Zu is a pretty weird Italian trio, made up of drums, electric bass, and barry sax. The group has been around for about a decade, put out more than a dozen records, and collaborated with Dälek, the Melvins, Nobukazu Takemura, and a whole bunch of others. This year, like a lot of other years, they put out a new album.
And it is good.

This time around, Zu are pretty straightforwardly heavy, switching between a steady-rhythmed, thick-bassed pounding reminiscent of the Austerity Program and a brain-bending mathematical lurch. Zorny sax freakouts don’t dominate many of the songs; they instead add texture to head-noddable riffs, which is where I think they belong.

“Ostia” brings the album in well with bombastic electronics and rhythm that gets into your blood like snake venom and won’t fucking leave. “Chthonian” follows up with sax noodling over heavy bass lines and pounding drums, and by the time it’s over the album is pretty much locked down; the very worst a record with an opening that awesome could be is mediocre.

And though Zu can’t keep up the first two tracks’ intensity or quality over the next forty minutes, they certainly don’t make anything bad either, except for that one track that Mike Patton shits all over.

While this record probably won’t be changing lives, it’s certainly a solid release, worth listening to if you like certain things in your music, like distorted bass, hard-to-comprehend rhythms, and wild saxophone improvisations; which are all things that I’m into. If you are too, drop me a line. Let’s hang out and talk about music in a way that makes it clear to everyone around us that we think we’re both cooler and smarter than they are. Also, maybe you should give this album a listen.