Glass Animals / Zaba 2xLP Black Vinyl
'Zaba' was recorded at Wolf Tone Studios in London, and produced by frontman Dave Bayley under executive production of Paul Epworth. The 12 track record features single Gooey, Psylla, and a reworking of previous limited EP release, Black Mambo.
Created in Epworth's own studio it is undoubtedly among this year's most striking debuts. The title, lifted from Dave's favourite childhood story, comes from William Steig's The Zabajaba Jungle.
Steig's evocation of childhood adventure, exoticism and discovery is brilliantly fresh. In the book a boy called Leonard penetrates this wild, mysterious place and meets squawking birds, raucous insects, carnivorous flowers and petrified monsters. At one point Leonard is kidnapped by a pack of mandrills and taken to three jungle judges who have human bodies and animal heads. He escapes, takes a ride on a butterfly, and finally finds his parents chilling in the middle of the jungle, in a living room that exists within in a massive glass jar.
'Zaba' is one complete beast and a journey you will get most from if you immerse yourself fully and listen from start to finish - before you is a series of situations describing a wealth of strange characters and the weird, subtropical land in which they exist. "The sound of the record," Dave says, "is like a backdrop of man-made wilderness..."
- 1. Flip
- 2. Black Mambo
- 3. Pools
- 4. Gooey
- 5. Walla Walla
- 6. Intruxx
- 1. Hazey
- 2. Toes
- 3. Wyrd
- 4. Cocoa Hooves
- 5. JDNT
- 6. Psylla
