permanent playlist.

Of course, we wouldn't suggest you buy without trying the goods, so we've included some clips below.  And we strongly suggest the wonderfully bizarre video for standout song "Ui Yia Uia".  You may decide to buy this album just to have that song and a couple of others available for your party mix.  You won't be the only one.

NO ZU are Nicolaaas Oogjes, Andrew Noble, Adrian Vecino, Mitch McGregor, Daphne Camf, Kieran O'Shea, Cayn Borthwick, and Becky Sui Zhen.  Additional credits go to Nao Anzai, Adrian Tregonning, Sal Principato, Maria Minerva, Margarita Strateas, and Luke Hodgson, presumably because you can never have too many people contributing to your heat beat.  And given the results, who can argue?






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Bandcamp for Afterlife
Chapter Music page for Afterlife