Don’t judge this album from its cover. Wazu’s music is stronger and more confident than their over-wrought Art Deco and ’80s brushstroked cover. And yes, the opening track to Wazu’s debut album plays like a lost recording from the Black Celebration sessions. They owe a lot to a handful of chaps from Basildon, England for the sound and name, but Wazu are no retro-plagiarists. They depend more on guitars and add a distressed sound to the synths. Their back-and-forth boy/girl vocals soften the darker tones and harsher industrial flourishes. Or you could say Wazu fleshes out the sensibilities of the xx, amps up the tempo and fills in the gaps with big, dance-floor beats. The band released their debut full-length Robobo earlier this year on Halloween, but this thing’s got legs to last well into 2013. It’s a great album for any retro-fetishists, or for anyone in the mood for a sultry, dark and smoky, dance album. So let me cut all the reviewer and critic nonsense, crank this album back up and encourage you to do the same. Revised 12/19/12.
Wazu – Symbol System [MP3]
http://vimeo.com/51010785
Seems like a bad link. bandcamp says the “download has expired.”