Zs - "Arms" & "Music Of The Modern White"

Judge the Brooklyn band Zs by appearances and you could get the wrong idea. The quartet performs sitting down; it uses sheet music; all four current members—and in fact, everyone who has ever been in the band since it formed in 2000—have studied music. Given all of this, you might assume that Zs’ music is dry as talc. But it just isn’t that way.

The pieces on "Arms", the group’s debut full-length, are indeed rigorously composed, employ repetition and atonality, and are undeniably avant-garde. But what characterizes the quartet and its sound is a ferocious of-the-moment energy that shares a vibe with punk more than anything else.

Saxophonist Hillmer explains it like this: "Oh my God, I’m jazz and I’m classical and I’m punk rock—how fucked-up is that?!?"

They played with The Locust, Gang Gang Dance, Animal Collective, Battles, The Dirty Projectors, Orthrelm, Octis, The Flying Luttenbachers, Behold... The Arctopus, Yellow Swans, Get Hustle, Dan Deacon, Aa, Marnie Stern, Peter Brotzman and Han Bennick, Joe Maneri, Christian Wolff, Louis Andriessen, and Petr Kotik, among many others.

Get the debut here: Zs - "Arms" (320Kbps)

Furthermore they just released a mini-lp called "Music Of The Modern White" and it is highly (maybe even more) recommended to get that, too ! The group’s sound since "Arms" has only gotten freer, less exact, and increasingly dissonant. It is relying far less on theory and far more on the noises erupting out of their instruments. And unlike their other releases, studio involvement is at an all-time high. Somebody wrote: "And while this album sees their sound becoming rounder, harsher, and less exact, it’s all the more human for it." So it is...

Get it here: Zs - "Music Of The Modern White" (256Kbps)

And enjoy !