Biography
Brixton-rooted musician Wu-Lu operates as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, vocalist, engineer, and producer whose unusually fluid contributions, both alongside others and on his own, move across jazz, R&B, hip-hop, punk, metal, and virtually all the club-rooted underground styles that emerged in his native South London. Although he has frequently been linked to the city’s jazz community, partly because of appearances on releases by Nubya Garcia and Zara McFarlane, his own recordings display far greater range. That spectrum stretches from the atmospheric Ginga (2015), largely an instrumental beat tape, to Loggerhead (2022), his first album for Warp, a timely fusion of punk and hip-hop laced with drum’n’bass, dub, and folk elements. Positioned between those projects sits the more restrained Learning to Swim on Empty EP (2024).
Born Miles Romans-Hopcraft and raised in South London, he grew up with a mother who trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance School and now works as a contemporary dancer and lecturer. His father, Robin Hopcraft, leads the band Soothsayers as trumpeter and bandleader; Romans-Hopcraft himself played bass, his principal instrument, in that group. The music he absorbed in childhood through his parents was later broadened by discoveries tied to skateboarding, graffiti culture, and video-game scores, encompassing hip-hop, grunge, alternative metal, and pop-punk, while the documentary Scratch sparked an awakening regarding the possibilities of DJ’ing and sampling. He and his twin brother Ben, of the band Childhood, continually introduced each other to fresh and older material. As his drive to create music deepened, Romans-Hopcraft immersed himself in every locally originated underground club style—from drum’n’bass, garage, and broken beat to grime and dubstep—and began producing and performing with Matted Sounds and We Are Dubist.
Adopting the name Wu-Lu, partly drawn from the Amharic term for water, he debuted as a solo beatmaker in 2015 with Ginga, a dense collection of mostly instrumental pieces that included vocal contributions from Grace Acladna, Andrew Ashong, and Binisa Bonner. A link-up with producer Mndsgn tied the half-hour mixtape to the Los Angeles beat community. Two darker, more introspective singles he performed himself appeared in 2017 and 2018, then resurfaced later that year on the N.A.I.S. EP (“not as it seems”). The four-track release also featured another Bonner collaboration, “Sailor,” which was chosen for the thirteenth installment of Brownswood Bubblers, the compilation series issued by BBC DJ Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings label. The following April, Wu-Lu delivered his second EP, S.U.F.O.S. (“save us from ourselves”), led by the crackling, low-end-heavy single “Seven.”
He issued another beat-focused collection, Overgrown Interludes, in March 2020, yet pivoted abruptly in 2021 with the singles “South” and “Times,” tracks charged with rage and resilience and propelled by punk force. The more expansive “Being Me” arrived soon after that May. November brought the surging “Broken Homes,” released alongside news that Wu-Lu had joined the Warp roster. Anticipation tracks preceded the July 2022 arrival of Loggerhead, which incorporated “South” and “Times” among its high-octane cuts. An extensive roster of supporting musicians included Tagara Mhiza, Lex Amor, Morgan Simpson of Black Midi, Ego Ella May, and Mica Levi. The following year, Loggerhead earned a Libera Award nomination for Best Punk Album. In May 2024, Wu-Lu returned with Learning to Swim on Empty, a comparatively introspective and measured EP featuring poets Rohan Ayinde and Caleb Femi on its opening and closing tracks.
Born Miles Romans-Hopcraft and raised in South London, he grew up with a mother who trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance School and now works as a contemporary dancer and lecturer. His father, Robin Hopcraft, leads the band Soothsayers as trumpeter and bandleader; Romans-Hopcraft himself played bass, his principal instrument, in that group. The music he absorbed in childhood through his parents was later broadened by discoveries tied to skateboarding, graffiti culture, and video-game scores, encompassing hip-hop, grunge, alternative metal, and pop-punk, while the documentary Scratch sparked an awakening regarding the possibilities of DJ’ing and sampling. He and his twin brother Ben, of the band Childhood, continually introduced each other to fresh and older material. As his drive to create music deepened, Romans-Hopcraft immersed himself in every locally originated underground club style—from drum’n’bass, garage, and broken beat to grime and dubstep—and began producing and performing with Matted Sounds and We Are Dubist.
Adopting the name Wu-Lu, partly drawn from the Amharic term for water, he debuted as a solo beatmaker in 2015 with Ginga, a dense collection of mostly instrumental pieces that included vocal contributions from Grace Acladna, Andrew Ashong, and Binisa Bonner. A link-up with producer Mndsgn tied the half-hour mixtape to the Los Angeles beat community. Two darker, more introspective singles he performed himself appeared in 2017 and 2018, then resurfaced later that year on the N.A.I.S. EP (“not as it seems”). The four-track release also featured another Bonner collaboration, “Sailor,” which was chosen for the thirteenth installment of Brownswood Bubblers, the compilation series issued by BBC DJ Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings label. The following April, Wu-Lu delivered his second EP, S.U.F.O.S. (“save us from ourselves”), led by the crackling, low-end-heavy single “Seven.”
He issued another beat-focused collection, Overgrown Interludes, in March 2020, yet pivoted abruptly in 2021 with the singles “South” and “Times,” tracks charged with rage and resilience and propelled by punk force. The more expansive “Being Me” arrived soon after that May. November brought the surging “Broken Homes,” released alongside news that Wu-Lu had joined the Warp roster. Anticipation tracks preceded the July 2022 arrival of Loggerhead, which incorporated “South” and “Times” among its high-octane cuts. An extensive roster of supporting musicians included Tagara Mhiza, Lex Amor, Morgan Simpson of Black Midi, Ego Ella May, and Mica Levi. The following year, Loggerhead earned a Libera Award nomination for Best Punk Album. In May 2024, Wu-Lu returned with Learning to Swim on Empty, a comparatively introspective and measured EP featuring poets Rohan Ayinde and Caleb Femi on its opening and closing tracks.
Albums
Singles
