Zs

New Slaves Part II: Essence Implosion! (The Social Registry)

By Gabrielle Moss
Published: January 24th, 2011 | 1:00pm

Brooklyn’s Zs have been making sometimes-droning, often-atonal, always-challenging noise collages for over a decade. But New Slaves Part II: Essence Implosion! —which, depending on your perspective, is either a sequel, a companion piece, or a re-imagining of their early 2010 release New Slaves—has them going somewhere they have never before ventured: dance music.

Lest you get the wrong idea: Zs have not gone pop. But they have handed over the reigns to a coterie of friends, who transform several New Slaves tracks into everything from tense techno to something that just might make you want to shake your ass.

The album opens with mini-epic “MMWIV: Essence Implosion!,” which finds primary band member Sam Hillmer spraying his abstract tenor sax fire across noise peaks and shuddering drone valleys. It’s a track crafted solely from the remixes that comprise the rest of the album--but it works beyond its novel origins, and sets the stage for the alchemy to come.

“Concert Black” gets reworked by Genesis P-Orridge’s Thee Majesty and Weasel Walter (previously of Flying Luttenbachers, currently a member of Zs), respectively. Walter compresses the original twenty minutes of No Wave skronk into five intense, aggressive minutes that sound like a No Wave marching band. Thee Majesty goes for atmosphere, singling out the sharpest and most nerve-wracking elements of the original song, and adding rumbling crackles, electronic squeals, and ominous techno beats until the music descends into a sexy nightmare.

“Acres of Skin” is also re-imagined twice: in the hands of Cex, it becomes a burbling piece of dark electronica, while the Rapture’s Gabe Andruzzi works it into honest-to-goodness dance music, with a club-ready beat that you can sink your teeth into—proof positive that Zs are not just polished experimentalists, but at the creative epicenter of modern avant-garde music.

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The Social Registry Records