Whenever I think of music labeled “experimental,” “art pop,” “avant garde” (or the even more pretentious “avant indie”), I must immediately suppress a yawn and lunge for my two liter bottle of Mt. Dew. In the context of the various bands working in the Brooklyn music scene these days, one must take such labeling with a grain of salt. One of my current favorite acts, Ava Luna, is usually tagged as an “experimental soul” band, which is stupid and masks the popaliciously accessible technical sophistication of this awesome band. With that in mind, I ventured into Brooklyn for the last time in the foreseeable future (I’m moving back to Vermont full time this week) to check out Zambri – an outfit that is often identified with “experimental pop,” whatever that means.
The venue this evening was the quaint and hip “Brooklyn Bowl” where indie music, bowling, and alcoholic beverages collide in a cavernous space where an avant-indie rocker might catch a Brooklyn hipster throw a gutter ball whilst performing musical experiments on stage.
The headlining performance offered the electronic musical assemblages of two sisters – Cristi Jo and Jessica – whose surname identifies their band. I headed into the show with a pretty positive impression about Zambri because their debut album, House of Bassa, pleasantly reminds me of pre-industrial records (before industrial music turned to thrashed out guitars and profanity laced lyrics) such as Ministry’s With Sympathy or Front 242’s Geography (strictly in the instrumental sense of course – not the vocal, thank heavens).
Zambri’s live ensemble consisted of the sisters’ vocal endeavors while operating various electronic musical apparatuses, drumming that made relentless use of the kit’s tom toms, and a fellow on keys who provided some deep bassy rhythms that often shook floor and probably rattled some spares into strikes. The band has a strong drummer and combined with the bassed-out keys, eerie synths, samples, and vocals, the group produces a darkly ethereal and percussively punchy sound. Even the keyboardist turned to some sort of electronic percussion instrument covered with a yellow towel to punch out some beats. The sisters also utilize a strange three pronged microphone (three microphones fastened together with duct tape and covered with tinfoil) which they occasionally passed back and forth or sang in together, producing a creepy warped-out vocal.
In spite of the dark nature of their compositions, Zambri’s songs contain wonderful poppy hooks and choruses, ultimately rescuing them from the colorless “experimental” identification. The first tune in the set, “You’ll Never Beat Dogs,” was a nice exemplar of their Adams Family on helium aesthetic, as it maintained a cutesy chorus interrupted by cool electronic sounds and industrial samples. The set was at its strongest, however, when the sisters rolled out their vocal chops and harmonized together, a strength that was especially accentuated in the last two numbers of the set. The show ended as the band abandoned the pop of previous songs with a ploddingly creepy tune, the excellent “From the Starts,” which casted out a vocal intensity backed up by a chorus of instrumental noise. Alas, the nicely executed closer left the avant indie music enthusiasts, bowlers, and alcohol consumers alike begging for more. Check out this performance of “From the Starts” from this year’s SXSW.