Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 2006
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Length
19 tracks
"Various Chimeras" is a 19-track cross-genre electronic/pop CD by Shinjuku Zulu, featuring 12 different vocalists: male and female rappers; blues, pop, jazz, and reggae singers on dance, downtempo, ambient, world and pop tracks.
See DISCOGRAPHY below for other Shinjuku Zulu releases. (This artist also records as K.I.A.)
All releases are available at iTunes, Amazon.com, etc. (See LINKS below)
==Track listing==
01 "Tombouctou, Adieu!" feat. Bill Murray (ragtime + electronica)
02 "Shanghai Masai" feat. MC Shankhini (female rap + electronica)
03 "Dirty Liar" feat MC General (male rap + blues + electroninca)
04 "Make Me Shake (Gimme Some Crush Crush)" feat. Larissa Gomes & MC Shankhini (rap + pop + dance)
05 "Chimera Hey Ya!" (dance + world + blues)
06 "Da Riddim Griffin" feat. Shankhini, Caryn Green, & the Tokyo Gogo Cheergirl Team (electro + Japanese cheerleaders + disco + dancehall calls)
07 "Be My Woman, Be My Man" feat. Shawn Skeir (blues + dance)
08 "Slow Is the New Fast" feat. Shankhini & Sydney White (rap + jazz + electronica)
09 "My Man, Amen" feat. Sydney White (blues + hip hop)
10 "Rainbowbeau" feat. Larissa Gomes (pop + ambient + electronica)
11 "Scarborough Fair (a True Dub of Mine)" feat. Giancarlo (traditional folk song + dub)
12 "Massive Ballerina (Pirouettes for Millennia)" feat. Ms. Mac (rock + electronica)
13 "We Do Supersonic" feat. Prince I (ragga + electronica)
14 "Tuktuyuktuk to Timbuktu" feat. Giancarlo (world + chants + electronica)
15 "Coal Coal Black" feat. Shankhini (blues + dub + electronica)
16 "One Come We" feat. Prince I (reggae + electronica)
17 "The Way You Move" feat. Larissa Gomes (dance + jazz + electronica)
18 "Slow Is the New Faster (K.I.A. remix)" feat. Syndey White (jazz + electronica)
19 "Hi, Shanghai…" feat. Arthur Collins (ragtime + electronica)
TRIVIA:
"Coal Coal Black" is the women's response to the character in the song "Dirty Liar"
"Tombouctou Adieu" and "Hi Shanghai" use samples from original wax cylinders.
PRESS REVIEWS for Various Chimeras:
"' …high tech boom cut with voodoo…the most casually efficient encapsulation of culture clash we've ever heard… 'Shanghai Masai' featuring Shankhini, is stark skittering electronic hip hop M.I.A. to Prince…" - Anti-Hit List "The best new music outside the mainstream" -TORONTO STAR
"Impressive…creates three-headed songs by grafting cultures onto collaged beasts that growl with different tongues…"Be My Woman Be My Man" comes replete with DFA grooves and Herbert snorts…"We Do Supersonic" and "Dirty Liar" will have your dance floor moving…"Rainbowbeau" sees Larissa Gomes bouncing her voice off soft clouds of pizzicato strings…my favorite is "Make Me Shake" sentences that say so incredibly much with so little…as devastating as anything else this year…often surprising… Make Me Shake, Da Riddim Griffin, and Coal Coal Black fantastic." -COKEMACHINEGLOW
"…especially ambitious trans-continental mash-ups…melds components elegantly into compositions that sound surprisingly natural…great moments, like when "Make Me Shake" leaps from synth-shamisen-encrusted grime-pop to reggae to tango, "Dirty Liar", the surprisingly listenable country-electro-hip-hop number ("Chemical Brothers, Dust Brothers, O Brother, quips the song's ven diagram), astonishes when it slides seamlessly all the way into banjo-driven folk, "Massive Ballerina" manages to dodge effortlessly from spacey computer-narrated-ambiance to rolling techno-rock…Stick-in-your-head melodies and enough stylistic ADD to stay fresh…"Various Chimeras" is on solid footing in the current mash-up-informed, pop cultural petri-dish." -POPMATTERS
""Various Chimeras" is a cosmopolitan musical sponge…a smooth, electronic pastiche featuring hippie sloganeering and rave-ready sensory overload…. The strongest cut is "Shanghai Masai", and fare like the choral/hip-hop of "My Man Amen" or Kraut-rocking "We Do Supersonic" play to Shinjuku Zulu's strengths…" -EYE Magazine
"Good dubby house, good electronic dancehall…'Sonorous Susurrus' is minimalistic, melancholly…", & " 'Various Chimeras' is classic hipster material… "We Do Supersonic" and "Shanghai Masai" represent urban dance at its best." -EXCLAIM!
"The worldly sound of Shinjuku Zulu…sweltering breakbeat for the summertime heat from the cooking cobblestones of Toronto!" -CBC Radio
PRESS FOR OTHER SHINJUKU ZULU / K.I.A. releases:
FOUR STARS. Breaks,house,reggae, exotic vocals…Shinjuku Zulu is a cd that warrants repeated listens" -MONTREAL GAZETTE
"FOUR STARS. Sheer brilliance, haunting vocals…top ten CDs of the year" -THE GLOBE & MAIL
"Like Kevin Yost spinning Everything But the Girl with Mad Professor remixes…a master at aural collage" -The HERALD
DISCOGRAPHY:
By Shinjuku Zulu:
-Kiss the Honey, Honey 7-track EP feat. "Kiss the Honey", "SXYLV"
-Various Chimeras 19-track CD feat."Shanghai Masai","Da Riddim Griffin"
-Various Chimeras Instrumentals feat. instrumental versions of above
-Shinjuku Zulu 14-track CD feat. "That Groove", "Segue"
By K.I.A.:
-Sonorous Susurrus 22-track CD. feat. "Nevermine", "Be My DJ", "Dubmarine"
-Adieu, Shinjuku Zulu 15-track CD feat. "Mrs. Major Tom", "Eyeah", "Allelujah"
By K.I.A. & Shinjuku Zulu
-DXLR8 -Downtempo Best Of ,13-tracks feat. "Broken", (dubstep), "Scarborough Fair (A True Dub of Mine), "Allelujah"
LINKS:
Myspace.com: http://www.myspace.com/shinjukuzulu
iTUNES: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=7897624
Youtube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/neuphoria11
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