We flew down to Miami to check out the fabled music producer ZHU as he closed out his Neon City Tour with soulful vocalist Gallant. Unlike the rest of his tour, the Miami finale show was strangely not sold out and we found a pretty comfortable and welcoming crowd.
The ever so talented Gallant, hailing from the DC area, blessed the crowd as the opening act with a voice that can be ill compared to. The octaves he hits alone will earn him a Grammy one day, and without a doubt he will rise to become the next Weeknd if not something even greater. The amount of passion, finesse, and pure raw talent he performed with on stage is something you can catch a rare glimpse of these days. He performed without light technicians or anything special besides his voice and his soul and despite the lack of fanciness typically seen in today’s larger musical acts he captured the hearts of everyone in the crowd. “Weight in Gold“, his most well known track, brought him to his knees in passionate singing and brought us to our feet with cheers.
ZHU, who we came all this way to see, the fabled young producer who even nabbed a Grammy Nomination, took the stage as a hooded figure. Keeping his identity hidden is part of the act, making music as a form of art and not a self focus. His echoing milky beats floated through the hall as people moved and swayed to the gentle but hard hitting sounds.
The overall musical style of ZHU‘s is massively dark and trace like, but envelopes deep yet repetitive vocals that reveal deep vulnerability in areas such as love. The experience of the show was not the show itself but the extreme difference in the music he produces. If one thing is true to be said about ZHU is that his commitment to keep everything just about the artistry of the music is his greatest success. His tracks, repetitive and soul binding, will stay on repeat in your mind and on your playlist long long after you first hear them. “Faded“, the track for which he received his Grammy Nomination, has been remixed time and time again and played worldwide, most notably by the group Odesza. His newer tracks, “Crazy As It Is” and “Paradise Awaits“, are absolutely spellbinding and the ability to switch between genera from reggae to soul and produce a successful track in each makes him an artist worth watching for a long time to come.
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