13 December 2024 - 0 Comments

Zuke, the electronic project of producer and synth wizard Ed Zuccollo, has released its highly anticipated debut album, Come Closer.

LISTEN HERE

Ed Zuccollo has honed his skills as a live musician while immersed in the vibrant music scene of New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington. Under his alias Zuke, his genre-fluid, instrumental productions have been extensively road-tested on festival sound systems across the country.

Described as “an exploratory journey into the physicality of deep bass, with a taste for the cinematic”, Come Closer is a kaleidoscope of sounds, textures, rhythms and moods. Elements of jungle, dubstep, downtempo, house, and environmental field recordings fuse, creating a dynamic blend of melodic beauty and powerful bass.

“This album is a collection of tunes from the last 6 years that I felt went together in terms of a cosmic cinematic feel, density of layers, and journey-like forms.” -Zuke

The album opener, Ice Bear, highlights Zuke's signature style. It features an epic, beatless intro that intensifies before delivering a powerful drop, where stuttered drum breaks collide with a deep bassline. The 10-minute title track, Come Closer, explores Moog synth bass layered under a half-time house beat, transitioning into a second movement that spotlights Zuccollo’s musical prowess with an improvised Minimoog solo.

How We Met brings a classic downtempo vibe with lush ambient Rhodes chords and a hint of acid, while much of the album inhabits a genre-fluid space akin to electronic artists like Rival Consoles, Jon Hopkins, Max Cooper, and Djrum.

Tracks like Hyperion and Voyager allude to jungle and leftfield bass influences without fully settling into either genre. Hazel Tales and Xul, inspired by 140 bpm UK bass, offer a richer melodic texture than traditional dubstep.

Pillars of Creation starts with a melodic motif but reaches beyond conventional boundaries. The album concludes evocatively with Time, an ambient piece featuring a lyrical melodic performance on the Minimoog. The album showcases Zuke's full artistry, with meticulous attention to detail in composition, sound design, and artwork - the latter crafted through Zuccollo’s photographic experiments with light and smoke.

Zuke’s debut album Come Closer, released on Loop Recordings Aot(ear)oa, features nine carefully selected tracks from an extensive archive of recordings. Expect more releases to follow in 2025 as Zuke continues to explore new sonic territories.

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