What strikes you most though aren’t clever references to other acts, but the great sense of balance inherent in the album, it’s not one of those records where you think the band is too formulaic or nervous about setting their ideas out.
What strikes you most though aren’t clever references to other acts, but the great sense of balance inherent in the album, it’s not one of those records where you think the band is too formulaic or nervous about setting their ideas out.
Temporary Residence http://www.konkurrent.nl
A really enjoyable, unpretentious record from Nick Zammuto – the lad who was behind the Books and on this evidence he’s still brim-full of ideas and able to call on that easy charm that classified all the releases by his former band.
Zammuto is more rounded, tougher, and poppier maybe than anything the Books did. It certainly feels more like a pop record, though we are still dealing with music that engages the mind before the hips. Tracks like Yay and Groan Man, Don’t Cry or Zebra Butt had me thinking of those semi-serious avant garde pop records by Byrne, Eno & Czukay or Plank and Moebius; stuff like the Catherine Wheel, Rastakrautpasta or Movies. It reminds me too of one or two of the American Music Club releases too; things like Idiom Wind have the same reflective vibe.
What strikes you most, though, aren’t clever references to other acts but the great sense of balance inherent in the album, it’s not one of those records where you think the band is too formulaic or nervous about setting their ideas out. As such, it’s a very confident release despite having a very low key feel; not only sure of its pop vibe but able to manipulate this quality to suit most moods. Too Late Topologisze, Harlequin and the trippy F U C-3PO all boast a knowing, heavy lidded quality that knows it is smart enough to keep your interest. There are enough strange bleeps and blurts thrown in at appropriate points; all there to make the listener wonder just what is being created, or what the message is. Things also get slightly anthemic with The Shape of Things to Come and Harlequin, skewed, digital psychedelics do battle with trippy, beautiful melodies.
It’s really enjoyable and affirming stuff.