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"My brief encounter with Zs performing the music of Earle Brown in Philadelphia left me curious to hear this intense 4-piece anomaly in their native environment. The black, grimy confines of Baltimore's Ottobar is exactly the high volume ecosystem that gives rise to the no-wave brutal minimalism of the Zs. And they were even more fascinating as they pursued the extremes of noise, quiet and the unlikely synthesis of experimental chamber music and hardcore punk traditions. Zs perform in a tight, box configuration facing each other over music stands and reams of notated scores. This constant visual communication allows them to execute rapid fire unison lines with blisteringly rehearsed precision. It also places the saxophonist with his back to the audience and conveys a calculated indifference toward stage orientation. The uncompromising music that pours out - sometimes in heavy bursts punctuated by deliberate silences - is at times passionately unpredictable and repetitive. It is also stark and profoundly appealing music. - Devin Hurd |
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"I saw Zs in 2006 and they were really amazing and really difficult;
four guys (2 guitars, sax, drums) sit in chairs facing each other with
VOLUMINOUS amounts of musical scores in front of them. Using head &
hand signals as well as the scores, they played a very, very intense,
long, loud music that touched on aspects of rock, punk, 20th century
composition, improvisation and lord knows what else. It was definitely
rock music, but it never actually 'rocked' and it was like rock music
from Jupiter. As I was watching it and being simultaneously
unbelievably impressed as well as overwhelmed, I remember thinking
that this must be like what it must have felt like to have seen the
Phillip Glass Ensemble in 1971, when no one had ever heard music like
this before, yet here was this utterly alien music unfolding before
your eyes. Phew! This is some seriously BRAVE shit." - Wayside Music |
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"Like Eskimo, the Zs have a quirky playfulness about them that is
confounding and amazing in equal measure. Part rock band and part
chamber ensemble, with a whole lot in between, the Brooklyn-based act
displays a frenetic dexterity that evokes a sense of controlled chaos
-- like pistons pumping furiously, trying to break out of the engine
block. The band, which issued its debut EP on Troubleman Unlimited's
outsider-music series, recently appeared alongside Merzbow, Ikue Mori
and Mark Feldman, among others, on the Tzadik tribute to experimental
genius Earle Brown. The Zs' last few discs, however, including the
hot-off-the-presses Arms, have all been released on the Planaria
Records imprint. If that's too much to remember, just look for the
group in the Z section. Shouldn't be too hard to find; after all,
there aren't many artists filed under Z. Let's see, there's Zappa,
Zorn, and...come to think of it, the Zs would fit nicely between both
of those cats." - John Solomon, Westword |
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"ZS new full length Arms offers nearly fifty minutes of insane new studio recordings. Brooklyn quartet Zs play the real hard, real minimal, real painstakingly worked-out rock etudes that kids with beards and concentrated stares prick up their ears for. However, this stuff actually does rock, though perhaps not as ragingly as bands to who they're likely to be compared to (Orthrelm, Don Caballero, Flying Luttenbachers). "It helps that I first heard Zs live: four guys (drums, guitar, guitar+keyboard, saxophone) seated facing each other, sheet music and stand-lights illuminating some very focused faces, and playing stuff that pounded a lot more than you might think given the monkish air of the room." - Dominique Leone, Pitchfork |
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"Classified as everything from chamber pop and avant-garde to free jazz and "brutal prog," Zs make startling sounds that challenge wordy music writers and stun the senses. Along with their hard-to-pin-down style, the Brooklyn-based collective's live shows tend to baffle audiences. The members often set up face to face, heavily obscured by music stands, abruptly starting and stopping each piece while rarely addressing even each other. Off-time plucked notes and seemingly improvised sax bursts grow into a tidal wave of tightly structured melodies, collapsing into a minimal drone. Zs offer some of the most subdued yet provocative orchestration you'll hear in a rock club." - JL, Flavorpill |
