Zero 7 gives up ‘Ghost,’ closes tour with scary-good show at HOB

Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker of Zero 7 (Courtesy photo)

UK electronica duo Zero 7 just released their best album yet. And their timing couldn’t have been better.

From the Mercury Prize-nominated 2001 debut, “Simple Things,” to 2006’s “The Garden,” Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns were among a handful of groups that ruled the roost of late-night downtempo and chill-out. They kept things lush and dreamy and provided a stage for many talented collaborators like Sia and Jose Gonzalez. Their cinematic songs seemed ever-present in television and film.

The pair’s recently released fourth record, “Yeah Ghost,” looks to ensure that complacency never infects those cozy confines.

In stark contrast to their previous albums, “Ghost” is a frenetic mixtape of styles. It deftly blends the Zero 7 sound with funk, soul, folk, pop, and atmospherics, transforming it into something completely new while keeping their trademark, razor-sharp production in tact. But the twosome, friends since childhood, had to work hard to get it that way.

“It was a difficult album to make,” Hardaker said before their sold-out tour-closer at the House of Blues on Thursday night. “It was one that didn’t come easily or flow smoothly at all. But as a consequence, we’ve ended up in a far more interesting place. And that’s exactly what we were trying to do.”

Related: More stories by Scott McDonald | More SDNN Music stories

The album’s new direction is sure to piss off a few traditionalists, but the collateral damage is more than acceptable. Aside from being an eclectic and well-constructed record, it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for both the band and their live show.

“Anyone who undertakes creative work wants to evolve,” said Hardaker. “We don’t want to keep repeating ourselves. We’re always trying to explore what we can and often don’t know where it’s going to end up. The unknown part is something we appreciate. It’s unstable, but a necessary part of the process.”

The band took the stage just after 9:30 p.m. and opened with four new songs from “Ghost.” Album vocalists Martha Tilston and Eska Mtungwazi were shrewdly replaced by Olivia Chaney and Abimaro, both of whom were more than up to task – Chaney’s elegant harmonium work becoming a star in it’s own right by night’s end. Rounded out to a septet by drummer Tom Skinner and multi-instrumentalists Eddie Stevens and Rob Mullarkey, the band tore through most of their new record, some favorites, a Neil Young cover, and a few impromptu deviations, looking like they were having a great time during every bit of the 2-plus hour set.

Zero 7 performs at the San Diego House of Blues. (Photo by Scott McDonald)

Whether it was Abimaro lending her soulful croon to new bangers “Mr. McGee” or “Medicine Man,” Binns reluctantly becoming a full-fledged front man on “Everything Up (Zizou),” or Skinner’s astute percussion expertly anchoring the haunting “Ghost sYMbOL,” the band was firing on all cylinders.

The new album’s greatest gift isn’t that it merely allows the band to diversify its sound, but that it provides plenty of opportunity to reinterpret and expand that sound within the framework of each song. Bridging the gap between disparate song styles, the band freely used noisy blip interludes, extended instrumental jams, and spontaneous fills to convincingly fuse the diverse set.

And all of it was set to a light show that changed as much as the music, solidifying the evening’s theme. Sometimes backlit for stretches, sometimes bathed in relentless strobe or captured under a single spot, visual representations of band members shifted frequently. It helped punctuate the exuberance that the last night of a tour usually brings.
At one point, even tour manager Jo Withy got into the act – in a fur coat no less – busting out her own version of the “Bus Stop” dance for a few minutes on stage.

After a heavy-handed response to their set, Chaney kicked off the encore with a gorgeous solo version of their popular “In The Waiting Line” that was so far removed from the original that it was almost unrecognizable. They were supposed to end on spacey album closer “All of Us,” but when Skinner refused to stop tapping on the kick drum, the band slowly re-emerged and all spontaneously jammed out another extensive mixture of electronic and organic sounds.

It was a fitting end to an evening that was all about shunning predictability, defying expectations, and a refusal to let their music be easily categorized. It bodes incredibly well for the band and their ever-improving dynamic live show.

“This entire process has been really great,” said Hardaker. “What started out as just wanting to reflect a new period of our lives and its new experiences has become something more significant. The whole thing has reminded us to keep pushing ourselves and keep experimenting. And we’re really enjoying the freedom.”

Scott McDonald is a regular contributor to SDNN’s music page.

Set List:
“Count Me Out”
“Mr. McGee”
“Pop Art Blue”
“Everything Up (Zizou)”
“Speed Dial No.2”
“Swing”
“Home”
“Ghost sYMbOL”
“The Road”
“Destiny”
“You’re My Flame”
“Seeing Things”
“Dogs Abs”
“Medicine Man”

Encore:
“In The Waiting Line”
“Pageant Of The Bizarre”
“All Of Us”
(Jam Outro)

Tags: Henry Binns, House of Blues, Sam Hardaker, Scott McDonald, SDNN, Simple Things, The Garden, Yeah Ghost, Zero 7

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