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Ceremony - Zoo [Album]

Matador Records | "Pumps adrenaline direct into the listeners ears..."

by phatty73, March 7th, 2012 and has been Read 1156 times.
Last Edited by: Glen March 8th, 2012.

Remember when punk was punk? No, me neither.

Remember when punk got diluted but still called punk? Yeh, me too.

Well, that diluted noise has been distilled and concentrated, slowly dripped through the bones of The Sex Pistols, The Delinquents, Wire, Dead Kennedys to name but a few, then mixed with a nice organic vegan smoothie and intravenously fed to Ceremony for Zoo, their 4^th outing into the long player world.



So how punk are Ceremony? Well so punk that their own website states "We do not have a Twitter,
MySpace or Facebook." A somwhat perculiar prism through which to view being punk- after all, even The Sex Pistols had Malcolm McLaren pulling strings in the impressario department. Oh and they are straight edge and vegan too, is that punk or just a modern lifestyle choice? For arguments sake let's just say yes.

I heard someone describe Zoo as 'shoegaze' the other day... sorry but if you are gazing at your shoes playing these tracks on stage, it isn't a genre-definer; it's probably because you are a bit worried the noise coming out of your stage monitors is going to make you, and your band mates, brown your trousers.

So... Punk? Check. Loud? Check. Tunes? Read on...



Zoo kicks off (or kicks your teeth in) with opener, 'Hysteria' Instantly hitting your ears and chest with a simple riff and machine gun drumming which settles into steady beat, with rallying cries of "HYSTERIA" over the top. Ross Farrar's voice sounds like Farris Rotter doing his best smacked-out Iggy Pop serenede- which is a good thing, incidentally.

'Citizen' happily carries on ahead with slapping your sensibilities about with indecipherable shouting and harsh riffs, fast-paced drum thuggery and bass guitar murdering makes for good matter from the San Fran noise-makers so fa. 3^rd track 'Repeating The Circle' which has the lads wearing the love of Pixies and Joy Division well and truly on their sleeves, the bass being Kim Deal-esque, the tempo and lead bringing a vision of Frank Black and Ian Curtis kicking chunks out of each other to get the mic.

Watch: 'World Blue'

'World Blue' is your proper punk track so far, half tuneful passion fuelled shouting over simple riffs all clocking at just over a minute-and-a-half.'Quarantine'is once more a simple riff filled track this time with a nice bass and drum breakdown dropped in the middle for a breather from the pogoing.

'Brace Yourself' sees the 4-minute-barrier passed for a the first time on the album, but to be fair that's due to the minute or so low-fuzzed build up into a mid-tempo piece which could be Art Brut starting a super group with Mogwai, and yes its as good as it sounds.

Before we know it we are back into the fast riffs and bass pummelling for 'Adult', just as the listener expects another chest kicker of a tune; in drops 'Hotel' with its clean plucks of lead strings and slow drumming. The tune and melody itself is a welcome respite to get your breath back but Farrar's ragged tones just don't seem to match with balladry.



'Ordinary People' restores the sense of angst again before 'Nosebleed' slows the tempo once more with added breakdown and a what sounds like a manically depressive Farrar drawling he'll "...never be cured" Nonetheless, all is revived in time for penultimate number on Zoo, 'Community Service' which could have been lifted straight from Now that's what I call Punk 1979 which in itself is no bad thing and can certainly be forgiven when album closer 'Video' rumbles in with its bass riff and a near-quiet vocal and subdued riffage reminiscent of Pixies''Velouria'.

And that's it, that's your lot, just over 45 minutes off loud, brash, self affirmed (part-hardcore) punk with edge and just a few moodier moments to balance it. The whole album has a live quality to the production that pumps adrenaline direct into the listeners ears, you could almost smell the man-sweat of a pogo-ing mob in the pit.

Remember Punk? You do now.

Zoo is out now.