May 06 2008 11:35 am,

Zombie Zombie
‘A Land For Renegades’
(Versatile Records)
There’s sometimes nothing like a cleansing shower of pitch-black retro-electro treacle to rinse off the last vestiges of humanity – enter, French duo Zombie Zombie with 11.5 tracks of menacing synth-prog mysticism. If you’ve ever wondered what might have happened had Jean Michel Jarre fetched up in Crawley in 1981 and strong-armed his way into The Cure’s ‘Faith’-era line-up, the Transylvanian horror keyboards, sparse motorik beats and wailing of ‘I’m Afraid Of What’s There’ and the bleak synth motifs of ‘Before Night Falls’ provide your answer. Oh, and an impressively gothic, Suicide-esque take on Iggy Pop’s ‘Nightclubbing’. Created with passion, if not necessarily purpose.
Charlie Ivens

