Zolo

Zolo is one of the most eccentric and least-known genres in the alternative rock landscape. Coined by radio DJ Terry Sharkie in the late 1980s and popularised through his show The Zany Zolo Musik Hour from 1995, the term designates a crystallisation of twentieth-century musical traditions drawn from cabaret, art-rock and the Canterbury scene. Sharkie traces its origins to the late 1960s, when technological advances coincided with a frenzy of experimentation and a blurring of genre boundaries.

Musically, Zolo is defined by its hyper-jerky and asymmetrical rhythms, its boingy guitars, its wobbly keyboards and its odd time signatures in 5/4 or 7/8. It features xylophone arpeggios, bleeping analogue synthesisers, cartoon sound effects and an energy halfway between punk DIY and new wave sophistication. The genre emerged at the intersection of the punk movement and new wave, enriched by the twisted harmonies of art-rock. Artists such as MADNESS, XTC, Devo and They Might Be Giants stand as its defining references.

On FestT, the flagship act associated with Zolo is MADNESS, the British legend of ska and London pop from Camden Town, whose career began in 1976. Present at no fewer than seven listed festivals, MADNESS embodies the off-kilter, festive and rhythmically complex energy that lies at the heart of Zolo. From the 1990s onwards, groups such as The Oblong Boys and Zom Zoms consciously adopted the Zolo label to describe their own brand of minimal post-punk and synth-punk.

Festivals programming Zolo music are pockets of joyful strangeness in the alternative music calendar. FestT lets you find MADNESS and all the artists of this unpredictable and delightfully absurd scene at the right events. Do not miss these chances to experience Zolo live — a unique genre that proves music can be both serious and profoundly zany.