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"In the number world, math begins with simple calculation and ends at highly abstract "pure mathematics." In the world of "math rock", a genre defined by disjointed rhythms, angular riffs, and dissonant chord structures, the "pure math" would be Brooklyn-based brutal-prog band Zs. Spitting fragments of oblique harmony into pieces that draw from both avant-garde compositional techniques and prog rock dexterity, Zs has played on bills with bands like Animal Collective and Gang Gang Dance, as well as with modern composers Christian Wolff and Louis Andriessen. Equal parts rock band and chamber ensemble, the group pursues highly original abstractions that transcend both arenas." - Artvoice, Buffalo |
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"It says something about the much greener Brooklyn-based Zs that they were invited to play on an Earle Brown tribute album, Brown being a great American musical experimentalist who thrived in the 1950s New York scene under the influence of artists like Jackson Pollock. Folio and Four Systems is a reworking of Brown's original compositions performed by several avant-garde bands and Brown himself, all of whom add a modern spin to his odd and sparse originals. Zs bind electric guitar and saxophone to other musician's keyboards and bass, and together they often heighten anticipation like an orchestra tuning, scattering subdued sounds in a multitude of disparate directions. "Four Systems" has a dreamlike quality of slow movement; the sludgy drums and popping strings seem as if they're resurrecting themselves from a muddy hole, pushing through for breath... This album is a reminder that the current ruse of experimental noise is not a purely contemporary phenomenon, but rather stems from early jazz and decades of monkeying around with the limits of sound and imagination." - Erika Fredrickson, Missoula Independent |
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"The tag "brutal prog" dropped out of style around the same time as retro-electro legwarmers, but pay no mind. It has always evoked, perfectly, the jams busted by such indie jazzbos as the Flying Luttenbachers, Hella, and, Orthrelm -- intense virtuosos filtering their well-educated chops through grating skronk, hardcore aggression, mind-bending time changes, and extreme metal's need to incessantly challenge its listeners. This brings us to Zs, a quartet long considered practitioners of brutal proggery. Often dressed in black, sitting in a circle and concentrating on sheet music, Zs totally project a chamber music vibe while commanding their axe, sax, drums, and keys to stutter through epileptic fits of punked-out jazz. But unlike their peers -- who do rock viscerally yet primarily for the mind -- Zs engineer some pointillist groove into their stark, almost austere compositions. Obviously, the pinprick precision of electronic dance music exerts an oh-so-subtle influence on the group (just like fellow New Yorkers Gang Gang Dance and Black Dice). And although no one's ever gonna mistake 'em for Parliament, what Zs have accomplished is really quite unique. Here in America, you see, the dance floor and high-minded sonic freakery mix about as well as oil and water." - Justin F. Farrar, Cleveland Scence |
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"Zs is an avant-rock band whose music relies heavily on extremely repetitive instrumental unison lines that barrage the listener in odd and almost constantly shifting time signatures, generally at high speeds. The whole band ? whose lineup fluctuates but currently (and I think on this live CD) consists of two guitarists, one of whom doubles on keyboards, a saxophonist and a drummer ? runs through these lines as if they were one, an impressive feat given that the music so frequently takes wild twists and turns, modulating weirdly and speeding up or slowing down unexpectedly. The technical virtuosity required to play this stuff is through the roof, and seeing them live is one hell of an experience as a result. Buck is a live recording of Zs' 2006 tour stops in New York and Pittsburgh. Originally released on cassette (those still exist? really?) in 2006, it was issued on CD in 2007 and shows the band at the powerful peak of its game. Featuring four tracks from the band's self-titled debut, two or three from 2007's Arms, and "Bump" from the Karate Bump EP, Buck offers a nice cross-section of the band's material, although it's difficult to tell whether or not there is a coherent evolutionary arc to their music since each studio album seems to have a bit of its own feel. In any case, not surprisingly, the most enjoyable stuff here is the more intricate material where the mindblowing tightness of the band really shines through. "Retrace a Walk" from Zs is particularly fantastic (as of this writing you can hear it on the band's MySpace page) ? it's amazing that a band can rock this much while concentrating so hard on their charts. There is absolutely