As you might expect from a Bristol band founded by Mauritian and Japanese musicians, there’s an all-embracing eclecticism to Zun Zun Egui. Recorded with Andrew Hung (Fuck Buttons), Shackles’ Gift is a percussive, primal collection, and an assured surge forward from 2011’s promising debut, Katang. This is the kind of band that can only really fit into the ‘difficult to categorise’ category.
While shorter and more immediate songs like Africa Tree and Ruby ride along on a buzzing energy of yelping vocals, funk-fuelled guitars and African percussion, the longer tracks benefit from looser, slower rhythms and more tempered vocals. The sensual, heaving Soul Scratch is built on the foundations of the Mauritian genre of seggae, a fusion of reggae and traditional sega music. The shuddering funk of I Want You To Know gradually emerges from the shadows to a call-and-response climax. Also chalking up over six minutes, closer City Thunder sees frontman Kushal Gaya pull back a bit on the vocal front and laments “Sometimes I worry I left my country” over a dreamy bed of dubbed-out instrumentation. Set within the band’s constantly shifting rhythms, this yearning from an adopted home to a birthplace (where the music gets much of its roots) sums up the band’s diverse and invigorating appeal.
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
