UNIVERS ZERO [AKA: 1313]

This remains the best introduction to this reviewer's favourite superhero member of Mr. Cutler's RIO league of nations. Their music can be likened to incidental music suited for a gothic suspense thriller but their impact on our favourite genre is anything but.

While many more traditional rock bands induce anticipation and expectancy through the use of melodic guitar riffs, UZ don't grant you that luxury, preferring to impel you through their music using rhythmic tools that produce unease in the listener - sawing violins, instrumental drumming with an often urgent, military feel and iterative discordant string lines bent over uncooperative and unfamiliar time signatures.

All this could convince you that 1313 is a demanding listen. It can be, but it's not as stressful as you might expect - reprieves are built into the music following classic and appropriate light and shade writing and although most notes are suspended over deliberately unsatisfactory chord sequences and cadences, the effect can be soothing as often as it is unsettling.

Previous reviewers have remarked that UZ have more to do with contemporary classical than with rock music, yet this reviewer has no schooling or background in that field to speak of, yet enjoyed 1313 from the first listen. They're such an important band with so few reviews and I can only assume that this is because the difficulty in acquiring the taste of this variety of music is overstated. Try it, you'll see.

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