Impressions of Zodion

[enthusaroo]

this is the one thing people are waiting for with the ATUM failure now complete

"I don’t have the ability to make them available, but I’m listening to them for the first time right now. It sounds much more like a live band than Atum does. There’s a lot of acoustic instrumentation. Reminds me a bit of the If All Goes Wrong era, with a bit of the Teargarden psychedelia sprinkled in. The keyboards aren’t front and center, but provide texture. They are very organic sounding, very 60s/70s. Definitely live drums as well. Haven’t heard anything that sounds programmed yet.

My first impression is very positive.

I’m spinning mine now. So far it’s a “Lo-fi” affair for them. Much more of a live band in the room feel to everything.

Lots of acoustic guitars so far. A lot of American Gothic energy so far. It’s been much more analog.

Zope is an instrumental"

[Big Truck05]

What's the Zodion portion of the album? Zodion At Crystal Hall? WTF is that?

[Big Truck05]

I'm getting on in age. I can't keep up anymore with this Opera.

[enthusaroo]

Originally Posted by Big Truck05

What's the Zodion portion of the album? Zodion At Crystal Hall? WTF is that?

in the story, it's the place where June and Shiny fornicate and birth their son Glass

[Machinist]

God it all sounds so fucking tedious

[absof]

I honestly can’t tell which threads are taking the piss anymore.

This might be “it” for me.

[Butt Pope]

Originally Posted by Machinist

God it all sounds so fucking tedious

.

[Forgotten Child]

From a different source:

Zodion at Crystal Hall is perfectly described as a psychedelic record. Think flower power, not Hendrix.

There’s some tiny bits of synth, but it’s mostly clean guitars and wide open sounding drums plus a bunch of mellotron (like, a LOT of mellotron). Definitely no stadium rock and roll here. These are very upbeat songs and a really fun record. There’s some scattered bits of Cotillions type sounding song structures as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these tunes came from that time.

Hopefully someone with more technology than me shares them.

If you’re looking for Siamese Dream 2 - this ain’t it, but it’s still really enjoyable. It’s definitely unique in the Pumpkins catalogue.

[VoxUpDoc]

I hate the traditional mellotron sound, so can’t wait to hear this!

[Ram27]

yeah disarm/spaceboy did nothing for me. i loved the alt version with slide guitar

[TheAlter]

Originally Posted by Ram27

yeah disarm/spaceboy did nothing for me. i loved the alt version with slide guitar

Mellotron is fantastic but it's never gonna turn songs that suck dick into era defining classics

[houseofglass11]

I love mellotron in any form. Disarm was real strings btw Ram.

[Forgotten Child]

Song by song

My comments as typed while listening and with spelling and grammar ignored. Lol.

Simmatar -you’ve heard it on the podcast.

Magdalena -driving Motorik beat. Clean chiming guitars. Up tempo. Live drums

Saffron -fender Rhodes sounds keys. Acoustic guitar, Billy harmonies. Easy, chill. Drums plod along happily. Keyboard solo.

Zope (instrumental) - perfect bright acoustic guitar. Clean little lead guitar lines. No drums. Wurlitzer like keys. Then a pause, and then a solo harpsichord sounding section, and a smooth Moog-like outro.

Huzzah! - clean picked acoustic with a Moog copying it. Laid back vibe. “Would I hope to dream of Marrakesh”

Automation - drums playing a bit of a swing, acoustic guitar. Clean tremolo guitars add texture. Very pretty melody. “Falling over under your spell.” a very pristine mellotron (strings) doing its thing.

MaryQ “Behind the sun, where the sun never shines” Snare led drum beat, very 60s groovy flower power pop. Keyboard and acoustic guitar heavy. An arpeggiated electric guitar adds vibes. The bass walks down a scale every here and there.

Burr -cute toy keyboard line. Acoustic guitar. Fat kick drum keeps time. Strings swoon in on the chorus. Drums play around on high pitched toms during verse 2. “I’m sound(?) without you.” A nice guitar part that’s really just picking out a chord after chorus 2. This one is pretty too.

Excelsior -carnival sounding keys. Is it a honky tonk piano and a Wurlitzer? Very direct “country” melody that’s quite nice. Drums chilling and keeping time. “What happens, happens to me. I take it on the chin”

Necromancer -harpsichord pounding away. Very psychedelic 60 keys and vibe. but mostly acoustic guitars and keys. Drums swing along. Reminds me of “care of cell 44” by the Zombies in overall vibe and tone. (That song is a masterpiece. This is a nice, pretty sketch.) “love speaks of stones(?) speaks of rain.”

[houseofglass11]

Sounds like a sub-Teargarden hellscape judging by the description.

[LaBelle]

what a moment when "live drums" gets listed as a positive, yikes.

[Ram27]

i mean it sounds pretty chill and awesome imo. sort of a perfect universe of what you'd want from a 70 yr old pumpkins [fairly unironically]

[enthusaroo]

there should be a leak within the next day or two

[gyang333]

Originally Posted by LaBelle

what a moment when "live drums" gets listed as a positive, yikes.

Is Jimmy ever not a positive?

[eviltimeban]

But this isn't even the full Zodiac Mindwarp at Crystal Palace.

[LaBelle]

Originally Posted by gyang333

Is Jimmy ever not a positive?

I guess, also he's part of the band... it should be a logical conclusion that he'd be on an album, and yet...

[Slurpee]

Is this circulating in the PMs yet?

[MyKeyZ]

You mean this bonus album is so amazing that no one cares enough to share it?

[Forgotten Child]

Atum leaked straight away. Does that make it amazing?

[eviltimeban]

I'll take a PM if there's one going

[MyKeyZ]

Originally Posted by Forgotten Child

Atum leaked straight away. Does that make it amazing?

Well, the digital leaked a couple days ahead thanks to being ripped off streaming services in countries time zones ahead or a day ahead. Each volume showed up a day or so early. A lot of leaks come from Russia/Japan/Australia digital services that get it earlier, which is very low effort. To rip a physical product takes more effort. Also, reading recent news about folks who buy vinyl, half of these people that bought Atum on vinyl more than likely don't even have a record player to play it on.

[eviltimeban]

Plus it's not just the vinyl you get in a record shop; it's the box set edition.

There's several factors in play: You need someone who bought the box set, who has the means to rip both sides of five 7" singles, has the inclination to do such a thing, who is connected to a fan community, and who is then willing to share it with that community.

I reckon it'll likely come from someone who's on here.

[ninsp]

I’d rather drive an ice pick into my ear than listen to any of this

[Spaceboy88]

Add me to the list of those wanting a PM rip

[paranoid]

My box set just arrived. Going to listen to the singles then rip ‘Em.

[Machinist]

Good effort.

I feel like once the boxsets sell out SP should offer it for D/L or on a streaming platform. I'm sure most SP fans are not actually opposed to buying something if its actually worth listening to.