Zoos of Berlin – Audiofemme

PLAYING DETROIT: A Springtime Playlist

There is an undeniable shift in self when the clocks return to their forward position and warmer days begin to outnumber the cold ones. Spring, though different depending on your geographic specifics, happens under the same sky at just about the same time. Perhaps you’re like me and mending a broken heart after the end of what can only be described as a cruel internal winter, looking forward to dusting off, stretching out and starting over. But whatever version of spring suits you best, let these emotionally selected tracks from Detroit’s vast pool of feelings-feelers guide you through the waves of change.

Zoos of Berlin: “North Star on the Hill”

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The Bowie-esque closing track on Zoos of Berlin’s groundbreaking return from hiatus, last year’s Instant Evening, swirls like winter’s final snow against new growth on your favorite neighborhood tree. “North Star on the Hill” encapsulates hesitance and imbalance but with a fragility suited for this polarized change in season.

Anna Ash: “Player”

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Yeah, okay. It’s no secret that I can’t get enough of Michigan native and songstress/sorceress Anna Ash’s 2016 release Floodlights. Her Lucinda Williams-esque warble and her completely unique vocal warmth could melt the most stubborn frost from the windshield of your equally stubborn ’89 Cutlass. “Player” is timeless and sun-soaked (why do I feel like it could be on the Erin Brockovich soundtrack or, like, Ally McBeal?) but what makes it a great addition to this seasonal transition is her ability to meld vulnerability with hair-flipping “I-told-you-so” vibes.

Minihorse: “Drink You Dry”

I’m not the biggest Minihorse fan. Or maybe it was a timing thing when they dropped their fuzzy, lo-fi EP Big Lack last year. But hey. I sort of get it now. “Drink You Dry” is laced with memories of riding around in your girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend’s best friend’s backseat while you may or may not be day-drunk, trying not to get dizzy watching the blur of houses and trees from the lap of someone you met once. It’s an afternoon. It’s boredom. It’s quietly and politely reckless. And in a lot of ways, it’s Spring.

Saturday Looks Good to Me: “No Good With Secrets”

There’s something so nervous and sweet about this 2005 release from one of our most beloved indie pop acts Saturday Looks Good to Me. Led by the incomparable Fred Thomas, “No Good With Secrets” embodies an innocence and aimlessness that tugs on our teenage heartstrings but 12 years later makes space for our adult selves as we still carry those bashfully brazen tendencies to drive by someone’s house (even if they can’t come out to play.)

Deadbeat Beat: “When the Sun Soaks in”

Maybe I’m getting a little too literal, but there is something perfectly riotous and manic about Deadbeat Beat’s “When the Sun Soaks In.” It elicits that moment you realize you don’t need a jacket to leave the house and how the sight of your own bare arms turns you on. A fusion of a 1960’s beach party and a 90’s make-out session, this track is equal to smelling salts or pheromones for our shared and stagnant winter coma.

JR JR: “Gone”

The truth is, I’ve spent more time over the past two years trying to convince myself that I like JrJr than I have actually spent liking JrJr. The verdict? I don’t get the hype or the Warner Brothers continuous record deal. This song, however, is insufferably Spring and is so infectious that you may as well make an appointment with a licensed physician or psychiatrist because even when the song ends the whistling will go on and on and on…and on. I’m sure you’re wondering why a respected music journalist with what some would say exquisite taste would include something that makes her so despairingly nauseous on a playlist about Spring. The answer is simple. “Gone” is carefully crafted to make you feel invincible. It’s a look back, a look forward and ultimately it’s about leaving what is truly gone in the dust to never be found again. This will be the last time I ever listen to this song willingly. But maybe for you, the right person in the right moment, you’ll see “the light through the trees.”[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Staff Picks – Jerilyn Jordan: The Playing Detroit Awards

In wake of what most consider one of the most turbulent years in recent memory, 2016 carried a heavy weight. From the death of idols, poets and American democracy, this year challenged our collective patience and sanity leaving no stone unturned. That being said, 2016 reared its resilient head by means of music, the ultimate rebellion. And Detroit? Well, my sweet little city on the rise broke new ground with a slew of releases that eased our troubles, cooled our fevers and incited a burning fire that not even 2016 could extinguish. Below are a few notable moments in Detroit’s music year and perhaps a telescopic view of the year to come.

Best album to cry, drive and reflect to:
Anna Ash: Floodlights

Anna Ash’s sophomore record Floodlights is, without much deliberation, my favorite album of 2016. Having spent the better part of the year collapsing and mending Ash’s innate ability to give power and strength to her raw and exposed vulnerabilities paired with the sincere Midwestern, orchestral dashboard dust makes Floodlights a strikingly honest portrayal of (my) hearts fragile design.

Best album to start a new life on Mars to:
Zoos of Berlin: Instant Evening

Okay, so I lied. Zoos of Berlin’s masterfully produced and cosmic journey Instant Evening is in constant contention for my favorite release this year. What Instant Evening offers is a poignant and tireless orbit that explores the depths above and below without ignoring our enslavement to gravity. A dizzying leap into perceptions of time, Zoos of Berlin delivered this years soundtrack for your existential eclipse.

