Zhu

One Liner:  EDM that is more clean, house music for dancing not hard thrashing
Wikipedia Genre: Electronic, house
Spotify Says Similar To: Tchami and Lane 8
Home: No clue, Wikipedia just says he is Chinese American

Poster Position: 3
Slot: ?

Thoughts:  His bios all say that he was originally entirely anonymous, trying to remain out of the spotlight to avoid any prejudice and just make it about the music.  His first song was a weird mashup/reinterpretation of Outkast songs in a house style that is kind of snappy.

Kind of interesting, but I think I'd rather hear a Girl Talk-style real mashup of those songs instead of a sing-sort-of-re-imagining of them.  So this guy has one album, 2016's GENERATIONWHY, and then a bunch of single before then.  It all has kind of a clean sound, which I guess is one of the hallmarks of house versus other EDM, with sunny, nice little songs like "Hometown Girl," "Generationwhy," or even the most popular and listened-to track on Spotify, the 123.5 million streamed "Working For It."

Which apparently also involves Skrillex, although his more aggressive sounds only pop out in the chorus-type break at about 1:15.  That track was on the full album from last year.  The other most popular track in his repertoire is a 2014 single that was on The NightDay EP, called "Faded."

114 million streams on that one.  And I mean, I get it, the song is sexy as crap (well, the video is certainly sexy as crap, but I'd also argue that the song, about being wasted and faded but still wanting to go find your partner, is also sexy as hell).  I get the appeal, but it still doesn't mean that I care very much about these tunes.  The other annoying thing about artists like this is that, if you just put his music on play, you end up going into these remix EPs where they play the same damn song 8 times in a row, but with modified beats.  It is enough to make me want to jump off a bridge.

Recommend for the Fest?  Nope.