(image via xlr8r.com)
Artist of the Quarter of the Year: NGUZUNGUZU
I admit that when I discovered the proper way to pronounce NGUZUNGUZU (“n’GOO-zoo n’GOO-zoo”) I was disappointed. When all I had to go by was hypertext and metadata it was easy to imagine they’d magically sliced an instant from Yellowman’s seminal “Zungguzungguzungguzeng” chant and gave us all the privilege of existing there forever(!).
Just try to say it like King Yellow, and then try to stop: you cannot, and do not want to.
(This brings up the fact of the Nguzu Nguzu being an actual physical/cultural artifact, yanking our perception out of the elated temporal abruptly into the crude physical. BOO.)
(image via thefader.com)
Anyway, they‘re from LA and the only music they make is merely a by-product of their main gig, which is being awesome DJ’s. Check out the mix they curated for DIS Magazine, “The Perfect Lullaby”, where they combine the icy sexiness of ’00s RnB—Ciara, Kells, et al.—with zouk, which is a French-Carribean strain of dancehall (fact!), kind of like reggaeton en français but lower b.p.m.’s and actual basslines (supposition). You can pump yourself up to this, you can get down to this, or you can fall asleep to this: it is night bus par excellence. The club/the world, taste, versatility: NGUZU have all of 2011’s key-points on lock.
More, please.
