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, Toby 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. Following on from their first EP, Girls Gotta Eat (2022) and the road-rage jazz-funk and orgasmic uptempo R&B of recent singles ‘Beep Beep’ and ‘Bush Bash’, Revulva’s self-titled debut album (released October 11th 2024) is a musical snapshot of the hijinks, realisations and adventures they’ve lived through over the half-decade. Its ten-song tracklist captures the dynamic energy and juxtapositions that power their percussive grooves, spellbinding horn section and Johnson’s silky smooth songcraft and spoken word strut. It’s a high-wire act in a three-ring circus. You’re all invited to the Revulva party. You can even cry if you want to.