Photo: Kai Bewersdorf
The vanguard of Crazysane Records, German post–modern noise rock ensemble ZAHN present their second full–length album Adria, an 80-minute-long journey into the heart of classic European holiday culture. Adria offers a bold escape from your daily life through technicolor transmissions of post-rock, krautrock, dark jazz, noise–rock, post–punk and electronic music.Like watching the sun set over a shabby highway restaurant or eating a melting popsicle next to a dirty campsite pool, Adria offers the perfect balance of blandness and heaviness. It’s the camper van you’d be happy to spend holdiay gridlock in.
Their new video, ‘Apricot’ pays trippy tribute to the sauna as only they can – a Zahna. you might say. The track begins on low heat with a simple synth riff and a chiptune drum loop, before warming and expanding melodically as N. Hildebrandt’s video imagery nods knowingly to 70s after shave ads. Tight, teasing close-ups of sweat-slicked hair, chunky taches, and rivulted, ripped(ish) abs abound until a little after three minutes when the track explodes like a bath bomb on hot rocks as heavy drums and a Floydian guitar riff saturate us. The room is a löyly steam dream as the crazy-sane kaleidoscopic imagery kicks in, working up a fever so delirious that beads of perspiration drip backwards, reuniting with the luscious locks of their birth, before the satisfyiingly weighty coda returns us, sanitized, sleepy and serene, to flip-flops and towelling gowns.
A triumph of febrile imagination, ‘Apricot’ proves to be far more inspiration than perspiration. It’s not only tangerines that dream. . .
Consisting of Chris Breuer (HEADS., ex–THE OCEAN COLLECTIVE), Nic Stockmann (HEADS) and Felix Gebhard (MUFF POTTER, live–EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN), ZAHN stands in the progressive tradition of musicians from a local scene working together on albums and exploring new grounds regardless of the respective bands they became known for. With a debut album that was recorded in only two days, this trio revealed an insatiable thirst for creation and boundless ambition in rhythm and texture.
The band write:
“Being in a band often entails profuse sweating, whether it’s under the stage lights, lifting heavy gear, sitting on a sweltering bus without air conditioning or the anxiety-induced perspiration before a performance. For many rockers, being intoxicated is a vital element of a show. With ZAHN we’re approaching this in a different way – we’re pursuing an altered state of consciousness by pushing ourselves to the limit in a sauna – Apricot is a sober yet sensory and psychedelic sauna experience.”
Adria is released on November 24, 2023 via Crazysane records and can be pre-ordered HERE
