As the year draws to a close, we picked our favourite Albums of 2024.
Tag Archives: ZA!
ZA! + Perrate to release collaborative album, Jolifanto; listen to second single ‘La Milonga’
Wonderful news from one of our favourite outfits, Catalan high-energy duo ZA!. They have joined forces with Andalusian Flamenco singer Perrate for a collaborative album. Entitled Jolifanto, it is a meeting of minds between two powerful musical forces from distante corners of Spain, who embrace experimentalism and radicalism. Rooted in the Dadaist spirit, Jolifanto takes its name from Hugo Ball’s seminal phonetic poem Karawane, which was first recited at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916.
Jolifanto arrives on March 22nd through Lovemonk and they have unleashed a new single called ‘La Milonga’. Epitomizing the bold fusion they have in store for us, ‘La Milonga’ begins with Perrate’s raw and stripped-back vocals and guitar before seamlessly transitioning into a vocoder-laden exploration, aptly described as “an Iberian Lemon Jelly for the enlightened”. Perrate comments:
“I don’t care what the most radical traditionalist minds may think of this or any other work I do. This is my time and I intend to live it according to my way of feeling and living flamenco – my ancestors had a lot to do with the birth of this culture, and each of them created according to their feelings and their time. And I do the same.”
Take a listen to ‘La Milonga’ below.
Mixtape #145
Rosin de Palo are double bassist Samuel Azorín and drummer Mario Vidal, two incredible and adventurous musicians who have been shaking up the music scene in their native Spain and elsewhere. Classically trained, and drawing from wildly divergent genres such as funk, jazz, hard rock, dub, pop and electronica, Rosin de Palo’s music is wild, joyous, free, exhilarating and incredibly fun. The pair have earned a reputation for their scorching, visceral and powerful live performances. Last year they released their stellar debut, Lo que dura un recreo, which made it our Album Picks of 2022. So we're thrilled they put together this mix for us, unfurling nearly an hour of musical treats. Enjoy!
- Los Manises – La Encanta
[Montgri] - Mainline Magic Orchestra – Xumba Xumba
[Public Possession] - Playback Maracas – Las Palmas
[El Segell Del Primavera] - toe – Music For You
[Machu Picchu Industrias / Topshelf Records] - Battles – The Yabba
[Warp] - BADBADNOTGOOD – Lavender
[Innovative Leisure Records] - TNGHT – Clever Pants
[Warp / LuckyMe] - Compay Segundo – Lágrimas Negras
[Gasa / Nonesuch] - ZA! – Súbeme el Monitor
[Gandula / Discorporate Records] - Vampire Weekend – Finger Back
[XL Recordings] - Difícil Equilibrio – Reacción en Cadena
[Difícil Records / Musea] - Acácia Maior – Catá Borré
[Tabanka Records] - I Monster – Heaven
[Dharma Records]
Cast the Dice 2018 Album Picks
As the year draws to a close, we picked our favourite Albums of 2018.
ZA!’s new album Pachinko Plex out this Friday
High-energy duo ZA! have been garnering something of a cult following in their native Spain, owing to their ecstatic and unpredictable live shows and the wild experimental nature of their music spanning genres far and wide. Two years removed from the release of Loloismo, the pair are dropping its follow-up, Pachinko Plex, this Friday. Entirely self-recorded in their practice space, the record sees Spazzfrica Ehd and Papa duPau, the two multi-instrumentalists who make up ZA!, embrace and experiment with new sounds and instruments. “The band breaks free of the guitar and the amps to focus on electronic textures, synthesizers, randomized computer loops and drums processed live through triggers”, describes the album’s blurb. “The result generates an equally forceful and polyrhythmic style, but unclassifiable, highly influenced by their tours in Japan and Mozambique.”
For a taster of the what they’ll be throwing at us, check out their single ‘Ochate’. It comes with a fitting kaleidoscopic video, originally fruit of a collaboration with Berlin-based visual artist LASAL during a recent residency at Keroxen in the Canary Islands.
Pachinko Plex is co-released on May 11th through ZA’s own imprint Gandula as well as A Tant Rêver du Roi (France), Valve (Australia, Fun in the Church (Germany, Austria Switzerland), The Audacious Art Experiment (UK), Lovers & Lollypops (Portugal), Moorworks (Japan), Keroxen (Canàries).
Mixtape #70 by Za!
Spazzfrica Ehd (drums/keyboards/vocals) and Papa duPau (guitar/trumpet/samples/vocals) are the restless pair behind the experimental punk outfit Za!. Hailing from Barcelona, their euphorically inventive music defies conventions, seamlessly blending so many different genres that we would quickly run out of space trying to list them here. And the good thing is we don't have to since this month's mixtape, put together by the band, is probably the best illustration of the duo's far flung influences and disregard for boundaries. Enjoy the ride!
