Los Angeles hardcore band Zulu fucking rule. The Bots/Dare drummer Anaiah Lei started Zulu as a solo project in 2019, but it eventually expanded into a full band. Zulu have already released a couple of powerful EPs, 2019’s Our Day Will Come and 2020’s My People… Hold On, and they’ve played a lot of stirring, exciting live shows. (They’re heading out on tour with Show Me The Body next year, so they’ve got plenty more of those lined up.) And now Zulu have also announced plans to release their first full-length. Get excited.

Zulu’s debut LP is called A New Tomorrow. On their past EPs, Zulu have specialized in a form of fast, punishing hardcore that sometimes crosses over into powerviolence territory, and they’ve fleshed it out with samples and interludes. A New Tomorrow promises to expand their sound even further, and it’ll include contributions from peers like Soul Glo’s Pierce Jordan, Truth Cult’s Paris Roberts, and Playytime’s Obioma Ugonna. Here’s how Anaiah Lei describes the album:

While our past material was a more direct approach and very in your face about the treatment of Black individuals around the world, I wanted to step away and express the love and beauty of us. That through all the hard things we go through, that’s not just what we are and it doesn’t define us. Our culture is so rich and vast, and I couldn’t even begin to explain all of that. But some of the topics that make this record include unity and love in the community and hope for ourselves.

First single “Fakin’ Tha Funk (You Get Did)” is a brutal, authoritative midtempo stomper that lasts all of 78 seconds. Listen to that song and check out the tracklist for A New Tomorrow below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Africa”
02 “For Sista Humphrey”
03 “Our Day Is Now”
04 “Music To Driveby”
05 “Where I’m From” (Feat. Pierce Jordan & Obioma Ugonna)
06 “Fakin’ Tha Funk (You Get Did)”
07 “Shine Eternally”
08 “Must I Only Share My Pain”
09 “Lyfe Az A Shorty Shun B So Ruff”
10 “From Tha Gods To Earth”
11 “Créme de Cassis By Alesia Miller & Precious Tucker”
12 “We’re More Than This”
13 “52 Fatal Strikes” (Feat. Paris Roberts)
14 “Divine Intervention”
15 “Who Jah Bless No One Curse”

A New Tomorrow is out 3/3 on Flatspot Records.