He’s been living music ever since his talent, as a Dj & Producer was acknowledged not too long ago.Ĭuloe’s serious music career began in early 2007 where he produced a piece that made him a feature in Black Coffee’s second offering, “Have Another One”. The experience of this sound, however, is best done as Culoe intended-from start to finish, in an immersive exploration of variations on a theme.Born in the northern parts of South Africa’s east coast, Culolethu Zulu, also known as “Culoe De Song”, hasn’t looked back after putting passion in the forefront of his life. This also means that if you do a needle drop somewhere in the middle, any particular tune will convey the sound of the whole record fairly easily. There aren't marked differences between the songs, just subtle gradations over a long period of time, which gives the record a quite organic, elemental feel, as if you're watching the movements of shadows on the plain made as the sun marches across an open sky. This is Culoe is at his strongest, infusing club music with the unpredictable vibrance of folk performance.Īs a whole, A Giant Leap takes the concept of a seamlessly-mixed LP to new heights-it's like a suite, an epic-scaled sound-world that entrances with graceful, gentle transitions between new tracks, remixes and previous EP material.
The choir melody sung in the succeeding "Neighbour" so neatly responds to the chanted chorus of "Let Me Go" that it gives the feeling of a live, improvised medley. These elements blend without warning into a remake of "Let Me Go" by Reggie Dokes, stretched out by Culoe into a breathless, expansive plateau. Culoe's dub version of a tune by Soundiata's Rebels is carried by a trebly guitar-scratch riff reminiscent of '60s highlife and an elongated synth line, while sound effects skitter in the background. Two remixes appear in the middle, but you'll have to follow the tracklisting closely to figure out which ones they are, as they've been effortlessly woven into Culoe's tribal tapestry. Together with sustained, ethereal chords, the drums provide a driving pulse for a gorgeously orchestrated tide of overlapping vocal lines, a mixture of chants and calls whose joyous, ecstatic energy fall somewhere between a church choir performance and a party under the stars. Across the LP's front half, the rhythms barely change. Whereas tunes on the earlier two EPs year relied largely on shifting layers of tribal drums, A Giant Leap adds an impressive array of vocalists into this mix CD of original productions, including the renowned Mail singer Salif Keita. Squeezed out at the end of a whirlwind year, A Giant Leap delivers on its title by significantly advancing the African-electronic template that saw Culoe plucked out of the Red Bull Music Academy in the first place, delivering on previous promise while hinting at future progression. It wasn't afro-house so much as African music which happened to be heavily influenced by house. In contrast to tracks that merely deployed ethnic beats and unusual percussion for novel effect, The Bright Forest and its successor, The Fallen Siren, worked out from within African music traditions to meet electronic club music head on. In a year which saw a plethora of tribal-tinged, exotic house records, South African Culoe de Song's debut The Bright Forest stood out as what you might call the real deal.
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