ZOPP

When Zopp released their first album, I became aware of it and I gave it a listen since I am a fan of instrumental music and I wanted to see what these guys were doing, but I failed to understand it. Still, when I learned that they had released a second album in 2023, I thought I should give it a brief listen and thankfully so. Ryan Stevenson, the mastermind of the band worked on this album for three years and played almost all the instruments except the drums to write an album deep-knee in the Canterbury scene - perhaps to a fault. Unlike the first album, this time he added vocals on some songs and although he isn't a great singer, his voice is decent (but I do believe that the songs could do with a better vocalist). The album consists of seven tracks and two of them are actually intros like the opener Amor Fati which leads to You and it is a very strong number. After that comes the instrumental Bushnell Keeler which is my favourite of the album and at this point I feel very pleased with myself that I decided to listen to the album. I said that there are two intros but come to think of it Uppmärksamhet could be considered as a third. Reality Tunnels is one more great instrumental song, even though here was the first time that I thought to myself that I could do with some diversity at the keyboard sounds and secondly the thought occured to me that the music was becoming a bit self- referential. Wetiko Approaching melts into the epic Toxicity and just because up so far there are only three fully- fledged songs, it was up to Toxicity that would tip the balance and the album would be either remarkable or simply good. Unfortunately, it didn't win me over although it has its moments, but maybe not as many to cover 14 minutes of music and I did 'try' to like it by listening to it several times. I read that Stevenson wanted to incorporate influences from the Australian scene like King Gizzard which is a scene that I don't like at all and maybe that's an extra reason for that. I am a bit disappointed because I feel I could have liked it more, but all in all it's an album that I will keep revisiting - and hopefully change my mind for the better in the future.

This is an amazing live album!

Oh yes, to listen to live albums is an exquisite human experience that I love, mostly when it comes to bands I like a lot and are not easy to me to watch on stage because of geographic issues, though I always keep my fingers crossed so maybe one day I happen to be in front of them. Well, Zopp is a band I loved since I discovered them back in pandemics, with their debut self-titled album that immediately caught my attention due to their delicious Canterbury-oriented progressive rock sound. Then in 2023 'Dominion' saw the light and my interest kept intact, I was quite satisfied with what mastermind Ryan Stevenson and co. were offering; and fortunately, in 2024 they released this great live album which, according to their info at Bandcamp, was just the second time they played together onstage.

Here they offer five songs and a total time of 42 minutes. Of course, we as music lovers always want more, however, I think these minutes are totally worth it and also, show the exquisite quality of the musicians, who gathered together for rehearsals only five months prior to this show.

The first song is 'You', taken from their second full-lenght album; a fourteen-minute bliss of Canterbury sound in which the organ plays a highly important role for the sound's success, however, it does not work alone, because the job done by Moneta on drums, Lucas on guitars, and Raynor on bass and syths is magnificent, crafting the song and its different passages; but I'd also want to point out the job made by Milne with his sax and flute, because the nuances it produces make us go to heaven, of course, adding some jazzy textures to this prog rock sound which might be liked by people who love its symphonic side. What I like a lot about them is the fact that despite having an evident vintage essence, they sound is so alive, vivid and contemporary, I mean, it sounds fresh, not old-fashioned at all. This is a great journey, I'm telling you.

'Before the Light' was the only song played here taken from their debut album, which I understand since they were promoting their most recent, however, I think is important to also deliver earlier sounds, more if this was only the second time Zopp performed on stage. This song goes faster, its sound is more explosive, it suddenly feel like running haha, the organ and drums work together while a raw bass deliver its addictive notes. The music shows different changes, going a bit slower then, introducing a great guitar work, and letting us know that Stevenson is really a mastermind if we consider he composed and played almost everything on the studio version, and this time he wonderfully transmitted to the musicians the essence of Zopp. Of course, when the songs finish, the crowd show their love with the deserved claps.

