kyma•tweaky: Connect O19990914AlbumJeanLewis

Zooma
Album: 14 Sep 1999
By: JpJones
N/A
http://www.disciplineglobalmobile.com/cat/9909cat.shtml
http://www.johnpauljones.com

Humorous, passionate, complex, energetic, eclectic, and uncompromisingy honest, it's one of those CDs best listened to at full volume the first time through. Then be prepared to listen again and again at different levels with different EQ settings, because there's a lot more there than first meets the ear...

Discussion (Descriptions, reviews, discussion):

Jones' use of electronics is unlike anything else you've heard. Don't expect vintage analog, repetitious sequences, or sampled string pads. Imagine instead a dark maelstrom of human/animal/machine cries swirling and crackling just beneath the surface of an unrelenting beat and obsessive bass line, occasionally breaking to the surface only to immediately disintegrate and disperse into subatomic particles, and you'll begin to get some inkling of what Zooma sounds like.

Interspersed, are some quieter, reflective moments, some fun moments, some contrapuntal moments (care of the London Symphony Orchestra's string section) and even the slightest touch of bluegrass at one point, so you do get some chance to recover your equilibrium.

Don't expect to be coddled with a sweet and peaceful resolution, though. The final track makes you feel like you're just barely hanging on by your fingernails as it plunges headlong through metric modulations that you just can't quite latch onto and ends abruptly—not with any kind of cadence or slow fade—but with a sound like the gasp of a machine spinning down prematurely. The message here is quite clear: More to come!

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