Can I tell you a dirty secret about House Of Baasa (out April 10), Zambri's dark and foreboding debut album? It's actually a pretty damn good pop record. Don't let the burping analogue keyboards, grinding drums, clanging sheet metal or vocal snarling fool you—the follow-up to sisters Jessica and Cristi Jo's masterful Glossolalia EP holds onto that record's industrial thrash and pervasive gloominess, sure, but adds a new, surprisingly traditional approach to melody and pop structure that manages to engage emotionally while keeping the extensive assortment of buzzings and hissings in close check. At its best moments, House Of Baasa sounds like the soundtrack to a romantic drama set inside a medieval torture chamber. Bleak? Sure. Unsettling? Definitely. Filled to the brim with love? Absolutely.
Swoon Alert: Download Another New Zambri Tune, "Hundred Hearts"
The album kicks off with its most desolate, eeriest moment—a sprawling, gloomy synth nightmare called "All You Maybes". "Lets go!" the sisters yelp, leading us down a cold spiral staircase of gut-wrenchingly bad vibes accentuated by tumbling drums, eerie found sounds and an airy, ghost-like keyboard arpeggio you won't be willing or able to scrub from your dreams for days. It's the album's clearest bridge to the sounds of Glossolalia—and doesn't begin to prepare listeners for the woozy 1999-era Prince sounds on first single "ICBYS" or the hushed, plaintive romanticism of "Hundred Hearts", where we hear the devastating lyrics "I have a hundred hearts for you... You keep throwing them back, I keep giving them up" delivered with enough heartbreak to fill twenty Karen Os.
Start Falling In Love With Zambri And Their New Song "Places"
Old fan favorite "Carry" juxtaposes tight, syncopated verses with an expansive, ethereal chorus that trips and rolls in gloriously unexpected ways. On "Straws", the sisters inject an "I want you back" lyric into a collage of loops and synthesizer hiccups... keep your ears peeled, there's even an old Motown girl group style rhythm towards the end. On spacey highlight "Places", the Zambris gleefully coo, "We'll go all of the places we said we would" over a solid electro-pop groove that beats Tegan And Sara at their own game. "My Could Have True", on the other hand, sounds like the Cocteau Twins with a hangover—"What do I do if I can't love you?" the sisters ponder over a dizzy, fuzzy swirl of nauseous electronics that sound deliberately slowed down but probably aren't. "From An Angle" is an even stranger affair with its warped keyboards and a barrage of horror film sound effects constantly threatening to teach acrobatic feats to your internal organs.
Side B hits an emotional peak with "From The Starts"-- its pleading, lovelorn refrain repeatedly boosted and then undercut but a slow-building dirge of witch house keyboards, buzzing machine chords and free-form clouds of hazy ambience. It's an unforgettably spooky moment that segues perfectly into the evocatively titled "You'll Never Beat Dogs", where underwater pianos and exotic drum rhythms rile each other up into a My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts-style audio frenzy. It's a busy end to an album overloaded with complicated layers of strident brilliance that can't and won't be revealed on first listen. If you can stomach the places the Zambri sisters want to take you, the results are perpetually challenging and rapturously engaging. Enjoy it or not, you certainly won't hear a debut album brimming with stranger or better sounds this year.
Grade: A
Follow Brett Warner on Twitter: @Erasurehead
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