After a thirteen years old career, including: seven albums, five Maxi LP's and hundreds of live concerts throughout the world, you would think you knew all about ZENZILE. However, those who have followed this band since their beginnings in Angers, France, know well that: No one knows what will resemble a new album of Zenzile before it gets out.
Instead of cloning their music precisely year after year, the quintet has always chosen to focus on their trade mark sound which is rich and various, thanks to a dazzling bass and whooping guitars.
From the start, Zenzile is having fun mixing the same influences (post punk, Dub, folk, soft rock, soul jazz) with a savvy sense of measuring them all out, in order to produce a unique album every time.
For Pawn Shop, the Angevins (from Angers) have deliberately let their POP spirit opened up, in a humble and formal way of course. Only two tracks are exclusively instrumental and are welcome signs of a previous life. All eight other tracks are carried by the voices of old partners: Jamika Ajalon et David K. Alderman (Warehouse), demonstrating some new and unexpected sides of their talent.This eighth studio album is less angular and more confident than the previous Living in Monochrome in which the band had let the guitar lead out. Today Zenzile seems to have found the right balance between staying simple while being demanding. Strings and organs are more present than ever to form melodies never dared before. Evidently freed from any past inhibitions, the band now sweats out many old legendary Vinyl albums, reminiscent of their teen age years. Shadowy organs, bony guitars, ramping bass, Bela Lugosi spirit glides above Pawn Shop.
There are also lingering feverish memories of ESG, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave or PIL but everything is digested and sublimated only to be more accomplished.
With a real consistency throughout the entire album, despite the variety of sounds, you never feel like you are loosing tracks. Each song has its own space and there is space for each song. From the very Serge Gainsbourg inspired Mind Over Matter to the lively Fire Eater, you will feel the majestic of Histoire de Papiers or the disturbance of Crooked Man, always sensing a serious focus on the subject.
Remarkable finish from Zenzile with Thursday Night Rover Disco where Alderman's voice reminds the one of his Welsh fellow J. Cale (The Velvet Underground) before the last Caution Horses where the singer throws himself out in a long, progressive and flamboyant post folk rise. With Pawn Shop, Zenzile leaves all the cash on the table and walks out with style...at least for now..
NEW ALBUM: OCTOBER 2012