Zoo Zero - Zoo Zero

  by Andy Cassidy

published: 14 / 10 / 2013

---

Zoo Zero’s eponymous debut has an interesting back-story. The group turned down management interest and distribution deals in order to retain full control of their music, and have teamed up with Scott Knapper (engineer to, among others, Scott Walker and Van Der Graaf Generator) to create an album “where noise and weirdness clashes with melody.” The album opens with ‘Fraktion’, a story of Marxist terrorism with an epic and cinematic instrumental stretching it out to seven minutes. Instrumentally, the song begins as a throbbing, bass-driven rocker with feedback-drenched guitar buried just low enough in the mix to keep it from slipping into grunge territory. The backbone of the track is Christian Saneto’s superb bass and Matthew Barnes’ sublime drumming. Three minutes in, the song opens up into a vista of echoes and twangs, building space perfectly before re-energising towards a real ball-burster of a finale. Second track, ‘Moon Communique’, is possibly the most mainstream track on the album, and, to me, it suffers because of it. Despite a great guitar hook, the track is just a little too safe for my taste, a little generic. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s a good track, it’s just not as experimental and challenging as the rest of the album. The album gets back on track with ‘Show Me Your Flag’, another bass-driven rocker. Melodically, the track is inventive and the guitar drone is fantastic. Few bands can throw in a change of tempo as nonchalantly as Zoo Zero do here, which is much a credit to the rhythm section as it is to the song’s composers. Penultimate track ‘Oryx’ is, for me, the highlight of the album. With yet another challenging tempo and the best vocal on the album, the track is supremely engaging and an absolute joy to listen to. Shades of Nirvana mix with flavours of Can to produce a highly original blend of high energy and superb musical craft. Zoo Zero is a confident and ballsy debut from a band whose musical ability is evident throughout the seven tracks. Make no mistake, these boys can play. For me, though, the one weakness in the band lies with vocalist Tom Pinnock. He’s a fair singer, and certainly better than a great many who “make it,” but I feel that the vocals somehow diminish the band’s sound as a whole. Musically, though, Zoo Zero are superb: confident, skilful and inventive.

Track Listing:-

1 Fraktion
2 Moon Communique
3 Show Me Your Flag
4 Double Cross
5 Stationed
6 Dnalsi
7 Oryx
8 Spinning Pretty

Band Links:-

https://twitter.com/zoozero
http://www.zoozero.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/zoozerouk

Post A Comment

---

Comment

Name

your name

Location

ie London, UK

Submit

Check box to submit

Adam Coxon
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson

Dixie Ernill
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart

Malcolm Carter
Marie Hazelwood
Mark Rowland
Nick Dent-Robinson
Nicky Crewe
Nige Nudds
Philamonjaro
Richard Lewis
Shirley Procter
Spencer Robertshaw
Steev Burgess
Steve Kinrade

Steve Miles
Tommy Gunnarsson
Zena Grieg