Z / Shampoohorn - Jesus Clone ...not bad...heh-heh...

Introducing Zappa again! But it's not him we would imagine. This time his sons Dweezil Zappa and Ahmet Zappa. The group name is "Z" and the album name is "Shampoohorn". If you look closely at the logo Z, you can see that the initial letters of their names, "A" and "D", are hidden here. An easter egg type thing! 

Shampoohorn

In this album, Dweezil is on guitar, and the "interesting hat" Mike Keneally is on keyboard, guitar, and the arrangement of harmony. Lots of drummers are joining: Terry Bozzio, Tal Bergman, Joe Travers, Morgan Ågren, Toss Panos, and etc. Terry Bozzio plays on the songs Rubberband, Bellybutton, and Them. As there isn't much information on the Internet actually and I don't have the CD with me, I am relying on my memory of reading the lyrics card (liner notes) more than 20 years ago when I was listening to it very often.

This time, let me check the song Jesus Clone, which includes heavy twin bass drums and odd meters always come with Zappa. I could not find who the drummer is...

(0:00-)

The beginning goes with a twin bass drums slash beat pattern. I think it's a little unusual since 4/4 and 9/8 come in turns. The cymbal notes with a mark like "A" on the 2nd-4th bars are muted (choked) right after hitting the cymbal. The cymbal notes with a circle on the 5th bar are by china cymbal, trash cymbal, or like.

(0:37)

The progression of the meter from the 10th bar is somewhat unusual as well. 1 bar in 4/4 and 3 bars in 5/4. That's pretty strange! Each measure, except for the accent on the cymbals on the 1st and 2nd beats, is cooked in lower tones with floor tom and kick. Sometimes there are linear phrases with cymbal, tom, and kick. Drum notes move very freely around the kit. I would get lost in those odd meters.
I would feel relieved as 4/4 continues from 18th bar. And you hear quite a heavy pattern. This is an example of heavy metal drums in quarter notes open high-hat. The right and left hands keep the big quarter notes while the kick fills busily the spaces, creating a loose and heavy metal groove. And from 26th bar, bad luck, it goes back to the strange progression...

The songs in this album are based on the vocabulary of metal music. On the other hand a lot of highlights worthy of listening to, such as a song with beautiful choir harmony (Doomed To Be Together, etc.) are included. I also recommend this album to you who love Progressive rock or inhering odd meters. The album has the songs that have more highly intense odd meters than Jesus Clone (for example Kidz Cereal and Shampoohorn). Listen to the odd songs and enjoy making yourself puzzled hard.

Thanks,