Revulva

Like TLC, Revulva is CrazySexyCool, but they’re also puzzled by driver behaviour, mad at landlords, cheeky jokers, unashamedly feminist, and all too well aware that sometimes CrazySexyCool ends in CrazySexyAwkward. Described by Rolling Stone Australia as “strangely alluring,” the femme-fronted eight-piece formed in Wellington under the de facto leadership of the composer, lyricist, bassist and vocalist Phoebe Johnson in 2019. Since then, Johnson and her clown van full of hyper-busy musical collaborators, Lily Rose Shaw, Tobias Leman, Hector McLachlan, Kaito Walley, Lennox Grootjans, Mysty Cooke, and Zane Hawkins, have won over bar, nightclub and festival audiences across New Zealand. Taking cues from Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Jamiroquai, Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock, Minnie Ripperton and Prince, Revulva reimagines the anything-goes energy of New York City’s 1970s downtown scene and London’s 1990s funk and soul renaissance through an antipodean lens informed by the deadpan humour and the realities of 21st-century life in New Zealand. The result is a hedonistic whirlwind of acid jazz, avant-funk, disco, AOR and art-pop, where polished playing leaves room for improvisation in the heat of the moment, and real statements come bundled up with just enough laughs to soften the snarl. 2024 has seen the release of “Bush Bash” and “Beep Beep”, the first two singles from their forthcoming self-titled and self-produced debut album set to be released on October 11.