From their latest studio album, they chose the shorter, soft and relaxing 'Uppmärksamhet' as the concert's belly button, which might work as a breath of fresh air, or maybe as a kind of interlude where flute, organ, drums and strings embrace us. Then, they surprise us with an unreleased track whose title is 'Perspektiv', which is a great four- minute instrumental passage full of beautiful mellotron textures, first as lead and then as background; keyboards here and there in both a soft and bombastic way, dynamic drums that play prog and jazz, hypnotic bass lines, wonderful guitar tunes. I like how they dared to deliver a song that the audience had never listened to before.

This amazing live experience finishes with the majestic 'Toxicity', which makes sense to me since it is the song that also closes their latest studio album. A vertiginous Canterbury-esque beginning in which vocals appear in the very first minute creating a very attractive sound that is also closer to some classic rock tunes. The return of the saxophone here is delicious, playing sometimes at unison with guitars and drums. A tasty track that naturally flows, offering several changes in mood and sound, but always keeping their essential sound, though. Just to write a reference, the names of Hatfield and the North or National Health might come to your mind while listening to this amazing song, and in fact, while listening to the wonderful sound of Zopp in both, studio and onstage.

I cross my fingers wishing I could see them in concert sometime in the future, but if that is not possible, at least I have this great experience that I can listen anytime I desire to do it. Congratulations to Zopp on this great release!

Zopp Live at Danfest

Now, this is how Zopp sounds with a full band. Known for their intricate compositions that blend progressive rock, jazz fusion, and classical music, Zopp brought their studio sound to life on stage. After their last album Dominion, the prog duo of Ryan Stevenson and Andrea Monetta have been touring, mostly across the UK, performing with a full band.

The setlist was tasteful chosen, featuring tracks from their debut self-titled record and Dominion. Ryan Stevenson's collection of analog keyboards?Moog, Mellotron, and Fender Rhodes?added colors to their sound. Zopp's ability to move from atmospheric sections to intense moments stood out.

The improvisational elements and complex rhythms gave the songs new life.The great performances of Andrea Monetta's drumming, Ashley Raynor's bass lines, Richard Lucas's great guitar work, and Rob Milne's outstanding saxophone and flute.

Zopp's performance was filled with emotion, creating a great live experience. The intimate setting of Danfest allowed the band to connect deeply with the audience.

An Intricate Blend of Sound and Emotion

Zopp's Dominion marks a significant progression for the duo, showcasing growth in composition and complexity compared to their earlier work. Led by Ryan Stevenson and drummer Andrea Moneta, this album explores deeper elements of progressive rock, especially in vocal harmonies and overall sound richness. The music is intricate, with layers of instruments and voices adding depth to the arrangements. The production is excellent, capturing a vintage sound. The contributions from side members play a significant role. Notable contributors include Sally Minnear Voices, Caroline Joy Clarke Voices, Jorgen Munkeby sax and flute, Mike Benson tenor sax, Rob Milne tenor sax and flute, Tomás Figueiredo french horn, and Joe Burns additional percussion. The cover art by Tom Adams is outstanding.

The record opens with "Amor Fati" (The Fate of Love), featuring Minnear's beautiful voice, which sets the tone for this short but complex piece. It includes elements like French horns, flutes, and various keyboards, making you wish it lasted longer.

The second track, "You," is an epic 11-minute journey that highlights Zopp at their best. It starts with lush keyboard sounds, creating an inviting atmosphere. Moneta's drumming is energetic, providing a solid foundation. As the song progresses, a saxophone leads into a fantastic vocal line by Stevenson, showcasing outstanding musicianship throughout.

Moving on, the third song, "Bushnell Keeler," has a '70s vibe, blending influences from Hatfield and the North with Zappa's Uncle Meat. Great from start to finish, this instrumental piece excels and transports you to another era.

The fourth track, "Uppmärksamhet," is a hypnotic piece with impressive keyboards and guitar fills.

The fifth track, "Reality Tunnels," is energetic and combines elements from Italian prog bands like Museo Rosenbach, Area, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso and influences from Canterbury groups like Caravan.

