Artist: True Zebra
Title: Idiorhythmic
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 17th July 2020
Label: Electrrock Records
Album Review
Bursting forth from Belgium, and described - as a live act - as a “one man band with 4 man energy”, this does put you in mind of a newly marketed hyper-active Euro-battery, the sort that will power your drone at least until the neighbours call the police. So, energy is certainly key in the TRUE ZEBRA camp. And shagging. Shagging definitely is also key. The press-pack asks us, the press, (presumably to then pass on to you, which I’m happy to do) - “will you choose fulfilment of your sexual will over logic”? This sounds suspiciously like a concept, or something old Great Beast Aleister Crowley would have muttered mysteriously while fleecing a few occult tourists, or maybe it doesn’t really mean anything other than to window dress songs about shagging with some higher ideal. Anyway. I digress…
There’s a sprightly, bleepy and almost instantly addictive (appropriately enough) opening to the album with ‘Connection Is Addiction’, twitching and twisting hypnotically like one of those robotic vacuum cleaners that zip around the room randomly cleaning stuff. ‘Wait Wait Wait’ threatens to be ULTRAVOX initially, before the warped keys, whispered vocals and oddly sinister tuning turn this into something wonderfully eccentric and creepily dark. ‘Logistica And Thelemia’ is, of course, the shagging concept previously mentioned, laid bare, and it does succeed in managing to be weirdly erotic and coldly sexless at the same time. It’s pretty awesome really.
But then… hmmmm… ‘Weird’, isn’t. It bounces about like the theme tune to a 70s TV children’s animation. ‘Sex’ is lyrically dreadful, and would shame a teenager’s first attempt at raunchy self-expression. And ‘Move’ skips about with spirit and an increasingly frantic backing track, but still sounds like it’s an 80s Hip-Hop remix, shoved on a B-side. By now, we’re running out of salvation time, so it is a genuine relief that closing track ‘Idiorhythmic’ is an excellent mix of eccentricity, with splashes of early DEPECHE MODE dropped in, some more nicely out of tune synths and a disturbing undercurrent that keeps things edgy and interesting throughout.
This is far too inconsistent to be a great album, although it would certainly have made an excellent EP. Concept aside - and who cares about a concept, to be honest, if the music can’t carry the weight of the idea - there is enough leftfield doodling and noodling here to keep disciples of electronica happy enough.
It feels as though had our man at TRUE ZEBRA gone with “logic”, three tracks would have been cut, leaving merely “fulfilment of sexual will”. And perhaps that’s the whole point of it after all. Perhaps it’s all very clever. Bet he’ll say it is.
Tracklist
01. Connection Is Addiction
02. Wait Wait Wait
03. Logistica And Thelemia
04. Weird
05. Sex
06. Move
07. Idiorhythmic
Line-up
Kevin Strauwen
Website
http://www.truezebra.com / https://www.facebook.com/truezebra
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Total: 7 / 10
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