One of the best things about this album is being immersed in the sounds a tiny creature would "hear":  the percussive rhythms, beats, buzzes, hums, scratches, clicks, clangs, high pitches, low basses, a groovy collection of vibrations.  Good vibrations!  It's a blast!  Check out especially # 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8, one of my favorites. 

But there's more than the music.  This is another chapter in the life of Zero, a thoughtful inquisitive alien insect, who has escaped a mind-numbing drone's existence and has landed in a new world, possibly Earth, feeling as though he's awakened from a long, dreamful sleep.  We follow his unusual adventures and discoveries and his rediscovery of Octavia, his old love. 

It's about sounds that make music, about music that transports you, it's about being transported to another life.  

In the end, we can’t help echoing Zero’s aching question “what is life?” 

So, what IS life?  

Listen and find out...
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This is one hell of an album. Zru Vogue is a prolific band, and it's easy to get jaded by all their groundbreaking music.

Yet, this one is a special Zru album, one that recalls the freshness of Nakweda Dream from 1981, but with the maturity of a band that has continued to evolve, reinvent, and develop new sounds that are uniquely Zru Vogue.  For those who know Zru Vogue, I would like to say this one is one fun, exciting album...one you can't miss.

If you are reading this, not knowing Zru Vogue, then I will briefly describe their sound (if possible), as pop experimentalism, not something too serious that you need to listen over and over to "get it".  Instead it's a wonderful, thoughtful, reflection into existence, non-existence, and everything in between. It's fun music, danceable sometimes, sometimes not, sometimes funky, sometimes just ethereal.

It's one of the most enjoyable albums I've heard this year, and i recommend you hear it too. You won't be disappointed!
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Have you ever danced with your Dada? Do it - strap on your wings, oil your antennae and boogie down to the hep thrum of Zru as they take you on a ride through the hive and drop you into the web of Octavia, Insect Queen Supreme. Hear her thorax shimmy, feel the leggy creatures mambo up the nape of your neck. 
Zru Vogue has managed to amaze us all over again, to set us alight, to incandesce like a moth in a bug-zapper. 
Zero: Exile ll is so rich it could be the basis for a wild, esoteric musical. Lie back and listen on headphones and see if you don’t envision the staging, mentally design the lighting and assemble the costumes. Songs like Informal Paranormal (equal parts dystopian landscape, poetry jam, and groovy be-in) are made to be seen AND heard. Zero One Two Three, A Better Place, The Re-Awakening, Vogue Town... they each have a place in the larger story. I propose an off-Broadway opening.
Zru Vogue’s music, their very existence, simply makes life better.
Remember: there is no Me in Hive. There is, however, You in Zru. Enjoy.
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