Zun Zun Egui
From Bristol, UK, everywhere and nowhere comes the wildfire sound of Zun Zun Egui, blazing a trail through 2012.
Formed in the libertine and verdant undergrowth of Bristol's cultural side streets (members Kushal Gaya and Yoshino Shigihara first met at an improv session at notorious DIY cinema The Cube Microplex), Zun Zun Egui started out playing up and down the UK to hardcore and party crowds ready to be let loose by music. They self-released a limited editon CD-R and then, on the back of a snowballing word-of-mouth live reputation, started to invited to play shows all over the world from festivals, squat cafes, hotel lobbies and vast art centres and other unlikely spaces. Meanwhile they recorded two white-hot slabs of 12" vinyl at their Bristol based studio lair for Blank Tapes. Always with a desire to connect, ZZE and Qu Junktions cooked up their own colourful club night called "How Come..." in Bristol and had tour mates like The Ex and Sun Araw pull up and play as well as Micachu And The Shapes, Krar Collective and AJ Holmes. Last year Zun Zun Egui dreamt up their debut album proper, and it's one to savour. Recorded in the Welsh wilds, 'Katang' was released on Bella Union in autumn 2011 with singles in advance and a score of remixes from artists including Shangaan Electro, Sun Araw and Bass Clef.
Having toured Europe around Katang's release, Zun Zun blew a storm into Vietnam in November, playing two killer shows in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. This is a band with a penchant for rocking the outer reaches...live ZZE tune in and then explode, all angles, taking the audience with them. Wild multi-lingual vocal incantations and splenetic, world-wise guitar licks mingle with zig-zag splashes of
keyboard colour, while heavy, heavy bass and drums offer the crucial undertow that commits any foot with feeling to the dance. Sometimes the songs never end, sometime they are short and sweet. This summer sees them grace their biggest festival stages yet.
Zun Zun Egui are:
Kushal Gaya - vocals/guitar
Matthew Jones - drums
Yoshino Shigihara - keyboards/backing vocals/artwork
PRESS QUOTES
"This Anglo-Mauritian-Japanese "tropical thrash" four-piece feel like a real one-off - crossing scenes as well as genres, sucking in everything from Fugazi to Fela Kuti to the Boredoms, and arriving at some kind of arty- party psych-punk Shangri-La" The Guardian
"An explosive abundance of ideas ... an alluringly wonky new style of free-form party rock" - Uncut
"Strikingly original... These frenetic Bristolians push the envelope of even their home city's cosmopolitan musical heritage. And when Katang's exotic jazz-thrash attack suddenly coalesces into more traditional pop and rock song-structures the effect is truly thrilling".
MOJO - 4 Stars ****
"On stage and at their best, Zun Zun Egui combine the fury and speedy neurosis of a metal band with a sense of contagious fun. Although they're after working the audience into a state of something approaching trance, their method and madness are light rather than dark, elevating the spirits rather than plunging them into iron- clad doom." - The Arts Desk