"Wetiko Approaching" is another great short track with excellent vocal work and instrumentation that leads into the final song.

"Toxicity," the last track, is a 14-minute piece that blends '70s elements, featuring a mix of Canterbury, Italian prog, and Zappa influences, all supported by Moneta's solid drumming.

Throughout Dominion, the Farfisa organ adds a distinct early '70s vibe that blends well with modern production. This retro touch, along with a huge collection of keyboards like mellotron, hammond organ, mini moog? gives the album a classic prog feel while sounding fresh.

Compared to their debut, Dominion takes more risks and explores complex structures and sounds. The intricate time signatures and rich vocal harmonies show the band's growth. For progressive rock fans, this album is a must- listen, merging British roots with Italian precision while capturing a nostalgic '70s atmosphere.

Dominion can also be seen as a conceptual album exploring themes of love and relationships. The songs reflect emotional experiences, from the highs of love to the pain of heartbreak, creating a cohesive exploration of romantic dynamics.

However, I feel the short songs are so good they deserved to be longer. I would have liked "Amor Fati" and "Uppmärksamhet" to have more time on the album, rather than just a couple of minutes.

1. Amor Fati as a hilarious intro, between old sounds of yesteryear and solemn air of the French horn, of a world where the Gods would be present among us; choirs, memories that disturb and challenge 2. You continue this undermining work with the confirmation that this sound is not like the others; old and innovative with these groovy, dancing, jazzy and evolving atmospheres; the sound goes like a mint diabolo in the middle of the desert, the fresh sound, I hear GENESIS for the vintage keyboard with an air of EARTH, WIND & FIRE, disconcerting I write; the best is this fuzz organ that makes you regress without going too far back, it's this guitar, these choirs, this sound that smells good of our most distant memories; in short I persist 3. Bushnell Keeler for the fresh melody, a hint of TALK TALK now, with sax or clarinet, flute yes, everything is there, the trumpet and this vintage synth that makes the ears vibrate; yes vintage prog as I don't like, but which is listened to well; enough tone not to fall asleep, enough break to keep you in suspense; this is where the creative level of this composer comes to light by offering a guided progressive descent on the sounds of yesteryear without fear of taking... a blow of old

4. Uppmärksamhet with a lugubrious atmosphere, latency searching for its voice; an interlude that passes too quickly and which explores a modern contemplative psychedelic sound 5. Reality Tunnels leaves on a convoluted atmosphere, sharing electric, eclectic and fuzzy; dynamic and dynamiting the air, on one side with the metronomic bass, on the other with these keyboards from another age that make us regress to the chases of the Anglican bandits of the last century; here's a harpsichord, here's a bit of that of MEER who rush into modern synth-pop-prog with angelic voices; 6. Wetiko Approaching and the PARTRIDGE interlude, yes the sound of XTC explodes in my head; between jazzy and the music of an asylum vault; here's a bell, it vibrates, we wait to see how it will behave 7. Toxicity and its 1/4 hour of musical bewitchment; harmonies, complex time signatures, tricks with this twirling vintage sound, a tune that doesn't stop, Andrea's drums playing for LEVIATHAN printing the energy, the organ that vibrates and gives consistency, everything is there well done, well organized to set fire to this resolutely danceable title; yes danceable, reverberating, nostalgic. This Ryan is capable of divinely playing the Mellotron, Hammond and other keyboard organs to regress to ancient territories. But the best thing is that it sounds fresh, cheerful and innovative like this high-tone finale, almost heavy before the return of the wise flute, in short like GENESIS did so well in its time.(4.5) Originally on Planète Prog.

My expectations for this album were not high. Sadly, it did not manage to meet even those.

This is album suffers from the same shortcomings that plague much of modern prog.

