The Fat Angel Sings

Yumi Zouma’s EP is wonderful, It’s a delightful taster of what’s (hopefully) to come from this artist and let’s hope sooner rather than later. As many have already noted, this is summer music and just as Theme Park did last year, Yumi Zouma would be utter fools not to consolidate their dominance in the genre by dropping something else around, say, July.” The band based in Paris, New York, Christchurch are  Charlie Ryder, Kim Pflaum, Josh Burgess. Yumi Zouma’s music – budget-plush, instantly poignant – sounds placeless. It could have come from anywhere, and yet it was made everywhere – or at least in countries as far-flung as France (Charlie Ryder), America (Josh Burgess) and New Zealand (Kim Pflaum), where the three members live. It’s a very modern way of operating, via Dropbox. They used to live together in a house in Christchurch, until it was destroyed in the city’s 2011 earthquake. They used that terrible event as the impetus to scatter, but their connection lingers in the songs they file-share into existence. It’s dreampop, only this time there is a good reason for them to be making hazy, drowsy music – it was often assembled in half-waking states after the demos arrived across conflicting time zones.