I like a pretty wide variety of music. The things that I find extremely satisfying often have students and friends scratching their heads. You mean you like Rimsky-Korsokov AND Jay-Z? Is that even possible?
Yes. Yes it is.
And I really love electronic music in almost all of its forms. Dubstep, House, Ambient, Chip Tunes, etc all makes its way through my skull and fills me with joy.
So my brother Caleb threw a recommendation that I listen to Zomboy stating "It's so much better than Skrillex" and my initial reaction was "WHO SENT YOU, THE DEVIL?! I BANISH THEE!"
My brother was right, though.
The bylaws of my resolution stipulate that an album needs to be over 30 minutes long to count and none of Zomboy's released EPs fit that so I decided to all three of his released full EPs because I MAKE THE RUES HERE. Also the three of them together are about as long as one lengthy album.
Also my ears told me to keep going after 1 and 2. Also... you get the idea.
I think what Zomboy does is manages to trick my brain into thinking this was the music that played during video games when I was younger. Levels of Sonic the Hedgehog continually ran through my head as I listened to his various tracks. He definitely likes to sample various sounds present in video games just like chip tunes artists (see Anamanaguchi). There's even a full on rip from Angry Birds in there.
I love this style of music. It always seemed like a listening challenge to me. Can you spot the differences in long sections which generally sound very similar? Can you pick out samples from where they exist elsewhere? Can you hear when he references himself later? Does the artist resort to the same tricks as literally every other electronic music artist out there? Zomboy manages to keep things varied and interesting without resorting to just non-stop aural assault. There's definitely a lot going on here. He definitely knows how to get right up to the edge of the cliff without just plunging off and crashing in a huge fireball. Also he messes with tempo. HE MESSES WITH TEMPO RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF DANCE SONGS. Needless to say he probably would have been stoned to death if he were making music a thousand years ago or whatever. Because only two people gradually change the tempo in the middle of dance music. And one of those people is Satan. The other, apparently, is Zomboy.
One thing he doesn't do which is a bummer is find someway to connect his songs together seamlessly. This is something that House artist Deadmau5 does extremely well and I always felt like it was extremely rewarding listening to an entire album of his straight through. Perhaps another EP down the road Zomboy will do that. But maybe not.
All three albums were awesome and I highly recommend them. The trio clock in at just over 1 hour in length. If you've only got a half hour listen to his second EP "The Dead Symphonic" which was my favorite of the three.
Check out his first single, Organ Donor, which had me grinning ear to ear the whole way through.
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