Zomby: 'With Love'

It’s almost impossible to get a handle on the complex multiplicity of Dance Music these days.  Indeed, any attempt to construct a family tree of extant beat-based genres would actually result in more of a thicket of tangled branches and suckering offshoots.  British producers always had the knack for finding interesting hybrids and mutations in standard forms with the potential to become global phenomena and, in the 21st Century; such healthy disregard for genre orthodoxy feels like by far the most creative way forward.

One of the most obvious demonstrations of this has occurred in recent years as Dubstep splintered into multiple, interesting new directions at the hands of a number of forward thinking luminaries, including Kode 9, Burial, Shackleton and indeed, Zomby. They all prove the futility of pigeonholing styles and that, whilst acknowledging the strands within it, we should think of rhythmic electronic music far more holistically.

Whilst the pseudonymous Zomby lacks the heart-rending melancholy of Burial, or the sheer abstraction and conceptual ambition of Sam Shackleton, he has proved himself skillful at deconstructing numerous pre-existing ‘traditions’ of dance music and reassembling them into something identifiably his own.  Although sometimes cast as an anarchistic wind-up merchant, 2011’s ‘Dedication’ album revealed him to be capable of both sophistication and emotional depth, despite its gunshot samples and sketchbook tendencies.  The titles of these albums suggest he is emotionally invested in his music far more than he is merely showing off.  ‘With Love’ certainly continues the trend but, this time, in the form of an extensive double set comprising two distinct halves.  In that respect, it emulates Shackleton’s most recent album [1.] and, it must be said, gives it more than a run for its money.

Z For Zomby

The first half of ‘With Love’ is where Zomby demonstrates his magpie tendencies most overtly.  Indeed, the shiny, faceted mask, behind which he often hides, seems a most appropriate accoutrement.  Having commenced proceedings in relatively familiar dark, Dubsteppy style, he opens himself up to a much wider range of influences and signifiers.  ‘If I Will’ combines glockenspiel tones with a chopped and diced vocal sample retaining a definite skip in its step and more than a hint of Flying Lotus’ aesthetic.  ‘Isis’, relies on a strict metronomic structure to create a tension with romantic, piano figures not unlike those that wander pensively through so many old Massive Attack songs.  ‘It’s Time’ looks straight back to old school Rave with potty-mouthed exhortations to lose it and air of euphoric psychosis.  Zomby’s love of that era is well known and air horn sounds punctuate many tracks on ‘With Love’, often at unexpected junctures.

Reflecting The Many Facets Of Contemporary Dance Music

And so it goes on, through Hip Hop and Techno inflected tracks, and the welcome return of busy, time-bending Drum & Bass rhythms in ‘Overdose’ and ‘777’. ‘Rendezvous’ and ‘All The Things You Do’ emulate Burial’s pitch-shifted vocal sound but within a slightly more percussive framework, whilst elsewhere, sampled references to lost sound systems are married to more contemporary, ticking rhythm patterns.  The splendid ‘Vi-Xi’ comes across like a Jamaican MC competing against a distant Hardcore rave.

Smokin'

The lazy, clichéd reference for this kind of music is usually of a sojourn through dark city streets replete with shadowy atmospheres and lurking danger.  It’s not a wholly inappropriate simile for ‘With Love’ but nowhere near the full story.  In fact, I prefer to see the first section more like a journey through a mental music collection or stored sound-related memories, real or imagined.  It’s significant that both Zomby and Burial wax nostalgic over a bygone Rave Age neither could really have experienced first hand, and that clearly, the aesthetics of recreational sound can be loaded with long-term, emotional resonance.

The short track lengths, abruptly cut endings and overt versioning of a single idea, (often programmed in succeeding tracks) are familiar Zomby trademarks and still very much in evidence here.  He makes no real attempt to hide either his short attention span or experimental, scattergun method.  Initially, this made me regard his musical statements as somewhat impromptu but I’ve come to appreciate the honesty over his modus operandi and willingness to allow individual tracks to stand as ideas or sketches rather than building a polished, homogenous edifice.

In The Hood

Despite that, the album’s second half does work more like a unified suite.  If the suggestion of alienated urban foreboding is again a tempting reference, I still feel it’s only one possible interpretation.  There is a general solemnity throughout these tracks, with slow paced Trap beats and profound bass dominating.  The sense of Zomby exploring variations on the same theme also adds to their overall sense of unity.  Nonetheless, repeat listens reveal a wider sound palette and more varied degrees of illumination than is initially apparent.

Opener, ‘Black Rose’ is built around shimmering gamelan chimes and next to no percussion.  It is far more darkly romantic than it is threatening or bleak.  ‘Glass Ocean’ is allowed to shuffle a little and pitches its melodic elements to prioritise wistfulness over anything darker.  In ‘I Saw A Golden Light’, illumination really becomes a major component and, despite portentous bass, its identity derives from a repeating cycle of single piano notes counterpointed against droplets of melodic synth.  The impression is of a city viewed through a curtain of illuminated raindrops.

This equation of points of sound with points of light characterizes much of the remaining album.  ‘Quickening’ achieves it with soft metallic chimes whilst ‘Reflection In Black Glass’ dispenses with a beat and allows pointillist notes to play across surfaces of washed synth just as its title suggests.  ‘Sunshine In November’, (the clues really are in many of these titles), uses piano and cascades of electronic notes in a beautiful, beatless sketch, evoking the heartening effect of winter sunlight.  If the album’s title track closes everything out in a sombre, downbeat fashion, it does so only after numerous moments of uplift and considerable beauty.

Ultimately, I think Zomby has assembled the various components of ‘With Love’, into something rather monumental and loaded with emotional reverberations.  Certainly, as a fifty-something with dodgy legs, I’m always appreciative of how he and many of his compatriots seek to shape programmed rhythms into a rewarding listening as well as purely physical experience.  Organised in two strikingly different ways, ‘With Love’ acknowledges the alienation of modern urban life but demonstrates how it can also be circumvented via the various tropes of electronic Dance Music.  Whether this is best achieved through fondly remembered dance floor communion; via an aesthetic appreciation of the play of light on the city’s fabric; (or even by shared experience with a romantic partner), is for the listener to decide.

[1.]:  Shackleton, ‘Music For The Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organ EPs’, Woe To The Septic Heart, 2013.

Also Listening To:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 'Electric Ladyland'.

Leo Kottke, 'Leo Kottke'

Portishead, '3'

Portishead, 'Glastonbury 2013', (BBC Broadcast, 28 June 2013)

Mount Kimbe, 'Cold Spring Fault Less Youth'

Pantha Du Prince, 'XI Versions Of Black Noise'

Blind Faith, 'Blind Faith'

The Fall, 'The Infotainment Scan'