Review of Zu - The Way Of The Animal Powers (Reissue)

Well, this was unexpected.

Zu are a prolific Italian avant-jazz-doom-some such trio from

Italy

who made a great impression on me last year with their fourteenth album, the zany but listenable Carboniferous. The Way of the Animal Powers, a reissue of their out-of-print seventh album, popped up in MetalReview’s big pile’o’albums a few weeks back. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to dig into this intriguing band’s catalog.

Brilliantly-titled opener “Tom Araya Is Our Elvis” is essentially a three-minute blooper; Zu’s members flail around ineptly, verging on performing coherent melodies and rhythms but coming up short. These dudes are artsy and eclectic though, so the next track is an actual song, right?

Wrong. This album is 25 whole minutes of baritone sax gibberish, autistic bass lines and grooveless drumming. Each cut sounds like the product of insanely gifted jazz musicians who are too fucking blotto to track actual parts and too stubborn to toss out the detritus they recorded in their boozy stupor.

Zu are a thoroughly avant-garde band, and as such, they are inclined to experiment. This particular experiment is a failure, and only the most masochistic jazz dorks will find any redeeming value in its wreckage.

Release Details

Zu

The Way Of The Animal Powers (Reissue)

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