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  • How To Raise An Ox

    ALP168

    Artist: Zu/Mats Gustafsson

    Label: Atavistic

    Hailing from Rome, the free jazz power trio Zu has been making considerable waves in the indie underground. With a resume boasting numerous tours and collaborative recording sessions with Eugene Chadbourne, Dälek, The Ex, Nomeansno and Ken Vandermark, the members of Zu have proven themselves capable of holding their own against the underground's heaviest contenders, regardless of genre. The group's most recent endeavor, How To Raise an Ox, also features a guest improviser, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson.
    Heavily amplified and deriving inspiration from post-punk as well as such renowned electric free jazz ensembles as Last Exit and Painkiller, Zu is a powerhouse. Veering from grinding Sabbath and glacially paced Melvins-like tempos to fitful barrages of punk-inflected frenzy, their brand of post-rock friendly free jazz has won them a legion of international fans.

    The members of Zu also relish open spaces: the contrasting silence around ringing, sustained tones is often as important as the decibel-shattering outbursts that drop in between. They also favor metallic, grinding angular funk rhythms, but never at the expense of that sound. They're are drawn to grating textures, and no other ensemble sounds quite as brusque as Massimo Pupillo's bright, overdriven electric bass, Jacopo Battaglia's pulverizing drums, and Luca Mai's dark, tortured baritone saxophone. The intricate call and response rhythmic structures of the assembled songs leave little room for melody, let alone ha...