Zooma

REVIEW: John Paul Jones – Zooma (1999)

JOHN PAUL JONES – Zooma (1999 Discipline Global Mobile)

Three words:  “Bass”.  “Heavy”.  “Groove”.

Purchased at Encore Records a short time after its release, Zooma by John Paul Jones blew me away from first listen.  If you’re wondering who the heavy influence in Them Crooked Vultures really is, it was Jones this whole time.   Just listen to the title track on Zooma.  You could be fooled into thinking it’s a brand new jam by the Vultures, so heavy is it.

Zooma is an entirely instrumental solo album, featuring Jones on most of the instruments.  On drums is Pete Thomas.  Trey Gunn and Paul Leary drop in for some guest appearances.  Otherwise it’s largely the JPJ show and his 4, 10 and 12 string basses!  What a heavy sound they make.

The second track “Grind” (featuring Gunn on touch guitar) is contrasted by bright highs and the deepest lows of the 12-string bass, all within a killer groove.  This track could blow a subwoofer, it’s so bass heavy.  The next track “The Smile of Your Shadow” takes things down to the acoustic level, with instruments like bass lap steel, mandola and djembe.  It’s the most Zeppelin of the tracks due to its acoustic, quieter nature.  “Goose” brings back the heavy groove again, this time on a 10-string bass.  The drums have that Zeppelin kind of beat to go with it.

But Jones is so much more than just groove (and Zeppelin references in reviews).  “Bass n’ Drums” brings out his jazzy side.  Denny Fongheiser on drums this time, and John Paul keeping is single with just four strings this time.  But that doesn’t limit his pallette at all, as he plays in a combination lead/rhythm style.  That’s just the one track though — Jones is back to 10 strings and a maniacal groove on “B. Fingers”.  It’s sonic controlled chaos…with a beat.

As tasty as the bass and grooves are, Zooma is not an easy album to digest.  It’s big, it’s large, and the tracks tend towards long and jammy.  The longest is “Snake Eyes”, with bass lap steel, organ solos, and members of the London Symphony!  It’s easy to imagine “Snake Eyes” as a modern day Led Zeppelin number, and it’s moments like this that will make the Zep diehard weep for what could have been.  But it goes on a long time, including a long orchestral outro that sounds like a soundtrack.  Brilliant but not for those with short attention spans.

“Nosami Blue” bears some superficial resemblance to the intro to “Absolution Blues” by Coverdale-Page, but this is just because both have the same roots:  the blues.  Most of the work here is being done once more on a bass lap steel.  After a long freeform blues jam, the drums kick in and we get back into a groove.  It’s like two songs in one.  And that brings us to the final song “Tidal”, which a manic and exhaustive bass workout to take the senses to the final extreme.  It is bonkers!

As a quaint leftover from the 1990s, this disc is “enhanced”.  That part of the package no longer works, but judging by the contents in the readme.txt file, it was a digital catalogue for DGM records – Robert Fripp’s label.  It appears you could actually order CDs from their catalogue right from this program.

In the Record Store days, I was instructed to stop playing this album as some tracks were too heavy.  That’s both an endorsement and a warning to you!

4/5 stars

REVIEW: Them Crooked Vultures – “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” (10″ single)

Welcome back to the WEEK OF SINGLES 2!  We’re looking at rare singles all week.

Monday: Dream Theater – “Lie” (CD single)
Tuesday: Jimi Hendrix – “Valleys of Neptune” (7″ single)

VULTURES

 

THEM CROOKED VULTURES – “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” (10″ single)

I love unique looking items and this sure qualifies. Enveloped in a transparent red sleeve is a 10″ picture disc; this is something to behold. It looks great and you’ll want to put it in some kind of protective sleeve right away to keep it pristine, which is what I did.

The A-side contains the album version of “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” and a live cut of an unreleased song called “Hwy 1”. This  live track was recorded in January in Sydney, Australia. It’s an awesome tune, punctuated by some seriously dexterous playing from John Paul Jones. Those who have heard his solo album Zooma know exactly what I’m talking about. I really liked this song a lot, it gets into a great groove, locking in with Dave and Josh, and a melody that makes it a real standout. If it had been on the album it would have been one of the choicest cuts.

“Mind Eraser, No Chaser” itself was one of the better album tracks as well, making this side a great listen.  It’s a pretty succinct track that could be easily mistaken for a Queens of the Stone Age song.  No matter that John Paul Jones is 1/3 of the band, Them Crooked Vultures simply resembles QOTSA more than they don’t.

The B-side is an 11-minute interview conducted by film director Liam Lynch (Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny).  It’s actually quite a good interview, with all three members of the band.  Both Dave Grohl and Josh Homme went into the album without having played their “main” instruments in a long time (drums and guitar respectively).  John Paul expresses his disappointment that many metal bands are simply parodies of the genre; but that the Vultures are certainly not.  My favourite quote is Dave Grohl’s:

“I’m never nervous about hitting ‘record’, and I’m never worried that, ‘hmmm, I hope I come up with a riff’.  ‘Cause riffs…I don’t have a problem coming up with riffs.  It’s songs that are important.  I even said that to Josh after the first we time we jammed.  I said, ‘You know, you and I could fill the Grand Canyon with riffs.  But we need to write some songs’.  That’s the hard part.  And that’s where John comes in handy ’cause he’s the genius composer/arranger.”

This was an April 17 2010 Record Store Day exclusive, but even today you can find them all over the place.  Don’t pay more than you need to, because you don’t need to.

5/5 stars