Zuli - Lambda - LP
05/07/2024
SUB056
Subtext Recordings
Artist:
Zuli
Label:
Subtext Recordings
Version Description:
Black Vinyl
Sound Carrier:
1LP
Barcode:
5060928190363
ZULI's widest-reaching and most ambitious album to date, 'Lambda' is a conspicuous left turn for the Berlinbased Egyptian producer. Draped in gauzy, granulated textures and woven with enigmatic vocal flourishes from collaborators MICHAELBRAILEY, Coby Sey and Abdullah Miniawy, it's a vivid, soul-searching set of polychromatic reflections that sets fire to the boundaries between ambient, trip-hop, industrial music, chamber pop and symphonic noise.
In some aspects, 'Lambda' reveals ZULI's softer side; gone are the earth-shaking chopped rhythms and stopstart outbursts of corroded static that characterised his last full length, 'Digla Dive - Live'. But peer beneath the brain burrowing vocal melodies, mangled instrumental loops, anxious poems and subtle, harmonic synth washes and a new kind of intensity lurks in the shadows.
Since his early releases on Lee Gamble's UIQ label and
his 2018 breakout 'Trigger Finger', ZULI has notched up
major global acclaim for his futuristic, kinetic musical
diversions. He cut his teeth supplying beats to local
rappers back home in Cairo, soon shifting his attention to
the city's burgeoning dance underground, promoting
events, DJing prolifically and tirelessly supporting the
scene's most experimental fringe. In 2019, ZULI teamed
up with Rama to curate the irsh series of video
transmissions, evolving the project into a label shortly
afterwards. And now situated in Berlin, the duo have
extended the concept to encompass an ongoing sequence
of genre-averse club nights. All this experience and
constant creative motion is etched into the foundations of
'Lambda'. It's an album that plays liberally with
euphoria, but feels constantly precarious, intrepidly
peering out from its tense internal world.