Dr. Zab Vol. 2
Nine years after his first digitally recorded escapades with his robotic string orchestra, Dr ZAB returns to haunt our turntables with a fresh crop of tracks, each as varied as the next. This time round, he has assembled a new orchestra, FANTÔMATICK BANDS, whose distinctive feature is that half its members are mortals – no doubt escapees from the Ankou’s cart – whilst the other half are spectres proud of their condition, amongst whom we find the famous singer Terri ZABINOVITCH, the ever-present bassist Valentino ZAB, the indescribable drummer Olaf FRÄP DÜR, and the remarkable Kobaian violinist Ühnn KORDÄSOHNARCK!!… Ah, what a fine bunch they make! This is the orchestra we’d long given up dreaming of!
It’s obviously not easy to tell whether the various vocal timbres and the diverse range of instruments heard here and there are authentic or merely shadows of their former selves – and that’s not the point anyway! Dr ZAB stops at nothing when it comes to using sampled illusions to perfect his cosmetic sound surgery, and in doing so delivers a collection that is, to say the least, eclectic and dense – one that may seem disjointed or uneven, but is certainly not confined to a single perspective. Is that Chinese violin that greets us right from the start (as Marco Polo wrote), disrupted by the explorer’s somewhat jerky letter-writing style, real or virtual? Be that as it may, its ability to set a spellbinding scene is astonishing. And our good Dr ZAB thus recounts to us a host of nocturnal visions, fuelled by baroque anxieties, dark fantasies, futuristic memories and spine-tingling meditations…
Nothing is ever entirely black, nor always completely pink, or blue, or green, or anything else; in Dr ZAB’s stories, colours flit by in a whirlwind, like spectral imprints, ceaselessly morphing to better transport us from one corner to another of the colourful globe or the turbulent bunker of human emotions. From the chaotic ‘Rhumba of the Lame’ to the cheerful ‘Little Italian Dance’, not forgetting the ‘Fanfare with its pachydermic stride’, the world’s folklore undergoes a mischievous check-up; and as if that weren’t enough, our brave doctor piles on the irreverence by ‘rhythm-boxing’ a Gregorian blues and uttering heretical imprecations (Revolution); and, against all odds, ‘Frankenstein-ises’ no fewer than four tracks from the ‘Fab Four’s’ repertoire! Unusual and disconcerting, the music gathered here takes on the air of a soundtrack to some imaginary film. One track – certainly the richest and most thrilling – has, in fact, been christened *Le Film manquant*. It’s up to each listener to find the images to go with it. And whatever you do, don’t ask when the FANTÖMATICK BANDS will be performing live!
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