ZULUZULUU follow up their debut What's The Price EP with a ten song collection of covers with The Cover-Up, art by Michael Cina.
Picked to Click 2016: ZULUZULUU are Minnesota's best new music act
ZULUZULUU are tired of the conversation.
On single “Fades,” amid astral synths and kaleidoscopic guitars, the group hits listeners with a refrain of “You’re asking all the wrong questions.”
“If we can get everybody to stop asking bullshit questions, what will the questions be?” Greg Grease ponders in an interview with City Pages.
Grease and his bandmates — Proper T, Trelly Mo, MMYYKK, DJ Just Nine, ∆RT P∆RTÉ — form the self-dubbed “producer supergroup” from Minneapolis. Together, they sliced through the bullshit with a question of their own: What’s the Price?That’s the title of the sextet’s synth-funk debut, released in June. The seven-track album is a cosmic fusion of funk, soul, rap, and rock that syphons influence from its creators’ respective solo projects. It’s also a conduit for ZULUZULUU’s message.
“What is the price? To live, to succeed, whatever,” Grease asks. “What’s the price for a young black man’s life? What do I gotta do to live? Is there an actual number? Am I supposed to pay something? Is this a rhetorical question?”
What’s the Price? doesn’t provide heavy-handed answers. Instead, it’s a psychedelically grooving exploration of ideas, of vibes.
“I definitely believe we captured something special,” Trelly Mo says of the LP. “It’s like you’re taking a snapshot of the time — the right here, the right now — and just presenting that to people in a creative way.”
ZULUZULUU’s creative process is as smooth as their rhythms. Most of the crew grew up as friends in south Minneapolis, and serious music-making began early. By sixth grade, Proper T was channeling his Neptunes obsession into his own beats. Come high school, Trelly Mo had routine studio access. “My earliest, most significant memories of being an actual serious musician is with these dudes,” notes Proper T.
That chemistry is all over What’s the Price? This is not a buzz band learning to master their craft on the fly. “We definitely weren’t internet sensations or anything like that — our shit’s very grassroots,” says Grease, himself a Picked to Click finalist in 2013.
“Listening is very important for us,” MMYYKK says. “We all have our own personal ears for music, [but] it’s not a competition; it’s a listening game.”
ZULUZULUU agree the studio is an ego-free zone, one that Trelly Mo likens to a kitchen. And no, even with six experienced producers, there aren’t too many cooks.
“We’re all cooking, makin’ some gumbo,” he laughs, dipping into a delicious metaphor. “It’s flavor, man. It’s about seeing what you might be able to sprinkle on top — you don’t wanna overpower it.”
The band describes the end product as “high-value black art.” While artistry runs deep with ZULUZULUU, so does business savvy. The guys “constantly” talk about their place and timing within the music landscape, locally and worldwide.
“I think the Twin Cities is a seedbank, and the rest of the world is water,” Grease muses. “There’s tons of amazing artists here; we’re spoiled here because we get a lot of local support. [But] we don’t need everybody here to rock with us, we need the water of the world. We need the industry.”
And the industry could very well take notice, especially considering the track records of recent Picked to Click winners like Lizzo (2013), Allan Kingdom (2014), and Bad Bad Hats (2015). But careerism isn’t the motivating force behind ZULUZULUU — they’re ruddered by Afrofuturism, which Grease describes as “the development and growth of black excellence.”
“It’s a continued elevation,” he says. “We have to be conscious of it. That’s who we are.”
http://www.citypages.com/music/picked-to-click-2016-no-1-zuluzuluu/400451461
Frequencies Artist Talk with ZULUZULUU and artist/designer Michael Cina at Green House
2524 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404-4248, United States
PREMIERE: ASTRALBEAT THEORIES PART 3 BY GREG GREASE OF ZULUZULUU
words by Eamon Whalen
What does it mean to live free? On the eve of an election day with truly horrid stakes, this question is at the center of Greg Grease's installment of the AstralBeat Theories, the third in a series of solo EPs by members of Grease's Minneapolis outfit ZULUZULUU.
Over the span of five tracks, Grease precisely twists syllables over understated soulful production with a working-mans humility. Through anecdotes and diary-page-like personal dilemmas, his verses take the form of both thoughtful meditations and critical diatribes on Black life, and death in America. And he does what the best art often does, ask more questions than offer answers. Namely, how do you live free when the larger social forces seem hellbent on shortening your life expectancy at all costs?
On the introduction Grease looks to the elders for wisdom, sampling the legendary politically-outspoken comedian Dick Gregory. In so many words, Gregory says that living free means to live without fear, and to maintain that your light shines brighter than the terror brought on by the dark forces of power, what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the plague of western civilization," the "triple-prong sickness" of racism, materialism and militarism. -Greenroom Magazine
ZULUZULUU's AstralBeat Theories Series
ZuluZuluu's Astral Beat Series
One of the most exciting groups in the Twin Cities right now, ZULUZULUU is a collaboration of established solo artists. The band — who, as they told City Pages earlier this year, “try to focus our music towards empowerment, being socially conscious, and being aware of inequities and speaking out” — generated buzz with live shows before finally releasing their debut album, June’s What’s the Price? While their sound is not easily categorized, they do warrant comparisons to other inventive artists — George Clinton’s groundbreaking funk, Prince & Co.’s Minneapolis Sound, and Shabazz Palaces’ abstract rap. Album highlights include the band’s cover of Syreeta’s Stevie Wonder-penned “Black Maybe” and the especially funky “Fades.” Thursday marks the start of the group’s month-long Astral Beat series at Icehouse, which is slated to feature special guests and be “an exploration of sonic innovations” with “new dimensions of sound each week.” Proper-T serves as the featured ZULUZULUU member for the first show, to be followed by MMYYKK, Greg Grease, and the full band for the second, third, and fourth shows.
by Michael Madden
OCT. 27th / NOV. 3rd / NOV. 11th / NOV. 23rd
$7
ELECTRO POP, EXPERIMENTAL, FUNK, JAZZ, R&B, SOUL
http://www.citypages.com/calendar/zuluzuluus-astral-beat-series/398425681