Zs - New Slaves

For fans of Lightening bolt, Boredoms, This heat, Black dice.  “One of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York.” New York Times / “Zs plunge head first in to the murky, amorphous waters where rock, experimental, free jazz, noise, and ambient meet. You’d be hard pressed to find another group that sounds just like this. The depth of style achieved is remarkable”Alarm  / Ah, a new decade of experimental music is here and, no, it has nothing to do with making “weird” disco and throwing a Pro tools filter over the top to make it sound like a cassette tape. Zs are ready to unload their firstfull lenth for TSR . It’s called New Slaves, and is the most physically visceral experimental LP we’ve heard in a minute. Hitting with a similar impact as Oughts giants like Boredom’s Vision Creation Newsun & Black Dice’s Beaches & Canyons (while sounding nothing like them), New Slaves is a true behemoth – epic, unapologetic, painfully and artfully composed, mindboggling in complexity, original in sound and intent, while maintaining a minimalist, chugging funk groove throughout its precise post-capitalist haze. It is arguably the most defnitive statement from a band that have been challenging listeners for a decade, demonstrating, over the course of 70 minutes, just how versatile their sound can be. Zs are Sam Hillmer (tenor sax and pedals), Ben Greenberg (electric guitar and electronics), Ian Antonio (percussion and electronics). They are also joined by Amnon Friedlin (electric guitar). Opening track “Concert black” kicks off with pensive circular harmonics that naturally swells to a robust (and perhaps horrifying) cloud, using the studio as a tool to swirl the band’s steadfast and forward-looking compositional techniques. It blurs in to “Acres of skin” a clanging mishmash of industrial raga. As the record progresses, each member gets to show off with some co-operative individual compositions. Greenberg’s “Gentleman Amateur” brings your disorienting microharmonic drones, while Friedlin’s “Don’t Touch Me” is debased through a Black Dice’s Broken Ear Record meets Aphex Twin meets Stockhausen guitar based pastiche. Antonio’s “Masonary” vaporizes the formula and floats away like the band collectively decided to do whip-its and drive some slow-mo doughnuts in the parking lot outside the studio. “New Slaves” – the twenty minute title track – is the record’s peak and brilliant mission statement, harkening to the visceral live sound of 2007’s . It’s a minimalist, jerky take on progressive funk and dirty as all hell. Every band member –particularly the otherworldly skronk of genius saxophonist Sam Hillmer – shows chops well beyond their peers while adding some next level physicality to the stew. The musicianship is seriously so insane that Zs push right through the vanguard of 21st century classical into something that’s spiritually akin to hardcore punk ferocity. It’s rare that you get a track that simultaneously makes you think about Hegel while punching through a wall like you were attending a Minor Threat show in 1981. The record closes with a 2 part composition by Hillmer called “Black crown ceremony”. Both movements present an ideal comedown from the record’s intense antecedents. It’s by no means mellow, but presents a softer, looser Zs that dwell and innovate in a subtle, ambient freedom. Guitar creates a soft metallic vibe while the saxophone runs in precise, interloping a perfect exploratory loop.

Tracks : concert black (5.09) acres of skin (7.40) gentleman amateur (5.42) don’t touch me (3.15) masonry (3.41) new slaves (20.53) black crown ceremony i: diamond terrifier (13.07) black crown ceremony ii: six realms (9.59)

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