Miscellaneous - Fanzine of the Month

by Zum

published: 13 / 1 / 2002

San Francisco fanzine 'Zum' was started by brother and sister, George and Yvonne Chen in 1990 , when they were both still at high school. It began as a small, photocopied zine of a few pages, and has

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San Francisco fanzine 'Zum' was started by brother and sister, George and Yvonne Chen in 1990 , when they were both still at high school. It began as a small, photocopied zine of a few pages, and has expanded over the course of the last ten years into an internationally known and well respected fanzine with a group of talented contributors that includes Chris Jones, who also writes for Pennyblackmusic. Its twelfth and latest edition which has 104 pages was released in December and is the first to feature a full colour front picture .Issue 12 contains interviews with 'Ganger', 'Hood', 'Enemymine', 'Mogwai', 'The Mountain Goats', 'Phunacteck' and 'Armatron'. There are articles on Vietnam, Taiwan and sport, and lots of album reviews, some of which appear below. All the albums featured are for sale from the Pennyblackmusic site, and we will have copies of Issue 12 available shortly. As well as running Zum, George and Yvonne both appeared together in the band 'Megaweapon' and George is now in the group' Boxleitner', while Yvonne is in the band 'Contrail'. George toured recently with Boxlieitner at the beginning of January, and Contrail's first single has just been released. Both Chens also run their own small record label which is again called Zum, and they have also promoted several concerts in and around the San Francisco area. Add N to (X) - Avant Hard (Mute) I've heard that Add N to (X) have about 40 vintage synths hidden away in their icy mountaintop lair. It shows. Repeated listenings have had me breathing on a mirror, doubting the existence of my own soul. With their third record, the British trio ping-pong convincingly between early Cabaret Voltaire style riffing and mellotron-guided madness. Not too much variation from the man-machine concept of 1998's On the Wires of Our Nerves, Avant Hard sees them giving the vocoder a break and locking into menacing overdriven neo-prog beats and just plain old aural assault. It's a noisy affair at times, as these analog terrorists round up equine sounds, squeals, and everything but guitars to conjure up images of the geodesic domes of Buckminster Fuller and pornographic robot cartoons. Viva la Automaton! (jp) Eiffel Tower - S/T (Monitor) This is the one-man project of a fellow named Ben Wheelock. Ben sets up an electronic backing beat and plays keyboard and guitar over it and sings in a voice verging on commercial radio. This description sounds bad, but the music actually works. It's well-produced and has that kind of harmless appeal of Creeper Lagoon. It's catchy, comfortably familiar, gets stuck in your head sometimes, and you can't really find fault with it except that it doesn't inspire. But if you're just looking for a pop-rock, toe-tappin' listen, this will do the trick. (yc) Eternals - 12" (Thrill Jockey) The Eternals sound like they ought to be a Marvel super hero team. Wayne and Damon from Trenchmouth go full superhero dub route with organs, wah wah and spot-on drumming. The manipulation of organic sounds is more reminiscent of a Herbie Hancock or Spaceheads than their aggro roots. The last Trenchmouth album proved them to be no mere dabblers in dub, and set high expectations for what the Eternals could achieve. Eerieness overrides the dance-y parts and creates the impression that Locks and Co. are the brooding types at parties who deconstruct the crowd. (gc) Rainer Maria - Look Now Look Again (Polyvinyl) Emolite? Emopop? I never really liked the emo tag; the word "emote" is not very descriptive in the context of music (that's open for discussion I suppose, but I think most artists across all genres try to sound emotive-whether or not they are effective is a different matter). But insofar as this band sounds, it's similar to other Midwest bands labeled emo, only that Rainer Maria is lighter, as though there is some Slumberland influence mixed with the typical hardcore or punk. RM is a melodic indie rock trio, with girl/boy vocals (primarily girl on leads). The recording is great. I like the guitars; the ringing tone sounds just right for this type of music. There's lots of longing and bitterness in these lyrics (I like the words to "The Reason the Night is Long"). It's been done plenty before, but this release stands as a good example of why bands continue to make this type of music. (sb) Soundtrack - Reach the Rock (Hefty) Aside from the odd contributions here and there, you could call this John McEntire's first solo record. Consider it an attempt to blend dub, electro- and guitar-based song structure into separate, equally interesting parts (at least more interesting than the straight-to-video movie itself). While that is not entirely different from the work he has done with Tortoise, McEntire is now given free reign to create soundtrack material for an actual soundtrack (as opposed to an imaginary one). What emerges is a darker hybrid that doesn't always work. There are definite standout tracks on the record but they are outweighed by the more plodding, gothic atmospherics of others. Standout tracks being the car-chase friendly "Quinn Goes To Town" and the merging (in the best possible way) of Paul Hardcastle and Jean Michael Jarre on "Lise Arrives." Actually, it is outsidem sources-Bundy K. Brown and Dianogah-who supply two of the strongest tracks.(jp) Mia Doi Todd - Come Out Of Your Mine (Communion) Mia Doi Todd is a very mesmerizing performer and she continues to weave her haunting sound around well-placed acoustic guitar strums on her second album. She has an ethereal quality to her presentation that captivates you, and this recording-done surreptitiously late one night in a chapel at Yale-captures it well. While an amazingly talented lyricist, vocalist, and artist (she drew all the illustrations in the CD), she is still sometimes subject to the limitations of singer/songwriter with guitar-principally, a monotony in sound. With just the instruments of voice and guitar, it's hard to avoid it (even well-known, much loved musicians like Richard Buckner, Will Oldham and Elliott Smith fall prey to it). Certainly she makes the best of it by painting beautiful, detailed pictures with her words. My favorite moments of Come Out Of Your Mine are the back to back melancholy and sweetness of "Your Room" and "Sunday Afternoon." (yc) Tom Daily - Happily Deceiving Culture (Thick) Tom Counihan's debut solo album dishes out earnest tunes that are hard to resist. This is nothing fancy-the sound is simple, 8-tracked-in-the-bedroom pop-but it immediately ingratiates itself. The lyrics aren't terribly intellectual, but neither are they glaringly dumb or predictable. The higher range vocals and heartfelt lo-fi-ness is certainly reminiscent of early Portastatic and there are some Guided by Voices moments. I wouldn't even dare to offer that this sound hasn't been done before or that there's even anything that special about this album. I would proffer to say though that Tom has made an easily enjoyable release. (yc)