The Zs’ Sam Hillmer blasts his saxophone with scarily urgent volume, approximating a runaway semi’s warning horn, or an air-raid siren announcing the impending apocalypse. The Brooklyn-based trio magnifies this discomforting intensity with strangely syncopated rhythms and glitchy guitars. On the group’s just-released Hard EP, Hillmer squawks with extreme prejudice over erratic drum rumbles, producing a confrontational din. During their quieter passages, Zs translate electronic minimalism into aggressively repetitive jazz. Largely an instrumental act, Zs make sporadic, rewarding forays into the vocal realm, producing the anarchic rant “In My Dream I Shot A Monk” and the pummeling psychedelic epic, “Nobody Wants to Be Had.” Eventually, Zs push listener endurance past its usual threshold, reaching a transcendent stage at which “challenging” finally becomes “mind-blowing.” The groups mesmerizing live performances accelerate this process.
Thu., Aug. 7, 9 p.m., 2008
