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John Paul Jones - Zooma

Artist:	John Paul Jones
Title:	Zooma
Label:	Discipline Global Mobile DGM 9909
Length(s):	50 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	11/1999

Line up

John Paul Jones - bass, kyma, bass lap steel, electric mandola, organ
Pete Thomas - drums
Paul Leary - guitar
Trey Gunn - touch guitar
Denny Fongheiser - djembe, drums
Strings on Snake Eyes by members of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Tracks

1)	Zooma	5.52
2)	Grind	5.21
3)	The Smile Of Your Shadow	5.50
4)	Goose	4.59
5)	Bass 'n' Drums	2.32
6)	B. Fingers	5.26
7)	Snake Eyes	7.33
8)	Nosumi Blues	5.48
9)	Tidal	6.51

Summary

I was rather surprised by the fact that John Paul Jones (former bass/keyboard player of Led Zeppelin) was to release his first solo album. (What HAS he been doing all these years.) Even more surprised was I when I found out the release what to be on the Discipline label and hence of interest to my homepage.

The music

What do you expect from someone like this? On a label such as this? Well, you'd expect him to play bass and this is exactly how the title track starts out: this is some terrific, driving bassplaying with eerie keyboard sounds to boot. Then we move into heavy riffing rock. Groovy mayhem. Grind is not as one would expect it after Zooma. This is a mid tempo, rather melodic piece on the repetitive side. The bass work is quite low and the song features some sound samples. The overall feel to this music is somewhat like in industrial music. The Smile Of Your Shadow reminds me somewhat of Flow My Tears by Stuart Hamm. A very soothing piece, with some country influences, such as the use of a pedal lap steel and a mandolin. The heavy rock is back in Goose (probably cooked). In the short Bass 'n' Drums we get exactly what we deserve. B. Fingers is again a rocking track, with the melody played by the bass. The songs sounds a bit sparse at first, but then the guitar throws in some chords for good measure. Especially in the guitarwork, King Crimson is not far away. Snake Eyes brings blues with a dissonant difference and some strings by members of the London Symphony Orchestra. The riff itself it quite repetitive, but the strings keep it interesting and the jamming organ playing also helps. Quite a longwinded track. The strings end the track melodically. Nosumi Blues is blues, but again a rather dissonant one. Tidal is the closer. Quite complex this one with off-beat rhythms and hard to follow. It still rocks and that is important. The song ends with an urgent, screeching guitar solo.

Conclusion

Some people will be hard put to call this prog, but I tend to think so. The songs are not overly long or complex, but the choice of instruments, the free structures and overall the rather jamming approach with some dissonance added make this an album that could be interesting to you. Lovers of Led Zeppelin might think this album to be both too loud and too dissonant, but I think most will be able to enjoy it notwithstanding the occasional loudness. Another reference I could think of is King Crimson in the louder parts. Surprising is the large blues influence on this album and the use of pedal lap steel.