ZoiD continues to dabble in experimental electronica and jazz, and then whirls them together. Somehow. It’s fantastic—after all who in their bloody mind could pull this off? This talent from Ireland warrants your attention, and as a fellow countryman, I highly commend his work.
ZoiD has produced something that’s not aligned with what he says. He told me almost four years ago that his interests and goals were congruent to creating something which nested in the commercial industry. That he as a musician was evolving out of the obscurity of experimental art and into simplicity. Instead what he’s made with Nebulous Concrete is precisely like his work before. Obscure. Art. Experimental.
Nebulous Concrete is the same kind of hectic, weird, electronic jazz combination that we’ve celebrated this producer for, yet the problem is that it’s so similar to the previous work he’s made. Which makes this new record appear damaged to what came before, because ZoiD thinks he’s evolving when speaking about his work yet abstains from actually doing that.
Now that might seem unfair, after all, it’s difficult to track a musicians transformation only by the means of the product they produce—seldom does any creator say something and then directly create a product that is a direct affirmation of what they say. And then there’s the notion that the interview we did is just under four years old. That’s quite some time ago. Maybe he’s stuck to his guns since then in keeping with the same style and that’s fair—but one feels slightly deceived when thinking about words from then and how they’ve translated into actions now.
But please, do not hesitate to play ZoiD’s new record. This is amazing work. It’s astonishingly well put together. Extremely well. ZoiD continues to dabble in experimental electronica and jazz, and then whirls them together. Somehow. It’s fantastic—after all who in their bloody mind could pull this off? This talent from Ireland warrants your attention, and as a fellow countryman, I highly commend his work. ZoiD really deserves more attention. But this work only caters to musicians, niche audiences and producer hacks that can give him that attention. I thought he was away all this time making a viable product that could push him into further audiences. Instead he’s living in that experimental wall. And where in the hell does that go? Not far enough for this guy.
Nebulous Concrete isn’t bold enough either. ZoiD’s removed much of his sampling and replaced it with recorded instrumentation. So you’ve got a lot of technical electro jazz ruminating alongside electronic music. Perhaps the focus on commercialization has had a knock on effect onto his sound, in that he’s focused on electronic production—essentially making his sound be heard better—but it doesn’t seem ZoiD wants to completely commit to that commercial arena of creation. Instead, he’s using commercial tools as a means of refinement. This refinement isn’t too far away from real change. This half-way approach make his methods come across a little arrogant and not brave enough to get in there and tussle with developing a style, and then making a viable product as the output. But that’s not easy.
So a clear point of evolution here is ZoiD’s production. This record sounds fantastic, everything is crisp, golden, booming and clean. “Doorway To Cassini Division” in particular shows his production skills to aplomb. Nebulous Concrete overall, has muscle as well as polish, which is a worthy feat, especially when we think about the notion of mixing jazz & electronica. His sound reaffirms the unique and niche appeal of his style that’s highly seductive: Jazz. It’s so ZoiD. It’s this gentle, posh and sharp aspect to his sound that makes his music engaging. It’s essential to the ZoiD identity.
Yet I feel ZoiD, as a musician and producer, needs to be shaken up, get out of his shell and contend with something that is functional first as a product and then apply his style afterward. This seems hard to do but a producer with as strong a resume as ZoiD has the know how to put it into action. Potential is not something we should be discussing with ZoiD, his time should be now.
Nebulous Concrete is available on Bandcamp.
