STREAM: Zolle - "Trakthor"

I find it difficult to write reviews of instrumental albums as, often, the individual songs don’t stand out or break from the overall sound of the album. As such, it is difficult to make reference to any high or low points on the disc as these sorts of albums one listens to start-to-finish or not at all.

Instrumental Italian stoner/doom duo Zolle will release their self-titled debut album on May 13th via Supernatural Cat. The band practices a ‘less-is-more’ approach and pummels and grinds through the disc’s groove and riff-oriented ten tracks in twenty-eight minutes. While the music is relentlessly heavy, the band expresses their sense of humor through the song titles – many of which reference redneck living. The band’s most recent single, “Heavy Letam”, is suggestive of “Letame” — which means manure in Italian — resulting in “a shitty anagram about heavy metal.”

Continuing with the redneck references, the band’s bio starts with the line “Only those who know the ease of a cow while defecating can understand the genesis of the songs of Zolle.” While I have no idea what this means, somehow it seems relevant to the video below.



Zolle was formed by Marcello Lan (Morkobot), who lays down the meaty riffs, and counterpart Stefano who beefs things up on drums and xylophone, the duo commenced work on their debut album throughout the summer of 2012, and in just two months they had the music ready to commit to tape.

Their self-titled album was recorded in September of the same year by Michelangelo Roberti at Mizkey Studio (Morkobot) and mastered by Giovanni Versari (Zu, Morkobot, OvO, One Dimensional Man). It was almost all played live, with overdubs reduced to the bone. The drums are of considerable proportion and made of copper and the amplifier an old digital model of the ’50s which makes for a mammoth sound. Finally, Urlo from Ufomammut and Roberto Rizzo of Quasiviri/Runi add synth seasoning to flesh out the album.

Links:
Zolle