Zun Zun Egui - Bal La Poussiere EP

Following the prolonged attentions of several prominent independent labels, the hotly-tipped Zun Zun Egui are about to release their debut three-track EP on Blank Tapes. Compared to everyone from Can to Mars Volta to Fugazi to Funkadelic and beyond, the band are based in Bristol’s Montpelier district, and the city’s bass-heavy loose-jointed culture has seeped deep into their collective musical organs –  but their roots spread literally around the globe, with members hailing from Mauritius and Japan. The ZZE sound is greedily omnivorous – not just juju and Beefheart, but Fugazi blooming in the tropicalia hothouse, krautrock drifting on the nightwaves of Mauritian seggae; from death metal to the Dead, via the urban orchids of no wave. Like rubbing ‘Fools Gold’ and finding it’s the real thing, this is music to dance to in a new century, where minds and asses run away in unified freedom. Zun Zun Egui conjure up bona fide rebel music that is full of body, raw in spirit and totally free of precedent. A heavy, heavy dance band, they fire up mighty, eternal grooves worthy of some dust-caked Lagos street jam, but don’t just settle for that : tropical melodies, thrilling stop-start time switches, scorching psychedelics and robust underground rock flourishes are gathered up as the momentum swells towards frenzied, ecstatic finales. East African guitar practice is inflamed by multi-lingual incantations, while sinuous prog rock gets a big bass undertow. It’s roll and roll, a rainbow blaze of rhythm and sound that pulls both the rockers and the writhers into its heart. Evolving with every show, ZZE devour hard-edged psychedelia, vocal operatics, and epic riffs alongside those transcendent tropical grooves and east African guitar shapes that leave a dancefloor wired and hot for more. Zun Zun Egui have been heating the feet of audiences from Sweden to France and all across the UK, as well as running their own sell-out monthly night at the Croft in Bristol. In April they played the Royal Festival Hall as guests of David Byrne, have spent a frantic summer stealing scenes and wowing crowds at festivals like Greenman and End Of The Road, and in late september play a 10 date UK tour making merry with their hypnotic blare out sound as main support to Fuck Buttons. “Imagine King Sunny Ade’s ‘Ja Funmi’ as reinterpreted by Beefheart and The Magic Band. Repeated cells of joyous juju groove and a hefty dose of ink mathematics, topped off [by] exultant singing in tongues.” – The Wire … “The real deal. A fiery creole of afrofunk, krautrock and ecstatic no wave noise. All three tracks are a riot.’ – Uncut … “A sound that should be impossible to conjour with four people, two guitars, keys and drums. It’s immense, leaning from Cuban jazz with a noise skronk to a heavy afrobeat, which recalls late-period Fugazi at their most freeform." - Drowned In Sound …  “24 hours ago, we knew nothing about Zun Zun Egui, whereas now we're likely to spend the rest of the year telling everyone we meet to go and see 'em. They are the Mars Volta wrestling with the Boredoms, and they've just made this weekend a whole lot more interesting.” – The Fly.

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