electro-zru from the mouth of the motherfish
zru vogue | the exile
"Great album! The songs are great. I really dig the production, the timbres, the arrangements... An impressive collection of pieces that have a nice arc over the whole CD."
- Mark Applebaum, Ph.D., Assoc. Professor of Composition, Dept. of Music, Stanford University
"I love The Exile and can't stop listening to it. It's like 'My Life In The Bush Of Kafka.' Or perhaps what would happen if Bootsy & Busta joined forces with the Flaming Lips"
- Boris Darling, San Francisco, CA
"A masterpiece. Funky, electronic, experimental beats, rhythms, and rhymes that will keep you listening again and again. Blows your mind."
- Wineau, Shelton, CT
Produced by Zru Vogue. Written and recorded from September through November, 2006. All words by Andrew L. Jackson; all instruments and vocals performed by Andrew Jackson and Rick Cuevas. Electronic drums on "Un-returning (Overflow)" played by Patrick Coyne. Recorded by Rick Cuevas and Andrew L. Jackson.
The eleven songs that make up The Exile form a story arc that gets into the deep, dark mind of our hero (we’ll call him Zero) and his adventures in a mysterious other world that co-exists with this one, an alternate universe where mother fish and insect queens dominate the landscape. Or something to that effect.
Whatever the case, the music speaks for itself: a rhythm-fest steeped in funk and electro grooves, sprawling synthesizer lines, Zruphonic bass lines, and layers of percussion. This is Zru Vogue doing what they do best: electro-art-funk for thinking humans and other creatures.
songs from the exile:
A Day In The Life Of The Zru, Escape From More Of The Same, Octavia Insect Queen, A Happy Near-Death Experience, Welcome To Oblivion, Ugly To Others Beautiful To Me, Pagoda Mother Fish, Garbage In Garbage Out (Insect Kiss), The Deep End, Unreturning (Overflow), Drifting/Heaven Wants Me.
download these songs free (high quality MP3)
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> Ugly To Others, Beautiful To Me |
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origins of the exile:
Email from Rick to Andy September 25, 2006:
OK... I had some thoughts as i was drifting off to sleep last night... as usual, we can take 'em or leave 'em...no biggie... first, that first slow song I thought conjured up images of an 'exile". Like the theme song for an exile...or the theme of the exile's journey... then that lead me to think about the usual 'guy that doesn't fit in" ...exile from the 'normals"... then i thought about the exotic zru-ness and how maybe we could write songs or spoken passage in a new zru-language (a little bit of an i-zimbra ripp-off). Like the language of a strange foreign land of zru-dom... dunno... just a thought... the 3rd song, kinda funky one, I thought was like "a day in the life" of a zruist... so I thought about a similar title "A zru in the life" or " a day in the zru" or some such... hehe...quack! Rick :)
Andy’s reply: Hi Rick, Thanks for sharing your ideas. I like the notion of some sort of story-thread that weaves thru the songs, and the exile from normalness into a surreal-exotica-zruness-existence. We can experiment with different ideas and see what sticks. I'll play around with some words. Andy
EMAIL FROM RICK TO ANDY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2006: ...so....should officially name the project "The Exile" to go with: the illusionist the artist the surrealist the composer --you get the idea… Rick
ANDY’S REPLY: I've been writing, spurred on by your ideas, and I think I've got some good stuff (and more yet to come). I think we should wait to name the project until takes shape, but The Exile sounds like a good working title to me. Andy
RICK’S REPLY: Regarding your writings… hehe..I can't resist saying that out of all the people in the world who might know a thing or two about being a little outside "normal"... it may be you (but that's a good thing!) I say that out of respect and understanding. Rick :)
EMAIL FROM ANDY TO RICK, SEPTEMBER 28, 2006: Rick, Over the last 2 or 3 days, I've written lyrics for 11 songs, loosely following the story arc of the Exile. I think they're quite inspired! Been listening to the basic tracks we did (sometimes while writing), and after repeated listens, think they're quite good too. -Andy
RICK’S REPLY: Wow dude! impressive... I also think the 3 songs we started have potential (if we add spoken words ...extra bits, etc... and the "exile" theme song seems to be like a good "overture" or opening number, or maybe you have other ideas... and that's OK... I can't wait to see the "exile" stuff! I think maybe we stumbled onto a cool project eh? Cheers, Rick
beautiful again