What do 19th century French author Émile Zola and all round good guy Jesus of Nazareth have in common? They both loved the shit out of pseudo-gothic, shoegaze fuelled, electronic lady balladry, that’s what!… I don’t think it was in any of the regular gospels, but when all the disciples left him alone at the end of an exhausting day of miracle making, Jesus would crank that shit on max volume. It just helped him relax you know. Also, Mary Magdalene totally loved it.
Which is, I’m almost positive, why 21 year old wunderkind Nika Roza Danilova decided to produce under the name Zola Jesus. Because if there’s one phrase you might choose to describe her music, it would be ‘pseudo-gothic, shoegaze fuelled, electronic lady balladry’. Or PGSFELB for short. And to prove it, Danilova has just released the six-track and quite wonderful Stridulum EP on Sacred Bones Records. Sounding a bit like Bat For Lashes trapped in an echo chamber, Danilova’s music is a smeared out, slow burning exercise in atmospherics and longing. Her songs ooze by as an almost undefined mass, one folding into the next through a sea of desperately shadowy vocals, endless reverb, 80s power drums and melodramatic chord changes. It’s music for an empty night, or a full one; music that drips through the speakers in a smokey haze, both cold and inviting, seeming to render the world static in its wake.
It’s really very good.
In some ways her music is so of a piece that the question of which song I should attach feels almost like a moot point, but that in no way, shape or form should suggest that this is anything less than a gorgeously cast, well-rounded and hypnotic release from Zola; her music meshes without bowing to repetition, is captivating despite its monochromatic oeuvre. But still, for the sake of argument, here’s the third track ‘I Can’t Wait’. It’s perhaps one of the more straightforward ballads on the release, so probably as good a place as any to kick things off.
You can procure the Stridulum EP from iTunes, Amazon and eMusic. Listen to it with a glass of wine in your hand while staring off into the middle distance. Which I’m actually doing right now. It seems to have been designed almost entirely for that state of affairs.
Zola Jesus
What do 19th century French author Émile Zola and all round good guy Jesus of Nazareth have in common? They both loved the shit out of pseudo-gothic, shoegaze fuelled, electronic lady balladry, that’s what!… I don’t think it was in any of the regular gospels, but when all the disciples left him alone at the end of an exhausting day of miracle making, Jesus would crank that shit on max volume. It just helped him relax you know. Also, Mary Magdalene totally loved it.
Which is, I’m almost positive, why 21 year old wunderkind Nika Roza Danilova decided to produce under the name Zola Jesus. Because if there’s one phrase you might choose to describe her music, it would be ‘pseudo-gothic, shoegaze fuelled, electronic lady balladry’. Or PGSFELB for short. And to prove it, Danilova has just released the six-track and quite wonderful Stridulum EP on Sacred Bones Records. Sounding a bit like Bat For Lashes trapped in an echo chamber, Danilova’s music is a smeared out, slow burning exercise in atmospherics and longing. Her songs ooze by as an almost undefined mass, one folding into the next through a sea of desperately shadowy vocals, endless reverb, 80s power drums and melodramatic chord changes. It’s music for an empty night, or a full one; music that drips through the speakers in a smokey haze, both cold and inviting, seeming to render the world static in its wake.
It’s really very good.
In some ways her music is so of a piece that the question of which song I should attach feels almost like a moot point, but that in no way, shape or form should suggest that this is anything less than a gorgeously cast, well-rounded and hypnotic release from Zola; her music meshes without bowing to repetition, is captivating despite its monochromatic oeuvre. But still, for the sake of argument, here’s the third track ‘I Can’t Wait’. It’s perhaps one of the more straightforward ballads on the release, so probably as good a place as any to kick things off.
Zola Jesus – I Can’t Stand
You can procure the Stridulum EP from iTunes, Amazon and eMusic. Listen to it with a glass of wine in your hand while staring off into the middle distance. Which I’m actually doing right now. It seems to have been designed almost entirely for that state of affairs.
-luke