zZz // Running With The Beast
zZz - Running With The Beast
Dance rock outfit zZz’s third album kicks off with a lively trio of 80s influenced stormers that work their basic organ and drum set up to the maximum. Opener ‘Lover’ sounds like a soundclash between The Rapture and Kasabian, while ‘Grip’ is reminiscent of 'Contino Sessions’ era Death in Vegas. The spaced out groove of ‘Spoil the Party’ picks up the pace again and has you eager for more, but sadly the middle section of the album doesn’t maintain the same level of quality. A series of psychedelic workouts that drone from one track to the next nearly had me nodding off before ‘Loverboy’s breezy vibe gets things back on course. Funky head-nodder ‘The Movies’ follows and the menacing 'Angel’, which would sound perfectly at home on the soundtrack to Bladerunner, leads onto the mellow ‘Islands’ which rounds things off nicely. By the time it ends you’ve almost forgiven them for the dirge in the middle. Overall, zZz have crafted an album of dark, spaced out electro that should please existing fans, but might prove a little too experimental to win them any new converts.
6/10 Jimmy James
