Zounds! Kill The Zo (Part 1) has dropped as a two-track single after spending three years as a soundcloud upload/EDM dubplate unicorn. Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the song, or have written it off as too commercial for your music store-du-jour shopping cart, but lend me your ears and I shall explain what makes a track from 2014 special.
Kill The Zo is the joint product of Kill The Noise (Jacob Stanczak) and Mat Zo (Matan Zohar), though attentive drum & bass heads may recognize their former aliases, Ewun and MRSA respectively. The song was meant to serve as a jump-off for a genre-hopping collaborative project, although until now no other completed songs have surfaced.
But ohhhhh, what a tune they have made. The track’s opening suits its lofty, prog rock-esque eponymous title by using a brief snappy build, and barely 23 seconds in jumps to a wobbly, percussive bass is-this-the-first-part-or-is-it-just-the-intro, accompanied by a myriad of pads and other instruments fading in and out— if you’re tired of tracks repeating the same shit for 32 measures, this should be a treat.
Around the 1:07 mark, the percussion cuts out for a tease of growling bass and builds to its first real drop, a cool (if a little humdrum) half-time section, continuing the wobble bass from before while teasing bits of the growl bass and switching up pitch in a neat little riff.
By 2:14 the song cuts out once more, building even more atmosphere than before with pads, echoes of sitars, even chugging guitars and rock band-like drum fills. Just shy of the 3 minute mark, the song cuts out AGAIN to tease a vocoded, growling synth lead, leaping up and down in pitch like a squealing guitar.
At 3:20 the song finally kicks into high gear with full D&B gallop and growling bass, and keeps the two-step going for a little over a minute. The remainder of the song is an airy, almost symphonic outro devoid of percussion, finishing on a dark, moody crescendo.
Epic. That’s what this song is. Yes, there is a remix accompanying it from up-and-coming producer Krayysh. The steppy half-time remix is by no means bad, but it just can’t quiiiiiite match the level of excitement and variance of the original. I’ll say this though: when the time comes to play this track in a live set, I’ll be sure to use Krayysh’s remix in place of the original’s half-time intro, preferring it well over the original track’s first two minutes.
What’s to say of this pairing? We may not hear another drum & bass-influenced track from them, and you may not want to drop money on a production from three years ago. On the other hand, maybe you think like I do, which I love luring in the Eee Dee Emm kiddies with something familiar… before driving them straight away with 30 minutes of crossbreed/top-40 double drops. That’s just me though.
for Chinese Democracy of Dubplates, ‘cept it lives up to the hype!!
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Overall8.5
