Adelaide has Hilltops Hood, QLD has Butterfingers, Sydney has The Herd and Melbourne has TZU. Onion hops on the promotional trail and chats to Joel Ma (AKA Joelistics) about their new vehicle Computer Love before they rock Adelaide…

TZU’s Computer Love

"We’re bringing a whole new band,” enthuses Joel, “so we’ve got a rhythm section like keys, bass, drums as well as the turntables, synthesisers and samplers. We’ve really worked out a kind of mutated version so it’s not a band with two rappers but it’s not beats straight off the sampler. We’ve tried to mutate something we feel is pretty bionic, a new sound. A lot of that sound that’s really driving me is there’s this live electronic thing and I’m looking at electro groups like Midnight Juggernauts, The Presets and Cut Copy. I’m loving this new mutation of live music with electronics. Not compromising on the heaviness of the electronics sound - you know - the bass and the pulse, but it’s also not compromising on the live-ness of having a band and the improvisation you can get from that.”
TZU isn’t your average hip hop group and their third album Computer Love proves this, thus throwing all pre-conceptions of what hip hop can sound like out the window. Even Joel describes their sound as electro hip-hop folk music, with Tony Espie from Avalanches and Cut Copy fame and Renee Gayer in the mix.
“Renee was lovely. Totally mad and awe inspiring. She came in to the studio and ripped the roof off of the motherfucker. She got so deep in to her zone that at times she appeared possessed.
“We've used a lot of old synthesisers and drum machines from the ‘80s. But be clear it is not a retro album. This is our take on futuristic hip-hop.”
It’s their take on futuristic hip hop that’s enjoying much success as Triple J feature album. Not bad for a group that met under a bridge.
“Count Bounce and I met under a bridge at the Rocks in Sydney when he was busking. I think we jammed on a Regurgitator song. Yerock and I met at a hippie festival in Victoria. We all moved to Melbourne and decided to start a band. We hooked up with Paso Bionic after we saw Curse Of Dialect one night in Fitzroy. All up we've known each other since the late ‘90s.”
“The Australian hip-hop scene was a lot smaller back then. There was hardly any radio support and not a lot of crews. People still found it confronting to listen to rap in Aussie accents.”
Since their inception back in 2001, their name has sparked much interest in pronunciation. What started off as pronounced ‘tsoo’ has now been transformed to T-Z-U.
“Yeah. The name comes from the old sage Lao TZU who penned a book called the Tao Te Ching. We then found everyone called us TZU because it was easier to pronounce. So we made up a few acronyms. Current favourites include ' The Zen Underground', 'Taste Zat Urine' and ‘Ten Zebra's Undulating’.”

TZU TALKS…
What is it that you like about computers? My first computer was a Commodore 64. I loved that thing. Now I own a Mac Intel laptop. And I still love it. What's not to love? I spend hours and hours on it communicating with friends half a world away or I make music, film or write stories on it. In many ways my computer is my Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
And your love affair with the ‘80s? We love and hate the ‘80s. I grew up in the ‘80s. Most of TZU were kids from the ‘80s. We’ve got the golden halo childhood page when it comes to the ‘80s. It’s definitely not the uber-cool tight jeans and printed hoodies decade for us, it’s the eating homemade nachos in front of Monkey Magic decade for us.
It’s your last album with Liberation? It is our last album with Liberation. It’s the last one in our contract. Liberation have been awesome to work with, we might work with them in the future. We’re just trying to get through the promotion of this album [Computer Love] and do the best we can.

Belinda Pappalardo

Catch TZU playing at Electric Light Hotel on Sat Jul 26 and Sun Jul 27. Computer Love is out through Liberation.