Album review: Zulu – A New Tomorrow

By DAN SOUTHALL

ZULU began as the one man side-project of vocalist Anaiah Zei before organically growing into a band and releasing a couple of EPs. A New Tomorrow is this band’s first album proper, covering almost every genre known to music as they waste little time getting to whatever point it is they are making with each blazing moment.

A New Tomorrow kicks off with the relative calm of the orchestral and dreamy “Africa” before jumping headlong into hardcore, powerviolence, reggae and grind in the following three tracks, seamlessly blending 70s soul into “Music To Driveby”, each in under one and a half minutes, creating a gleeful claustrophobia with their scatter gun approach.

The funk and soul of the majestic “Shine Eternally” evens out the harsh grind of its two preceding tracks and eases the listener into the thought provoking interlude “Must I Only Share My Pain”.  A New Tomorrow is after all an album centred around the treatment of Black Americans even now in modern society, asking questions that really shouldn’t have to asked in these ‘modern’ times.

The musical violence continues with limited twists and turns until “Crème de Cassis by Aleisia Miller and Precious Tucker” presses the themes of the album through a poem spoken over a chaotic blues piano riff, leading straight into the funk rap of “We’re More Than This”, adding further fuel to the fire.

I enjoy finding new music and new bands, even if they are similar in genre, if they are doing something that makes them stand out from the crowd.  Zulu are just such a band, and this album is everything from traditional hardcore to jazz with added death metal influence just for kicks. If you too yearn for something different amongst your daily listening habits you can’t go wrong with A New Beginning, with every short sharp jab here and the positivity it still possesses within its depiction of the Black Amercian experience.