When the wife is reacting to a record on the car stereo without the regular “Uargh – what is that? Well, do not need to know, could we listen to something else?” then it is already worth noticing. When the record then still annoys here, the music must be somewhat different, and ZAHN’s new record Purpur surely is. In which way?
Well, first off my wife described it as something that sounds like annoying 90s game show music when the candidates had to go through seemingly difficult tasks and the instrumental music was used to intensify mood and enforce their blood pressure. So, ZAHN is able to raise my wife’s blood pressure and annoy her – maybe good to know; just jokin, honey, just jokin.
But there is some truth in it. The instrumental trio from Berlin surely hits some soft spots on this record that one should not dismiss too quickly. At the moment, most people outside our realms either associate instrumental music with film scores or the, admittedly imaginative, Angine de Poitrine. That there is so much more on that side of the river is also proven by ZAHN. Their music has some Krautrocky stubbornness and repetition (especially the intros to the tracks show that), but then they often adds much more crunch with the next layers, so that in the end the angular intros are hidden beneath several loads of Grunge-influenced riffs.
Take ”Diaabend” (translation: Evening spent with looking at photo projections) for example: The slightly off-beat and off-kilter intro that sounds like a puff from an 80s Casio mini-keyboard is joined by short and shortened licks on the guitar and undermined by some cool straightforward drum beat. The whole thing is shifted from side to side for roughly 90s before the real riff sets in, kicks the intro intro the repeated background and dominates the whole setting. As if the photo projector had suddenly caught fire. And then the somewhat Shoegazey part in the middle soothens out many fire pits and transports us into space to look at the scene of the fire from above. When the vast space is not a new attraction anymore the keyboard sounds resurface but much more computer-like in their tonality.
Sounds exhausting? Not at all, because the guys are mastered at making complicated things sound completely natural and as if no other alternative route would have been possible. That might be the most important thing about ZAHN: they do not write parts added onto each other, but songs that simply flow nice and easily towards you, engulf you in their playfulness not trying to push you away or over but to put a smile onto your face so that you in the end simply want to click repeat.
The way they play with elements from the German (and also international) underground music scene of the last half-century is flabbergasting for they give homage and develop their own sound further. Their first full-length, 2021’s self-titled debut was a bit noisier and rougher around the edges, this own is much more indulging in the mix of 70s Krautrock and 90s Shoegaze and Grunge. A very interesting mix, if you ask me. Especially if done as well as by ZAHN. Maybe my wife will come to like their soundscapes too.
