I've been again listening to a lot of :ZF:. Funny enough, I've been listening from a different angle though. They've always been an effortless and intuitive listen, an instant and powerful attraction to their beauty and sublime. So I've been a passive listener, allowing it to hit me like it has always hit me. I consider them experimental. Ethno- x, y, and z. Organic. As I was listening to Shadow, Thief of the Sun 1991 (brilliant title), I was mesmerized by their, what seems to me, use of a clothes dryer. It's the central rhythm to the album. Simple, and it ended with that. Then, as I listened to the favorite Loh-Land, I wasn't taken in by the flute and organic textures per usual, but the urban and filthy industrialism hit me like a ton of bricks. I've listened to this album hundreds of times, and while their industrial elements are obvious, they do play in the background and aren't the centerpiece, at least for me. I'm certain others listen the opposite. Just another way this group is like no other. Ethno and worldly and organic and primordial and timeless, but also filthy grime and urban and modern decay. The decay is also obvious, particularly if you study their packaging and artwork (and the very name), but it's more subtle in the music itself. Subtle is sort of a lie too, because if you change the angle, it brains you.
