Oct 16 2021

Children of Zeus Bring the Soulful Vibes to Electric Brixton

With their debut album Travel Light that was released in 2018, the Manchester Duo, Children of Zeus, caused waves with their smooth soulful sounds. Following a national tour and a pandemic, the pair dropped their follow up Balance; avoiding the much-discussed sophomore jinx – as the album continues the magic of its predecessor but equally helped to cement them as one of the UK’s best exports.

To a sell-out crowd in Electric Brixton, the duo took us through the standout tracks on Balance and their previous hits. Including “I Need You”, “Love Again”, “Hoodman2Manhood”, “No Love Song” and the much-loved “Still Standing”,. Whilst their music is a fusion of soul, boom-bap hip hop and R&B they made sure to interweave classic tracks to keep attendees dancing. Songs like “Be Someone” was mixed into The Notorious B.I.G’s “Big Poppa” to Tyler singing his own rendition of SWV’s “Rain”.

Tyler further demonstrated his vocal skills with his rendition of Roy Ayers “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” with a crazy reverb that created a celestial crescendo in the Electric. Konny as usual was the crowd controller with his easy golden-hip hop flow, helping to remind us all that the sounds of old that we love can be reworked for modern ears.

For their encore, they performed a crowd favourite “Hard Work” that slowly transitioned to the eternal house classic “Gabriel” by Roy Davis Jr. At this point, I and many who had come to listen to sweet croons, wanted to now find a club to dance the rest of night away.

Words by Gerald Onyango

If I was a celebrity I'd be Will Smith. If I was an album I'd be The Low End Theory. My party trick is that I can tell you the year any rapper was born.