By Marlon Admiral Joseph Cappuccino

I was sitting in my easy chair sipping my afternoon tea after a rousing game of strip-polo, when I was approached by the representative of Jesse Davidson to write a review for This Place is a Zoo’s latest album Strangers. “But this is a hardcore band,” I replied remembering years ago hearing their music in class with former drummer Ryan Wolanski and genuinely enjoying it, “I don’t know anything about hardcore punk music.” It’s true, I’ve dabbled in Dance Gavin Dance, I’ve heard a few North Lane songs and liked them and I’ve been known to, as the youth say,”fux with” with La Dispute but for the most part remain ignorant about the genre. “Mr. Davidson would like you to have the review on his desk by Saturday” I was told. And thus began an interesting prospect to offer an outsider’s, or dare I say, Stranger’s perspective on what proved to be quite the complex album.

The soundscape opens up with “Distinction” in which some ambient space pinball sounds that give way to heavy guitar, drum beats and screams. By the slow, smooth, somewhat jazzy refrain of the second track “Curiosity Killed Us All” (a song I expect is about the dangers of what we may find on Mars) it became clear that This Place is a Zoo exhibits a trait that is the one common through-line of all good Antelope Valley bands. They refuse to be confined by one specific genre and will borrow from and shift to anything that fits. Their protean antics take the listener from the zesty Latin waltz feel of “Deadline”, to the funky reduction spread over the title track “Strangers”, to the insane gumbo of stylistic changes within “Compulsion Sets In” morphing effortlessly throughout the album from one style to another and always bringing it back home to the brutality

Now, one of the things I immediately noticed as someone enthusiastic about lyrics is more often than otherwise, I couldn’t understand a single word happening and of course I tried my best to avoid reading the provided lyrics on bandcamp because that’s cheating. I assume that’s a customary staple of hardcore, as I never can figure the words out. At some points it even felt like the vocalist made a clear and potent point to be as unclear and unintelligible as possible but I was pleased to find that it didn’t just descend into chaos and wild careless thrashing. The music seems more to follow the Khalil Gibran philosophy that music is the language of the spirit and communicates primarily to the emotions telling stories of hopelessness, frustration, revenge, and frustration masterfully through the notes, dynamics and syncopations. Leaving the actual words as supplementary footnotes in case the listener wants further exploration of the themes. And this is so well done and so captivating, I found myself dancing along, shouting unintelligibly and overturning furniture alone in my bedroom. “THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN. MY SANITY’S WEARING THIN” (I really can’t get enough of that bittersweet tortured disco “Insecurities”). Not to mention my delight to find the album includes a seven-minute track about extinction called “Extinction” which, I have to say is EXACTLY the kind of thing I’m into.

I came to about 50 minutes after the start of the album when my laptop fell silent. My clothes were badly torn and I was washing blood off my hands. Whose blood? What transpired on this night? What had I done? What evidence had I yet to hide? I wasn’t sure but I found myself feeling strangely hopeful for the future after listening. Awash with an unexpected euphoria. This Place is a Zoo delivered a solid hard core punk rock music album and I’m confident their future as musicians (barring crumbling society, alien invasion, and the end of the world) is a bright one.

This Place is a Zoo’s album Strangers is available on bandcamp for $8 or more if you so choose and if we’re ascribing numerical ratings with these reviews, I’d give them an 8174/10000 and a “Good Job” sticker with a star and a thumbs up. And I’d like to offer my recommendation for anyone capable of turning sound waves into information to give them a try.