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Zenial

Zenial ‎* Chimera (lp 2013)

That is funny. Just like the previous album of Zenial that I reviewed, I was going to say that Zenial makes music that I would normally not like, but yet I do. “Chimera” has very experimental soundscapes, is minimalistic and has little structure. Normally that would annoy me, but in this case I again like this album. There are ‘industrialistic’ rhythms (to not give you the idea that this sounds like industrial music like we know it today), soft noise and enough happens to keep drawing my attention. The music sounds like it is made with some stoneage electronic equipment and on Discogs I noticed that the release was tagged “musique concrete”. Should you know what this term (used to) refer(s) to, you might have a good idea of what this album is like. Like the previous album: interesting.
Links: Zenial, Zoharum

Zenial * Connection Reset By Peer (cd 2012)

The latest Zenial contains live recordings and remixes. I did not really know Zenial and however as I will describe the music, this will sound not too much of my liking, I do really like “Connection Reset By Peer”. The cd opens with a “noisescape”, a monotous, minimalistic soundscape but then noisy. No power electronics or electronic terror, more a soft kind of noise. Usually when I write “monotous” and “minimalistic” I am of the opinion that not enough happens, but in this case I like the recording. There is a problem with it however, it contains a range of very high tones that just keep going and I really do not like high tones in noise, especially not when two or more tones just keep hammering my ears (that already have such tones themselves anyway). So going to track two I am delighted to be able to ascertain that Zenial is working more with lower frequencies and slow, industrial rhythms. The third track is even better, a slightly noisy, soft industrial track. The fourth track is annoyingly noisy though. The remixes are again softly noisy industrial with a soothing rhythm. A very interesting album!
Links: Zenial, Zoharum