Another project from Bell Barrow mastermind Jeremy Moore, Zero Swann is a more accessible outing (accepting that “accessible” is very much a relative term) than Bell Barrow, bringing in elements of dark psychedelia and goth to sit alongside the post-punk and no-wave ambience that can be found woven through Jeremy’s other projects.
New album The Ones Who Love follows hot on the heels of Bell Barrow’s Saltire (with another album due very soon), and yet it has a consistent and impressive (also oppressive) atmosphere that’s all its own.
It opens with Chrisom, a dark hybrid of atmospheric gothic rock and psychedelic that traces the line between The Doors and Joy Division, throwing in elements of Sonic Youth along the way, most notably in guitar stabs that hark back to Confusion Is Sex. While not exactly easy music, it’s certainly a good deal more accessible than Bell Barrow, the dub-infused drums and baritone vocals providing the listener with familiar reference points, even if the churning guitars remain firmly in the avant garde camp. This is also apparent on White Lips, the subversive nature of the instrumentation initially obscured by a vocal hook drawn straight from the Jim Morrison song book.
Having established a tone for the record, Jeremy gives us the surprisingly direct Knacker’s Yard. With an industrial pulse driving the percussion, it takes the already evident psychedelic elements and welds them to a framework closer in temperament to mid-period Swans than the earthen post-rock / trip-hop of the preceding tracks. As if to capitalise on the listener’s increasing sense of confusion, Shrine Slavery throws a skittering jungle beat into the mix, the end result emerging as Joy Division as remixed by Aphex Twin via David Bowie and Philip Glass (if you want to comprehensively rearrange your synapses, try the Aphex remix of Heroes), Jeremey’s voice floating in a sea of dirty ambience. Perhaps surprisingly, it fades down to nothing, providing something of a slight reset before the woozy darkwave of The Ones You Love returns to the unsettled explorations of Swans. Slower, albeit no less compulsive, it marks an interesting mid-album period of calm at the heart of a sonic storm that has already started to tear through the shutters by the time the track concludes.
Opening the second half, the awkward tempos of Pig Scalder make for an interesting approximation of what early Cure might have sounded like had they been influenced by Miles Davis. Stranger still, Tidal Skull, is pure Doors, with the voice so prominent and the melody so addictive that the lo-fi elements drift out of view.
That slowly-devolving-Doors vibe remains on Only Sorrow. However, this is both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side, the increasingly hypnotic vocals are impossible to ignore. On the deficit side, the fairly static tempo causes the songs to bleed into one another, making the second half generally less effective than the first. Fortunately, the off-kilter beat of Storage Organ helps to open up the album’s closing moments, while the finale, What You Never Wanted, is a highlight that heads back to Confusion Is Sex for its inspiration. With its probing bassline and fractured guitar riffs, it’s a lengthy, sinister, and suitably enigmatic end to The Ones Who Love.
A solid album, The Ones Who Love should appeal to fans of (very) early Sonic Youth, Swans, Joy Division, and, perhaps, The Doors – although the gruelling lo-fi atmospheres may prove a bridge too far for most. It is not without its flaws, however. At points, the relatively static tempos threaten monotony and, although it never gets that far, it feels as if the album’s first half is more effective at edging out in different directions. Ultimately, however, this is a work with an ambient core and, if you accept that, you’ll find it to be a hypnotic, enigmatic record that takes you far from the madding crowd. Just don’t expect an easy journey. 8/10
