What is the Cover Up Motel? It’s a Computer Love anagram, and it’s what we like to call a brand new old album.
It is TZU's J Award nominated Computer Love album with a limited edition bonus CD containing a re-mix of every track. Fourteen producers were each given a Computer Love song to manipulate as they saw fit. The artists chosen were those who TZU are fans of, and represent the most creative and cutting edge sounds in the Australian hip-hop/electronic scene in 2009
The roll call is as follows:
Blue King Brown - who share TZU's love of roots music and social commentary and take on radio favourite ‘Got to Do’ with Natalie adding a verse from the female perspective. Melbourne lads Polo Club shine with their 80's-core re-telling of ‘Mondays’. M-Phazes - takes the laid back funk of the Renee Geyer collaboration ‘Take it Easy’ and comes up with a piece of glorious summertime soul.
Jackson Jackson maestro Jan Skubiszewski re-imagines ‘Right of way’ as a melancholic, bossa nova with crisp drums and airy sounds. Capitalising on TZU's love of electronica , TSOMM turn ‘Computer Love’ into a nerdy space dance floor anthem while Hermitude handle ‘Myriam’s Song’ with class and synthesisers and a twist of sound effects. Plutonic Lab smoothes out ‘Get Up’ and Trials from the Funkoars brings rock swagger to ‘Step with the Pressure’. The Herd’s premier producer Sulo focuses on the heavy bass and political content of ‘All Fall down’ while Mister Savona brings home the dancehall flavour with the reggae rhythyms of ‘Burning Up’.
Newcomers Sietta bring the future funk with bubbling synth's and cracking drums on ‘Number One’ and TZU keys player Duzzy Watt chops up ‘We Got the Feeling’ and infuses it with some keyboard boogie goodness. Grrrlla Step producer Airi bakes ‘Axis Tilt’ into a slamming apocalyptic jungle mash and Terminal Sound System show the world who the real crazy thinker's are with their experimental masterpiece of ‘Crazy Thinker’. All in all the surprises are many and the quality high. Hear it to believe it.
Check into the Cover Up Motel and we’re sure you’ll want to stay for more than one night.
This is no gimmick. This is the truth.
In the last days of 2006 Joelistics , Count Bounce , Paso Bionics and Yerock hitch hiked a ride in the back seat of Michael J Fox's time traveling Delorian on a mission to record their new album. Here is a transcript of the conversation that took place...
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Michael J Fox - Hi TZU. TZU - Hi Michael J Fox. Michael J Fox - Where can I take you guys ? TZU - Take us to the 80's Michael J Fox. Michael J Fox - Why ? TZU - Because the 80's was a space time continuum intersection and we need to travel back there to re shape the future. In our present day the fashionably hip illuminatti are obsessed with this particular decade and yet they focus on the wrong elements. We must go back there to set things right. The future is in our hands. Michael J Fox - Okay TZU. TZU - Hey Michael J Fox ? Michael J Fox - Yes TZU. TZU - Bummer about the Parkinson's man. We'll try and fix that too.
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TZU returned from the 80's with their new album ' COMPUTER LOVE ' but first...Let's recap on the story so far.
In 2004 TZU released their debut album Position Correction on to an unsuspecting Australian public. It announced the arrival of an eccentric hiphop crew with classic songs like 'Summer Days' and 'Wild Stylee' and immediately identified them as leaders on the forefront of the burgeoning local hiphop scene.
In 2006 TZU released their follow up album Smiling at Strangers to critical acclaim. The album was nominated for the inaugural Australian Music Prize and featured the songs 'She gets up' , 'Coming Round' and 'In Front of me'. With it's broadened palette of live instruments and a passing nod to 60's psychadelic pop music ,Smiling at Strangers proved to their growing audience that here was a group willing to take chances and experiment with their sound.
In 2008 TZU once again smash the pre-conceptions of what hiphop can sound like with their third album 'Computer Love' .
Within the 14 songs on Computer Love TZU tackle serious subject matter such as domestic violence , work place psychosis , First time love and the relationship between linguistics and reality as well as serving up a solid dose of their trademark good time party raps referencing such things as man boobs , Ned kelly and space travel. As rappers Joelistics and Count Bounce manage to pack the freshest of flows with social conscience and a sense of humor.
The production is tighter than ever and draws influences from such diverse sources as old stax and motown feels to the future rhythms of the late great J Dilla. They have also explored the dirtier sound of 80's electro infusing their beats with crunchy old analog synth's and giant 808 bass drums.
They enlisted the help of Tony Espie ( The Avalanches 'Since I left you' and Cut Copy's latest.... ) to help mix the album so it was right in the bass bottom end for dance floors and they have collaborated with a number of female singers most notably the great Renee Geyer , who adds a touch of class and soul to the new record.
TZU are well respected for their high energy shows that fuse live instruments with the classic turntables and sampler set up. The have played most of Australia's biggest music festivals including Splendor in the Grass , Falls , BDO , Pyramid Rock , Woodford , Apollo Bay and they have shared stages with De La Soul , Mos Def ,The Pharcyde , Michael Franti's Spearhead , Blackalicious and a who's who of local Australian music greats from many genres and now in the year 2008 with the help of the good bits of the 80's and a time traveling Delorian TZU have created an album that truly travels Back to the future with an updated live show to match.
Be warned Australian hiphop never sounded so Bulk Ace.
I had a compilation CD with you guys on it once. My sister nicked it. There are still awkward silences at family gatherings when the topic is brought up.
Anyway, now that we're friends I figure we start dance move rehearsals soon?
Hello friends & lovers... Come & feel the heat with us on Saturday nites at Alia!! Half-price cocktails from 8-11pm plus some of the land's finest mixing DISCO, FUNK & HOUSE all night long!! No riff-raff door policy. If you'd like to be on the guestlist, simply message us back or send us an email: guestlist@sweatsaturdays.com
hey guys love the new cd. My TZU shirt from the brotherhood of hip hop mutants tour is starting to fall apart and i am devo about it. is there anywhere i can buy a new one?
Hey guys, loving the new album! We jammed together on stage in Canberra a number of years back but you prob won't remember. Keep up the good work! Yen (Casual Projects)
far from it dude it was definitely good to trade some fshs war stories.. i had such a good night that night it was cool getting sideways with you lot, congrats on a huge show..
in other news it's looking like i'll be doing a set at wordplay on may 14.. if you're around perhaps see you there? i've been speaking with geoff about it, looking forward to giving it a shot.
hey guys.. i know i'm a bit late but i just saw the MOnday video.. its great! Great track so I bought it on itunes!!!
I also wanted to say.. don't waste your breath on haters because hate is what they do.. so if it's not you it'll be someone else.. they dont speak a word of the truth.
thanks for everything boys 8-somethin years of plus ones, free beers, AAA stamps and laminates vicarious crowd roars worth every airport pickup, amp haul and having your damn lyrics in my head lots of love enjoy the sabbatical xx Kamahl loves you too
Hey fellas, Hope you dont mind me sharing this with you...
BTW, I think the truth about hip hop is that you can take it any direction you want. If it stayed stagnant it would have died years ago like so many other genres of music. Keep changing. Peace