no room for sloppiness in most of these compositions. "Nobody Wants to Be Had" is another good example; taken from the new Arms album, it incorporates vocals into the mix ? but instead of being sung, they're chanted, with words tumbling forth from the two guitarists' mouths in rapid succession and, of course, in shifting meters. The vocals were a bit of an acquired taste for me, but it's great to see a group whose music doesn't get dumbed down when vox are added in; instead, these guys just do the same thing with their voices as they do with their instruments. A "brutal prog" (or "brutal chamber") band like this naturally plays to tiny live audiences almost as a rule, and these recordings reflect that. Throughout the disc you can hear individual fans clapping, laughing, or yelling, although only on one occasion does it become intrusive. As the band flits its way through "Bump," a quieter if no less intricate composition than much of the other material, you can very, very clearly hear a guy yell out, "Slayer!" Audience members chuckle, the guy gets kicked out (which you can also kind of hear), only to return a few minutes later to scream, "Sheet music rules! Yeah fucking college!" and then get kicked out again. All this is actually pretty hilarious, and through it all the band never misses a beat, which is maybe the most impressive thing about the whole episode. If you have a soft spot for minimalist chamber-rock and don't mind a total lack of melody, Buck is as good a place to start with Zs as any. Of course, pretty much any of their recordings are more or less astonishing. Sheet music rules, indeed." - Brandon Wu, Ground and Sky |
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"(One) of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York. The Zs' songs sputter forth in Morse code dots of percussion and saxophone..." - Ben Sisario, New York Times |
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"...Sax bleats punctuate crashing cymbals. Guitar chords meld with rhythmic vocal chants. Imagine the broken and constantly fluctuating rhythm of an old typewriter, with each keystroke sounding the harmonies and anti-melodies of an entire band. Every pause between notes is honored by the whole group sans the slop and feedback found in rock music. Though the band is quick to distance itself from the prog renaissance, certainly fans of the classic madness of Magma and Ruins, as well as more current frontiersmen such as Orthrelm and ABCS, will find a pleasant challenge in decoding Zs oblique formulae. There's never the brutal attack of Lightning Bolt; instead tempered patterns shift and coalesce with a strange familiarity without ever quite repeating themselves. Musicians of this caliber and sounds this dissonant are thankfully no longer relegated to lofts and art galleries. DIY venues and houses around the country are embracing the resulting mind-expansion. Opposing the sterility of their recordings, in concert "there is a lot of tension in our music and it manifests in the audience and comes back to us on stage, kind of like a feedback loop" says Hillmer. He then elaborates, "We want to keep taking things further and further physically, mentally, aesthetically, spiritually whatever. We want an intense experience. The impetus is and always has been to make the best music we possibly can with the people who are most down to make it happen." - Nathan Carson, The Portland Mercury |
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Archived Press | ||||||||
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| "Zs are six New Yorkers divided symmetrically: two saxophones, two guitars, and two drumsets. A previous 5 song album on Troubleman was an exciting slab of controlled mayhem, and the three-track Karate Bump (Planaria) further focuses that sound - equal parts Krautrock workout and free jazz blurt - into disciplined loops. "Bump" alternates between clicking drums and a cascading guitar line until the airy whispers of hornblowers Alex Mincek and Sam Hillmer sift the track's skin raising staccato through a shuffling sonic screen. "Karate"'s respiratory calesthenics evokes the breathy chirping of Anthony Braxton and the raucous invention of Hal Russell. Things slowly die during the last track, an untitled
loop in which the guitars and saxes limp hypnotically to the finish line. Such earned weariness makes the intoxicating Karate Bump feel longer than its nineteen minute duration might indicate." - Marc Masters, The Wire |
