Hello. I'm Yo Zushi. I'm a Soho subterranean with failed literary aspirations. My second album of mostly original material, "Notes For Holy Larceny", was released on Pointy Records on the 10th of September, 2007. Find it on amazon or in all good UK stores, should you be so inclined!
Here's what people have said so far:
"...dreamy and beautiful... His perceptive lyricism revels in the minutiae of a wondrous day in the city, with a tinge of old American blues. It’s Conor Oberst sharing an orange juice with Johnny Cash... versatile yet intense... Yo Zushi’s campfire tales are at once wistful and uplifting, and this talented songwriter’s fire looks set to continue burning."
- **** and a half, www.subba-culture.com
"Instruments are rendered with warm beauty, the atmosphere of friends in a room playing music together caught on tape... sounding on occasion like an English Stephen Malkmus... brushed with a poetic grace... beautiful, personal, understated and intimate... a rewarding, artful little record by a definite talent."
- Stylus Magazine
"...a woozy trip around Soho's drinking dens with lyrics scribbled down on napkins over copious glasses of red wine and packs of cigarettes... Steeped in a world weary bittersweet melancholy that's laced with an alcohol fumed optimism, this seems certain to gain a whole legion of new admirers and take him a step closer to those inevitable music awards that are so clearly his due."
-www.netrhythms.com
"A raw intriguing talent"
- Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 2
"Sweet melodies that entice you back... a taste of something different"
- Maverick Magazine
"His second album dances around the maypoles of late night smokiness, traditional folk, nu-folk delicacy and understated classic country, but never gets entangled in any one set of ribbons, instead weaving in and out with consummate skill and in the process creating one of the more interesting albums of 2007... one of those rare beasts, a concept album, wherein the whole of a world of acoustic music coffee bars, late night semi-drunken musings and the deeper darker edges of folk is explored and discovered. An intriguing album."
- Americana UK
"Warmly satisfying... Like a Richard Hawley with knowing winks."
- Q Magazine
Praise for my last one, "Songs from a Dazzling Drift" LP (available now):
"His playfully eccentric lyrics about life's small moments, plucked acoustic guitar and rollicking rhythms suggest a less ramshackle Badly Drawn Boy or better adjusted E from Eels, the likes of Mary Magdalen's Barbershop Blues sparkling in the face of a lost love, and even the Leonard Cohen-like Pin Brooch Cabaret tingling with optimism. Just 23 years old, this could be the start of something major."
- **** Q Magazine, "Q Recommends"
"Yo Zushi's folk songs have earned him plenty of high profile fans around the world and this, his debut LP, looks certain to raise the bar even higher. A masterclass in storytelling."
- Dazed & Confused
"Immediately likeable and with the unerring ability to bring a smile to the lips of any music fan perfectly constructed lyricism With any luck this is just a taster for whats to come from this talented musician."
- Word Magazine
"...diversity and newness throughout... haunting."
- Comes With A Smile
"...a singer-songwriter who does more than slow and painful... upbeat melodies and enchanting lyrics... marvellous."
- **** Maverick
"...With a title lifted from a Robert Browning poem, the album is a classy collection of intelligently literate folk songs that beat with a left of centre Pop heartbeat. Understated, unaffected yet charmingly affecting, the album ought to set Yo Zushi up as one of the key singer/songwriter talents of 2006."
- Tangents
"Should contemplative singer/songwriters become the heroes they once were... then Yo Zushi is one artist who will be leading the revival."
-Flavourpill
Old News:
*Winner of Dazed & Confused Magazine's Re:Creation Award 2004
*Breezeblock Bomb (AKA Record of the Week) on Mary Anne Hobbs's show (Breezeblock, BBC Radio One). She said I was "the spirit of Bob Dylan for the 21st Century", which was nice, but I feel for Mr Dylan himself, who is still very much alive...
*Twice the Xposure Big One (i.e. Record of the Week) on John Kennedy's show (Xposure Part 2, Xfm)
*One of Daily Telegraph's "Bright Young Things" 2004
