BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.

zombi shape
By now longtime subscribers to TNUC probably think I’m biased when it comes to any music released by Zombi, Majeure, Lovelock, Contact, Gianni Rossi and the rest of the Steve Moore and AE Paterra projects. Truth be told, these synth tycoons simply create the best sounding electronic music in today’s market.

The meatiest of these projects is ZOMBI, Moore and Paterra’s first and probably best-known creation. My first listen to the band was back in 2006 when they released ‘Surface to Air’, a record melted my melon directly on impact. Since then, Uncle T has been a big fan of pretty much everything they deliver.

It was announced yesterday that Zombi will return to release their 6th studio effort Shape Shift on October 16th via Relapse Records. In a recent interview Moore had this to say: “It’s a rock record — think of it as a follow-up to [2006’s] Surface to Air,”…”There are no techno jams or symphonic prog fantasies. No solo track interludes. We have officially moved from ‘studio project’ mode back into ‘live band’ mode.”

Listen to ‘Pillars of the Dawn’ and listen loudly. If this track is any indication of what the rest of the album will sound like, we’re all in for a long, dark and sketchy treat. ‘Pillars’ is Zombi blatantly telling us that they’re NOT FUCKING AROUND IN 2015. As much as I love the band’s more ambient work of the past few years, this percussion + synth + bass + ludes’ serum is tremendously refreshing to ingest. With the recent resurgence of synth-based soundtracks and bands heading into more electronic territory on albums, Uncle T was suffering from a slight overkill of keyboards. Zombi however, play this music with the attitude of a classic rock band and it’s seriously exhilarating. That old, familiar feeling of an instrumental version of Rush jamming with a pack of Italian horror maestros inside Disney’s Space Mountain was what drew my attention to this band in the first place.

girl dove

Apparently Zombi have experienced a surge of enlightenment over the last year or so which is presumably from touring with legendary Italian soundtrack masters Goblin. Steve Moore has also been busy scoring such films as 2014’s The Guest, the upcoming Cub, and later this year with The Mind’s Eye. The forthcoming Shape Shift should see Zombi not pulling any punches and doing what they do best: making celestial, sinister, otherworldly, lurking, proggy synth-rock. THE REAL DEAL. Be afraid, be very afraid.

LP/CD/Cassette Pre-Orders:
Relapse: bit.ly/ZombiShapeShift
iTunes: geni.us/ZOMBIssIT
Amazon: geni.us/ZOMBIssAZ
Google Play: geni.us/ZOMBIssGP
Bandcamp: zombi.bandcamp.com

Hey, remember this?…