Best record to drop acid and make-out with a stranger to:
Mountains and Rainbows: Particles

There is something pleasantly debaucherous about Mountains and Rainbows LP Particles. A loosely woven parade of psych-pop jams and zombie-beach-party rock that is intended for the night you’ll forget to remember. Unwashed, untamed and yet, politely tethered to a structure all their own, Mountains and Rainbows delivered a much needed dose of revelry.

Song most likely to be playing when you’re arrested for getting busy in a public restroom:
Stef Chura: “Slow Motion”

Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated releases of 2017, Stef Chura’s specialized brand of tortured kitsch kept 2016 afloat. Chura’s first single “Slow Motion” from her upcoming record Messes, is a hazily languid, hickey-necked crisis that begs to get caught (and to be kept awake by thoughts of the “what the fuck am I doing? variety.)

Artist most likely to score a foreign sci-fi film:
Humons

Eclectic and texturized dream house artist Humons busted through a few atmospheres with his debut EP Spectra. A multi-dimensional, electro-pop collision course of cosmos and other worldly feels, Humons arrangements channel the extraterrestrial and the extraordinary complete with danceable, sensuous beats that any human or alien could get down to.

Song most suited for a girl-gang rebellion/club takeover:
Bevlove: “Do What I say”

A word of warning and a call to arms, “Do What I Say” from badass hip-pop game changer Bevlove, was the girl gang anthem we all needed in 2016. Laced with tenderness but swollen with commanding and demanding pussy power, “DWIS” was the most radio-ready song out of Detroit this year, channeling the likes of RiRi and Queen Bey, our Lady Love delivered one hell of a punch (and maybe even a groin stomp or two.)

Video most likely to feature yours truly:
Gosh Pith: “Scoop”

Our beloved Josh x Josh trip-hop duo Gosh Pith were busy boys this year. They toured, recored, released and churned out several videos for their EP Gold Chain all of which embody their sexy poetry and big heart lifestyle. And yeah. Okay. This is a shameless plug of sorts but being a love interest in a music video has been a life long goal of mine (well, I think it started with Mariah Carey’s “Heartbreaker” but whatever.) So when GP (I get to call them that now that I’m on the inside) asked me to star in the video for “Scoop”, a catchy, love lorn groove about the girl that got away (and then slept with someone else at her heartbroken ex’s house party. SAVAGE!) I immediately said yes and actually brushed my hair for the occasion. Full of cameo’s by Detroit’s many intermingled squads, this video is a fun look back on the year that was as brutal as, well, a breakup but as hopeful as a new spark.

PLAYING DETROIT: Zoos of Berlin “Instant Evening”

It’s been three years since Detroit’s sonically poignant pioneers of quietly turbulent indie rock, Zoos of Berlin, last full-length release. Earlier this month, Collin Dupuis, Will Yates, Matthew Howard, Daniel I. Clark and Trevor Naud returned with an open door and a detour. An oceanic space dive, bridging the waters and atmospheric distances between way up and deep down, Instant Evening is a mystifying abstraction and a perilously purifying journey that renounces gravity in the same breath from which it praises it. The band is asking us to pretend that this is their first record which would displace 2013’s pleasantly unstable Lucifer in the Rain and their airily sedated debut record Taxis from 2009. But maybe they’re right to ask this of us. After all, what Zoos of Berlin has masterfully achieved with Instant Evening is the aural embodiment of time lapsed and time stopped and in several cases time reversed. A transcendental escapist mirror of the self and the whole, Zoos latest, first record is a new language in a native voice.

Their emblematic cadence is more well-rounded here, more complete as assisted by their collective patient tonality and fluid melodic velocity. There are comparable moments to the likes of Belle and Sebastian, LCD Soundsystem and most notably the late David Bowie’s final opus Black Star, but the comparisons aren’t a distraction as they usually tend to be. In fact, what makes Instant Evening an instant “yes” is its commitment to not only sound but to its deeply personal and uniquely porous temperament and languish whimsy. The opening track “Rush at the Bend” is an upbeat whirling dervish that uncorks the intent of the record, a gentle tug and ripping of the seams. The delicate balancing of layers within layers never feels thick or overthought. Case and point, “Spring from the Cell” an echoey and deliberate lamination of vocal harmonies, twinkling prom-night synths and dreamy acoustics. As the album progresses, the sensationalized belief that night is approaching grows apparent. “A Clock Would Never Tell” is a parade processional love song that begs to come in from the dark and the cold and leads shortly into “Always Fine with Orphan” a glittering and robust longing-for-summer anthem that manages to braid melancholy with pleasant memories of making love under the sun. We are left with the orbit-less “North Star on the Hill” which poetically stands alone on the record. Like hands missing each other in the night, gracing only fingertips before the invisible tethers pull and draw them apart, the albums closer is unassuming in its heartbreak. A swallowing of stars and a ghost caress, Instant Evening ends with an ellipsis.

Listen to the full stream below:

<a href="http://zoosofberlin.bandcamp.com/album/instant-evening">Instant Evening by Zoos of Berlin</a>[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Tag: Zoos of Berlin

PLAYING DETROIT: A Springtime Playlist

Staff Picks – Jerilyn Jordan: The Playing Detroit Awards

PLAYING DETROIT: Zoos of Berlin “Instant Evening”

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