Boy Azooga‘s debut LP 1, 2, Kung Fu! has won the 2018 Welsh Music Prize.
The brainchild of band-leader Davey Newington, the album came out on top during the ceremony at the Coal Exchange in Cardiff last night ahead of the likes of Manic Street Preachers, Gruff Rhys and Gwenno.
In our review, Live4ever described 1, 2, Kung Fu! as ‘a snapshot already due to be pasted into a scrapbook left under someone’s bed‘:
“From Cardiff, Newington cut his teeth drumming in the bluesome garage trio Houdini Dax and also for Charlotte Church as part of her Late Night Pop Dungeon, assembling the album’s raw materials part time in collaboration with local producer Ed Al Shakarchi.”
“This composite approach inevitably leads to a broken sort of groove, but the payoff is that every full stop throws up another fresh-sounding idea; opener Breakfast Epiphany is a gentle awakening, a swirl of reflection and florid throwbacks that reveal a sticksman-turned-singer in possession of a confident voice.”
