10,000 LIGHT YEARS

The final album of this band before they went on a nearly-decade long hiatus, Zeni Geva's '10,000 Years' is the first album where the band's progressive rock tendencies really show through. While this band has never been a stranger to the weird or experimental, this has been an album that has really shown me the influence these guys took from the 1970's prog rock scene, particularly the jarring sound experimentation and guitar work of King Crimson. Zeni Geva have never been a subtle band by any degree, and the music on '10,000 Light Years' continues to be heavy and noisy, but this was still the most refined thing that the band had done to date. Fronted by the legendary Japanese musician KK Null, Zeni Geva's seventh album would temporarily end their career on a relatively good note, although I still don't find myself all too drawn towards the sort of music that they make.

Contrary to most previous efforts by this band (particularly their earlier work) in which much of the sound was shared between the strange guitar riffs and KK Null's distinctive 'samurai bark', '10,000 Years' is a largely instrumental album, and alot of the music here relies on frantic lead playing that sounds like a noisier incarnation of King Crimson's Robert Fripp. What vocals that are here however generally fall into the spoken word category, or somewhat conventional growls. This is yet another development by the band in any case, I am used to hearing relentless shouts and howls from the frontman, as well as noise that obscures most of the melodies, or whatever may otherwise have been in the music. Surprisingly enough, I would consider '10,000 Light Years' to be a surprisingly refined album. This is a very relative term of course; the guitars and particularly the bass is still raw and dirty, but the mixing allows every instrument to be heard well. Something here that stands out but never did on earlier albums is the drumming here. There are some great percussive rolls here and it keeps the energy high here.

Being a mostly instrumental album now, this has actually made the band alot less monotonous. I have said many times before that KK Null's vocals have been the best part of this band, but here, the inherent lack of vocals allows the instruments to shine in a way they never have before. I could easily consider this to be my favourite Zeni Geva album to date, even though many of these tracks don't really stand out from one another. Every once in a while, a strange experimental section with keyboards or something else unexpected comes into the sound and provides a refreshing change from the sludgy rhythms and doodling guitars, but for the most part, this album keeps the unsettled, heavy vibe. A good album, but as always, I cannot consider the music of Zeni Geva truly great, despite having a memorable style.

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