Hackney four-piece Zola Blood ooze cool with their dreamy, undulating synth work balanced by velvelty vocals. Made up of Matt on vocals and guitar, Sam working the synth side of things, Sam on drums and Paul on guitar, they released their punchy debut EP, Meridian, in 2014.
The latest track to drop from Zola Blood is the dreamy ‘Play Out’, which is the first of a two track EP to be released later this year. It shows differentiation from Meridian, growing in depth with tumbling synth and beautiful vocals, and the band construct the track with a refreshingly different pace to others. They don’t fall into the oscillation between building verses and choruses, but allow listeners to be seamlessly guided through a track that never quite climaxes. The track came to life in a room full of vintage synthesisers, which allowed the band to make “every sound on the tracks to be totally unique”. They’re unafraid to step out of the ordinary and mix things up a bit.
With Matt’s ethereal vocals and the band’s intricate track composition, Zola Blood channel echoes from Foals and Wild Beasts- but the important thing is that they are still unique. They don’t have the ferocity of Foals, but that’s a good thing. Zola Blood’s music is as dreamy as it gets. Keep an eye out for their next EP, set for release later this year.
