Zammuto - Zammuto
Experimental music consistently has a habit of being serious in nature. It plays itself off as something you should be scratching your chin at while staring blankly into your stereo. This is not the case with Zammuto's new self titled album. Nearly all of the vocals in this work are heavily edited, and the song structure frequently deviates from the norm, but the music consistently comes off as light hearted and fun.
This album is the new project of former Books guitarist Nick Zammuto. It is a four piece outfit with Nick Zammuto on the guitars and vocals, Gene Back on guitar, organ, and keys, Sean Dixon on the drums, and Mikey Zammuto on the Bass. While it retains several elements that make the Books a good band, it is more accessible and energetic. For starters, Zammuto does not use nearly as many vocal samples as the Books, which I feel makes the lyrical content more engaging and emotive. You can read the full story of the Books' break up and Zammuto's formation here.
One thing that is interesting throughout this album is the different ways that they edit the vocals. The opener "Yay" uses some strange intermittent filtering which makes the lyrics unintelligible, but builds the energy of the song to the point of ecstasy. The next song "Groan Man, Don't Cry" makes extensive use of a vochorder to building interesting harmonies against Nick Zammuto's fantastic guitar riffs. "FU-C3P0" sounds like the lyrics are typed into a speak and spell. The incredibly strange, pseudo rap or slam poetry song "Zebra Butt" has the female vocalist slowly speak like the Windows text to speech program (that we all typed swearwords into, in our youth) over a bubbling electronic bass line that slowly builds until it explodes into a cacophony of electric angst.
The second half of the album has a more relaxed feeling but still maintains interest through the use of the electronic vocals, drum samples, and sequenced bass. The song "Harlequin" uses some interesting keys that sound like pvc piping, before falling into a haunting night time ballad. It utilizes a more toned down version of "Yay's" vocal editing that sounds like the vocals are rippling across the surface of a pond. Finally, the closer "Full Fading" makes it seem like you are drifting away on the smoothness of Nick Zammuto's electronic voice, like a computer slowly running out of batteries.
All together, I immensely enjoyed this album. The use of the vocal editing made this work consistently fun and engaging all the way through, even on the slower songs at the end. It can be hard to distinguish which sounds have been sampled and which have been authentically recorded, but I don't really think it matters because the end product sounds fantastic. The use of vocals in this album can seem alienating during the very energetic songs such as "Yay" and "Zebra Butt", but the closing tracks are so beautiful and relaxing, that it should round off the experience quite peacefully.
