FROM
http://elecvp.blogspot.comThe music of Zac Nelson — if the term music is really the best
descriptor — engages the mind like brain freeze. It’s fast, cool, and
refreshing but the quicker you slurp it through the crazy straw, the
more your skull begins to pound and your senses become dull to
everything but the piercing throb of slush and cream invading your
temperate tubes. The more you try to fight it, the more it beacons. You
could try slowing down on your ice cream based treat but if it melts,
then so does the delightful cold taste that was the impetus for seeking
this particular sweet. So goes Portland-by-way-of Southern Illinois
melodymaker, Nelson — better known by his menu name, Hexlove.
With a treasure trove of small releases under his belt, it happens that
Piją Z Bogiem--his
second proper full-length released via free jazz frontiersman Valerio
Cosi’s Dreamsheep labe--is his most ambitious and skull-pounding mess
of Neapolitan, sprinkles, syrup, slush, and nuts to date. Over the
course of 20 songs on two discs, Nelson makes a raucous that blends the
pop ambition of Ariel Pink and R. Stevie Moore with the far-out
compositions of Frank Zappa and Mark Tucker.
Piją Z Bogiem
succeeds where like-minded contemporaries, such as Quinn Walker’s
equally ambitious but not near as perverse double disc Laughter’s An
Asshole/Lion Land crashed and burned. Walker was quick to reign in his
ambling, choosing to focus on accessibility rather than the art of
creation. Nelson dives head first into the loony bin, collecting every
bit of dumpster scrap to fashion his music visions. There are times
where it will find you rubbing your forehead in anguish, but more often
than not Nelson’s ritualistic recordings will create involuntary loss
of motor skills in the most delightful and organic way.
Piją Z Bogiem
is the ultimate mash-up; layers of instrumentation, samples, loops, and
drones compete for center stage only to magically meld into one uniform
thought. It’s the next evolution of pop. Nelson forgoes pretense in
favor of rhetoric and somehow it holds together. There are moments of
annoyance, such as “Scared of Hate,” and “Rock Yourself Out Chah Body,”
but more often than not Nelson hits the mother of all sundaes. “She
Heals Blisters,” “Web Circle Spiral Dust,” “Relax, Live” and the
15-minute “Herb” will all command repeated listens with their
knob-turning distortions, isolated vocals, and tribal rhythms.
Piją Z Bogiem is the blueprint for the next batch of pop innovators to follow — if only they can stop the album long enough to create.