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No Zu – Afterlife

A listing from my quarterly Guardian column 'Music You Missed', April 2016


Deep in the throng of an early 90s Athens disco, men in puffy sleeves are playing sax. There are Latin American percussive jams, shouty female vocals a la the B-52’s or ESG and styles that swerve from acid house to Italo house. Mashed up, but spaced-out, No Zu are the fusion you’ve been craving since your crop top, hot pants and whistle were laid to rest.

The “heat beat” of this visionary Melbourne eight-piece celebrates a bygone era of clubbing. Unlike a lot of referential music, No Zu are possessed by the past instead of scholars of it – so their dance music is heady and hedonistic, first, and clever, second. Somewhere in the euphoria they raise themes of multiculturalism, colonialism, Australiana and body image – but they don’t know where to put them. Are they pro? Anti? On the rabbit-proof-fence? No matter. Their show at Golden Plains was wild and woozy and the lyrics chanted by Becky Sui Zhen and Daphne Camf resonated with feminist ‘tude. “You follow, with your eyes / Don’t you follow, evil eye.”

Feature track: Ui Yia Uia


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My name is Kate Hennessy. I am a freelance arts and travel writer and music critic. I contribute to Guardian Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Wire (UK), NME and more.

Latest posts

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    February 17, 2022
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    January 8, 2022
  • ‘An inscrutable and open-ended riddle’: the life and art of Jeffrey Smart

    December 11, 2021
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