Zun Zun Egui: Katang

Bristol quartet Zun Zun Egui’s debut long-player Katang bursts into one’s consciousness with a brilliant flourish of intercontinental flamboyance and a splash of colour similar to the record’s cover. In Katang, a record named after an ethnic group of people living in Laos, Zun Zun Egui deliver a proper rollercoaster ride and give off the impression that they might just as easily be a bunch of African witch doctors as four working class Bristolians.

Frontman Kushal Gaya is as eccentric as any going around and his effervescent delivery, ranging from unintelligible falsetto yelps to calculated deep croons, helps give the impression that the record could easily have been made in the West African Highlife scene of the 1980s. Opener Katang comes off a little like Tyondai Braxton-era Battles, with skittering polyrhythms and rapid, jangly guitars bouncing around the mix. There is some seriously accomplished guitar work here from Gaya, who belies the spontaneity of the track’s ambience by displaying control and mastery over his instrument.

The cacophonous flourish of Transport begins and ends with segues so natural it almost seems like Katang is a live record. On the lengthy psychedelic expedition Mr. Brown the band let things breathe a little and the cool jazz drumming tendencies of Matthew Jones come to the fore. The track breaks down in the middle, leaving Luke Mosse’s bass guitar to sit alongside Gaya’s rant, before evolving and finishing in a different direction entirely. It is these aspects that give Katang its allure – the band never allow one idea to stagnate and keep things constantly changing up, in turn demanding the listener’s attention. Cowboy epitomises this approach – its dynamic, rapid-fire arrangement brims with vibrancy and vitality.

Shogun is the record’s mellowest track – led by effect laden synths from Yoshino Shigihara and augmented by laidback, atmospheric guitars from Gaya, it is also probably its most enjoyable. Lead single Fandango Fresh takes its cues from Battles’ Ice Cream, and while its infectiously catchy hook involves Gaya babbling on about sexy worms, one can never really tell what it’s actually about. Dance Of The Crickets showcases Gaya’s vocals in a more conventional format, and when its lush, reverb-soaked guitars enter the fray, the band are truly able to show off their ear for a great pop song.

The first half of Twist My Head is the most stripped-back moment of the record, with Gaya’s aching croon backed by a solitary plucked guitar and creating a haunting blues vibe. The second half of the track incorporates ethereal vocal harmonies and flourishes of keyboard and guitar, while Sirocco explores the band’s mellower side once again. Sombre and subdued, Sirocco allows Gaya to exhibit his blues-inflected guitar tones over a minimalist backdrop of brushed drums, exploring Jeff Buckley-esque vocal registers later in the track, which for about a minute there almost uncannily recalls Buckley’s rendition of Lilac Wine. Closer Heart In A Jar combines Foals-like scuttling guitars with falsetto vocal embellishments, Japanese progressive metal rapidity and a Nigerian juju ambiance.

At times it’s almost unbelievable that everything here is being made by just four musicians, and even while Katang affords Zun Zun Egui the luxury of a studio environment, their live shows are every bit as energy-filled and hyperactive, proving their sonic capabilities are very much genuine. But the biggest thing Katang has going for it is that it is almost impossible not to be excited by it, such is the intense vitality and buoyant spirit that runs throughout the record.

Katang is one of those rare cases when style is put before substance – try to work out what Gaya is even saying half the time as he creates technicolour cultural melange of real and invented languages – but it doesn’t matter one iota. The lyrics are almost beside the point – the sense of joy in tracks like the title track and ‘Fandango Fresh’ is easy to be swept up in and provides a catharsis of the opposite kind to most contemporary music, the lyrics of which are too often preoccupied with darkness and gloom. And it is for that reason that Katang is the medicine we should all be prescribed.

Source: Fasterlouder.com.au