November 25, 2007 • Self-released
Post-rock is such an oversaturated genre these days that it's surprising when a new album comes out that isn't a total rehash of something old. Even in the mid-2000s this was the case, and I was already getting tired of all the underground copycat bands. Zonderland isn't much different; their particular brand of minimal ambient post-rock isn't terrible, but rather underwhelming and amateurish.
The formula is simple: one guitar, one drumset, and a smattering of noises and samples filling in the gaps. It's a combination that can work well for this sort of minimalist rock, and for the most part the band handles it pretty well. The distorted guitar can be a bit too overwhelming, especially in the second track where it tends to nearly drown everything out. But on the whole, the sound is actually pretty decent. The noise is tastefully done, usually subtle enough to add just a touch of atmosphere, and I especially enjoy the ritual ambient atmospheres at the beginning of the third track.
My main issue with this album is the songwriting. Each track consists of several sections which alternate between ambient parts (which are so ambient they verge on complete silence) and rock parts, which I am slowly becoming convinced are just improvised for this recording. Of course improvisation isn't a bad thing but here it sounds like they didn't much care about the direction the songs took. The guitar mostly plays the same thing over and over in each section, with variations, but there isn't any buildup or direction to it. Often when a section starts to really take off, it just stops abruptly halfway through, like the train fell off the tracks on its way to the next station.
There's a lot of potential in bands like this, and with some more focused songwriting Zonderland could have really impressed me, but it didn't happen on this album. Fortunately the last decade churned out enough bands that I'm not too upset about finding one that is a bit dull.
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