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| "If recent theories are correct, and the human perception of beauty is based on symmetry, New York's Zs could be the world's most beautiful band... one of the most exciting bands currently working in the avant-garde today... Karate Bump may only be an EP, and perhaps won't qualify for some laudatory year-end lists, but Zs definitely put more into these 20 minutes than most bands do an hour. Risking hyperbole, this is a high quality document from one of the more interesting, stimulating and intelligent bands in action today. Highly recommended." - Adam Strohm, Dusted Magazine |
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| "Musically, Zs operate very smoothly, like a well oiled machine... It would be safe to say that Zs are a very acquired taste that to those who enjoy this style of instrumental music will be extremely soothing and enjoyable. Karate Bump has a lot of style and class to it that most albums don't achieve or even come close to. This is a record that merits a fine opportunity to get into this genre if you previously haven't and see what amazing things can be done with an interesting collaboration of instruments. I hope I get the chance to see Zs live some day because I can only imagine how serene it would be to see them play out their unique version of music. Karate Bump is a very solid release that should be definitely looked into by anyone who appreciates melodic art. - Sceneitall |
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| "It won't take much convincing that Zs are progressive, in some sense or another, although it's probably not the way in which you may envision. Karate Bump features three songs running around 19 minutes total, that continually try to push the boundary. The time signatures and the complexities won't necessarily feel important or overwhelming, because the compositions are simply so far from what is usually associated with all those things that their texture ends up dominating the album... Zs are progressive in the true sense. They conform to no particular standard, nor do they follow any rules. As such, this album is experimental to the extreme, but it all ends up working. The musicianship is top notch, and to pull this all off, all six musicians need to be incredibly in tune to each other, and they succeed seamlessly. This certainly won't appeal to a huge mass, but anyone who can appreciate truly unique and progressive music, which displays impressive musicianship and uniqueness, should give this a chance." - Ryan Mills, AbsolutePunk |
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| "As much a jazz ensemble as a prog band, Zs fuse their instruments flawlessly with each other. There may be some moments on this album that make the listener scratch their head, but a close listen will tell you just how complicated what they're doing actually is. All the complexity in the world however, doesn't necessarily make for interesting songs. But that's the catch: These songs are interesting. Rising from just a pitter-patter of the drums to rhythmic but subtle guitar parts, to the starts and stops of the saxophone playing, it all fits." - Punknews |
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| "With their self-titled debut, New York City's Zs whittle a pointy niche of their own on the big experimental rock. The EP is part of Troubleman Unlimited's Vothoc outsider music series, which is curated by Orthrelm mastermind Mick Barr. It features five tracks, all dominated by choppy, skittering intersections of percussion and tenor sax. Drummers Brad Wentworth and Alex Hoskins don't make a lot of racket, instead matching the blare of Alex Mincek and Sam Hillmer's saxophones with staccato, technically efficient taps. In between these players lies the odd chording of guitarists Charlie Looker and Matt Hough, who seem to follow neither rhythm nor melody, but nevertheless remain integral to Zs' literate racket.
While the brief piece 'Olympics' is pure fun, offering a snapshot of each musician darting into and out of the other's solo, it's the two longer works that really make an impression on Zs. The eight-plus minute 'Slalom' finds the saxophonists and guitarists hitting a series of odd, interlocking chords as the percussion shifts the song's rate of speed back and forth. At one point cymbals arrive to add a little shrill chaos to the scene, but it's soon back to the geometric seesaw of pinging high and low notes. 'Mimesis' starts out on a much subtler tip, with a sax breathing gently as the guitarists strike awkward chords. The saxophones' whale calls eventually coalesce into a sustained solo of sorts, before some piercing tones give way to even more empty and hesitant space. This deep in the song, it seems like the guitarists are daring the saxmen to make a strident move, and vice versa. It's captivating stuff, especially when the saxes do finally start to squawk, and the drummers make their own appearance at this improvisational showdown." - Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide |
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