Album Review: Zone Six, Full Mental Jacket
Long-running German heavy psych constructionists Zone Six have remained steadily active since returning in 2015 with what was then their first album in 11 years and now is the better part of a decade old, Love Monster (review here). With a home on bassist/synthsist/organist/producer Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt‘s Sulatron Records imprint (Schmidt also plays/has played in Sula Bassana, Electric Moon, Krautzone, Weltraumstaunen, Liquid Visions, on and on), and releases through labels like Acid Test, Headspin, Deep Distance and Panchromatic Records, the trio have been more productive in terms of studio releases than they ever were in their initial run, which began in 1997 with their self-titled debut (reissue review here) showing up in 1998 and never really all the way stopped, save perhaps for a few years in the early-’10s.
The three-song Full Mental Jacket is the follow-up to 2020’s Kozmik Koon (review here), with the lineup of Schmidt, guitarist Manuel Wohlrab (also of post-metallers Yanos) and drummer Bernhard “Pablo Carneval” Fasching (Electric Moon, Sula Bassana) offering 39 minutes of plotted but exploratory instrumentalism arranged longest to shortest across “Slingshot” (19:54), “Full Mental Jacket” (10:00) and “Chrono Trigger” (9:55), with progressive and psychedelic atmospheres at the forefront of their intention and a massive cosmic wash held in reserve for when they need it, though they’re certainly hypnotic and immersive before they get there as well.
Consuming side A in its entirety, “Slingshot” sets Full Mental Jacket quickly off at a speedy clip and a progression of buzzy guitar and bass that, if perhaps it didn’t also have synth winding intermittently around it, could just as easily be goth rock. A groove they ride until a break three minutes in, it will reemerge after the classy kosmiche interlude, marked by the echoing soprano sax of Gottfried Klier and the “ghost guitar” of Rainer Neeff (Krautzone, The Pancakes), both sitting in for guest spots, but jazzy snare and intricacy in the bass to match the layers of guitar as they build up assure momentum isn’t lost for the divergence.
Over the next few minutes, they gradually solidify the drift, finding themselves in a nodding resonance circa minute-nine leading to the rising of the first big wash of the record, with the guitars, sax, effects and synth pushing further out in unforced but not too slow meter, recovering some more of the piece’s earlier intensity as that riff is brought back after 17 minutes in after a sudden snap. Cymbal splash punctuates the charge, synth resumes wrapping itself around the mix in full three-dimensional fashion, and they cut to a drone to finish, ambient sci-fi keyboard setting a cinematic-but-weird-cinema mood at the outset of the title-track before the guitar begins the procession of “Full Mental Jacket” in earnest.
A sustained line of organ runs a thread of melody across the initial span of the 10-minute side B leadoff, placed in the mix above the pulsating guitar and swinging drums. Among the other lessons of “Slingshot” is that Full Mental Jacket, however loosely structured or departed from verse/chorus patterning it might be, is still based on composition. That’s true of “Full Mental Jacket” and “Chrono Trigger” as well, but the centerpiece feels somewhat closer to jamming at its root. The organ continues to feature as it plays through a melody in complement to the guitar, but even the rhythm behind it comes across as exploratory, if not made up on the spot (and likely not), then open in its approach to prior-written parts.
Almost exactly at the midpoint, the snare pops to announce a change in the guitar, and the expanse takes a turn toward heavy post-rock in layers of guitar across channels, drums responsible for grounding the movement into the payoff, which surges forward at around 6:45. “Full Mental Jacket” doesn’t unfold its crescendo with the same speed as “Slingshot,” but it’s noisier and Zone Six spend more time looking out from atop the aural mountain they just climbed, the air around them duly light on oxygen as “Full Mental Jacket” recedes into beeps like a truck backing up and other sonic leftovers to bid farewell and bring about the deceptively smooth intro to “Chrono Trigger.”
Whether or not the members of Zone Six or the band collectively are fans of ’90s-era SquareSoft role-playing games on Super Nintendo, I don’t know, but “Chrono Trigger” shares its name with one, and like that game’s adventure narrative, there’s a bit of magic in the closing piece of Full Mental Jacket as well. The bass sets the foundation, fluid but cohesive, as the band conjure a broad space and place themselves within it. Lead notes follow a pattern answered by the drums or synth back in the distance, and a more meditative psychedelia finds its shape. But before the listener even realizes what has happened, this has been going on for more than three minutes and the trio are fully dug into the proceedings.
Shades of My Sleeping Karma meet the band’s own chemistry as the synth marks a change to the next part, drums and keys moving to the front while the guitar steps back, effects swirling again to bring them into focus at the start of the album’s final build at around five minutes in, with a pedal-click push of volume just before the six-minute mark. As with “Full Mental Jacket” and “Slingshot,” the apex of “Chrono Trigger” is a wash of guitar, keys, effects, cymbals and who knows what else, but Zone Six are calm within the tumult. They skillfully guide Full Metal Jacket to its end point; a fade that feels shorter bringing a heavy-feeling silence.
The overarching vibe of Full Mental Jacket comes through as perhaps darker than one might expect, but it is only more satisfying for defying that expectation, and while the individual tracks each bring something different to the whole, the band also unite their work in direction, chemistry and tone. But what they do with those is create whole spaces in which to dwell (albeit temporarily) and, within them, explore these new ideas and textures. The result is a blend of jam-based heavy psych and heavier post-rock that belongs to Zone Six alone as it is born of their individual influences and their will to evolve more than a quarter-century on from their first launch, and frankly, the galaxy is lucky to have it.
