Times are tough in Austin, Texas these days. What was once a relatively thriving music metropolis of blood, sweat and noise has lately suffered a severe lacking of bands unafraid to assault your senses. It's almost safe to walk into any club and remain confident that you won't be scared shitless. My first Zulu as Kono experience was watching the band in one of its early states as it blasted an East Side coffee shop to smithereens. There was fear, and there was consternation, but there was also that exciting burst of adrenalin that sprays into your system when you know you're witnessing something great. Zulu as Kono II does a noble job of pressing this high powered, adrenalin-inducing sound onto an aluminum medium for your personal abuse at home, at the office or in the car.
Named after a credit line on Hawaii Five-0, Zulu as Kono has evolved into its present state conveniently equipped with two guitars, two basses, one drummer and the illustrious ape-like antics of Tyler Harwood, the band's mouthpiece, who gives new meaning to the name "band frontman". Zulu crosses moody noise-rock (think Rodan or Slug) with a unique Austin blend of obtuse sonic oddities soaked in beer, packed into the nearest pipe and irresponsibly inhaled. The smoke that’s left wafting in the air is devilishly intoxicating, yet sickening exquisite; you'll feel it bathing your clothes in its complex aroma.
The mangled waveforms on "Perverted Son" pulse like a mechanized superhero menace, wreaking havoc upon the innocent, rattling your thoughts loose and eventually inducing some sort of fracture line into the base of your vertebrae. "Welflosh Kovitrice" haunts the dark side of your brain (well, what's left of it at least) with creepy, reverberating guitars and whispy vocals that intertwine with engorged bass lines. Here's a good one to use if you wanna scare the neighbor kids or leave a disturbed look on your folks' faces. In full force, "Creep From Down the Street" caps off the CD with a fine combination of Zulu's enlightening future-shock blips and monstrous, mayhem-inducing noise that could crush you with one powerful, Godzilla-styled foot-stomp.
If your idea of winding down after a long day is complex, staccato rhythms and bursting bits of controlled noise, here's a nightcap that’s guaranteed to knock you down and out. This sextet (sometimes septet) creates and interprets sonic assemblies and expeditiously escalates them into a fledgling fireball of barely containable energy -- the kind that numbs your face and blisters your psyche. Hey, feel free to get lost in the world of Zulu as Kono, but if keep your bearings straight and remain alert, you'll stay alive.
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