Days worth of roadtrips are not complete without the company of music. Be it you in a car contemplatively staring out the window with headphones on and seeing the green of trees gracefully mesh with worn-out utility poles, blaring your favorite harsh noise jams on a sketchy Corolla on your way to visit relatives, or reveling in the dampness of a tour bus while eagerly showing songs to your bandmates who are just too tired to just be every thirty seconds – one simply cannot thrive without the other.
German noise rock trio ZAHN are very aware of this; so aware that they are to release a record that is resoundingly dedicated to it. Adria, whose title shares with the name given to the stickers found on the backs of camper trucks throughout Europe, is a love letter to the thrill, leisure, and bothersome setbacks of roadtripping, and Everything Is Noise is but stoked to premiere its second single “Apricot”!
“Apricot” particularly zooms in on the touring life and its constant test on physical endurance. The trio expands further:
‘Being in a band often entails profuse sweating, whether it’s under the stage lights, lifting heavy gear, sitting on a sweltering bus without air conditioning or the anxiety-induced perspiration before a performance. For many rockers, being intoxicated is a vital element of a show. With ZAHN we’re approaching this in a different way – we’re pursuing an altered state of consciousness by pushing ourselves to the limit in a sauna – Apricot is a sober yet sensory and psychedelic sauna experience.‘
The first seconds into the track instantly gives away the scenario above by introducing heavily-textured bass synths slowly opening up until getting abruptly cut by a deliciously locked-in drum and bass groove. The synths now a throbbing melody akin to the imminent throbbing of the temples, “Apricot” masterfully showcases the everyday anxieties brought forth by this lifestyle – rarely catastrophic but always looming close by. The krautrock pacing further amplifies this altered state of mind, sonically building up in teasing fashion like the slight awareness of increasing palpitations. All internal alarms then fire on all cylinders as ZAHN bring in absolutely gritty bass and guitar leads, ultimately culminating in a psychedelic climax that lets you know you have officially succumbed to this auditory sauna experience.
The video is not too far off from the music either. The subtle menace of a running hourglass gives way to close-up shots of various part of the human body sweating. And by sweating I mean sweating – the shots are so high-def that, with one quick flick, the sweat will surely fling out of your screen. Silly jokes aside, the tenseness is palpable with this music video, only augmented by the use of kaleidoscope lens on some of these clips, effectively demonstrating that the band life can sometimes be tough as fuck. And sweaty.
Adria will be released on November 27 through Crazysane Records. You can pre-order the album here and do make sure to give the ZAHN Instagram and Facebook pages a follow for any future updates! You may now wipe the sweat off your forehead.
