EPUZZ

ULTRA ZOOK shed the imagery of the dark underground on their first EP and went all out with a beautiful and quite busy psychedelic album cover on their second EP release EPUZZ (yes, they simply added a "Z" to the debut title). If you're paying attention you will notice that they merely added an extra "Z" to the the first release title and you guessed it. They would add yet another "Z" on for the third one. While the album art imagery has changed dramatically, the music itself hasn't. This is once again what the band deems a tropical apocalyptic from of groove music and although there would be a lineup change on the third EP, this one remains the same. Like the debut, this one is only available digitally or as a Vinyl 12."

"Yapati Yupata" immediately grabs you with the hypnotic beefy bass line that utilizes a zeuhl rhythm accompanied by some busy tropicalia type keys and a harmonic interplay of freaky falsetto style vocals. This one is pretty normal as it contains no progressive freak outs, however on the second track "Mozambiouc" the avant-prog enters the scene without mercy as the steady groove is often interrupted by time signature deviations that almost sounds as if they will derail the entire song structure. This one also has nice excursions into horror music but even when it slows down, it doesn't take long to bring back the hyperactive keyboard runs.

Overall, despite being slightly shorter in length at barely over fifteen minutes, EPUZZ is a bit more diverse than the debut. Instead of an incessant groove, there are more deviations into grovelers piano runs and even a saxophone solo on "Pisote" and "Aluminium C4" by guest musician François Sabin. While i thought ULTRA ZOOK reminded me of another French band Poil on their debut they seemed to be a little monotonous in their compositional style on that one. On EPUZZ, the band really do deviate from their comfort zone and have that same sort of flamboyant style that Poil engages in. The vocals on "Tiramasu" particular bring me to Poil's album "Brossaklitt." Personally i like this second offering much better than the first. It has all the zaniness and groove from the first EP and expands it all significantly. EP #2 is my favorite of the three but still doesn't have quite enough going on to hit the essential mark.

3.5 rounded down

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