One thing is the production. The cleanliness of the whole things makes this sound like Coldplay with odd meters (though Coldplay can occasionally write more evocative songs). The composer seems to get lost in his own work. Leaning too heavily into the "prog" elements to remember that the songs also have to be good if you want to justify those kinds of excursions. Ryan Stevenson manages to drag us through these fortytwo minutes without offering a single memorable melody. The drummer just seems clueless, but this might be due to poor direction from Stevenson.

I do not understand the people who claim there is anything jazzy about this.

Reports that I had to be dragged music wise into the 2000's and beyond are false. It was the 1980's onwards...but myself, the 15 guys and 2 teams of horses all parted ways on good terms.

So, to accompany the above miracle, I just find it miraculous that young musicians ...and I know t'internet etc helps...are able to explore/listen to/find a genre like Canterbury and it obviously rings bells/strikes chords ( I will spare you the 'old music is best' polemic) and they absorb it into their creative milieu. Marvelous.

So what do we have on the second album from Zopp? I haven't got/heard the first so my reference point with them starts here. The vintage keys conjure up right away Soft Machine and Egg, possibly even Hatfield and the North. This is good! Sometimes the vocal phrasing is very Wyatt minus the lisp but they don't mimic and err find their own voices...plus the guest female singers do their best Amanda Parsons when called upon. I imagine modern recording techniques makes it much easier to layer tracks and perhaps that differentiates it from 70's Canterbury, maybe not quite as 'organic'...but who knows, if they had had the facilities and technology back then, they may well have done the same. There is a hint of Yes in the 14 min+ Toxicity too and it feels like one piece rather than 3 or 4 ideas strung together as can and does happen! If someone told you Amor Fati was a long lost National Health track you wouldn't disagree. The first long song, track 2 You suggests Pink Floyd circa Dark Side (with Yes harmonies!) and I can hear keyboard era Man in a few spots throughout the album.

All in all I can now safely bathe in the post 2020 waters and will be back for another dip as soon as. Just over 4 stars.

This is very likely my album of the year for 2023. I need a couple of weeks to finalize that list but in the meantime after two spins of "Dominion" I'm thinking top ten for sure but it won't crack my top five. Well after 5 spins I'm adoring this record and hailing it as the best record I've heard from this past year. Ryan Stevenson plays just about every instrument known to man then we get LEVIATHAN's drummer making ZOPP a duo plus six guests including two females doing their Northettes impression. Three of the guests are playing sax with two of those adding flute.

Beautiful cover art and thanks for the post card version of it that came with the cd only this is a closer-up version of it with different colours. Funny picture of Ryan looking lost in the sea of tall grass too in the liner notes. I can't get over all the distorted keys and organ on here plus mellotron. Not fair! Too good to be true. I really like the drumming and the bass is upfront plus we get electric piano. The guest sax and flute really adds a lot to the sound here.

And while this is a straight-up Canterbury album a song like "Bushnell Keeler" is more Jazz Rock and brings so many bands to mind. A feel good track if there ever was one for yours truly. I like the RPI-like pulsating organ on "Reality Tunnels". This song hits the ground running and different instruments will lead. Lots of energy and Canterbury at 2 1/2 minutes.

The two tracks though that steal the show here are "You" at 11 minutes and the closer "Toxicity" at over 14 minutes. Dreams do come true. Man the emotion after 6 1/2 minutes on that closer is just a small piece of the joy this record brings me. Love the distortion, keys, vocals, sax and guitar late on "You" but the closer might be better, flip a coin but that's 25 minutes of some of the best music I've heard this year.

We are very fortunate to have a talent like Ryan Stevenson making our music and for me he just out-did his debut and then some.

Ok, this is new for me. I've seen reviews of this album for months, and although I've listened to some songs and even recommended them here, yesterday was the day and I took a walk listening to this album. What a surprise!

I'm kinda new with this genre and musical style, not a big fan to be honest, but after listening to that I'm curious ;)

This album is a nice psychedelic jazz influenced trip, with that Canterbury sound, that can transmit different emotions in a few minutes.

