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Zola Jesus - Conatus

Recommended by us on 23rd September 2011

Conatus by Zola Jesus

3...according to our on Fri 23 Sep, 2011.

Surprise of the year last year was my enjoyment of the Zola Jesus album 'Stridulum II' which despite her foghorn like voice being within a hair's breadth of the dreaded Florence/Annie Lennox histrionics beguiled me with its murky lo-fi electronics and chilling atmospheres. This album is pretty much what you might expect, when it's good as on the excellent 'Ixode' it sounds exactly like the debut, vocals layered up indefinitely alternately honking and honking even louder over muddy techno inspired 4/4 beats and a quick flick through the beginners '80s goth synth handbook but when it's bad as on the following 'Seekir' her one dimensional voice really struggles to convey any kind of emotion or soul and veers frighteningly close to the Ikea pop of Florence and her cronies. I can see the trajectory and it makes sense - Zola Jesus isn't going to become a Kate Bush or even a Bat For Lashes - she's here to eventually sell music to people who don't like music. But if we get some good stuff along the way (which about half of this is) then that's fine by me.

In the last three years Nika Roza Danilova has gone from being an outsider experimental teenage noise-maker to a
full fledged internationally celebrated electronic pop musician. It was a huge feat to accomplish, and despite her age
(young), her geography (mid-western, desolate), her accelerated scholastic requirements (high school and college were
completed in three years each) and her diminutive physical size (4”11, 90 lbs) she has triumphed. She has emerged as a
figurehead-- a self-produced, self-designed, self-taught independent woman.

Zola Jesus is not a band; it is a solo project. Zola Jesus is not a singer; she is a musician. It has always been so. That is
not to say the people who have helped her along the way were not deeply important. Her irreplaceable live band, who’s
drummer Nick Johnson lends a hand on several tracks here, and her friend Brian Foote who co-produced this album in
addition to the live string players (Sean McCann, Ryan York) who contribute here were all crucial in the process. Nika
however, is a woman who can command a room, any room, without needing a band, a stage, or even a microphone.
Her voice is unmistakable; it cuts right to the core.

Conatus is a huge leap forward in production, instrumentation and song structure. It says it all in the definition of the

title: the will to keep on, to move forward. From thumping ballads to electronic glitch, no sound goes unexplored on her
new record. It is an icy exploration in refined chaos and controlled madness, an effort to break through capability and
access a sonic world that crumbles as it shines.

TRACKLISTING:

1. Swords
2. Avalanche
3. Vessel
4 .Hikikomori
5. Ixode
6. Seekir
7. In Your Nature
8. Lick the Palm of the Burning Handshake
9. Shivers
10. Skin
11. Collapse

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