Remarkable! A name I was not familiar with but he encapsulates the best features of the immediate post-punk revolution and adds Blues and some punkabilly touches to take the music to places that weren’t in anyone else’s vocabulary before.
Bone Zeno was born in Germany and has now ended up in Portugal via The Reeperbahn Hamburg, Morrocco, Trinidad, Brixton and Hackney. In the past he performed as D-66. He may have picked his influences up along the way but this all sounds very much the pure article.
It ain’t soft and it ain’t comfortable. Imagine Magazine fronted by Captain Beefheart and with Plasmatics Stu Deutsch on drums – you begin to get the aggression and hard edges of the music. Challenging? Hell yes but damn satisfying too.
Opening track ‘2 The Bone’’ sets the scene pretty well with hammering drums and his hoarse and spat out vocals leading into ‘U Fuck Me’ picking up a growling riff and call and response vocals – the sense of being on the edge of madness ever present, especially as he fights against the band to be heard.
He does far more though than just shout and blister. ‘Caroline’ is a deranged Blues that has definite echoes of Suicide’s ‘Frankie Teardrop’ and harrowing vocals howled out from the mix. ‘Drink’ has punkabilly elements as his hangover begins to take on a life of its own.
Bone Zeno is an artist who ploughs very much his own furrow. This was never made to satisfy someone else’s view of music and in my mind’s eye I could just see Simon Cowell sitting ashen-faced as the power of the music hits him squarely between the eyes.
Not something to take lightly or play as background music – let it wash over you and immerse yourself in it. The thing of nightmares maybe but vivid and strong ones.
