At around 8pm on a chilly autumn (fall) evening there's a really nice clear sky and enough stars up there to enchanted even the seemingly un-enchantable. Funny thing is.. the same thing's happening in our CD player where Zindu's 'Shapeshifter' readys itself for an IOM magazine CD review. You see... we dare not play anything we receive until the point arrives when we can sit down and listen and write. That way... we capture the magic of first lsitening and believe me... in first listening to Zindu... you'd want to be in the right place at the right time and in the right setting to truly measure up the perfection they serve! Then again... you could just easily press the play button anywhere at anytime to get similarly soul enriching results!
Shift 1 is that fractional series of opening notes that breathes life into Soko - an extravaganza of immensely inspired guitar, percussions and brassness that you'd come to expect from a world class band. The intricacies in the drums and percussion work are pure epitaphs of audio wizardry the ikes we haven't heard in many many years! It's a collage of world jazz rock fused stardom held within the confines of a track and played with seamless expertise and gilt edged skill.
Fling that thing is another example of Zindu's remarkable skill set laquered with magnificent jazziness and some fine brass tubes and mouth work. Again, the percussion treatments are superb and there's enough guitar work here to keep guitar ambitions relleing for years! What's an inescapable surprise is the rapped vocals that arrive at the two minute mark.. brilliantly conceived.. briliantly performed! Watch out for the limitless bass playing.. it's a real treat! Of course, the following track - Berzerker is, without a doubt, the work of masters of sound. here we have some really cool sleazy bass playing laminating the floor before the echo'd guitars arrive to sprinkle the magic in all kinds of ways and at all kinds of levels. We can honestly confirm at this point that Zindu have managed to produce a soul enveloping album and we've still got quite a few tracks to go! The spoken bits at around the 2.30 mark are expertly expressed but more than anything it's the skilled and energetic arrangements that wield the power! Superb!
Shift 2 is the one minute and six second much deserved jam break the band richly deserves before embarking upon the next trip across the horizon with Habenero - the latin jaz thingyo fusion thing that accomplishes everything it was conceived to accomplish. The sax work is the stuff of magic-based inspiration and imagination and with the meandering bass lines, the song takes off from it's own runway without the need for guiding lights. I particularly like the way the latino vlankets get covered with rock guitar sheets... a brilliantly orginal track worthy of much praise and appreciation! The bass and piano contusions make an appearance at around the 3 minute mark and remind me of the classless expertise that we cam to know and love in Frank Zappa's music.
What Time Is It? has to be one of the most inescapably brilliant achievements of the modern digital music scenes. Here we have the kind of jazzy brass, jazzy drums, and jazzy first class production that players and appreciators die for! What an incredibly fantastic piece of music! The sax work is particularly magnificent and again, the guitar work is keenly imaginative and original in it's appraoch and in it's delivery. Watch out for the keyboard work later in the track!
Pharoah's Lullaby, meanwhile, contains a mizture of reggae-esque bass riffs, startlingly accomplished Hammond work, and some fo the finest reed work ever to be assembled in one place at one time. There quite literally isn't a note in the entire track that doesn't belong... it's almost as though each and every note was destined to be a part of this wonderful excursion regardless. Keep an eye on the drum work right through to the end... you'll be completely and utterly astonished!
Shift 3 takes the listener on another escalator of wah-wah escapism towards the following track - Adowa - a richly adorned festival of light if ever there was one. Truly amazing percussion, drums, bass, and guitar combine to assault the negative aspects of our existence and make everyting right, bright, and whole again! I'd love to see Salvatore and the guys perform live... what an incredibly vibrant heart and soul enriching experience that would be!
Dream is the 11th track on this epitaph of wonderment they have the umitigated audacity to call a cd. With opening bars that are essentialy the stuff of dreamscapes, a nice easy pace begins with with some fine narration and partitioned bass and drum couplings that make the track really intriguing. You can't help but allow your senses to be escorted through the corridors of sound euphoria as your sense of well being continues to be elevated. Waiting Room on the other hand, brings back the Latino elements witnessed earlier and the smooth and sensual sax work overlaying the bass and percussion treatments is truly mesmerizing. The nice Gibson-sounding guitar work that cuts in to draft a spectaculr series of sketches makes for an intensely satisfying listening expereience, particularly throughout the last part of the track! By the time we get to Shift 4 folks... it's basically all over and all in a matter of around 46 seconds!
Zindu have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're capable... more than capable of producing an electrifyingly brilliant album.. they've acieved it with Shapeshifter and in our estimation... Zindu will go on proving it again and again!
