Snarkattack

Zulya and the Children of the Underground are: Zulya Kamalova on lead vocals; Anthony Schulz on piano accordion; Andrew Tanner on double bass and Jew’s harp; Lucas Michailidis on guitar and Justin Marshall on drums and percussion.

All are accomplished musicians in their own right and are involved in many additional projects. On this occasion, the audience witnessed them playing after a long stint off from their last live performance, and just before the release of a new album and a tour of regional Victoria. The performance consisted of two sets of eight songs which are on all sorts of topics – mainly on love and its relatives. The songs ranged from deeply emotional, upsetting and melodramatic to playful, lively and celebratory with that true gypsy and folk music influence evident in the wild rhythms and their nature of changing very quickly from various tempi. The multi-talented Zulya not only sings lyrics written in Russian, Tatar (the language of Tatarstan in Russia) and English but also played acoustic guitar for many of the numbers.

Overall, it was a truly enjoyable experience for the entire audience who savoured the joyous, raucous musical offerings presented by the group. My personal favourite was the last song of the first set – a Tatar nursery rhyme, apparently about sneaking into the pantry to steal some delicious honey. Zulya informed the audience that the songs were a mixture of old and new from the upcoming album. The music is spirited, engaging and original (in both senses of the word – the band members write their own material, though they do also perform traditional folk melodies). This helps the audience overcome the language barrier in the lyrics.

Zulya and the Children of the Underground played at the Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, on Sunday 11th March, 2007.

This review was originally published on MEAP Careers, on http://meapcareers.com.au/index.php?pr=Music_Zulya, viewable here.