The Bumblebeez

Prince Umberto & The Sister Of Ill is one bands mysterious attempt to cram a lifetime of dreams onto 40 minutes of tape. A kaleidoscopic trip of A.D.D. jams taking in sounds from 1920 to 2020, The Bumblebeez have crafted a record of pure energy and bass.

Dr Love is the first single and hint at bedroom brilliance, with it’s skid row Lord Of The Dance video going #1 in Zimbabwe, but its only just a ripple on the surface of a record that’s a bit like the sonic equivalent of post-modern Fantasia.

After the release of 2 EP’s in 2002 and 2003, Prince Umberto & The Sister Of Ill has been around 3 years in gestation as the band rode through the rollercoaster ride of getting signed to a major label in the US and being heralded as the second coming, getting added to the Lollapalooza tour only for it the be cancelled and subsequently getting dropped from their label and effectively having to start all over again.

Since then the make up of the band has been constantly evolving, but the core of the band has always remained the brother and sister duo of Chris and Pia Colonna AKA ViLa AKA Prince Umberto & The Sister Of Ill. After the tumultuous times with their US deal the band retreated to their hometown of Braidwood, 3 hours southwest of Sydney, to start work on their rousing synasthesia paean to all things rhytm and rumble.

The tracks began as a coleslaw of instruments, samples and rough jams, MPC monster beats and mysterious raps collected over the last few years, all thrown together in the Braidwood bedroom. Once a collection of songs was established UK producer James Ford [Simian Mobile Disco, Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys] was sent down to the country town to eat pizza, feed the cows, disappear every few days and beat the songs into the shape of an earth shaking album.

The record was mixed by Zdar in Paris to give it a little Eurocrunk in the trunk and here we are, with a record that’s a dizzying trip through popular music from yesterday to tomorrow, from Braidwood to Botswana to Bombay to Brooklyn, with bits and pieces of doo wop, garage, punk rock, hip hop, reggae, RnB, grime and acid all seeping into the mix. It’s a furiously manic mix, one which is all held together by the Bumblebeez' raw and ridiculously energetic aesthetic.

The record recalls bits and pieces of Rodriguez, The Beatles, Dizzee Rascal, Lee Scratch Perry, Prince, NWA, Roxanne Shante, Neneh Cherry, The Kinks, Liars, Little Richard, Malcolm McLaren, Daft Punk, The Modern Lovers and Public Enemy but manages to safely land in some faraway space none of those have ever been before.

Prince Umberto & The Sister Of Ill is a brother/sister triumph over diversity, a celebration of low end rumble and hyperactive creativity akin to spinning around the world at hyperspeed, and it’s a party we’re all invited to do the fandango with.