Band : O! The Joy
Album : Zen Mode
Release Year : 2008
Genre : Mathrock / Progressive
Tracklist :
1. Conceivable Test Tube Baby
2. There Is No Such Thing As "Organized Crime"
3. This Fault Is Not Mine
4. Under The Radar
5. 22435
6. The Man And The Secrets
7. We Write The Next Chapter
8. I Just Didn' t Tell You
9. Guiding Role
10. Zen Mode
2. There Is No Such Thing As "Organized Crime"
3. This Fault Is Not Mine
4. Under The Radar
5. 22435
6. The Man And The Secrets
7. We Write The Next Chapter
8. I Just Didn' t Tell You
9. Guiding Role
10. Zen Mode
The press material for O! The Joy describes them as “ingenious” and their debut record as “impetuous.” Zen Mode, it announces, contains “a perfect harmony between a wide range of genres, from krautrock to emo.” Post-rock, math-rock, and prog-rock are also mentioned by name.
Dutifully enough, they’ve imported stuff from all of the genres claimed. From emo, we get sincerities shouted with emotion. From math-rock, we get long sections where they slash or pick through bits of angular slashy-pickiness. From post-rock, we get that towering haze of reverb that Interpol are constantly using to disguise dull passages. There isn’t a whole lot of krautrock, but the intention is well-taken; krautrock is one of those perennial muso favorites, and O! The Joy want to be a free-spirited, melodic synthesis of a lot of different muso favorites. A band with that as a goal won’t want to categorize themselves, so, after dithering over it, the promo writer settles on “experimental pop” to describe their sound.
Put more simply, Zen Mode is a prog-rock record. Drummer Justin Goings skitters away at that Jimmy Chamberlin thing he’s doing. His bandmates are up front for the entire record as well, and all of them compete noisily for your attention by playing notes at the same time. The arpeggio is the chief unit of structure for these guys, so what you get for most of Zen Mode is busy, arpeggiated fugues with sudden time changes. Drum fills overflow the slight songs they’re wedged into. Druggy Pink Floyd interludes drift between them, buoyed along by drifty keyboards and druggy guitars.
Dutifully enough, they’ve imported stuff from all of the genres claimed. From emo, we get sincerities shouted with emotion. From math-rock, we get long sections where they slash or pick through bits of angular slashy-pickiness. From post-rock, we get that towering haze of reverb that Interpol are constantly using to disguise dull passages. There isn’t a whole lot of krautrock, but the intention is well-taken; krautrock is one of those perennial muso favorites, and O! The Joy want to be a free-spirited, melodic synthesis of a lot of different muso favorites. A band with that as a goal won’t want to categorize themselves, so, after dithering over it, the promo writer settles on “experimental pop” to describe their sound.
Put more simply, Zen Mode is a prog-rock record. Drummer Justin Goings skitters away at that Jimmy Chamberlin thing he’s doing. His bandmates are up front for the entire record as well, and all of them compete noisily for your attention by playing notes at the same time. The arpeggio is the chief unit of structure for these guys, so what you get for most of Zen Mode is busy, arpeggiated fugues with sudden time changes. Drum fills overflow the slight songs they’re wedged into. Druggy Pink Floyd interludes drift between them, buoyed along by drifty keyboards and druggy guitars.
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