Zongamin - 'Zongamin' (XL)
4/5
By: Toby L
First experiencing the dynamic, groove-orientated flare of Zongamin - AKA Susumu Mukai - and co. in the live-arena, what dazzled rockfeedback more than anything was the sheer rigidity of the performers; none of that hidden-behind-turntables nonsense. Live instruments. Played extravagantly. Never once entering 'dull' territory.
The resulting, eponymous debut-album from the Japanese instrumental-wizard is a dextrous shuffle from genre-to-genre, all DJ Shadow mixing and scratching ('Street Surgery 2') amidst bass-driven bouts of funk-lounge ('Painless') and the sort of wiry liveliness, albeit consistency, that outshines the competition. Where Zongamin's stylised stable-mates crash and burn within a cacophony of clichιs, alt-music's latest intriguing personality almost suffocates the senses with a barrage of loops, hooks and sequences that will find an unwavering home in the bedroom and night-club alike.
Vivid experimentation and tunefulness hand-in-hand, one begins to think there's no end to Mukai's vision; haunting, spook-trance in 'Whiplash', searing, chugging opener 'Make Love, Not War' and the compelling throb of 'Serious Trouble' - it's all so diligently carried out, not a hint of pretension nor an exasperating attempt to hold back. When it altogether melds into a whistle-led, percussive rotation of 'J Shivers Theme' or goes Bjork-y electronica on 'Trespasser', electroclashes its way through a doting 'New Song To An Old Story', it returns briefly to almost easy-listening terrain for a Kraftwerk-cum-Aphex Twin (the latter at his happiest) 'Tunnel Music', concluding restrictively in a soil-your-pants haunting 'Mummies'.
An open mind for increasingly open-minded musical times, Zongamin's imprint of metamorphic, mind-grappling, attention-thieving dance is a brand you'd be lost without. File him in your CD-collection under the section marked 'Future Scene-leader'.
Artists in this article: Zongamin
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