Monday, June 20, 2011

Zvoov - Everbrown (2011)


This is a sleeper album. On first listen, nothing really pops. Everything is well-executed and sounds nice, but there's nothing really jaw-dropping.

After a few listens, the album definitely starts to grow. The guitar parts are subtle, sneaky, and dark, highly reminiscent of Slint. The rhythms have an understated but groovy swagger. Its clear that a lot of thought went into composing each song. The parts are polished, interesting, and stand up to repeated listens.

In contrast to a lot of math-rock albums I've been listening to, there is nothing extreme or astonishing on this record. But a face-melting chopsfest does not appear to be Zvoov's intention here. Instead, they use restraint and have created a thoughtful, well-crafted album. Its an interesting approach to the genre and well-worth a listen.

Also, the drummer is one of the tallest men on earth.

Everbrown is available for free on Zvoov's Bandcamp.

7 comments:

  1. Like I said remember hearing these guys before will have to give this the 2nd listen

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  2. This is way more jazzy than I was expecting.

    Wish dudes would stop jamming multiple songs/distinct grooves under the same song title.

    Bassist be jamming on my kinda basslines.

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  3. I said jamming twice, but they're different verbs, what's a man to do?

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  4. Can someone please start jamming my toast?

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  5. The drummer was a straight-up jazz drummer before joining this band, if that explains some of the jazziness.

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  6. Yeah, that could be it, but even the compositional style is of a kind with earlier progressive jazz groups like Matching Mole. And the bassist gives off some heavy Hugh Hopper vibes.

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