Album Notes

review from http://musiquemachine.com/reviews/reviews_template.php?id=1261

"The American trio Zonder (Dutch for 'without') presents a version of heavy rock that needs a few spins to grab you. The music is dense with all kinds of influences, performed with a raw energy.

The unpolished and direct recording of the music may be seem not 'perfect' (by rock standards), it does resemble the energy of a liveperformance pretty aptly. At first you may feel the sound is somewhat lacking, I've found that after two songs you get used to it and forget about your initial impression. In the mix of influences you can find aspects of many bands: Faith No More, VoïVod, (early) Killing Joke, Kyuss, King Crimson but also a few odd inserts like the koto in 10k, next you'll find yourself in some Native American ritual (with heavy guitars). Goblin-like horror in Mt and several times they veer into heavy psychedelics. The songstructures are not always evident, sometimes being very untraditional (to rock standards that is, the structure might just as well be lifted from a different tradition), but always full with mood- and meterchanges and curious harmonics.

Like I said, this does need a few spins to sink in, but I doubt this will scare away readers of this zine. The spins will result in slowly unwinding the coils a bit and you'll find your way in. If anything, the fire in the performance should be the thing that catches on first, the structures will follow.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Martijn Busink"



band bio/hype:

Zonder cohesively blends a wide range of influences and styles. Robin Eckman’s explosive drumming, Michael Shiono’s adept bass playing, and Rus Archer’s sonic juggling combine to create an absurd stream-of-consciousness sci-fi music experience. Characterized by dissonance, odd time signatures, long, unusual melodies, and a polyrhythmic, polytonal approach, Zonder do not play average rock – although fans of heavy guitar and driving beats will find plenty to like. Where other eclectic bands often use a pastiche approach to styles such as punk, jazz, metal, world-music, and electronics, Zonder simultaneously merges all these influences and more for an all-out sonic assault. The fiery result impresses listeners variously as “music for traveling through space,” “extreme attention deficit disorder,” and a remarkable exercise in musical mnemonics.

This particular release is limited to 500 copies with packaging hand assembled for take out at House of NanKing, compliments of the chef!

(And, yes, for those of you wondering, Rus did play on Scaterd Few's Grandmother's Spaceship, and you may also recognize Michael and Rus from SubArachnoid Space 2005-2007)