It starts with that intro "Amor Fati" really mystic, weird but with an excellent orchestration, you don't know what to expect from this album. "You" kicks in with distorted guitars and organs, vocals are excellent, nice trip. "Bushnell Keeler" is the perfect example of that mix of feelings, as it starts rhythmic with psychedelic melodies and becomes more chaotic at the end. But you have calm and contemplative moments like in "Uppmärksamhet" (so beautiful).

The icing on the cake... the last song. "Toxicity" brings you lots of textures, virtuosity and an intense ending for this great album.

I've discussed the Canterbury sound on this site a number of times. Its heyday?like much of progressive rock?was back in the early 1970s, but even then it was somewhat niche. Despite that, there are a few acts still keeping this sound alive, and Zopp is one of the best ones.

Zopp's 2020 self-titled debut wound up being one of my top albums for the year, though I never reviewed it before my year-end best-of list. It wasn't some late-in-the-year surprise for me; I just never got around to covering it. But I don't want to have that be the case again. The two pre-release singles for Dominion had both been great, so I went into this record with pretty high hopes. On their Bandcamp, the band describes this album as being closer to Yes or Marillion than any Canterbury act, but I have to disagree. If I'm looking for good comparisons, I'm still going to cite Soft Machine, Gong, and (especially) Caravan.

This new album opens on "Amor Fati", and a weird, celestial blend of guitar, organ, and wordless vocals set the scene. It's a short introductory track, but it does a good job at conjuring the mood for what is to come.

What follows is the 11-minute lead single, "You". A tense ostinato piano drives its introduction along, and multiple organ parts flesh out the overall sound. It eventually bursts into a fuzzed-out, extended section of soloing that is virtuosic and complex without being smothering or off-putting. Buzzing bass and a uniquely-Canterburian organ tone lead into a lightly jazzy verse. Zopp was an instrumental record, so the inclusion of vocals is a new development for this duo. Everything-but-the-drummer Ryan Stevenson's voice reminds me of that of Alex Crispin of Diagonal, and the piano-forward backing only underscores that comparison. The song features an interesting, Beatlesesque melody in its second half, and the fusing of psychedelic and progressive sounds works great.

Saxophone takes the lead in the opening of "Bushneil Keeler". This song has a bouncy feel to it, and strands of jazz and folk are noticeable. This instrumental cut has some great momentum, and the way the sax, organ and flute play around each other is highly satisfying.

"Uppmärksamhet" (Swedish for "Attention," according to Google Translate) starts with a lazy, glassy organ. Acoustic guitar and adds a woodsy character, and fuzzy guitar languidly floats over the top. This song acts as a nice, relaxing palate cleanser between the higher-octane cuts on Dominion.

Speaking of higher-octane songs, "Reality Tunnels" launches into an irregular, jumpy riff, where organ and guitar synchronize on a crunchy lead. Mellotron adds a lushness to the backing track, and though it's never given the uninterrupted spotlight, I really like the bass work on this song.

"Wetiko Approaching" is a short song, with strong folk influence in the vocal melody. The instrumental backing is relatively pared-back, and it feels more like a lead-in to the next song than a composition meant to stand on its own.

Dominion ends on its longest song, the 14-minute "Toxicity". The rhythm is propulsive, and that distinctive Canterbury organ tone is once again at the forefront. Stevenson's vocals here are strong, complementing the creative and dynamic composition. It's impressive how the band is able to keep up the energy and intensity without this track becoming tedious or exhausting. As the song enters its final few minutes, there's a sense of upward momentum, and an extended instrumental passage that sounds like it would have been at home on Hot Rats is a lovely inclusion.

Dominion is a fantastic release, and it's an improvement on Zopp's stellar debut. The integration of vocals is smooth and organic, and the music has a satisfying complexity and a rich breadth of tones. They nail the mingling of organ, crunchy guitar, and wind instruments; and the Canterbury sound hits that sweet spot of retro-but-not-derivative.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2023/02/20/album-review-zopp-dominion/