ZURICH CLOUD MOTORS “Do More Than Destruct-o” C24 (Zazen Tapes)

The Rhode Island Trio, Zurich Cloud Motors, plays a fast & loose strain of punk AF noise-improv (…or is that vice-versa? Depends on the song) and, at times, "DMTD" almost sounds like early Sonic Youth on hyperdrive. Save the Moore-ish delivery (not a knock-off, but definitely feels like a nod-to), the two lutes* and drummer each take turns losing their steps and sanity while the other two hold down the fort. 

High-octane party and or gear-up music for the masses that aren’t afraid to get a li’l distorted & messy! Comes with tiny lyric sheet.

https://zazentapes.bandcamp.com/album/do-more-than-deconstruct-o

—Jacob An Kittenplan

*one’s laying down steadfast punk riffs but the other, maybe a baritone guitar(?), is pretty much playing the feedback/pedal-pedal/chaos the entire time, and it’s fuckin’ great!

ZURICH CLOUD MOTORS “Highwire Jet Convolution EP + Catapult Sunbeam EP” (self-released)

Rock music means very little to me anymore.

Wait, let me back that up: NEW rock music doesn’t matter that much to me anymore – I just don’t seek it out. Can you blame me? I write about all sorts of weird outsider crap for Tabs Out (and here) (and TMT) that I can barely recognize a 4/4 rhythm if it hit me in the forehead.

So why, then, is Zurich Cloud Motors so awesome? Easy: they’re frickin’ noisy, but still noisy hellish rock music.

The Providence, Rhode Island, fearsome foursome(ish) strangle the heck out of their guitars, the manic strumming and angular melodies overloading the rhythm until you can’t help but crash around whatever space you’re in like Zurich Cloud Motors probably crash around the stage at live shows. I was at the library, so I to clean up a lot of books before I was summarily dismissed from the premises.

Like Parquet Courts run through “No New York,” Zurich Cloud Motors take alternate paths to get to exactly where you want them to go, and if they stop, then I’m having an unshakable nightmare. You get that, right? They detour through a little more melody by the end of the second EP (there are two EPs collected here, if you hadn’t figured that out yet), but it’s still a nice touch. In fact, that lands them more in Parquet Courts’, er, court than anything. God, “Wide Awake” was so good.

https://zurichcloudmotors.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan