by Romain Guillou
For their first album, Zu stars the trumpet player Roy Paci, a musician who played along with people like Manu Chao and bands such as Mau Mau. The result of their work was a lot more rough that what they did later with Eugene Chadbourne (The Zu Side of Eugene Chadbourne). Whereas the shape of the compositions remains quite rooted in the same sources, improvisation and free jazz, the sound of the whole is totally different: the cool guitar parts Chadbourne included in their tracks are absent. Here, it is the bass alone that responds to the other instruments. With its tight string and loud noise, it develops a base, along with the drums, of loud, syncopated jazz where the two brass players feel at ease to blow like hurricanes.