Music Industry News

Baby Zionov is the musical project of Aaliyah Zionov (she/her), a musician and songwriter based in Tāmaki Makaurau. An icon of Aotearoa’s underground electronica scene Baby Zionov’s music is deeply inspired by the mid-2000s Internet and blurs the lines between the worlds of pop, dance, and the avant-garde. Since her breakout 2018 collaboration with Ayesha Erotica, Baby Zionov has gone on to support Charli XCX and perform at The Others Way, Newtown Festival and Cross Street Music Festival. Baby Zionov’s critically acclaimed 2022 debut album Henrietta was nominated for Album Of The Year in at Student Radio Network Awards, where she was also nominated for Best Solo Act. Baby Zionov is active in her community, curating and producing the Loud & Proud Festival as well as remixing tracks for Memory Foam, deepState and Amamelia.

Today Baby Zionov releases ‘Cirrus Homebound’, a new single from her forthcoming album that’s due for release in the later months of 2025.

‘Cirrus Homebound’ immediately hits the listener with gleeful elation, with the song’s jubilant energy becoming more infectious with every refrain. Clocking in at 167bpm ‘Cirrus Homebound’ pays homage to the happy hardcore and electronica that graced classic arcade games like OutRun, Battle Garegga, Beatmania IIDX & Dance Dance Revolution.

“I wanted to make the most overwhelming and gleeful thing I could,” says Zionov. “Something so surreally over-the-top joyous that it kind of physically hurts. Like all the best happy music, there’s a hint of bittersweet wistfulness at the core to bring out the flavour, like salt in a cookie.”

“Cirrus Homebound’ was built around a trippy, echoey chopped-up vocal loop Jess (deepState) had sent me for a different collab. I thought it had this real hypnotic, expansive feeling, like an endless blue sky opening up in front of you, and that ended up shaping the overall direction of the track.”

“The song’s foundation is all these classic rave and happy hardcore sounds, but from there I filled it out with things that feel like summer to me – slide guitars, samba whistles, flutes, bird and dolphin sounds, and dreamy Balearic trance pads. In the second half, it explodes into an extended fist-pumping guitar solo played by my bestie Izak (Grym Rhymney, Du Trois). I asked him to play it as soaring and cheesy as possible!”

“I was influenced very strongly by mid-to-late 90s happy hardcore! All rave music is exciting and physically engaging by design, but what sets this era of happy hardcore apart to me is its sincerity, its openness to sentimentality, the way it’s unafraid of a beautiful melody. In combination with the fast heavy beats, both the heart and the body become fully enraptured by the music and the effect is, to me, overwhelmingly beautiful. I basically wanted to take that feeling and push it in a slightly jazzier, more atmospheric direction.”

Reflecting on the track Baby Zionov imagines “I hope the listener feels like they’re flying at high speed above the clouds on a sunny day!”

Check out all things Baby Zionov below:

Bandcamp
Instagram
Spotify