ZS - Xe

Bolstered by their renewed three-piece line-up, saxophonist Sam Hillmer's Zs carry forward the electronic imprinting established by the absurdist melting-pot of “Grain”.

“Xe” offers new fruits of this tendency: a “Future Of Royalty” that is a sardonic, militaristic industrial dance frothing with wrong notes and impossible off-beats with every passing second, right up to a peak of stellar free-jazz; “Wolf Government”, a concert of reverb injected with acid guitar that swings rapidly from a chaotic calm to a grotesque Jimi Hendrix-like roar of turbines, before dissolving into a blind emission of ferrous loops; “Weakling”, a small jewel of mantric stasis pulverized by typhoons of electronic distortion.

On the two long tracks, however, the leader sets aside the electronics and abandons the compositional ambitions pursued so far. The combo goes back to canonically picking up their instruments, and seems unable to do anything but once again resort to a manic mimicry of their early records' minimalism. Compared to the freshness of their debut, both “Corps” (12 minutes) and the title track (18 minutes, with a pleasant mezzo-piano of mysterious muting and a few scattered peaks of shrill collective cacophony) end up feeling like little more than bland group soundchecks.

Either way, it's a formidable showcase for the band's new anti-virtuosity, especially new robot-drummer Greg Fox, the new demigod of the snare. If there's nothing fundamentally new added to their story, there is nonetheless a spectacular suite-form that harks back to the early Henry Cow.

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08/02/2015