[Innervisions]

The back story to Culolethu Zulu’s debut release reads like a (energy drink sponsored, house music) fairytale. An eighteen year old kid who had previously never traveled outside his native South Africa, Culoe rocked up to the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona with a bunch of his Afrobeat-infused deep house tracks, blew the competition away and returned home with a contract with one of Germany’s premier house labels.

“The Bright Forest” is the first fruit from this agreement, and introduces Culoe as another frighteningly young newcomer in a year that the likes of Wbeeza and Kyle Hall have already taken by storm. The youth of Culoe is never more evident than on the title track, which combines moody keys with percolating African percussion and a rising string section that harks back to the Detroit vibes of Keith Worthy or Mike Grant. It’s a very accomplished piece that will bring a wonderful sense of light and renewed energy to any dance floor, but somehow it’s too self-consciously epic, maybe a touch forced in its grandiosity. It feels as if the vaulting ambition and wide-eyed wonder of teenage years has overridden the restraint and tension which might have made this the instant classic it has been hailed as in some quarters. “African Subway” is a more heads-down track, riding similar simmering polyrhythms and a neat Steve Reich-a-like organ loop. “The Bright Forest” and his forthcoming remix of Reggie Dokes reveal Culoe to be a youngster of enormous potential. Hopefully, the good advice and guidance of the Innervisions crew will result in him maturing to achieve the heights hinted at here.