ZEA MICE

Mother Turtle

Heavy Prog

3.91 | 123 ratings

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After dropping the surprise bomb on me two years ago with their amazing "II"--a Top 10 Album of 2016 for me--I was super excited when Bandcamp notified me of this new release.

1. "Zea Mice part 1: Kukuruzu" (6:44) opens like a prog song with long-held buzzing solo synth and vocal samples from field recordings in Russian (?) before breaking into a hard-driving, engagingly-themed rocker. Reminds me of The D Project's "Shimmering Lights." Nice work from bass, drums, and saxophone. (8.5/10)

2. "Zea Mice part 1: #Cornhub" (8:06) solid foundational music over which several instrumentalists put on a great show: Alex Kiourntziadis' violin, Kostas Konstantinidis' acoustic and electric guitars, George Theodoropoulos' synths. I love the sound of George Baltas' metronomic snare! Marked down for being little more than a smooth jazz jam song. (9/10)

3. "Zea Mice part 2: Sea Mice" (6:53) a nice smooth jazz groove over which synths, electric guitar, and violin take turns at the fore. I like the violin solo and the tension of the final third the best. (8.75/10)

4. "Zea Mice part 2: Zeitenllik" (1:21) an ominous soundscape over which an obviously scary narration is performed . . . in Greek. (4/5)

5. "Zea Mice part 2: Vermins" (6:40) seems a continuation of "Sea Mice" with the same (or variation of the same) driving groove. The female vocalise of Elpida Papakosma range in sound from Ofra Haza's Persian "scatting" to Bj�rkian Sugarcube-era sounds. Guitar and violin lead us into a thicker, faster section in the fifth minute. The final minute becomes more spacious and synthed, themed around a kind of James Bond riff. Nice tune. (9/10)

6. "Zea Mice part 2: Fourward" (1:57) North African drumming within which piano and synths sneak intermittent riffs. Cool! (4.5/5)

7. "Zea Mice part 3: Vermins (reprise)" (1:11) a stripped down, acoustic version of the Vermins theme? Pretty but I don't hear the similarity. (4.5/5)

8. "Zea Mice part 3: Nostos" (16:38) excellent hard-driving instrumental prog over a techno-synth rhythm track. The final third turns radically into some smoky lounge jazz. Excellent sound but . . . why? (9/10)

It's taken me a long, long time to get up to writing a review of this album--despite the fact that I've owned it for over half the year. There's just a lot of dense music--which is particularly challenging to critique with instrumental music. The quality of performances and "hooks" is high but I really miss the wonderful storytelling that the vocals and instruments did with the previous album.

4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of instrumental progressive rock.

BrufordFreak | 4/5 | 2018-9-12

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