I wish I knew more about Jazz, so I could tell you what influences I hear in Too Many Zooz. I could then intelligently explain where this band is coming from and to what extent the direction they’re going is unexplored, because to my ears their debut EP F Note sounds unprecedented. I mean that cumulatively speaking their sound is original. I’ve heard talented brass sections in jazz clubs before and it was great, satisfying in a predictable way. I’ve heard the horns of middle eastern presentation and been pleasantly hypnotized by it. I’ve even heard electronic dance and pop songs use digitized and effects-ladened horns for a melody, but the sampling was more of a novelty than the source of its groove.
With Too Many Zooz, on the other hand, the trumpet, baritone sax, and bass drum tricked-out with cowbell, tambourine, and different pitched jam-blocks are entirely responsible for the groove and it’s erratic flow.
To hear Too Many Zooz for the first time is to stop in your tracks and ask, “What is this?!” You listen further believing a few more seconds is all you’ll need to pigeonhole it before walking away. Yeah, they’re horns (with very distinct ranges), but depending on which song you’re listening to they’re either complementing each other or dueling, like an elephant and an elephant-sized bullfrog taunting each other one minute and then stampeding your way the next.
When the trumpet and sax cease brutalizing you with their exotic tonal assault and quiet down to harmonize, it’s a deceptively warm and slower groove that never loses momentum; your foot keeps tapping and your head keeps bobbing aware that this lull is temporary. It only takes a few listens to appreciate Too Many Zooz judicious use of high and low pitch registers and their contrasting loud and quiet parts. At any moment the muted bass drum can come down with a wallop and the quiveringly restrained horns erupt to meet the drums like a musical car wreck. And just like being a witness to a car wreck, you’ll be unable to look away or in this case turn your ear away.
If you like jazz, funk, punk, and middle eastern and modern instrumental dance music, you’ll groove on Too Many Zooz.
RSVP for their next gig and follow them on Bandcamp and Facebook.
Man, you put into focus all that I’ve been trying to figure out about TMZZ. This is something different, yet comforting, yet unsettling. Just when you think you know where they’re headed, they turn a sharp corner. After you hear it, you realize that they went precisely where they should’ve. If you re-listen to the music, you come to see that some incrediblely delicate and tricky things are going on in there. Thank you for this article, really.
And thanks for the comment, Marcus! Terrific band indeed! 🙂