Zweizz & Joey Hopkins

Self-titled

Jester Records 2011

This self-titled release is a collaborative affair between the eccentric electronic work of Norway's Zweizz and the American artist Joey Hopkins who tragically passed away in December 2008.  However, Zweizz was not willing to let Joey's untimely demise stand in the way of this lovingly crafted affair of electronic mayhem.  Eternal Puberty calmly ushers in the album with chiming bells, and layers of distorted noise which creates a dual-headed image of buzzsaw's shrieking in factories and a peaceful Sunday morning in the countryside.  It's a very surreal sonic experience and the soothing vocals and maniacal John Zorn-esque horns add to this feeling.  Quite the opposite is the insistent shuddering noise vibrations that open dWill 2 dPower.  the music opens slowly like a flower, one musical petal of piercing and undulating electronic sounds at a time.  The song finally collapses on some contemplative and minimal synth and child-like female vocals.  Bizarre plinking rhythm patterns strike like raindrops on an assortment of pots and pans on Black Strobes. Thobbing strobes of sound rise periodically underneath near-melodic vocal lines and at times it makes me think of the tranquil sorrow of the final Manes album.  That is until the monoliths of sound and imposing vocals surge like a tidal wave.  Having a distinctly dissimilar texture is Bimor Bibmoj with its chaotic maelstrom of rapid-fire drum-machine lines that constantly hammer at your eardrums.  A sinister mood permeates Porcelain Dolls in A Bath.  Its loud and powerful drums impose their will upon you while sharp and yet somehow harmonic electronic lines criss-cross the track.  The whole track creates a very claustrophobic atmosphere.  And of course, one cannot peer into this album without discussing The Goat which features a guest performance by Garm.  The song is announced by the bleat of a goat and then thick shuddering walls of reverb undulate before Garm's butter-smooth vocals instill a slight amount of cohesion to this twisted, demented soundscape.  The final passage of amorphous, ambient synth looms like storm clouds.  Like a corrupted version of the jazzy musical prowess of Portishead,  No Clue brings the album to a mournful close.  The self-titled album from these two electronic luminaries is both liberating and confining.  It traps you within walls of dementia while freeing you from the standard musical paradigms your mind has imprisoned you within.  It is certainly not an album for the timid.