Zonk't- Purr

Artist: Zonk't
CD Title: Purr
Label: Sound On Probation
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 4/30/06

The project of Sound On Probation label founder Laurent Perrier, Zonk't is an experiment in what its creator calls "microscopic-music," a sort of minimalist take on experimental electronic music that shares elements of industrial ambient, glitch, and techno. This disk is sort of a companion to Pylône's Black Grains album, also released on Sound On Probation, and the two releases share several track titles. While Pylône's version of "Echoes" was a cheerful collection of mechanizes beeps, however, Zonk't has a darker undercurrent of digital glitches hiding beneath the fuzzy bass throb, and "Look, Part.6," as compared to the insect-like rumbling of Pylône's "Look, Part.3," is all metallic tension. A number of tracks from Zonk't take hints and inspirations from the industrial ambient scene, like the whirring and scraping of "Ohm 05, Part.1" or the metallic drones of "Line 4," but more interestingly, there's also a hint of dub in evidence. While Perrier's subliminal bass lines lack the stoned weirdness of Jamaican masters like Lee "Scratch" Perry or the Mad Professor, "Interior" and the aforementioned "Ohm 05, Part.1" have a certain head-nodding rhythm to them that recalls nothing so much as instrumental reggae stripped down to its binary core. Subtle though it might be, it's an unexpected delight to find such soulful elements on a noise album, and it goes to show that there's a lot more variety in the experimental scene than most people realize.

Visit the label, Sound On Probation, at www.soundonprobation.com for more information about this release.