-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Yumi Zouma
ALBUM...: EP 1 & 2
GENRE...: Pop
STYLE...: Synthpop, Sophisti-Pop, Bedroom Pop, Dream Pop, Indie Pop
YEAR....: 2015
LABEL...: Cascine
PLACE...: Paris, New York, Christchurch
FORMED..: Christchurch, Canterbury, 18 April 2013
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 777 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 9
SIZE....: 203.07 MB
URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yumi_Zouma
http://yumizouma.com/
http://www.facebook.com/YumiZouma
- TRACKLIST
* EP I *
1 A Long Walk Home For Parted Lovers 3:19
2 Sσlka Gets Her Hopes Up 4:12
3 The Brae 4:16
4 Riquelme 2:44
* EP II *
5 Dodi 4:13
6 Alena 4:39
7 Catastrophe 4:48
8 Second Wave 3:58
9 Song For Zoe & Gwen 4:04
Total Playtime: 36:13
Early career: EP I and EP II (2014-2015)
Founded by Burgess, Ryder, and vocalist Kim Pflaum, the group began writing
music using file sharing services when Burgess left New Zealand to work at
New York-based record label Captured Tracks. The band's first release, EP I,
debuted in early 2014, after the single A Long Walk Home For Parted Lovers
appeared on several blogs before being quickly taken down. The band were
positively reviewed by Pitchfork and profiled by The Guardian, leading to the
group signing with Brooklyn-based record label Cascine. In mid-2014, the band
began playing live, touring with singer Lorde, and collaborating with other
acts, such as Swedish band Air France. Guitarist Sam Perry and vocalist
Christie Simpson joined the group in 2015, while Pflaum left and started the
solo project Madeira (later renamed Laume). The band released a second EP, EP
II, in early 2015, and proceeded to tour extensively throughout Europe, Asia,
and North America, with the likes of Jamie xx and Lower Dens.
*
EP 1
The cover of Yumi Zouma's debut, self-titled EP is a serene headshot of a
feathered-hair woman filtered through a nostalgic lens redolent of the 1980s,
and EP cut "The Brae" shares the same derivation as its visual appendage - an
effortless cascade of echoing riffs and enchanting harmonies converging into
a mirage of dream-pop purity. A sense of cadence smoothes the edges, which
intensifies a mouthful blow of a line such as "Threw me and you screw me and
you fed me to the fishes." The fluidity of "The Brae" is impressive
considering that the band no longer resides in their home of New Zealand,
instead collaborating electronically between New York and Paris and resulting
in a throwback serenade.
-=-=-
The background: Yumi Zouma's music - budget-plush, instantly poignant -
sounds placeless. It could have come from anywhere, and yet it was made
everywhere - or at least in countries as far-flung as France (Charlie Ryder),
America (Josh Burgess) and New Zealand (Kim Pflaum), where the three members
live. It's a very modern way of operating, via Dropbox. They used to live
together in a house in Christchurch, until it was destroyed in the city's
2011 earthquake. They used that terrible event as the impetus to scatter, but
their connection lingers in the songs they file-share into existence. It's
dreampop, only this time there is a good reason for them to be making hazy,
drowsy music - it was often assembled in half-waking states after the demos
arrived across conflicting time zones.
There is no right time for Yumi Zouma, but if there is it's in the past:
their self-titled debut EP (issued by the wonderful Cascine, label-home of
this kind of exquisite fluffy stuff) comprises four tracks, each imbued with
a yearning, a nostalgia - for their time in that house, perhaps - and it
can't help making you feel nostalgic for that period when this cloudy pop,
this chillwave-y funk, was all the rage, around 2009-11. They telegraph this
pervasive nostalgia on the EP sleeve, featuring as it does a headshot of a
young woman with a distinctly '80s feather-cut.
You would never know that Ryder and Burgess (who works in NYC for Captured
Tracks, specifically on the label's Flying Nun catalogue) used to be in NZ
disco-punks Bang! Bang! Eche! They're all about softness, hardly sharing
rock's essential mistrust of the mellifluous, flaunting Pflaum's cut(i)e
vocals, which rarely reach beyond a whisper. If you measure a band's worth,
their ability to convey authentic emotion, by volume and technique, be warned
that Pflaum is more Sarah Cracknell than Sarah Vaughan. Her voice works
perfectly as part of Yumi Zouma's music. The "band" clearly knew what they
were doing from the start because the very first song they wrote, a Long Walk
Home For Parted Lovers - about the ineffability and implausibility of love
but hey, let's keep trying - is a faultless example of the genre that we
shall for the purposes of today's column rechristen serene disco. Sσlka Gets
Her Hopes Up - "about a young Danish girl crushing on a boy", apparently - is
like Patrice Rushen's postdisco classic Forget Me Nots performed by Brooklyn
vegans, the line, "I'll always give it to you honest, I'll always try to
solve your every problem" giving the lie to the idea that dance music can't
explore the vagaries of the human heart. The Brae is the name of the street
where their house in Christchurch was, and it has the airy elegance of a
discofied Fleetwood Mac tune, equal parts Rhiannon and Little Lies. Such is
its varnished production and quality of pristine woe, you would probably
never guess that Riquelme - a song about rapture and regret - started off as
a piano ballad, the vocals originally based on a phone recording, after which
it was pieced together by tired musicians over email. Here's a rare example
of a band we really like that we don't ever want to reunite.
*
EP 2
Originally released in 2015, EP II found the New Zealand band coming into
their own as songwriters, developing their "soft-focus synth-pop" (Pitchfork)
with hints of electronic piano-house pulse ("Alena") and anthemic,
movie-ready choruses ("Catastrophe"). Though the project has since grown
considerably in profile (in 2020 year the band released their third
full-length album Truth or Consequences) , their winsome allure remains.
-=-=-
After the "Alena" and "Song for Zoe & Gwen" singles that dropped in November
and February, respectively, EP II is the third consecutive release from New
Zealand synthpop trio Yumi Zouma to depict a remote outdoor swim in overcast
weather on the cover. It's not misleading; the five tracks on the group's
second EP, out almost exactly one year after the first, suggest a comfortably
lukewarm mist over a stagnant bay, a hot spring, or, yes, a heated outdoor
luxury pool. Simply put, they feel humid.
"Alena", the second track here, even opens with 30 seconds of sampled
rainfall drizzling over the mix. But by the song's finish four minutes later,
Yumi Zouma has stepped in from the rain, dried off, and already made a few
rounds through the club. What started off floating through the fog ends up
firmly on the floor, weighed down by heavy keys and an authoritative pulse.
This has been the young group's game to date: treat the luxurious and the
spiritual as the same breed. Find the common ground between a rain-softened
hiking trail through the mountains and getting down on the dance floor.
Yumi Zouma blends these worlds best on "Catastrophe" and "Song for Zoe &
Gwen". The former harnesses a patently '80s feel with a synth choir
supporting singer Kim Pflaum's shine and a flawless bass line rounding it all
out, while the latter is the record's softest song, fading out a long day of
swimming and dancing into a dream. "Whatever makes your heart beat faster,"
Pflaum sings in a suddenly elevated chorus fragment of "Song for Zoe & Gwen"
- the heartbeat-skip of the EP - and there's no blaming her for doing just
that in the moment.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Dream Pop
is a subgenre of
alternative rock and neo-psychedelia
that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop
melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions,
and effects such as reverb, echo, tremolo, and chorus. It often
overlaps with the related genre of shoegaze, and the
two genre terms have at times been
used interchangeably.
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